This is our final post for our big birthday bash, and what a post it is. No matter how much stuff we line up, people we interview, etc., there are still tons of folks we like to hear from and include in our giant New Year’s/anniversary/birthday activities. So, as we have in past years, we have asked various comics folks what they are excited about for 2012 in comics–something they aren’t working on and something they are.

There’s a lot of great stuff here–hints at new projects and even some downright announcements. Our thanks to everyone this year who responded!

Jason Latour

Loose Ends 4

I’m most anticipating the 30th Anniversary of HEROES CON (June 22-24, Charlotte, NC) . For any convention 30 years is an amazing run, but the fact that Shelton Drum and his extended family have put this show together every year with nothing but blood, sweat and tears is flat out super heroic.

On the personal front, the challenging and exhilarating ride that’s been Loose Ends will come to a close with issue 4. It’ll be bittersweet to send our child off to into the real world but I can’t wait for you guys to see the work Brunner & Renzi are doing.

I’m also super excited to dip my own toes into the Mignola-verse with the BPRD: The Pickens County Horror [March 28, 2012] and to read the end of Jason Aaron & RM Guera’s Scalped, which is my favorite series in years.

Jason Latour is a writer/artist, most recently the writer of Loose Ends. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about the miniseries in July.

Patrick Zircher

This sounds politic, but it’s genuine: what excites me about comics in 2012 is what’s exciting every year, the work of the talent.  Seeing what the best are up to and how the up-n-comers have grown as artists and writers.  In the new year, I’m also excited about illustrating several books and covers that feature my favorite Avengers.

Patrick Zircher is an artist, who explored the 1920s/1930s era of the Marvel universe in 2011 with the five-issue miniseries, Mystery Men. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about the miniseries in May.

Bryan Q. Miller

Happy a Birthday as this is, Robot 6, let’s not get so lost in the celebration that we forget the sacrifices made by Robots 2, 4 and 5 to get you where you are today.

Now that THAT’s out of the way… AVENGERSavengersAVENGERSavengersAVENGERS #Hobbit

Also looking forward (very much) to the end-run on Locke and Key, as well as the next year’s worth of Morning Glories.

And, hopefully, DC will finally announce my secret project. Then there’s that other secret project I’ve done for a secret company. #Secrets

Bryan Q. Miller is a writer for television and comics, most recently of the Batgirl series featuring Stephanie Brown, which Tim O’Shea ranked among his favorite series of 2011. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about Batgirl in March.

Jimmie Robinson

Bomb Queen

I’m quite interested in what the Image Expo will be like in February. The platform is based on Image Comic’s 20 years in the industry, but in my opinion it represents the emergence of the independent creator and publishers and self-publishers of this generation. I’m old enough to have lived through the change of a dependent system where the market was primarily two companies and three distributors. That changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I’m not sure if the Image Expo will be a one-time celebratory event or the basis for a yearly gathering but I am excited about it. It’s different from the likes of Stumptown, or APE or SPX, because the independent spirit exists on several layers and I’m not sure publishers on this level have had a real convention just for them.

As for myself personally…
I’m looking forward to seeing the end of the Bomb Queen story arc. In 2012, Vol. 7 *might* be my last run with the character… except for some annual specials and crossovers. I’m not ending it forever, but I might be slowing her down so I can do other books. I’m thinking more how Robert Kirkman handled, Battle Pope. He keeps it in print and brings the character out every now and then to retain control.. but it’s no longer his main focus. By the way… that’s a crossover I would like to see. Battle Pope and Bomb Queen.

Jimmie Robinson is an artist, writer and creator of many titles, most recently Bomb Queen, published by Image Comics.

Rachel Pandich

In terms of projects I am not personally involved in, I know this is going to sound all touchy feel-y and hippy dippy but I am super excited for all the opportunity that 2012 will bring for creator owned and newbies in the comic field. Between projects like Womanthology that show the untapped/underused talent out there and the creator-owned push from people like Niles and Kirkman I have a feeling that 2012 will open up many doors for people. Whether it is acceptance on to an anthology, a chance to work for a favorite company, or getting a bit of spotlight at a convention. There was way too much fire in 2011 about getting new creators out there for that excitement to burn out in 2012, and I am overly excited about that for everyone.

In terms of projects I am personally involved in, this is going to be kind of a “duh” but I’m excited about Womanthology. I can’t wait to see this book in print. I’m also now the events coordinator for Womanthology so any conventions going on in 2012 that want a Womanthology event feel free to contact me. Shameless self promotion, I know. Hooray 2012!

Rachel Pandich is the writer of the eight-issue miniseries, Aspire (Movement Comics). She spoke with Tim O’Shea about the miniseries in August.

Van Jensen

Snow White: Through a Glass Darkly

I’m really looking forward to the Valiant relaunch. I’ve heard just a little about what’s in store, and it’s going to be some high quality comics. It’ll also be interesting to see how it shakes up the market. We’ll learn if DC’s Nu 52 thing has any legs and if Marvel can capitalize on the Avengers. All in all, should be a tumultuous year for the Wednesday crowd.

The big thing I have coming up for 2012 is Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood, the third book in the trilogy with artist Dusty Higgins. I’m excited to see it wrap up. And then I also have Snow White: Through a Glass, Darkly coming out with artist Robin Holstein. It reimagines the classic fairy tale with the twist that the stepmother isn’t evil. The mirror is.

Van Jensen is a writer of comics, who just happened to be interviewed regarding Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Of Wood and Blood just yesterday by JK Parkin.

Johanna Draper Carlson

I’m very much anticipating new work by favorite creators. Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama should be one of the books of the year, exploring the (sadly neglected in comic) mother/daughter relationship in a companion volume to her Fun Home. I can’t wait to read Faith Erin Hicks’ Friends With Boys, about a home-schooled girl making friends outside her family for the first time. And one of my favorite manga series, Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga, will have a seventh volume out. I’m sure there are many more coming I have yet to know about, and that’s what I am most excited by — the continual discovery of excellent work by talented creators.

For myself, I’m eager to keep on as I have been, reading and writing about good comics and sharing recommendations.

Johanna Draper Carlson is a graphic novel, manga, and comic book reviewer as well as the driving critical force behind Comics Worth Reading.

Corinna Bechko

Alabaster: Wolves

I can’t wait to get my hands on Alabaster: Wolves, a miniseries from Dark Horse written by Caitlin R. Kiernan with art by Steve Lieber. I only wish I didn’t have to wait until April!

For personal projects I have to say it’s a tie. I’m really excited about Exile on the Planet of the Apes, the second Planet of the Apes miniseries that Gabriel Hardman and I are writing. Marc Laming has already finished inking the first couple of pages and they look fantastic! But Gabriel and I are also deep into writing a creator owned sci-fi project called Station to Station which I’m thrilled to say will finally be completed in 2012.

Corinna Bechko is a writer (with a zoology background) and frequent collaborator with husband artist Gabriel Hardman. She and Hardman talked with Tim O’Shea about Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes in December.

Lance Sells

Most excited about for 2012? Image Comics. Not sure what their secret sauce is lately but they are on fire and have me buying single issues for the first time in years.

Most excited about personally for 2012? Thwipster Version 2 (with added detergent).

Lance Sells, the co-founder and director of Thwipster (offering “Daily Deals for your Inner Geek”), spoke with Tim O’Shea about the website in July.

Dean Haspiel

Comics writer/artist/publisher, Jimmy Palmiotti, recently Tweeted, “Publish or perish.” Maybe it was end-of-the-year blues but I was feeling particularly bleak about my career and was struck by Jimmy’s charge and asked if we could discuss the origin behind those three ominous words and what I got was a pep talk for a lifetime.

Securing work from franchise publishers is harder than ever before and very few other publishers pay livable advance wages anymore. Most deals are made for royalties and back end rewards based on sales. Print is competing with digital and profits are questionable. Readers want archives and new stories but making money at publishing has become a challenging and schizophrenic mess. The risk for a corporation to launch something new has become greater and all the bean counters what to know before they gamble on your idea is the sales of your last three books and whether or not your comic book idea has multimedia legs and if you have a strong fan base. In other words, publishers hardly publish what they “like” and franchise publishers would rather update 75-year old icons every five years [which they've worked hard to maintain] than build and grow new ideas that inspire writers and artists today. I understand why that is but it’s paranoid, lazy, and shortsighted.

Haspiel's The Last Romantic Antihero

Frankly, pitching proposals sucks right now. What if you don’t have three books and your new idea doesn’t translate to a movie or toy? Worse, what if you do have three books and the numbers didn’t inform the zeitgeist and thrill Hollywood? Why does one thing need to yield the other in order to make a cool comic book? Because comic books don’t sell like they used to. I get it. While the internet leveled the playing field it also made everything a niche. However, the comix industry does have a strong fanbase. I’ve seen them and they are us.

Now is the perfect time for a cartoonist to manifest his or her own industry. We have the DIY tools. We have the social networks and viral know how. We have proof that crowd funding works and community is key. We have a cranky comedian like Marc Maron rise from the ashes of every bridge he ever burned and make his own rules with his WTF podcast, and popular acts like Radiohead and Louis C.K. making affordable, direct deposit products; offers no one in their right mind could refuse, and venues like Etsy and Kickstarter changing the ways we consume by supporting work with our wallets BEFORE it’s made so that it can BE made sans corporate fear and scrutiny.

But, what about us? Viva la Michel Fiffe for self-publishing ZEGAS, a print-only experience that reminds us why magical efforts like Los Bros Hernandez’ Love & Rockets were punk yet vital and stand the test of time. All hail Alex De Campi for recognizing the virtues of the old self-publishing model while implementing new rules with the understanding that in order to hawk your wares you must show up to the party and build sound relationships with the people who produce, distribute, and purchase your wares. Rock out with your cock out Jimmy Palmiotti for having the talent and acumen to keep your feet firmly planted in all ponds while knowing how important it is to be different.

Bottom line: I’m sharing these thoughts to rally myself, too. I count myself lucky to have been paid to make comix and I owe a lot of people my perpetual gratitude. I would love to continue to get hired and occasionally play with the toys I grew up with but I can’t let over-worked editors ignore me or my talented friends, anymore. It doesn’t champion creativity and it doesn’t pay the bills. Indifference only engenders ill-will and I won’t be banished to that bitter cabal of disgruntled cartoonists. “Publish or perish?” So, to answer your question about what am I “most excited about for 2012?” I’m most excited to see comix auteurs bring their A-game and step up to the plate with a hit in their mind and a home run in their heart.

Dean Haspiel is an Emmy award winning artist and a native New Yorker who created the Eisner Award nominated BILLY DOGMA, and launched the webcomics pioneering site, ACT-I-VATE.com. In December, Haspiel joined Seth Kushner & Chris Miskiewicz to talk with Tim O’Shea about Trip City, a Brooklyn-filtered literary arts salon.

Nate Cosby

Cow Boy

I’ll admit I’m not super well-versed on what’s specifically coming up comic-wise in 2012, but I’ll continue to pick up and be excited about anything my favorite creators work on: Roger Langridge, Colleen Coover, Jeff Parker, Fred Van Lente, Greg Pak, Katie Cook, Jennifer Meyer, Ron Marz, Mark Waid, Becky Cloonan, Andy Diggle, J.M. DeMatteis, Mitch Gerads, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire, Jock, Mike Maihack, David Gallaher, Phil Hester, Evan Shaner, Marjorie Liu, Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, Paul Tobin, Chris Samnee, Chris Eliopoulos…and dozens more creators I’d name if I were allowed 30,000 more words. There’s fun in anticipation of a known quantity, but there’s also a joy in walking into a comic shop or surfing a digital app with a totally open mind, and finding something great you never knew existed.

Of all the things I’m cooking up in 2012, Cow Boy has me the most excited. It’s coming out in hardcover in March from Archaia, but we’re putting it online for FREE starting in January. It’s my favorite thing that I’ve written, and I tailor-made it for Chris Eliopoulos to draw. This book is Chris’ artistic coming-out party. I’ve been a fan of his art for a long time, but this really is the best work he’s ever done. The subtlety of emotion and cinematic scope he’s brought to Cow Boy has blown me away. I hope my story is half as good as his amazing art…but if not, at least you’ll have a gorgeous book to look at.

Nate Cosby is co-writer of Pigs for Image, Buddy Cops for Dark Horse, Cow Boy for Archaia. He spoke with CBR-TV  in July.

Laura Morley

I’m excited about the advent of The Phoenix, a new kids’ comic magazine launching here in the UK. There’s so much enthusiasm among kids around comic-book characters and ideas, anything that works to convert that enthusiasm into a lasting love of the medium is A Good Thing in my book.

Of my own projects, I’m particularly excited to have a story in the first issue of Journeymen, a new quarterly designed to showcase work by new creators. Having seen the calibre of some of the artists signed up, this looks set to be a very slick book and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

Laura Morley is a writer and Womanthology assistant project manager, which will be released this spring. She spoke with Tim O’Shea about Womanthology in August.

Kris Dresen

she said

In 2012 I am most looking forward to the new Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. It’s been ages since Chicago has had an alternative comics show and I’m quite thrilled that CAKE is happening.

Personally, writer JD Glass and I are ramping up the publishing company we founded in 2011 – Outlines Press. One of the books will be the print collection of my web comic she said. It will be available in late spring.

Kris Dresen is a Chicago-based artist and writer.

Dave Roman

I’m really looking forward to Legend of Korra, the spinoff of Avatar: the Last Airbender. Based on the trailer, it looks to be an imaginative follow up to what I consider the most perfect animated action/adventure series ever. I also can’t wait to read Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise, the new comic series by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru being published by Dark Horse, that will act as a bridge between the two TV series.

In the world of original graphic novels, I’m excited about a lot of what First Second has coming out in 2012. Especially Broxo by Zack Giallongo, which looks like a fresh take on sword and sorcery. And also, the sequel to Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, which was one of the most fun and visually exciting books of this past year.

Teen Boat!

As far as stuff I have a direct connection to in 2012…

I collaborated with my wife, Raina Telgemeier, on a story for Explorer: The Mystery Boxes (Amulet books). Edited by Kazu Kibuishi, it’s an all-ages anthology with a fantastic mix of scary, mysterious, funny, and action-packed short stories that reminds me of the classic Amazing Stories TV series.

I wrote a book called Teen Boat! (Clarion Books), the comedic tale of a boy who can transform into a yacht, and the jocks and pirates who seek to exploit his boat-tastic powers. Illustrated by longtime friend and collaborator, John Green, Teen Boat! started out as a series of mini-comics that kept growing more ambitious and absurd with each issue. The book will be hardcover and full-color, collecting and expanding on previous material in ways that I think will blow people out of the water (pun intended).

And, Drama (Scholastic Graphix) is Raina ’s follow up to Smile. It’s a similar coming of age story, set in the behind-the-scenes world of stage crew kids producing a middle school play. I think this book will really connect with a lot people (especially teenagers) the same way Smile has, but also showcase a new emotional side to Raina’s work.

Dave Roman is the creator of Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity and Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery. He lives in New York City with his wife, Raina Telgemeier. He spoke with CBR’s Alex Dueben about Astronaut Academy in June.

Paul Cornell

Saucer Country

I’m excited about Scott Snyder’s ongoing work in the new DC universe, including Swamp Thing and Batman. He’s been the absolute breakout talent of 2011, not just successful with the audience, but also artistic and stylish. His closing run of Detective Comics was a tremendous thing to behold.

In terms of my own work, it’s Saucer Country that I have to mention. This is the story I’ve been working on in the back of my head for decades. Ryan Kelly’s art is a joy. It’s The West Wing does The X-Files, and it lets me use all the UFO mythology that I’ve been researching as a hobby since I was eight. I like to think we’ve done something original and truthful with it, and that we’ll scare you witless.

Paul Cornell is a prose novelist as well as writer of many things for TV and comics, including the DC ongoing, Demon Knights. He talked to CBR’s Jeffrey Renaud about Saucer Country in November.

David Liss

One of my favorite reads of 2011 was Charles Soule’s horror/rock comic 27 with Image, so I’m very much looking forward to his Strange Attractors from Archaia, which promises to be weird and intriguing in all the best ways.

As far as my stuff goes, I’m very excited about doing The Spider with Dynamite. I love pulp, and it’s been such an interesting experience re-working one of the great pulp characters into a contemporary setting. Plus, Colton Worley’s art is absolutely breathtaking.

David Liss is a writer of prose and comics. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about Black Panther: The Man Without Fear in January.

Charles Soule

I’m incredibly excited for Saga, Brian K. Vaughan‘s return to comics. Also really looking forward to the conclusion of Locke & Key (I think that’s supposed to finish up in 2012), seeing how digital develops, Dark Knight Rises and the amazing, out-of-nowhere creator-owned stuff that always shows up to blow everyone’s mind EVERY year.

Strange Attractors

As far as my own work, I have a beautiful graphic novel entitled Strange Attractors, to be published by Archaia later this year. It’s about people who have figured out how to use New York City as a sort of engine, and an ensuing fight over the key. I’ve lived in NYC for more than fifteen years, and it’s my love letter to the city. Pencils/inks are from Greg Scott, with Art Lyon on colors. It’s looking amazing, and should be on shelves around summer or fall.

The other big project I’ve got in the hopper is called Letter 44. It was just picked up by a fantastic publisher, literally this week, so I can’t quite give all the details yet, but it’s a real-world political sci-fi thing. Sort of 24 meets 2001. The art is from a newcomer named Matthew Childers, and it’s going to be a real humdinger. We’re planning it as a mini-series, and it will probably be out around Q4 2012.

There are other things in the works, but we’ll see if and when they appear. Go comics!

Charles Soule is a Brooklyn-based writer and musician. He spoke with Tim O’Shea about 27 in June.

Ben Towle

Barnaby!!! I’m really excited that finally there’s going to be a complete collection of Crockett Johnson’s amazing newspaper strip Barnaby. I’d be stoked about pretty much any collected Barnaby, but I’m ecstatic that Fantagraphics is publishing it and that Dan Clowes (!) is doing art direction. There’s no way this can’t be great.

Oyster War

I’m pretty excited that I’ll be passing the half-way point with my webcomic Oyster War sometime in 2012, but event-wise I’d have to say I’m most excited about SPX this year. I had to miss SPX 2011 because of a wedding–the first time I’ve missed an SPX in around a decade–but I’m for sure going this year. I’m considering trying to organize some sort of “Alphabet Collective” table to sell A-Z minicomics by folks who’ve completed full alphabets from our Animal Alphabet and AlphaBeasts projects.

Ben Towle is a cartoonist and self-described occasional teacher who spoke with Tim O’Shea in April.

Chris Roberson

I’m really looking forward to the new Adventure Time comics that BOOM! is doing with Ryan North and Shelli Paroline. My seven-year-old daughter and I watch every new episode of that cartoon together, usually more than once, and we can’t wait to check out the comic. And on a personal level, my wife Allison and I are looking forward to finally making our long discussed move to Portland this coming summer, where we’re told that sometimes water falls from the sky; having lived for so long in a place where it gets hot enough in the summer to LITERALLY burst into flames, some water falling from the sky sounds pretty awesome to us.

Chris Roberson is a writer of prose and comics, based in Austin, Texas, at least for a few more months. He spoke with Tim O’Shea back in May.

Johnny Bacardi

Hey, I just found something I’m excited about for 2012- the newly announced Courtney Crumrin color ongoing! CC was one of my favorite comics series of the last decade, and I hope it gives Ted Naifeh the spotlight his work deserves.

Sadly, I am working on nothing that has me excited. C’est La Vie.

Johnny Bacardi is a comics and pop culture critic.

Landry Walker

I’m psyched to see comics continue their move into a digital medium; an idea I’ve been championing that damn near got myself and artist Eric Jones laughed off a panel just 6 or 7 years ago is finally on the verge of being properly embraced.

In regards to art rather than industry evolution, I’m looking forward to seeing if Tom Neely has anything new coming out; the diversity in his work continually impresses me. I hear Ted Naifeh has some more Courtney Crumrin coming up, which is something I always look forward to.

Danger Club

Outside of stuff being produced by my friends, I’m interested in seeing how Watchmen 2 develops. I don’t know if it will be good or bad, but I find the challenge fascinating and I’m curious to see the end result.

As for myself, I’m working on several book projects with Disney/Marvel that I’m looking forward to seeing in print. Most of all though, I’m excited to see Danger Club released. Eric and I have been working on this book for a couple of years now, and it’s finally ready (with Image Comics in April 2012). The basic concept is kind of like Teen Titans meets Lord of the Flies. All the world’s adult heroes leave the Earth to battle an unimaginable evil and never return, leaving the sidekicks behind with the looming threat of impending doom for the entire planet.

There’s also the cartoon adaptation of my and Eric’s comic horror movie inspired series known as Little Gloomy – now known as Scary Larry. I believe we will see that airing this year. I’ve seen a couple of episodes and am very happy with how the material has translated.

Landry Walker writes comics, and spoke with CBR’s TJ Dietsch about Danger Club in July.

KC Carlson

For me, this year is a bit of “everything old is new again!” With so many major comic book projects personally disappointing lately (I’m finding much more pleasure in smaller, well-told stories, but publishers seldom advance-promote those, no?) I’m mostly looking backwards for good stuff, with all the new and continuing comic strip collections and creator-focused archival works. I’m also really into animals this year. I’m excited about getting regular doses of Carl Barks’ ducks (haven’t read any in over 25 years), Walt Kelly’s possums and gators (very little prior exposure for me, except for collections checked out of the library as a kid), Floyd Gottfredson’s mice (never before read), and Berkeley Breathed’s penguin (gave up reading them at the time, as our local paper reduced it to the size of an index card). For (little) people, there’s Crocket Johnson’s Barnaby (never read), Charles Schultz’ Peanuts (entering into an era I’ve never read), and the slightly older teens of Bob Montana’s Archie gang (never seen these –now in color with the first collection of Sunday strips!). I’m also hopeful that sales were great on Sheldon Mayer’s Sugar and Spike Archives, so we can get a second volume sometime soon (because I only started reading this great series much later)!

It also looks like a great year for comic book films. I think many moviegoers are most interested in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, but I’m a big fan of the ensemble structure, so I am very interested in this summer’s The Avengers. Of course, I’ll be seeing both.

KC Carlson, former comic book retailer, distributor, and editor, contributes to the Westfield Blog and Comics Worth Reading “while participating in various behind-the-scenes plotting to either save the industry — or destroy it.”

Doctor Strange Season One

Greg Pak

I was blown away by the success of so many comics projects on Kickstarter in 2011 — I’m hopeful that 2012 may be a watershed year for diverse projects finding and growing comics-reading audiences via crowdfunding venues like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

On a personal front, I’m thrilled to be writing Doctor Strange Season One, which Emma Rios is pencilling. Strange is one of those characters I’ve been dying to write as a lead for ages, and I couldn’t be happier.

Greg Pak is a filmmaker and comics writer, who spoke with Tim O’Shea about Bill Mantlo in November.

Joe Keatinge

What I’m Not Involved In: I’m extremely excited for Corey Lewis’ Sharknife Double Z from Oni Press. Its been in the works for a very long time, but from what I’ve seen I’m very confident it will be worth the wait. I was lucky to get a sneak peak at some unseen pages and it’s definitely the best work of his career. Furthermore, I’m excited to see where he goes next after scaling this artistic Everest.

What I’m Involved In: I’ve got a number of books coming out, like HELL YEAH and GLORY and a couple that aren’t announced yet, but I have to say I’m way excited about attending this year’s Angouleme Festival of Bande Dessinee. It’s what replenishes my creative juices every year. Always a damn good time. You get exposed to so much you never see state side. Can’t wait to be there.

Joe Keatinge is the writer of several of your favorite comics of 2012, including Glory and Hell Yeah.

Janet K. Lee

Comic-wise, what are you most excited about for 2012?

Time of the Dapper Men

I’ve only seen a few images from Blue, which will be published by Top Shelf in March, but they are amazing. And that’s my fault since the entire comic is available online! Blue is the debut graphic novel from an Australian creator named Pat Grant; it sounds like a magical Huckleberry Finn tale. I’m sold!

I also cannot wait until April for Mind the Gap by Jim McCann/Rodin Esquejo/Sonja Oback. The concept, of course, has me completely hooked: girl tries to solve her own attempted murder while hospitalized in a coma. But Jim keeps showing me art as well, and oh-my-god is it beautiful. An absolute must-buy.

Then there’s Dark Crystal: Creation Myths from Archaia: it just came out this week, but I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy yet. But I will! Dark Crystal has been one of my favorite films since I was old enough to appreciate film, and I’m positively giddy with anticipation.

Comic-wise, what are you most excited about for 2012?

Personally, I’m probably most excited that Time of the Dapper Men will be coming out next year. I was proud of the work Jim and I did for Return of the Dapper Men, but after a year of working on the adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma and Northanger Abbey for Marvel, I feel my own art has really grown and evolved. And then the scope of Jim’s story is epic and grand. Every day I work on it is a day filled with joy.

I’m also thrilled to be a contributor to Womanthology: Herioc which will arrive in stores next February. I got to collaborate with two wildly talented writers, Jenna Busch and Rachel Pandich, on our short story, and the book is simply chock-full of truly legendary talent. I can’t wait to get my copy.

Janet K. Lee is the artist of Return of the Dapper Men, the upcoming Time of the Dapper Men, Jane Austen’s Emma and Northanger Abbey, and more. She also makes rad Christmas ornaments.

Andy Hirsch

Comic-wise, what am I most excited about for 2012? Seeing creators and publishers continue to work towards figuring this whole digital thing out. Would it be too much to hope for a shift towards a common file format and pricing enticing enough to attract an even broader swath of readers? Oh, and if I can sneak one more in here: Tom Fowler on Hulk: Season One.

Andy Hirsch is the creator of Varmints and illustrator of SLG’s The Royal Historian of Oz.

Faith Erin Hicks

Friends with Boys

Comics by others: I believe the English publication of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys will wrap up in 2012. There are six volumes left and they come out every other month, so it should be finishing at the end of 2012. I’ve been enjoying the insanity of this series, and am really curious to see how Urasawa will wrap things up. Will it be a satisfying ending, or a house of cards collapse? I can’t wait to find out. On the North American side of comic making, I’m really looking forward to Raina Telgemeier’s new graphic novel, Drama, which is about a school stage tech crew. One of my few fond memories of high school was being on the stage crew for a couple of plays, and I’m looking forward to see what Raina does with the set up. If it’s half as good as her last comic, Smile, it’ll still be a pretty great book.

As for my comic-related contributions to 2012, I have a couple of things I’m looking forward to. My graphic novel Friends With Boys will be published by First Second Books in February 2012, so please pick up a copy! It’s a sort of but not really autobiographical story of a homeschooled girl following her three older brothers into public high school (I was homeschooled and have three brothers, so I have some experience with this scenario). Friends With Boys has been running online since August as a part of First Second’s webcomic initiative, and the reader response has been a lot of fun. If you’re interested in the comic, you can check it out here: http://www.friendswithboys.com

I think I also have a second graphic novel coming out, although I’m not sure of the publication date. I’ve been drawing a young readers graphic novel called Bigfoot Boy (written by J.Torres), which I think will be out from Kids Can Press in the fall. It’s really cute and fun, and I think a lot of kids will like it, so do get it for the eager young comic reader in your life.

Faith Erin Hicks, as she noted above, is the creator of the upcoming Friends with Boys, as well as War at Ellsmere, Superhero Girl and Zombies Calling.

Ben Morse

I’m excited about Marvel.com as a whole. A bit of a cheat to answer, but it’s legitimate. There are so many great comic book resources (see what I did there?) out there on the Internet these days that I’m proud we’ve been able to do what we do as a corporate site. Being part of Marvel has never hindered our creativity, it’s only helped. That comes down to our editorial staff, from Ryan Penagos to Marc Strom to Janna O’Shea to all our great freelancers; to our amazing video team of Jason Harvey, Ramon Olivo and Todd Wahnish; to the folks within the other departments at Marvel like Arune Singh, James Viscardi and all the tremendous editors who help us out; and the rest of the Digital Media Group who actually understand how to make a web page work (I do not). With all this work and support, we’ve been able to, in addition to our extensive editorial work, do things like our live streaming coverage of conventions, our new This Week in Marvel podcast, the recent event where we announced AvX and the audio version of Daredevil #1. I’m excited to keep going with all of this stuff as well as expanding our reach and variety of projects. Marvel digital is a very exciting place to work and I’m fortunate to be a part of it.

On a more personal level, my favorite thing to do is produce the Marvel Super Heroes: What The–?! stop motion series with the brilliant Alex Kropinak and very handsome Jesse Falcon, so I’m pretty pumped to get back to a regular schedule on those, particularly with the Oscars coming up in a few months as we always have fun with that.

I’ll cheat once again as far as what I’m looking forward to from others (I’m terrible) as while I didn’t work directly on Secret Avengers or Scarlet Spider, I got to be in on the ground floor with Rick Remender, Chris Yost, Ryan Stegman, et al as far as promoting them, and from what I’ve seen there are few books I’m more excited for coming out the gate in 2012. Remender can do no wrong right now and the Scarlet Spider boys are enthusiastic as all get out.

From my buddies, I’m looking forward to Sean T. Collins hopefully doing more mainstream work, Phil Jimenez’s gorgeous art on Fairest, and seeing what exactly Alex Segura has in mind as a next step after teaming Archie with KISS. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Archie/Motley Crue in 2012.

A fixture at Marvel’s booth and panels during conventions, Ben Morse is associate editor of Marvel.com, future heavyweight champion of the world and has even written a comic for Marvel on occasion. When he isn’t working, he likes to hang out at the Cool Kids Table with CBR’s Kiel Phegley.

Matthew Petz

War of the Woods

I’m obsessed with everything about The Dark Knight Rises, and I can’t wait to see that on the screen. Beyond that I’m really excited to see what happens in digital. I think 2011 will be seen as the year digital broke through in a real and substantial way, and 2012 will be even more innovation and acceptance.

One of the reasons digital is so interesting to me is my own book, War of the Woods, is coming out that way. Season One is done and available through Comixology. So what I’m MOST excited about in 2012 is getting Season Two going. If you’re interested, you can to warofthewoodscomic.com for news and to follow along as I make the comic!

Matthew Petz, as he noted above, is the creator of War of the Woods.

Robin McConnell

I am most excited about the growth of fascinating small press work is experiencing. Conventions like BCGF and TCAF are showing just how diverse the market is and that young new readers are looking for options beyond what can be found in the average brick and mortar stores that make themselves solely dependent on the archaic offerings of Diamond distro.

As far as particular comics go, Brandon Graham’s Multiple Warheads and Prophet are both looking to be great offerings that show a remarkably different direction that mainstream markets have a potential to go in. Fantagraphics is doing some amazing archival projects that I can’t wait to sink my teeth in, like the EC collections of Wally Wood and Harvey Kurtzman.

2012 is going to be a busy year for me. I have started doing video interviews with my friend Daniel Giantomaso. We have done two videos so far, the first with Brandon Graham and the more recent with Anders Nilsen.

Daniel and I will be posting video’s early on in the new year with David Lasky and Peter Bagge and much more to come.

I am also doing a couple of small press publishing projects. After a lot of talk and dares among friends, I am putting together an anthology of comics that take place in the Gossip Girl universe. So far, the interest has been great, with folks like Michael Deforge, Benjamin Marra, Corey Lewis and much more wanting to take part.

My other collection will be tied into my art selling website, www.mcconnellart.com. I am putting together a 100 page sketchbook of the work of Brandon Graham. He has stacks of these great sketchbooks which will serve as nice compliment for fans. All work that I am publishing will be done on the cheap, to keep costs for consumers to a minimum. I am pretty excited about these new projects.

On top of this, inkstuds will continue as strong as ever with new audio interview every week.

Robin McConnell is the host of the awesome interview series Inkstuds.

Ian Harker

Rub the Blood

Like many on the East Coast I’m still riding the wave of excitement that was the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Fest. That show is as good an indicator of our “state of the art” as anything, so looking forward to 2012 I’ll take my tips from what I saw. For starters it seems as though the art comix landscape may finally be turning the corner on the Fort Thunder aesthetic. The hot ticket at BCGF was everything post-manga. “Post-Manga” is a term I’ve heard thrown around lately and I think it’s appropriate. It’s a demographic inevitability that many close observers saw coming, the post-art school echo of the early-2000′s manga boom. The kids who were snatching up Pokemon cards by the hundreds 10+ years ago are making the sickest art comix on the scene now. Artists like Jonny Negron, Michael DeForge, Mickey Z, Zach Hazard Vaupen, etc. The current standard bearer for the style is Ryan Sand’s Thickness anthology, which sets the new bar. What I’m looking forward to most in 2012 is seeing how this decade continues to develop it’s own aesthetic identity.

In Philly we’re hitting the ground running in 2012, first with our Rub the Blood art show opening at Brave New Worlds comics gallery in Old City, Philadelphia on January 6th. The show will feature art by Victor “Bald Eagles” Cayro, Keenan Marshall Keller, Josh Bayer, Box Brown and more. Up next is Secret Prison #666 which will be co-edited by Pat Aulisio of Yeah Dude fame. It’s the last free tabloid-format issue of the series and will feature 100% crazy collaborations with artist pairs teamed up by me and Pat as though we were Ted DiBiase and King Haku picking Survivor Series teams. If you want in on it hit me up! Closing out the year we’re taking Secret Prison in a new direction with our most ambitious format to date. SP7 will be published by Retrofit Comics and will comment on the aforementioned post-manga wave churning in alternative comics.

Ian Harker is editor of Secret Prison and co-editor of Rub the Blood, an art comix tribute to the Image Comics line of the ’90s.

Christopher Butcher

It’s a little unspecific, but the thing I’m looking for the most in 2012 is probably getting to the end of it, and seeing how many amazing manga, comics, graphic novels, classic reprints, art books, and more we’ll have seen published in the medium. I look back at 2011… the past few years really… and they’re filled with wave after wave of excellent comics. There always has been and always will be the crap, but 2011 was a constant struggle to keep my weekly purchases from getting completely out of control. As 2012 sees my favourites continue and brand new works rise to take their place? Well, it’s a great time to love comics. Special shout-outs to some of my favourite series and books including Criminal: Last of the Innocents by Brubaker and Phillips, Cross Game by Adachi, Love & Rockets by the Hernandez Bros., Walking Dead by Kirkman and Adlard, and Zoo In Winter by Taniguchi, amongst dozens of others I enjoyed and dozens still yet to be read.

In 2012 I hope to meaningfully contribute to the enjoyment of readers and the enrichment of the medium with TCAF 2012 – The 2012 Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I’m the Festival Director (in addition to my other responsibilities) and I can say that this will easily be the biggest Festival yet, and one of the most diverse and unique ones as well. I think people are going to be really happy with it. TCAF 2011 featured a lot of amazing cartoonists who had a great year as exhbitors– Kate Beaton (Hark A Vagrant), Michael DeForge (Lose), Ray Fawkes (One Soul, Possessions), Stuart & Kathryn Immonen (Fear Itself), and Jeff Lemire (Animal Man) for example–and I think 2012 is going to be another stellar year that’s really going to set the tone for the year’s great comics.

In all of the stuff I do, blogging, at TCAF, or at The Beguiling, I’m glad to be able to work with such great creators, to support and promote the work that’s important to them, and I’m hoping that 2012 is more of the same.

Chris Butcher is a comics retailer, organizer of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and comics blogger.

MK Reed

I’m most excited for Rich Tommaso’s The Cavalier Mr. Thompson, Prophet, and for the love of Pete would someone translate Ulli Lust’s Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life into English already!

On the work side of things, I’m excited to work with some awesome artists this year on a few different projects, least secret of which being aboutabull.com.

MK Reed is the writer of Americus and creator of Cross Country.

Ian Brill

What I am excited for in 2012: Fantagraphics’ EC Comics reprints. I have a great fondness for these comics. For one, they’re the greatest realization of the sci-fi/horror/war anthology, a format we’ve by and large lost. Also, these comics offer a snapshot of a fascinating time for both the comics industry and the United States as a whole. I was very pleased to hear that Fantagraphics will collect these stories by artist. To have an entire tome that’s Wallace Wood from cover to cover is irresistible.

What I’m excited for myself for 2012: I am going to destroy the world and re-create it. In a comic book that is. I’m working with some amazing artists on an original project that is equally challenging and exciting. But isn’t that how creating your own book should be? More info as we get closer to publication.

Ian Brill is a former editor at BOOM! Studios and writer of such comics as Darkwing Duck and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers.

Justin Aclin

I think 2012 is going to be a landmark year for creator-owned comics…I’m pretty sure all of my favorite creators have creator-owned titles coming out this year! I’m especially looking forward to Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples on Saga, plus whatever Mike Mignola and company are cooking up for the BPRD next year, and The Sixth Gun from Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt continues to be one of my favorite monthly comics. There’s so much exciting stuff out there that’s not superheroes, and I say that as an enormous superhero fanboy. (Oh, and The Avengers movie should be pretty cool, too.)

As for personal projects, I know it’s annoying when people say “It’s too early to talk about so and so,” but it’s enormous enough news for me that I’ve even got something that it’s too early to talk about. Something is coming, and it’s very exciting. Other than that mystery, I’m in the early stages of working on a new project with my Hero House artist Mike Dimayuga, who is always fantastic to collaborate with.

Justin Aclin is a former editor of ToyFare magazine and is also the writer of such comics as Hero House and S.H.O.O.T. First.

Jim Zubkavich

Comic-wise I’m really excited about Image Comics’ 20th anniversary as they keep on rolling with a great slate of new creator-owned books and their Image Comic Expo coming up in February to really kick-off the 2012 convention season. This industry is powered by new ideas and creator-owned concepts are leading that charge,

As far as personal projects go, I’m incredibly excited about releasing the third arc of Skullkickers from Image starting in April and Makeshift Miracle book 1 from UDON Comics in May.

Jim Zub is the co-creator and writer of Skullkickers from Image Comics and the creator of Makeshift Miracle, UDON’s online graphic novel serializing with new pages every week at www.makeshiftmiracle.com.

Stuart Moore

NOT PERSONALLY INVOLVED: I really want to see what happens in the digital space this year. I have a feeling we’re going to start seeing original, creator-owned comics released in a variety of new ways.

PERSONALLY INVOLVED: I’m extremely proud and happy to be writing the first new Marvel Comics prose novel, an expanded and updated adaptation of Civil War. And I’ll be editing the subsequent novels, too, so it’s a whole exciting new version of the Marvel U that I’ll be playing with all year.

In addition to working Marvel’s prose project, Stuart Moore is also a former Vertigo and Marvel editor. He has written comics like Namor, Shadrach Stone, Wolverine, Firestorm and many more.

Jamie S. Rich

The Girl Who Owned a City

1. I am excited for the publication of Baby’s in Black: The Story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe, written and drawn by Arne Bellstorf, in the United States. I have a copy of the UK edition I borrowed from Mike Allred, the ultimate Beatles fanatic, but I want to get my own and I also want others to read it. First:Second has picked up the rights.

I’m also stoked for Joëlle Jones’ to have two new books next year. The Girl who Owned a City is out in April from Graphic Universe, and her art on the comic is phenomenal. Dan Jolley wrote the script, adapting the classic young adult novel by O.T. Nelson. It’s set in a future where all the adults have died, and Joëlle’s inks have a gritty feel to them we haven’t really seen from her before. It should also carry over nicely into a project she has that I can’t talk about yet, but is due in the fall, that will really knock some people for a loop. If you think you know what she’s capable of, you have no idea!

And are those spiffy Paul Pope THB reprints happening in 2012?

2. Most of my stuff is still hush hush and under embargo and the like, but I have my comic with Natalie Nourigat coming, and it looks like it’s going to be in the autumn. She finished drawing it in early December. (By the way, can I also add Natalie’s Between Gears collection that Image is putting out?)

art by Natalie Nourigat

In addition to that, I have something cooking with Mike Norton that should be out by the end of the year, but we’re just in the middle of him drawing the first issue, so I don’t know, we have a publisher but we haven’t pushed it onto the schedule yet.

art by Mike Norton

Most immediate in terms of release, the Madman 20th Anniversary Monster is coming out on Jan. 18. I helped Mike Allred compile it, and also contributed the script for a two-page framing sequence that Jim Valentino pencilled and Mike finished. There is a new Allred story and also 20 new one or two-page comics by guys like Pat McEown, Dave Cooper, Darwyn Cooke, Peter Milligan and Philip Bond, Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen, and all three Hernandez Bros. Plus, every Madman-related pin-up we could fit in, including some you’ve never seen before. It’s 11 X 17, hardcover, HUGE!

Finally, I’m going have a short story with Megan Levens coming up in Tim Seeley and Mike Norton’s Double Feature early in the year. I am excited to be a part of their crazy digital adventure, and Megan and I have been wanting to work together for a while. Hopefully this is just the start!

art by Megan Levens

Jamie S. Rich is a writer who regularly publishes through Oni Press, and quite often with the likes of Joëlle Jones, Nicolas Hitori de, and soon Natalie Nourigat and Dan Christensen. His most recent comic book release was Spell Checkers, vol. 2: Sons of a Preacher Man. You can read his sort-of kind-of frequently updated blog at http://www.confessions123.com.

Ron Richards

The thing I’m most excited for in 2012 is Image Comics. With 2012 being their 20th anniversary, it looks like it’s going to be a huge year for the publisher. In February we’ve got the Image Expo, which will kick off the con season of 2012. In terms of books, I can’t wait for Fatale from Brubaker and Phillips, Saga from BKV and Staples, and a new series from Hickman and Pitarra. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the real innovation and “new” in comics is coming from Image Comics and I can’t wait to see what else they deliver in 2012. Lucky for me, I get to talk about all these great comics at iFanboy.com as well as get to help Image Comics by being one of their digital comics solution partners through my gig at Graphicly.com – But even if I wasn’t in a spot to work directly with Image, I’d be as big of a fan as I was back in 1992 when they first started. They are by far, the most exciting thing going on in comics right now and hopefully for all of 2012.

Ron Richards is one of your hosts at iFanboy.com, and is also vice president of external relations for digital comics providers Graphicly.

Jim Gibbons

The Massive

I’m extremely excited to finally get my hands on Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Promise by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihuru, who are working alongside series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. I’m an enormous fan of the animated series and I’m so psyched they’re continuing the story in comics. After rewatching the series a few times, it’s going to be nice to finally see what happens with Aang and the rest of the crew after the end of Season 3. The fact that Dark Horse is publishing it is a nice perk, as well.

I’m wildly jealous that BOOM! Studios will be publishing Adventure Time comics in 2012. I think Ryan North is going to do a great job on them and I’m really looking forward to reading them!

I’m looking forward to finally reading Joe Keatinge’s Glory and Hell Yeah! The guy won’t shut the fuck up about them, so I’m curious to actually read the fucking things. (I’m giving Joe Keats a hard time here as he’s been hyping these books like nobody’s business—and more power to him for that! You know I love ya, Joe! And, comics-savvy person reading this article, I am legitimately looking forward to these bad boys. You should be too!)

I think BKV and Fiona Staples’ Saga is going to be the bee’s knees and I’m excited to see Nate Cosby and “Doc” Shaner’s Buddy Cops premiere in Dark Horse Presents, as well! I’m also real curious to read Keith Giffen’s Superman—love that guy’s writing!

As for stuff that I’m working on in 2012 that I’m excited about, I really can’t stress enough how insanely great Brian Wood’s The Massive is going to be! It kicks off in January’s Dark Horse Presents #8 and that is really just the tip of the iceberg. The issue #1 script blew me away and the Kristian Donaldson art I’ve seen so far has been staggering. This will be your new favorite series of 2012, folks. Make a note!

The Massive

Speaking of Mr. Wood, I’m also jazzed to be working on the complete collection of his first series Channel Zero. This is going to be a beautiful comics tome, a necessity for your bookshelf. Keep an eye out for it this summer!

David Lapham and Mike Huddleston are absolutely killing it on Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain. This book kicks it up about 25 notches in 2012, so buckle up!

And then there’s… aw, crap! I can’t talk about those yet… Get excited though, folks! Lots more good stuff from Dark Horse headed your way this year!

Jim Gibbons is an assistant editor at Dark Horse Comics, where he works on a whole bunch of titles, including Brain Boy!

Rick Marshall

At this point, the comics project I’m most excited about for the upcoming year is Doctor Who–specifically, Joshua Hale Fialkov’s debut as the new writer on the series. Former writer Tony Lee did an absolutely brilliant job of capturing the show’s appeal during his run on the comic, so Fialkov has some big shoes to fill. The fact that he’s not British has some fans concerned, but I had a long chat with him during New York Comic Con and I’m not worried at all. He has some great stuff planned for The Doctor, and I’m looking forward to seeing where he and artist Matthew Dow Smith take the series in 2012.

Outside of print, in addition to the obvious, big-budget movie events like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, I’m also really excited about the premiere of the Powers television series. Brian Michael Bendis has been talking about this project for years now, and after seeing it hop around Hollywood for so long, it’s great to see it finally come together. It feels like the time is right for this one, so here’s hoping it lives up to the high quality of its source material.

Rick Marshall is a full-time journalist, professional geek, occasional photographer, indentured servant to incestuous cats, unwilling party host, speedy talker and obsessive story collector. I stole that description from his blog. Professionally you can find over at IFC Fix.

Ilias Kyriazis

Well I am a big fan of Brian K Vaughan so I cannot wait for his return to comics with Saga. I’m also very excited about Ann Nocenti’s upcoming run on one of my favorite DC heroes, Green Arrow and I want to see more of my new favorite comic, Wolverine And The X-Men. Last but not least I love it that after decades of waiting I’ll have the opportunity to buy a collection of one of the best comics of the 80s, Strikeforce Morituri. I’ve only had my dog-eared Greek reprints and it’s a story that deserves to be in a nice trade paperback.

And that’s strictly about comics, there’s also that Avengers movie…

On a more personal level I’m hoping to find a publisher for my new sci-fi/horror/drama comic, Elysium Online. And maybe do more with my characters from The Dragon And The Ghost.

Ilias Kyriazis is creator of the comics Blood Opera and Manifesto in his home country of Greece and, on this side of the Atlantic, Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression and Falling for Lionheart from IDW. He also draws a lot of fun things I like to link to.

Ryan Cody

One of the things I am most looking forward to is some of the BPRD projects coming out. Scott Allie and Mike Mignola have picked some great artists to add to their roster. I’m excited for books by James Harren and Jason Latour. I am also really looking forward to Punk Rock Jesus from Sean Murphy. I hope that makes it out in 2012, it’s probably the book I am most looking forward to right now. Sean’s work is always amazing and I think it’ll go up another level working on his own book. Polly and the Pirates Vol.2 I have been waiting on for a long time. My kids and I love the character and Robbi Rodriguez’s art on it looks fantastic. Other than that, I tend to follow artists so I jump around a bit. Give me a solid story with great art and I’ll read it regardless of publisher or character. One thing I hope to see is more diversity in the type of art showcased by the Big 2. There are a lot of energetic, exciting and very talented artists just on the fringe right now, and I’d like to see them pushed forward instead of much of the bland, boring art that is at the forefront in most high profile books.

For me in 2012, the only thing I have that I can announce is a Sparrow short story I am doing for Red 5 comics as part of their Atomic Robo anthology. My story takes place in 1944 and is written by Brian Clevinger. It’ll be a full 24 page story, broken up throughout the six issues. I am currently working on a five issue series that has not been announced that should be out in 2012 as well, hopefully sometime around summer. I’ll be relaunching my creator book ICARUS as a webcomic as well, sometime in late spring. As always, you can see what I am up to by going to http://super75comics.wordpress.com/

Ryan Cody is an artist and writer whose past credits include ICARUS, Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun V2 and Villains. See more of his work at http://super75comics.wordpress.com/

Ryan Penagos

2012 is gonna be pretty fun, particularly from us at Marvel. We’ve got plenty of unannounced stuff, all across the board, hitting in 2012 that’ll be killer. I’m involved with some of those projects on a few levels, but for stuff that I’m implicitly involved in at Marvel, I’d have to say I’m most excited for a few video projects on the way. Our Marvel LIVE shows and experiences were a blast—from the Avengers vs. X-Men kickoff event to our live convention coverage and red carpet events—and we have some cool stuff planned for the new year. There’s some more original video content from Marvel Digital Media, but more about that in the coming months. Also, from Marvel, don’t forget Marvel’s The Avengers and Avengers vs. X-Men.

As for stuff I’m not quite so involved with, I’m really psyched for convention season 2012, especially WonderCon. I love San Francisco, but Anaheim has Disneyland and tacos. Oh, also, that Prometheus movie. That looks rad!

Social media megastar Ryan Penagos, aka Marvel’s Agent M on Twitter, is executive editorial director of the Marvel Digital Media Group Marvel.com. He also loves tacos.

Joey Weiser

Mermin

Something that I’m not personally involved with that has me excited for 2012 is the launch of Viz’s Shonen Jump Alpha.  For those who haven’t heard, it’s a digital serialization of some of Shonen Jump’s top titles in English, and only a couple weeks behind their release in Japan.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this experiment develops and its effect on the international comic world.

As for personal projects in 2012, I’m very, very excited about something that will be announced later this year.  But since it hasn’t been announced I can’t say anything about it yet!  Something that I can talk about though, which I’m also looking forward to, is that at this moment I’m working on a brand new Mermin mini-comic, which should see publication this Spring.  It will have a couple short stories, including one that I had started a long time ago for Flight and never completed, a totally new story that I’m in the middle of drawing right now, and maybe a few more odds and ends.  We’ll just have to see!  So keep an eye out for a new Mermin mini-comic and an announcement about… something later this year!

Joey Weiser is the creator of Cavemen in Space, Monster Isle, The Ride Home and Mermin. He also writes the Spongebob Squarepants comic.

Ross Campbell

I’m really into IDW’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Dan Duncan, and a few other various artists. I can’t wait for more, especially after the awesome issue #5 and the great Raphael one-shot.

Leonardo by Ross Campbell

2012 has a few things for me, the new Glory relaunch for Extreme Studios/Image I’m doing with Joe Keatinge kicks off in February, the long-delayed 6th volume of my Wet Moon series finally comes out in October which is a big deal for me, but I’ll keep this all Ninja Turtles: I’m drawing the upcoming Leonardo one-shot for IDW which drops in April I believe, and I’m super pumped!! The old Eastman and Laird comics are what set me on the comics path, and I’ve had a few close brushes with drawing TMNT comics over the years and I’ve done a few covers when they were still with Mirage, but Leonardo will be my first actual TMNT comic.

Wet Moon Vol. 6

Ross Campbell is the creator of Wet Moon, Shadoweyes and Mountain Girl, and is the artist of this year’s Glory revival.

1. What comic-related gift or gifts would you recommend giving this year, and why?
2. What gift (comic or otherwise) is at the top of your personal wish list, and why?

We’ve gotten back a bunch of suggestions, which we’ll run between now and the end of the week. So let the merriment commence …

Jim McCann

1. Exclusive 2011 Janet Lee Holiday Ornaments
Every year, Janet does about 12 ornaments, three sets of four. This year, she has done Hipster Animals, Scary Toys and Art Nouveau Angels. They are signed and dated, and at the end of the season, that’s it! She stops making them. I’ve been collecting them since 2007, and now our tree is almost completely filled with Janet’s art. You can buy them exclusively through her Etsy shop.

Oh, and if you’re REALLY nice, she MAY have a very limited Dapper Men ornament or two. Just ask!

2. This year, for myself, I’m going with a mix of Blu-Rays (portable Blu-Ray player, please, Santa!) and books. But the thing I’m REALLY excited for is the hardcover edition of the Complete Ripley novels, by Patricia Highsmith. Most people only know of Ms. Highsmith through The Talented Mr. Ripley (and classic film lovers through Strangers On a Train). There were actually five Tom Ripley novels, and the collection looks amazing. Why these books? My spouse recently Tweeted a quote from John Lithgow that struck me as a writer: “Duality, duplicity, truth and deception, good becoming bad and vice-versa are crucial elements of great storytelling.” Highsmith was and remains an unsung hero of mastering that, so I hope I learn something in the process!

Happy Holidays from the Dapper Lariosa-McCann household!

Jim McCann is the writer of Return of the Dapper Men and its upcoming sequel, Marvel Zombies Christmas Carol, Hawkeye:Blindspot and the upcoming Mind The Gap.

Matt Kindt

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 1

1. The gift I’d recommend would be The Sixth Gun trade #1 and #2. There are very few comics that are just good fun well-told stories. And even less that are also westerns. And it’s got a giant mummy. Seriously. I love it.

2. What I really want is for publishers to start bringing back comic book subscriptions. And I don’t mean iPad notifications. I want them to mail me single issues as they come out and wrapped in those brown kraft paper envelopes that are open on the ends.

Matt Kindt is the writer of the Robotman comic you can find in issues of DC’s My Greatest Adventure and artist on the Oni graphic novel The Tooth. He’s also the man behind Revolver, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man, Super Spy and the upcoming Supernatural.

Daryl Gregory

1. For the kids in your life, you can’t do better than the e-Comic. It’s as thin as a monthly comic book, with a folding screen that opens to allow two-page spreads. It’s high-res, so you can read word balloons easily while still be able to take in all of the surrounding art. The e-Comic comes loaded with every Jack Kirby comic, under a generous licensing deal with the Kirby estate. Plus, it only costs $25. When it’s invented in 2018, give one to every kid on your Christmas list, and SAVE COMICS.

Journey into Mystery

Until then, take the kids to a comics shop and buy them something great. My son highly recommends Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen — it’s loads of fun.

2. I very rarely allow myself to play video games–nothing destroys writing time like a good game–but every Christmas I take a week off and do nothing but hang out with my family, eat and play with toys. I usually ask for one video game, and for that week I throw myself into it. Previous stockings have been stuffed with Battlefield 142, Company of Heroes, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal… and this year I want to play Arkham City. There, I’ve said it. Fortunately, it’s also on my son’s wish list, so I don’t have to use up one of wishlist slots I usually reserve for specialty beer. So you know what that means: Dad gets to punch the Joker while buzzed on Westemalle Tripel.

Daryl writes Planet of the Apes for BOOM! Studios. His novel Raising Stony Mayhall was named one of the best SF books of the year by Library Journal, and his short story collection Unpossible and Other Stories was named one of the best SF books of the year by Publisher’s Weekly. Daryl loves one of them better than the other, but won’t say which–it would hurt their feelings. You can reach him at darylgregory.com.

Jim “Zub” Zubkavich

Green Wake

1) There are a ton of great new comic titles to give/receive this year. High on my giving list are:

• 27 for music-loving friends
• Atomic Robo for people who crave action/comedy/pure joy
• Chew Omnivore Edition for dark-hearted humorous pals
• Green Wake for horror and mystery readers
• Return of the Dapper Men for fans of faerie tales and the fantastic
• The Sixth Gun for the western aficionado
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ultimate Collection for Gen X-Yers
• Who is Jake Ellis? to the espionage-thriller reader
• and One Soul for the intellectual poet in your gift-giving circle.

See? Comics for everybody!

2) Original comic art is a unique and classy thing to give a comic fan and it’s always high on my personal wish list. Even less expensive options like a convention head sketch or random comic page original can make for a great show piece in the home of a fan. I have a lot of framed originals and they give the right touch of geek chic to my place. Getting an original from my favorite artists, new or old, is now something I look for throughout the year and Christmas is no exception.

Jim Zub is the co-creator and writer of Skullkickers from Image Comics and the creator of Makeshift Miracle, UDON’s online graphic novel serializing with new pages every week at www.makeshiftmiracle.com.

Jamie S. Rich

Petrograd

1. If you’re giving the gift of comics, than my cohorts at Oni Press have the two books from 2011 that I think have the broadest appeal and will get you the most mileage this holiday season. First, there is Petrograd, Philip Gelatt and Tyler Crook’s riveting alternative history of the assassination of Rasputin. It’s got danger and intrigue and Tyler is one hell of an artist. The handsome hardcover package has a lot of flair and though the $30 price point is totally reasonable, it would never occur to the person you’re giving it to that you were at all frugal.

Second is Ray Fawkes’ amazing One Soul. Ray has done an amazing thing here, using the standard nine-panel grid to tell the concurrent stories of 18 different people spanning the ages, separated by space and time. Though it’s possible to read each life individually front to back, the experience of reading each one moment by moment, cycling through all 18 on every double-page spread is exhilarating. One Soul is both emotionally moving and intellectually thought provoking, and despite all the formalist experimentation, a damn good read. Also another wonderfully designed, smartly priced hardcover.

More self-serving for me, and a higher ticket item, is the Madman 20th Anniversary Monster, coming from Image in just a few short weeks. I helped Mike Allred put this massive hardcover together, and I even wrote the two-page framing sequence that he and Jim Valentino drew to tie it all together. Mike has done a new story, there are 20+ all-new one-pagers from the likes of Matt Wagner, Darwyn Cooke, Patrick McEown, and all three Hernandez Bros., and also every pin-up we could get our hands on from the last 20 years of the series. Yes, that includes masters like Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, and Frank Frazetta, and also relative newbies like Joëlle Jones, Emily Carroll, and Chris Samnee. There are over 260 pages and the whole shebang is 11″ x 17″, the same size as the Wednesday Comics collection.

2. There are three items I would really like this Christmas. All of them are expensive collectors editions of material by artists that have been extremely influential on my creative development, but that I have yet to save the pennies to buy myself. They are:

(1) The Blu-Ray edition of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, bundled with the DVD of his second film The Magnificent Ambersons.
(2) The Smiths Complete–All of the Smiths albums remastered with Johnny Marr at the boards. I’d love the Super Deluxe box with the book and the dual version on vinyl and CD, but I’d settle for the straight CD versions, too. The music is the thing, and what I have heard of these new mixes is quite astonishing.
(3) The Who: Quadrophenia Director’s Cut: Super Deluxe Box Set: Okay, here is one where I have to have the massive version with the bonus 5.1 disc and all the books and such. Quadrophenia is like a religious experience for me. My first book, Cut My Hair, is named for a track on the original album, and so this new opening of the vaults is utterly essential.

Both the Smiths and the Who, as well as Orson Welles, helped change my artistic path when I was a teenager, and they still provide inspiration to this day.

Jamie S. Rich is a writer who regularly publishes through Oni Press, and quite often with the likes of Joëlle Jones, Nicolas Hitori de, and soon Natalie Nourigat and Dan Christensen. His most recent comic book release was Spell Checkers, vol. 2: Sons of a Preacher Man. You can read his sort-of kind-of frequently updated blog at http://www.confessions123.com.

Ryan Cody

Bone

1. The one comic related gift I always recommend is the Complete Bone by Jeff Smith. My children read it cover to cover at least once a year. Jeff Smith’s epic is a great read, fun and adventurous for any age group. For adults I would recommend American Vampire, it’s been my favorite book this year as I catch up on it. You can also never go wrong with Hellboy. A more unique gift for a comic or pop culture fan would be original art. Full size comic pages look gorgeous framed and hung and there is probably artwork out there to fit all budgets.

2. I don’t usually buy a lot of comics myself, but I’d be more than happy to get some original art, or a nice sketchbook or two from my favorite artists. An original Sean Murphy, Cory Walker or Mignola page and I’d be one happy camper Christmas morning.

Ryan Cody is an artist and writer whose past credits include ICARUS, Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun V2 and Villains. See more of his work at http://super75comics.wordpress.com/

Be sure to come back tomorrow for more suggestions!

The Twelve

• Marvel has announced plans to finally release the last few issues of The Twelve, starting in January. “It’s taken a long while, but finally, FINALLY, the balance of The Twelve has been completed and we’re ready to ship it all to our long-suffering fans,” said Tom Brevoort, senior vice president and execuitve editor. “We appreciate everybody’s patience, and both hope and expect that the conclusion will live up to the wait. And for folks who missed out the first time, we’re making it easy to get back on board no matter how much or how little of the previous eight issues you may have already read, though the release of the softcover trade paperback of the first six issues, and a Marvel Must-Have containing #7 and #8. So you’ve got no excuse not to experience one of the best reviewed, best beloved and long-awaited series Marvel has ever produced as it reaches its ultimate climax.”

• Fantagraphics has released their publishing catalog for Spring/Summer 2012, which includes their first two EC Comics collections, Gary Panter’s Dal Tokyo, more manga from Shimura Takako and Moto Hagio, and new volumes of Peanuts, Mickey Mouse, Carl Barks, Captain Easy, among others. The full catalog is available as a PDF.

• Antony Johnston and Oni Press plan to get the ongoing series Wasteland back on track, starting with issue #33. The issue will cost a $1 and will be the first by new artist Justin Greenwood.

• Dark Horse has announced several stories that will run in future issues of their anthology series Dark Horse Presents. In addition to Brandon Graham’s “The Speaker” in issue #7, they’ve also got Steve Horton and Michael Dialynas’ “Amala’s Blade” in issue #9 and and “Buddy Cops” by Nate Cosby, Evan Shaner and Rus Wooton also in #9. And Fabio Moon reminds us he has a story in this month’s issue, #6.

Fox Head Stew

• Weird Fishes creator Jamaica Dyer shares preview artwork for her upcoming graphic novel Fox Head Stew.

• Both writer Jamie S. Rich and artist Dan Christensen tease a new project they’re working on for Oni Press.

• Artist Joe Infurnari says that the graphic novel he’s been working on with Boaz Yakin, Marathon, is now complete. It’s due from First Second in June 2012 and tells the story of the first Greco-Persian war at Marathon.

• In pointing out that the last issue of Dogs of Mars is out on comiXology, Paul Maybury notes that he is “currently remastering the colors and redrawing a lot of panels in preparation for the collected version which will see print next year.”

• Speaking of Maybury, he also shares the exclusive variant cover he did for Unite and Take Over: Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Smiths. Meanwhile, Jennifer de Guzman says that she has been asked to contribute to a second volume of the anthology.

Laura Allred's studio

There’s a list of creators that in my estimation are not interviewed nearly enough, one such example is colorist Laura Allred. You can find several interviews with both Mike and Laura Allred together, but few rarely focus on Laura solely. So I recently crossed my fingers and shot off an email to Laura seeking to do an email interview. Much to my sheer delight, she was game for a discussion of her career as a colorist. Jamie S. Rich, long-time Allred associate and friend of Robot 6, was kind enough to share his perspective on Laura’s body of work, which helped me shape some of the topics covered in this exchange. Obviously, a huge thank you to Laura for giving so selflessly of her time. As someone who enjoyed Art Adams’ Monkeyman and O’Brien years ago, I plan to dig up my box with those issues, just to appreciate Laura’s work on it, given how highly she speaks of it in this interview.

Tim O’Shea: The life of a freelancer is never easy–and in your house, it’s extra challenging as both of you make a living either through one of the independent publishers or work through DC or Marvel. Granted at this point in your career, there is a certain brand and reputation that your work carries, still freelancing is a challenge even for successful folks as yourself. If you don’t mind me asking, how much has your faith served to buoy your spirits when the hardships of freelancing blindside you?

Laura Allred: It seems when we simply try to do our best in all our efforts, everything always seems to work out. We work hard, though Michael refuses to call it working, but we also try to make time for family and friends. So, I’ve found that my secret weapon for hardships is to just crack the whip and we get back on track. I’m only half kidding.

O’Shea: As a married couple, you understandably have a rapport with Mike that is stronger than any you share with other collaborators? When you first started coloring Mike’s art, how did you discuss his color desires for the pages, given that you two see color quite differently due to his colorblindness?

Allred: He started by showing me work he liked. A lot of European books from artists like Moebius and Daniel Torres. I took those influences and found inspirations of my own, and then it was just a matter of finding what we were both happy with. Now it’s mostly second nature. Instinctual.

O’Shea: When selecting to color the work of someone other than Mike, are there certain qualities you seek in the art to consider accepting the assignment?

Allred: It’s almost always been a friend or someone we both are fans of. So it’s easy to find what they are wanting as well as approaching them with what I’d like to try.

O’Shea: I’m always surprised at how some consumers of comics fail to understand the vital role colorists play in storytelling. Not to put you in the awkward position of bragging about yourself, but looking at the before and after of a page–do you see how much an artist’s work benefits or is bolstered by colors?

Allred: Absolutely! I’ve seen a good colorist make a mediocre artist look good. And a subpar colorist destroy a great artist’s work. We feel that the line art should stand on its own and the color should provide an extra dimension. Usually, the simpler the better.

O’Shea: Over the years of coloring art, how has technology helped to make your job either easier or more effective in terms of your technique?

Allred: Oh, it’s like cavemen getting electricity. There are no limits, which can be very tempting at overdoing something. But the time-saving is night and day. I used to water color photocopies of the line art and then have to draw a code on every single individual color. And then it would get sent off for someone else to do the separations. Now, I have cintiq where I color directly on a screen. Zap! It’s done.

O’Shea: With a project like The Golden Plates, how frustrating is it that while it was successful, as noted in this 2009 interview it was “not big enough to sustain us financially given the time needed to do it right. So, we simply have to find time to do it when we can. We’re confident once we manage an efficient schedule that it will pick up steam.” Are you closer to finding the time and managing an efficient schedule? Have you considered producing future installments online first and then publishing?

Allred: To be honest, every day feels less and less likely to complete it. I handle the finances, and we would have to win the lottery or have a bag of cash dropped regularly on our doorstep to complete it. Michael would need to immerse himself in it the way he did with the first three volumes and put off every other aspect of his career to do it right. We literally used up our savings to complete those first three volumes and I was the one who had to tell him he had to stop and find paying work immediately. He spent more time studying and referencing than he ever did actually drawing the book. He knew the kind of scrutiny it would have, as well as the level of respect he had for its audience. We both feel that, completed, it would be a work of such significance, if not curiosity, that would pay for itself over and over again and stay in print. We almost had our house completely paid off and had a nice nest egg from our Marvel Mutant money. To continue would have meant going in debt or looking for financing which we weren’t comfortable doing. But we’re extremely happy with what we did accomplish and haven’t ruled out the possibility of completing it someday.

O’Shea: When a collection like MADMAN ATOMICA! is released which covers a great deal of your respective work and includes “many now out-of-print one-shots, plus a huge pile of extras, pin-ups, and rarities”–what pieces out of the extras and rarities stand out some of your favorite?

Allred: I love it all. I just love the idea that almost 20 years of work is in two huge beautiful books.

O’Shea: In the past, you’ve expressed your admiration for the work of the Hernandez brothers. Given your respect for their work, how enjoyable was it to color Jaime Hernandez for Strange Tales?

Allred: Thrilling. Michael wouldn’t have started making his own comics if it wasn’t for them. He was so excited with the joy of creating in their work and that spilled over on me. In fact, their covers were classic examples of simple flat colors enhancing without distracting from the wonderful line art. A big influence on me. I just colored new Madman strips form all three, Jamie, Beto, and Mario, for the upcoming Madman 20th Anniversary Monster!

O’Shea: Among your other non-AAAPop collaborations, which rank among your favorite assignments?

Allred: LOVED coloring Art Adams’ Monkeyman & O’Brien comics! Love him and his wife Joyce too. He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, and his work is as much fun to color as he is to listen to.

O’Shea: Speaking of non-AAAPop work, how do the collaborative dynamics change when you and Mike collaborate on iZombie, a series in which Chris Roberson is the writer?

Allred: Not at all. Except our dearest and oldest friend in the biz, Shelly Bond, throws in her two cents as my editor. I just have more people to please and make changes for in the process. But that rarely happens.

O’Shea: In this 2008 iFanboy interview with you, you noted of the printing process “We’ve never been completely satisfied with any printed work. We’re always looking for ways to make it better.” Do you think you will ever be completely satisfied with your printed work–and does the partial shift to digital comics make quality improvement of your work more or less challenging?

Allred: It’s easier, and we are both currently happier with the final result than ever. We’ve been playing with our process constantly. You can look through the books and see the changes. In fact, we tried at least three specific different ways in iZombie alone to make the colors more organic to Michael’s art work. You’ll see where the printing got quite “muddy” and then we had an epiphany and found the perfect recipe. So simple. It was in front of us all the time. Now I can model Michael’s figures in shadings to his specifications in layers and change and adjust them instantly until we are both happy. And now it prints almost exactly how we see it on the monitors. I think it was around iZombie 6 or 7 when everything finally clicked. And we’ve used the process since in the new Madman stories as well as a Rocketeer 8-pager for a new Rocketeer anthology series.

O’Shea: Given that his career ended long before it should have, not many folks can say they colored Seth Fisher’s art. What do you recall of working with him on Happydale?

Allred: It may be the most difficult project I ever worked on. Seth was still getting his footing. The scans weren’t the best and being such a heavily detailed artist, it was extremely challenging. But the hardest jobs are often the most gratifying, and that was the case when working with Seth Fisher. So sad.

O’Shea: In the 2008 iFanboy interview, you spoke of your affinity for the art of The Wyeths (N.C., Andrew and Jamie). Could you explain if there are certain qualities about each artist that catch your interest, or is it the family’s body of work overall that earns your respect?

Allred: All wonderful, but it’s NC Wyeth that really excites me. His work feels timeless and dreamy. Lush, classic, graphic and artsy all at the same time.

O’Shea: Is there anything about your craft or projects that you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Allred: Nope.

Only that we always want to take every opportunity to encourage people to embrace and dig into the comic book medium as much as possible. There is always something new, special, and unique for anyone to discover.

Spell Checkers: Son of a Preacher Man

Both writer Jamie S. Rich and artist Joëlle Jones point out that Oni Press has released information on the second volume of their graphic novel series Spell Checkers.

The second volume, which reunites Rich and Jones with artist Nicolas Hitori de, is subtitled “Sons of a Preacher Man” and is due in September. Here’s the solicitation text:

There are two new kids at school. Twin brothers–one straight-laced and buttoned-up, the other a rebel in a leather jacket–and they’ve transferred in with trouble for the Spell Checkers. Jesse finds romance, but for Cynthia, it’s rivalry. She and the good brother compete for student body president, while Kimmie tries to find out who murdered the last one. Dark magic is afoot, as well as dark humor, in the second mystical volume of Oni’s latest hit series.

Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits

If you look at the number of talented creators that worked on writer Jen Van Meter‘s Hopeless Savages (Oni Press), it’s an amazing collection of people. To mark Oni’s release in late 2010 of Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits: 2000-2010 (which collects all of the Hopeless Savages material released as of 2010) as well as the fact that the series will return with new material in 2011, I was able to compile an email roundtable discussion with many of Van Meter’s collaborators. Thanks to an immense amount of help from Van Meter and Oni’s Cory Casoni, I garnered insight from editor Jamie S. Rich (with his trademark wit), as well as several of the artists involved, namely Ross Campbell, Christine Norrie and Bryan Lee O’Malley. Did I mention there’s going to be new Hopeless Savages stories in 2011? I just wanted to make sure I did–and, to also note, the artist for the new stories, Meredith McClaren, was also kind enough to participate in this roundtable.

John Rozum

When I was a child the comic books I bought came in four varieties; Disney comics, Turok: Son of Stone, Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth and what passed for horror comics in the early 1970s. These consisted mostly of the Marvel giant monster titles like Where Monsters Dwell, but also extended to anything that was the least bit spooky looking such as a copy of Marvel Team-Up that featured Brother Voodoo alongside Spider-Man, or pretty much any copy of Batman, or Mighty Samson.

I also read other horror titles such as Tomb of Dracula and lots of the anthology comics. No single story really leaps out to me as scaring me in particular, but some of the covers were things I had a hard enough time looking at during the day, let alone at bedtime. The covers were far stronger to me than anything inside the comic books. I think buying some of these comics was almost like a dare, to prove to myself that I could handle it, that I wasn’t too scared to take this image home with me. having it in my bedroom was like inviting the monster out from the closet, or under the bed where you could see it, and it could see you as well.

One of the covers I remember having that strange fascination/repulsion hold over me was the cover of Marvel’s Vault of Evil #13. Looking at it now, it’s hard to figure out why, but the big man who was obviously really mean, and the devil behind him, obviously meaner gave me the sense that whatever the story was that went with that cover should probably not be read. Of course I did, and it didn’t live up to the promise of the cover. The skeletal hand in the upper corner was an added bonus.

The EC comics were behind my time, but I did pick up Gold Key’s Grimm’s Ghost Stories fairly often. No single story comes to mind, but the witch who served as host to the stories within really frightened me. It was hard enough if she was in a little box at the top of the cover, but having her appear big on the cover was almost too much. Almost, but not enough to keep me from bringing a copy home with me. She reminds me of the blind housekeeper from the movie House on Haunted Hill (1960). I don’t know when I first saw that movie so i couldn’t say if the witch on the cover affected me so much because of the movie, or if memories of that witch made the housekeeper scene even more terrifying.

John Rozum is the creator of Midnight, Mass and Xombi, and has written everything from the X-Files to Dexter’s Laboratory.

Becky Cloonan

The last comic that really creeped me out was Ross Campbell’s The Abandoned. It’s a black, white and red zombie apocalypse gore fest, true to the classics in the genre. There were scenes in that comic that made me turn the page a little faster than I normally would have! It’s too bad Tokyopop dropped the ball on this one, it’s out of print and hard to find–but it’s a gem if you can get your hands on it!

Becky Cloonan, artist of Demo, American Virgin and much more, also did one of the stories in Pixu that is pretty scary. But don’t take my word for it; just read on …

Jamie S. Rich

The first thing to pop into mind when this subject came up was a fairly recent example. I am a big fan of Pixu by Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Becky Cloonan, and I was particularly taken aback when I first read the self-published issues by one of Becky’s sequences. In chapter two, Omar returns home and something feels weird. Claire is acting strange. She made him some soup, and when he sits down to eat it, he notices something gross–a fingernail–in the broth. Then there is another, and another, and one in his mouth. It’s such a simple thing but the way Becky shows it, first by letting us see some nails on his spoon, then one between his fingers, and then finally spitting it out–it’s so visceral, I feel a tickle at the back of my throat just thinking about it. Over a few panels, she effectively creates an unforgettable moment, one that extends beyond the page and causes an honest-to-goodness physical reaction. It creeped me out so much, I had to send Ms. Cloonan an e-mail to thank her for disturbing me. The whole of Pixu is fantastic, but that’s the moment that really nailed it for me–no pun intended!

Jamie S. Rich is the writer of You Have Killed Me, Spell Checkers and Love the Way You Love, among other comics.

Ross Campbell

Pixu, Vol. 1

“I don’t think I’ve found any comics that really inspired fear or disturbed me. I’m not sure the medium is really capable of fright in the same way film or prose is, maybe because of reader-controlled pacing and the nature of illustrated artwork, or maybe it’s just because it takes a lot to freak me out, but one exception for me are Becky’s sections of Pixu, about the young couple. I thought her stuff in that had great sense of tense, almost oppressive foreboding-ness. It’s not “scary” in the conventional sense or whatever, but her part of the story has great dread and unease. Then you get to the fingernail soup part, and blecgggghh! It’s both unsettling and gross as hell. I think Becky is probably one of the only comics creators working right now, if not ever, who can really do stuff that goes beyond just drawing a monster or gore and calling it horror. Come on, Becky, do a horror book!”

Ross Campbell, as mentioned above, created The Abandoned, as well as Shadoweyes and Wet Moon.

B. Clay Moore

SWAMP THING #30

I don’t know how old I was when I first read it, but this was my first exposure to Alan Moore’s SWAMP THING, and, needless to say, it spun my head around. John Totleben and Alfredo Alcala on the art. All I knew was that the Swamp Thing’s human girlfriend seemed to be crawling through a fly-infested universe of despair and degradation, as something several steps above sinister seemed to have the world in its grip.

But the panel that snapped me to attention was a shot of the Joker, wearing a straight-jacket, staring ahead with dead eyes, drooling. A character commenting, “The Joker’s stopped laughing.”

There was more to the story than that, but I’d never stumbled across a comic book panel that more directly and succinctly summed up the horror of a situation. I got it, and it scared me. And even at a young age, I’m pretty sure that’s when it hit me that the storytelling potential of comics was a lot bigger than I’d previously realized.

B. Clay Moore is the writer behind Hawaiian Dick, Battle Hymn, The Leading Man and the upcoming Deadline from Kickstart Comics. He also has a really cool sketchbook.

by Joëlle Jones

Portland-based writer and editor Jamie S. Rich has one of the most popular and unique sketchbooks I’ve ran across, documenting the various looks and personae of actress Audrey Hepburn. Here’s what he had to say about it:

I was actually working my way through a miscellaneous sketchbook when the Audrey Hepburn one got started for me. Maryanne Snell, who I think was still working at Atlantis Fantasy World at the time, put together a bunch of Audrey drawings for my birthday and it turned out so well, there was no way I could let it end there. I’ve been pretty happy with the contributions over the years. If anything, I wish I could move a little faster at getting new ones, but I think going slow has meant that the people who have contributed have really put time into their drawings. The key to a great sketchbook is to make sure you lead with a couple of really great ones that will scare the living hell out of whoever comes next. No one wants to phone it in when they are going to be sitting alongside Mike Allred, David Mack, and Craig Thompson.

Part of the fun of the project is seeing what Audrey people are going to pick. Will they gravitate to a common movie or image, or will they find something more obscure? I’ve sometimes considered getting odd renditions of her, too. Like when Ross Campbell totally wussed out on me saying the assignment was too scary, I thought about maybe trying to convince him of doing Audrey as a zombie…but then, I don’t care all that much for zombies, so I decided against it. I think Ross is the only guy who said no. People should ridicule him for being such a big sissy, he can’t handle Audrey Hepburn.

Here’s a selection of some of my favorites from his collection — see the full collection so far on his Flickr page and find your own favorite.

Craig Thompson

Scott Morse

Jen Wang

Spell Checkers T-shirt

Here’s another item you’ll be able to pick up at the Oni Press booth, if you are so inclined … a T-shirt featuring the three stars of Jamie S. Rich, Joelle Jones and Nicolas Hitori De’s Spell Checkers graphic novel. Gotta give points for a Bradbury reference, y’know?

Flash Gordon #3

The internet is rightfully rich with tributes to Al Williamson in recent days. When news of his passing got around, I decided to contact a variety of folks to find out their favorite Al Williamson work. Some were willing to single out certain works, others preferred to speak to his work as a whole. I loved the variety I was able to elicit from respondents, be it with replies to my request or directing me to previous statements they had made about Williamson since his passing. My thanks to the many folks who replied, as well as Dark Horse’s Jim Gibbons for gathering a couple of these perspectives for me (speaking of Dark Horse, be sure to read Dave Land’s Al Williamson recollection at the publisher’s new blog). In addition to these Williamson recollection/recommendations, it would be spectacular if you share your own favorite Williamson works in the comments section. Finally, please note that the Williamson family has suggested donations (in lieu of flowers) be made to:
Yesteryears Day Program (a program for frail, isolated, or impaired seniors)
2801 Wayne Street
Endwell, NY 13760
or
The Al Williamson Scholarship Fund
The Kubert School
37 Myrtle Avenue
Dover, NJ 07801

Jimmy Palmiotti

“Some of my favorite Al Williamson work was done during his days working on E.C. COMICS and on his Flash Gordon stories. Later in life, it was his incredible ink work over John Romita Junior on the Daredevil titles that stuck out. On a personal level, it was his professionalism and his charm that will stay with me longer than any of his work. he was a great man and will be missed.”

Thomas Yeates

“News of Al Williamson’s passing hit me pretty hard. I want to say how sorry I am to his family for their terrible loss. Just a few months ago his lovely wife Cori told me that though very frail Al still had his beautiful smile.

Al’s gifts to me were immeasurable and I feel incredibly honored to have been his friend. There is nobody else who is anything like Al Williamson. There are people with extraordinary talent and there are people who are enormously generous souls and there are people who are a hell of a lot of fun to talk to and be around, but I’ve never known anybody who had all those traits, except Al. His best art is so dazzling to me that it is almost supernatural. His whole classy approach, his figure drawing, his sense of design and his line, his line is sheer poetry. He was a consummate connoisseur of what he used to call “the good stuff”. And that “good stuff” could include an obscure old illustrator no one else knew about or a young artist he’d just met. He loved art, particularly comic art and he would share that with anybody else who loved it and welcome them into his home just to enjoy his collection. All that plus he was a dashing handsome wise-cracker with a glint in his eye and a devilish smile. What a guy. I wish we had more of his art and more time with him but what a gift he was, and still is really, to this crazy world. He always wanted to do John Carter and he always wanted to do Flash Gordon meets Luke Skywalker. I hope he and Archie Goodwin and Roy Krenkel are working on the layouts now.”

Jamie S. Rich (who allowed me to excerpt from his larger Williamson must read tribute)

“The story was a four-page EC-style sci-fi adventure piece called “One Last Job.” It was written by Mark Schultz and dedicated to Wally Wood. It’s a simple tale about an intergalactic bounty hunter and treasure seeker traversing a dangerous landscape in search of the final score so he can fulfill his promise of retiring and return to his lady love. Of course, the punchline is that he can’t retire. The call comes through for more adventure, and he is off again for “one last job.”

In his way, it was a story about Al Williamson, too. There was always more adventure to find on the comic book page, new worlds to explore, new sights to see.”

B. Clay Moore

“What I find most remarkable about Al Williamson is that in the early 50s he was one of the leading members of arguably the greatest stable of artists comics has ever seen, and over forty years later he helped define the look of one of Marvel’s most iconic characters with his work on DAREDEVIL. In between, he contributed one of the last classic runs in adventure comic strip history, handled an award-winning run on FLASH GORDON, and crafted the only graphic representation of STAR WARS that’s really withstood the test of time. And that doesn’t include his terrific work in CREEPY and EERIE in the seventies.

I’ll let the artists out there describe the influence of Williamson’s line, but I admire his career path as much as anyone’s in the history of comics. He kicked ass at everything he did, and he never just stood in place. Williamson elevated genre to new heights wherever he went.”

Brett Warnock

“Well, the first stuff I encountered waaaay back in my formative comics years, was the Star Wars adaptations. Funny enough, at the time (late 70/s / early 80s) I wasn’t so into his work. It was all Byrne and Perez. But as my tastes became more and more refined, and I started to grok on the older generation, my love for Al’s work blossomed. Love his Secret Agent X-9, love his EC work, and of course, the Star Wars material. He did a great job of capturing likenesses without it looking over photo-referenced.”

Dark Horse President and Publisher Mike Richardson

“I was a fan of Al Williamson from my earliest days reading comics. His Flash Gordon comics were memorable, as was virtually all of his work. I was lucky enough to get to know Al and share some good times  with him. He was caring and always available when you needed him, not always the case with others of his stature. The comics industry will miss his talent, as he was one of the greats, but more importantly, he was a truly good man. He will be sorely missed.”

John Beatty

“Trying to pick a favorite piece of work by Al is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It just can’t be done…at least by me.

Al did everything so well…he was a true master of the comics medium.

His use of texture, light and shadow in his inking always inspired me. In fact, if you look at some issues of ‘Secret-Wars’ starting around issue 6, I believe, Mike Zeck was doing layouts, and I was trying my best to do a lot of “Williamson” like shadows, textures, and the lost edge, where the black shadows indicate the drawing and not a line.

This influence, along with Frazetta, continued into my work on the “Punisher Mini-Series” where I was really trying to do illustrative inking in the vein of Al and Frank!

I met Al once. At a New York City Comic Con, sometime in the mid-1980s. He didn’t know me from “jack” but when I was introduced to him and needed a seat, he was grateful to have me pull up a chair next to him. Needless to say, I was sitting next to one of my comic heroes and was pretty nervous. Al was a kind man, and put me at ease. He even let me look thru his portfolio of original art which had some really stunning pieces in it! Some Flash Gordon, I remember well…I’m not sure if he had any Star Wars pages or strips, but a few things stood out: the size of them…huge art from back in the day when things were drawn bigger, and the amount of work and the confidence that it was put on paper with!

Al kept telling me how horrible they were, and he couldn’t draw…he was not being modest, he really believed this. I was pretty stunned, by his comments.

Then the unthinkable happened…after I had looked thru it for over an hour, maybe longer, Al went to show someone else the work…he reached behind him, were I swore I put the portfolio back, and it was missing.

Feeling the lump in my throat, I saw Al panic and I felt terrible, as I just knew I had put it back behind him. We looked high and low behind that table…trying to find it. I felt like I needed to throw up. What if it had been picked up by someone and they left. Al was pretty protective of it, and I was honored to get to look thru it, and amazed at the imagery that it held inside!

Suddenly, Al remembered that he put it against the table leg to hide it and to keep it safe.

Whew, what a relief!

You may not see a definitive influence of Al’s work in my inking…but let me assure you, it’s there. I’ve poured over many pages of his work since I can remember, trying to pick up things that would help me.

I think I just got the new “Flash Gordon” book a few months back and spent a few days going thru it, just marveling at it. The beauty of the work is really something to behold!

R.I.P. Al Williamson.”

James Hudnall

“Al Williamson’s work never faltered, unlike some artists as they grew older. My first exposure was in his Warren comics and the Blazing Combat he did with Archie Goodwin. His Empire Strikes Back adaptation was stellar. Williamson was one of the greats of his generation. A true master of his craft and a worthy heir to Alex Raymond.”

Steve Bryant

“It’s hard for me to choose my favorite Al Williamson work. There’s so much amazing stuff and all of it is significant to me for one reason or another. The energy of the EC work? The Flash Gordon work, which over 30 years, showcased wish fulfillment, incredible draftsmanship and confident economy of line?  The Star Wars work, which managed to feature the archetypal Williamson hero (Han) and never deviated from the feel of Lucas’s universe–set against a backdrop of amazing Williamson environments?

For me, it remains the Secret Agent Corrigan material, which somehow manages to combine all of the above. Over a 13-year period, we see Al’s artistic progression from the slick techniques he learned assisting John Prentice to the confident illustrator that later tackled Star Wars. Working with his frequent collaborator, the equally-legendary Archie Goodwin, Al tackled every conceivable sort of story on Corrigan, from espionage and jungle adventure to homages of Flash Gordon, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Lost World and more!

Secret Agent Corrigan is my favorite, because it encompasses the longest run of his career and showcased much of what made Al’s work so special.”

Kevin VanHook

“When you look at the huge legacy of artwork that Al Williamson left behind, it’s hard to find one story or image that’s your favorite. 13 years of Secret Agent Corrigan, the Star Wars strips, all the Flash Gordon work, the EC stories that just flowed with a dancer’s grace–unbridled talent there on the page, often accompanied by the helping hand of Frank Frazetta’s brushwork or Roy Krenkel’s beautiful cityscapes. But for me, the story, “Relic” which appeared in Epic Illustrated 27 would take the prize for a few reasons.  One, because I watched him draw part of it. I was there to see those beautiful over-sized pages. And also because this was the work of a  mature artist; a master doing what he loved and excelled at.  He wasn’t constrained by the comic strip format.  He had no likenesses to worry about, no marketing people concerned that he wasn’t showing a character in a way that would help sell toys. It was just him and Archie Goodwin telling a fun little story. Rich in detail and a tribute to his friend Roy Krenkel, who had passed on not long before, “Relic” hits all the notes for me–the spaceship and outer space itself, the alien world and ancient city, the heroic stances of the characters and even a beautiful statue of a half-nude young lady–based on a Jeff Jones’ IDOL sculpture that sat behind Al at his drawing board. Amazing stuff. I look at the detail of this story in wonder to this day and I remember why this man and his work changed my life.”

Ty Templeton

“The quick answer is anything Williamson ever did.  How do you narrow it down?  Some of the stuff that most blew me away was his fairly recent Flash Gordon stuff, after the movie.  But I loved his EC, WARREN, ATLAS and DC stuff fairly equally.  It’s like picking a favorite Beatles song.”

by Chynna Clugston

March winds and April showers bring convention season, and with that, the opportunity to fill your convention sketchbook with some nice, new stuff. You’ve already seen Sean’s David Bowie sketchbook, and now Spell Checkers writer Jamie S. Rich talks about how he started his Audrey Hepburn one. You can find more of his sketch collection here.

Spell Checkers

Soon after friend of the blog and writer Jamie S. Rich sent me an advance PDF of his latest Oni graphic novel, Spell Checkers (set to be released by Oni this Wednesday), he also offered me the opportunity to interview artist, Nicolas Hitori de. Getting to email interview Hitori de about his collaboration (with Rich and the project’s other artist, Joëlle Jones) was a chance I could not decline. Here’s publisher Oni Press’ official description of the book: “Three teenaged witches use their power for popularity, good grades, and the good life. When nasty graffiti starts showing up about them at their school, they first suspect one another. But when they start losing their powers, and their magical fetishes disappear, they realize this is an attack from outside their circle, and they must join hands (and wits) to defeat the usurper and her demon companion!” After reading the interview, please avail yourself of the 22-page preview from Oni.

Tim O’Shea: Were you a fan of Jamie S. Rich’s work before signing on to draw Spell Checkers?

Nicolas Hitori de: Totally. I discovered him in early 2000 when he was at Oni editing Chynna Clugston’s Blue Monday and their other publications. And I read his first book with Joëlle Jones, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and it really moved me because of the beautiful art and great storytelling. You Have Killed Me definitely solidified my status as a fan, and it still seems incredible for me to work with such talented artists.

O’Shea: Your past work has been in France, how much of a challenge was it to collaborate on an American-based project? Were there adjustments you had to make?

Hitori de: They’re many challenges. It was my first comic and English isn’t my native language, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t really have any problems working on it because Jamie’s script is so well written. The communication was also quite easy, thanks to the internet and to Joëlle & Jamie, who were both understanding with my poor English. Maybe the only real bother was the time difference, but that wasn’t really anything.

O’Shea: Creatively, how did you decide the way you approach Cynthia’s eyes (they disappear) in certain scenes?

Hitori de: The gray-toned disappearing eyes is a classic graphic code in manga. It’s usually used to show how mysterious and dangerous characters are. As the typical manga-style is well known for being cute and childish, I find it interesting to use a lot of mainstream anime symbols for these three haughty girls, creating a funny gap between the images and the crude dialogue.

O’Shea: Was it your idea to use gray tones on your pages (while Joëlle Jones flashbacks scenes were in starker black and white)?

Hitori de: I can’t deny my manga influences and I like how some Japanese artists uses gray tones as a narrative tool. Also, I haven’t mastered black and white the way Joëlle has. Jamie and the Oni press team gave me complete freedom on this project and were absolutely open minded to all my ideas. It was a real pleasure to work under such conditions.

O’Shea: You really execute some interesting panel layouts on certain pages, was that something you and Jamie discussed doing or was that totally your idea?

Hitori de: Jamie’s script was actually very clear with panel description but I was free to draw the panel layouts by myself. I think panel arrangement is especially important for the storytelling, it gives the book rhythm and establishes atmosphere. I’m heavily influenced by cinema and I always try to think of the page as a movie storyboard. I also like how dynamic manga pages are, with big twisted panels and characters coming out of them.

O’Shea: Had Joëlle completed the flashback scenes before you started your part of the first book? Did her take on the characters influence how you drew them?

Hitori de: We both started the pages at the same time. Joëlle had done the first quick sketch of the girls and I had to redraw and personalize them with my own style. I just asked her about some references like the magic dolls to maintain a story coherence. As her pages are flashbacks to when the characters are in their younger teens, and even before, their physical appearance and clothes don’t have to be entirely compatible.

O’Shea: The Spell Checkers project is a commitment to three graphic novels, how intimidated were you when taking on such a long-term project?

Hitori de: Three 150-page graphic novel are sure intimidating but, it’s also a exceptional challenge and opportunity. This kind of long-term project allows us to develop characters and stories and to work on this large a number of pages also enables my artwork to improve. I’ve read the second volume script and I can tell you that I sincerely can’t wait to start drawing it. It’s going to be grand.

O’Shea: Looking over your work on this project, are there certain scenes that were your favorite to draw?

Hitori de: I love the whole book but some scenes were funnier to draw. I especially like when Jesse is outside on the bench by the baseball field because I made it a kind of tribute to classic manga scenes where the girl is having romantic thoughts while clouds roll by in the background, except this time, she’s hatching a scheme. The big party double-page was also pretty amusing to draw with all the teenagers partying everywhere.

David Peterson with Mouse Guard

David Peterson was signing copies of his Mouse Guard hardbacks—and giving away the floppies for free, as promotional attractions. The Mouse Guard anthology series launches in May, with single issues out each month through August, followed by a hardcover colection.

Josh Howard

Josh Howard sat back during a momentary lull at his booth, where he was busy selling and signing copies of Dead@17.

Jamie S. Rich

Jamie S. Rich was looking sharp at the Oni booth, where he was signing copies of his newest graphic novel, Spell Checkers, the story of three very wicked teen witches.

Dave Roman and smilin' Raina Tegemeier

Dave Roman and Raina Telemeier have embarked on a nationwide tour of sorts; they are hanging around Chicago long enough to do a signing at Challengers Comics, and then in Chicago, and then it’s off to the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon. Raina’s Smile is proving popular with critics, and she said it has done particularly well at Scholastic Book Fairs. Meanwhile, Dave’s Avatar: The Last Airbender prequel is due out any minute (he shared writing credit with Alison Wilgus), and he just turned in the final draft of his graphic novel Astronaut Elementary to First Second, so the couple has plenty to smile about.

Art Baltazar

I didn’t get to talk to Art Baltazar, as he was too busy doing drawings and being interviewed. His was one of several booths in the Artists Alley that had long lines on Saturday—I couldn’t get close to Jill Thompson’s, either.

Adam and Chris Hebert

So, I travel a thousand miles and end up talking to two guys who live ten minutes from my home. Adam and Chris Hebert had a table at the Haven Distributors to plug their comics Lazerman and Vindication, and they claim to be working on an all-ages zombie comic, which seems like a solution without a problem… but we’ll see.

Walt Simonson

A couple of quick thoughts from the old year and the new one:

1. I’m delighted a new YA novel in Gerald Morris ‘The Squire’s Tales’ series came out in September. ‘The Squire’s Quest’ is his first new novel in the series about Camelot and the Arthurian legends in several years. I’ve enjoyed the books immensely. I know. I know. It came out this year. Tough. I still couldn’t be more pleased.

2. I’ve been working on a long graphic novel for DC for awhile now (96 pages), should wrap it up in 2010 and really, I can’t wait! Catch me again in April or May and I’ll fill you in with some detail.

Walt Simonson’s work spans decades; he’s worked on comics like Thor, Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Factor, Orion, Manhunter, Hawkgirl, World of Warcraft and his own Star Slammers, just to name a few. Earlier this year he donated this really awesome piece of original artwork for the auctions we did for our own Carla Hoffman, for which we will always be grateful.

Stray #1

Vito Delsante

1. Excited for a few things. The new Doctor (Who), Iron Man 2, and really excited for Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. I’m not sure if Darwyn Cooke’s next Parker GN is going to be out next year, but I will be all over that the second it’s announced.

2. Excited for a few things of my own: Popgun 4, a secret project that I can’t announce at all, my new comic, STRAY, and getting FCHS Volume 1 out there in print.

Vito Delsante is the writer of FCHS, which he spoke to Tim about last year before we learned it had hit a roadbump, order-wise. When he isn’t making comics, he’s selling them at Jim Hanley’s Universe, located in New York near the Empire State Building. Also, I believe that Stray cover up above is the first time it’s been shown anywhere, so thanks to Vito for sharing it!

Atomic Robo

Scott Wegener

In 2010 one of the things I’m most looking forward to is the Boston Comic Con. New England is lucky to play host to a wide range of small one day shows. From Bangor, Maine, to New Haven, Connecticut, there’s a smörgåsbord of  comic book awesome. My own LCS, Double Midnight, puts on the excellent GraniteCon. But the Boston ComiCon has always been a little special to me, because right around the time I was getting back into comics they put on their first show, and I’ve been to every con since.

In 2009 BCC made that huge transition from one-day show to weekend-long geekfest. And in 2010 they are moving to an all new, much larger venue. It’s just awesome to see a show that’s really well put together grow and expand. I mean, damn! Just look at the guest list for next April. And I get to sit next to some of these guys! Crazy.

Plus, it’s in Boston, which is my favorite city on, or below, the Earth’s delicious and flaky crust.

As far as personal projects are concerned, I’m just psyched that Atomic Robo: Revenge of The Vampire Dimension, (which was supposed to be Atomic Robo & Other Strangeness, but my beloved co-creator is a donkey, so it’s not called that), is hitting shelves in February 2010. Unless, of course, Diamond gets sucked into a singularity, or our printer forgets to buy toner -either occurrence would not surprise me. In which case, it might be June 2011, and not February 2010. With Vol.4 coming out (probably), the reprinting of the Vol.1 TPB, and the recent release of the Vol.3 TPB, it’s going to be a virtual robot orgy out there.

And who doesn’t love robot orgies?

Scott Wegener draws Atomic Robo and also drew the Killer of Demons mini-series that came out from Image last year. He also pitched in last year during Robot Love week, writing a post titled “I ♥ Second Chances.“

Jamie S. Rich

I would say the top of my list for books I am looking forward to is Lucky in Love volume 1. George Chiefett is writing, and Stephen DeStefano is drawing. I love Stephen’s stuff, have since the days of ‘Mazing Man, and we worked together here and there during the Oni years (and hope to again). It’s been a while since he has drawn anything of any great length, and the teaser’s he’s posted to his blog are phenomenal: http://stephendestefano.blogspot.com/2009/11/long-time-no-post-or-lucky-in-love-vol.html

Fantagraphics is publishing Lucky in Love, and the current release date is June.

In April, my next book will come out, the first volume of a little thing called Spell Checkers. It was co-created by myself and Joëlle Jones, and it’s being drawn by Nicolas Hitori de, with the occasional page by Joëlle, as well. It’s kind of a rude high school comedy about three teenaged witches who use their power for bad, because seriously, what teenager would want to use it for good? With great power comes great irresponsibility, I say!

Oni should be soliciting the book shortly. Anybody want to see three pages?

Jamie S. Rich is the writer of You Have Killed Me, which Oni released this past year. He guest blogged with us last year around the time the book was released. You can see his Shelf Porn here, and Tim interviewed him here. He also writes novels and film reviews, and has a blog here.

Mark Andrew Smith

Sullivan's Sluggers

In 2010 I’m the most excited about the Apple Reader. I hope that they’ll keep it in a magazine size so that we can use it to read comics and it’s not a size that comic books have to adjust to because I feel like it’s mutilation to squeeze them onto the IPhone right now from what I’ve seen and I’m really looking forward to having a natural reading experience. Having the ability to put all of the books you read, such as you have in your “shelf porn” segments, onto one single device and carry it around with you is going to be liberating. The bad news? It might mean the end of your “shelf porn” segments. I hope it will cut a lot of production costs and change the way comic books are distributed and read.

For Comic books, I’m the most excited about Battling Boy. For next year, above all else, I want to be surprised because the best books are complete surprises where you’re not looking for them and they suddenly appear and are new. I’m looking forward to that book that no one has seen or known about yet. I want something new in comics for next year and for some new people to rule the roost and produce innovative work.

For films I really worry because a lot of film production companies have been shifting the profits from high grossing films into other areas to recoup but they’re not reinvesting more money into films or taking chances. I feel like next year or the year after that the number of films that come out are going to be significantly less.

I am looking forward to a slew of upcoming fantasy films for better or for worse such as The Lightening Thief, Clash of the Titans, Legion, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice which doesn’t look perfect but it could be great in the same way that I really enjoyed a film like Jumper. I am also looking forward to Kick-Ass and everything that I’ve seen for it looks like a lot of fun.

Sullivan's Sluggers

This next year I have Sullivan’s Sluggers coming out as an original graphic novel from Image Comics. It’s drawn by Eisner Nominated Artist James Stokoe and it’s a horror baseball comic about a team of washed up has beens who have got to battle their way out of a town with a terrible curse on it using all of the baseball skills they have to survive. We’ve been working very hard around the clock to bring you this book for its Spring release.

I feel very excited about Sullivan’s Sluggers because it is both a sports and horror graphic novel which I haven’t done before. I think there is a huge marketing potential for the book in that comic books haven’t been marketed to the MLB, ESPN, and the Sports Illustrated crowds, in addition to the comic, horror, and cult film crowds. It feels exciting and like there is a lot of potential to draw a new audience into graphic novels because of the nature of this book.

Mark Andrew Smith has written a great number of comics, including Kill All Parents, Aqua Leung, Amazing Joy Buzzards, The New Brighton Archeological Society and lots of stuff for Image’s Popgun anthologies, which he also edited. You can see more preview pages for Sullivan’s Sluggers here.

Chris Pitzer

Afrodisiac cover

Two things I’m excited about in 2010:

TCAF. aka the Toronto Comics Arts Festival. I love Toronto. I love Comics. Put the two together, and it’s pretty daggon cool. They just decided to make the festival happen every year, instead of every OTHER year, so I guess that makes it and 2010 special.
http://www.torontocomics.com/tcaf/ for more info.

AFRODISIAC and the Southern Tour. Well, Afrodisiac by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca was suppose to be a December book, but like most things printed overseas, it will be arriving a month late (January). So, I’m excited for people to finally see the book. I’m also excited to go on a southern tour of sorts with Jim. Right now we’re scheduled to hit Richmond, Chapel Hill and Charlotte in early March. I’ve never really been on a “tour” so I guess that’s why I’m excited. More details to come.

Chris Pitzer is the publisher of AdHouse Books. In addition to Afrodisiac, he’s also published Driven by Lemons, Johnny Hiro, Ace-Face, Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Pulphope and many other comics and graphic novels.

Dan Goldman

Jude Tobin from Red Light Properties

Comic-wise, I’m most excited at reading the just-released GO GO MONSTER by Taiyo Matsumoto; I’m in Brasil at the moment and not sure when I’ll be able to get my hands on one, but Matsumoto is one of my very favorite creators on the planet and anything that gets translated into English for me to read is a major treat.

Personally, I’m launching my new series RED LIGHT PROPERTIES online at Tor.com this Tuesday, Jan 5th. It’s a tropical horror-drama series about a family-run real estate agency that exorcizes and sells “previously-haunted homes” to foreclosure victims in the post-mortgage South Florida housing market.

Dan Goldman is the creator of Shooting War, drew 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail and is a member of the webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE.

Paul Maybury

Heroes Convention 2010. In my mind Heroes is the number one convention that’s still about comics. The rapidly growing Indie Island section has become the highlight of the show for me. An up and comer gets the same love as a seasoned professional (well, maybe they’re getting sandwiches, I don’t know).

Paul Maybury's cat

Their good attitude and well run show have made them my number one destination every convention season.

I’m also looking forward to getting new Party Bear out into the world in 2010. The on and off again webcomic is my neglected bastard love child. For fans of the book, I have some closure for the current events in the story coming up right around the corner. As soon as my cat stops sitting on my pages. My new years resolution was to have a new book in stores this year, so maybe it will be Milsap and company? Read what’s online here.

Paul Maybury has contributed to several of Image anthologies over the last few years, including Comic Book Tattoo and Popgun. He also drew Aqua Leung and has a fun livejournal where he sometimes posts stories about Aliens and Conan. (Not in the same story).

Jamaica Dyer

from Jamaica Dyer's gallery show

I’m sure everyone else is thinking the same thing, but I can’t wait to see the Scott Pilgrim movie! Edgar Wright is so fantastic and the mix of music, video game geekery, possible dance numbers and lots of fighting should make for an extremely fun movie. Plus, you know, Scott Pilgrim is just a great story.

I’m excited about doing the next Weird Fishes book, I’m working on the new pages right now and I’m going to start posting them at weirdfishescomic.com in January. I got to show some of the new artwork at my gallery show over at Mission: Comics and Art this month, and that adds another layer of connection and exposure long before the comic hits the internet, let alone the printed page. The new comic follows Dee and the Bunny Boy in their college years.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the new pages, from my gallery

Jamaica Dyer is the creator of the webcomic Weird Fishes, which was collected by SLG last year into book form.

Kelly Sue DeConnick

Name something that you aren’t personally involved with that has you excited.

Iron Man 2.

Name something you are personally working on that has you excited.

Longbox Digital (I’m not deeply involved; I’m on the “advisory board.”)

Kelly Sue DeConnick has contributed to several Image anthologies as well, including Comic Book Tattoo and 24seven. She also adapts English translations of manga for the American market, and wrote the upcoming Marvel one-shot about Sif.

Ian Brill

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

When it comes to comics I’m very much looking forward Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy’s Joe the Barbarian. It looks like Grant Morrison is tackling the subject of imagination itself, something he’s clearly an expert in! Seeing pages posted on-line it reminds me of the Crazy Jane parts of DOOM PATROL and the reality bending ending of ANIMAL MAN but also clearly something new and original. Murphy is a tremendous artist, someone who infuses every drawing with personality and intensity. I know he’s up to the task of drawing everything Morrison throws at him. I hope this book makes him a marquee name, he certainly deserves to be.

In the world outside of comics, I have to own up to my particular nerd obsession already renowned around the office and say I’m looking forward to series five of Doctor Who. With his Doctor Who episodes Steven Moffat is responsible for some of the most thrilling and emotional television I have ever seen. Now they’ve given him the keys to the kingdom! Any man who has a love of the Peter Davison Doctor is a man I trust running DW.

In the comics I’m editing, there is going to be a big addition to the Farscape line of comics that I think fans will be excited for. We’re really turning up the heat in the Farscape universe, led by the creativity of show creator Rockne S. O’Bannon. BOOM! Studios as a whole will have announcements that I think will shock, surprise and delight. Big names and big ideas, that’s all I can say.

Ian Brill is an editor at BOOM! Studios, where he works on the Farscape and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, among many other comics. Before doing that, he used to write for Publishers Weekly Comic Week and Newsarama, among other outlets.

Van Jensen

I spent all of 2009 not reading superhero comics (except for Peter David’s always great X-Factor), and I’m excited to get back into the genre. There aren’t any particular books or events drawing me in as much as the ridiculously talented creators pumping out books. At the head of that is Marvel’s Girl Comics, which promises to be an unforgettable showcase for top-notch talent. I’m also looking forward to whatever’s next in The Unwritten, the best Vertigo book I’ve ever read. And of course, 2010 promises to be a big year for Robert Venditti, who has two big non-Surrogates books in store in the thriller Homeland Directive and an adaptation of The Lightning Thief.

After having my first graphic novel come out last year, I’m looking forward to releasing the Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer sequel in 2010, as well as hopefully getting some other projects on shelves. I have two other graphic novel scripts written, the crime noir Two Dead and the pulp adventure The Leg. I’m currently developing a children’s superhero book and plan to also finish a novel this year. I also am self-publishing my second Nebraska mini comic, which I’ll have at conventions and online.

Van Jensen is a journalist who wrote last year’s Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer, published by SLG. I spoke to him about the book back in July, and he did a guest post for us about vampires around Halloween.

Chip Mosher

Anyone that isn’t excited about IRON MAN 2 is either lying or crazy. Robert Downey Jr. is just spectacular as Tony Stark. Perfect casting. Downey holds a special place in my heart, as my first entertainment gig was driving him around for a week back in ’92. I’ll have to dig up those pictures some day… (on second thought, maybe not! )

2009 was a banner year for BOOM! Studios. And 2010 will be even bigger! With all the stuff we having coming out this year like…. well, I can’t talk about that. But, we also have a mind-blowing new series from… oooh, dang, can’t talk about that either. And then, to top it off we are doing a long-term… oh, forgot, that’s off limits, too. Really, what I can say, is that every day I come in to work at BOOM! is a great day as we are cooking up some great comics and I am just generally excited about everything we are doing next year… and can’t wait to do some big reveals later down the road.

Chip Mosher, as you might have guessed, is the head of marketing at BOOM! Studios. He’s also a comic writer in his own right, having written Left on Mission, and he told us what he was reading a couple months back.

Sam Humphries

I’m most excited about distribution. 2010 is a year of converging windows of opportunity in the direct market, the bookstore market, and digital distribution. It’s going to be a remarkable, once-in-a-generation moment for the whole industry. Some smart people in the room have already stepped up to grab the brass ring. I can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.

In terms of things I am personally involved it, I am most excited about the projects that I can’t talk about yet, which are all of them. Happy new year!

Sam Humphries used to run MySpace Comic Books and, as he notes, is now working on top secret stuff. He’s a good guy who helped us out with a guest blogging stint earlier this year while I was out getting sick on vacation.

John Jakala

Your question made me realize what I bad job I do of following comic news nowadays as I honestly can’t think of what’s supposed to come out in 2010. I’d love it if First Second (or anyone else!) released some more work by Joann Sfar or Christophe Blain, but I don’t know how likely that is. And speaking of First Second, isn’t Paul Pope’s Battling Boy supposed to come out in 2010? That looked like it could be fun.

Other than that, I look forward to reading the latest installments of all my favorite manga series (Slam Dunk, Real, Kekkaishi, 20th Century Boys, etc.); discovering new favorites via the library; and catching up on all the comics I purchased in 2009!

John Jakala is a blogger who hasn’t posted in a month or so, so I was glad to hear from him when I sent out these questions. He told us what he was reading earlier this year as well.

You Have Killed Me

Back in late July/early August, Robot 6 was fortunate enough to feature independent comics industry veteran writer Jamie S. Rich guest-blogging with the group–partially in promotion of his and artist Joëlle Jones‘ You Have Killed Me, the 184-page hardboiled crime graphic novel released by Oni Press in mid-July. Rich, an established writer of prose and comics, recently ran circles (in a good way) around some questions I shot his way recently about his latest book. Enjoy, hopefully as much as I did.

Tim O’Shea: Back in 2006 in an interview with Tom Spurgeon you told him (about You Have Killed Me) “12 Reasons was going so well, I think we had only been working on it a couple of months, but I didn’t want to lose her to anyone else, so I asked her if she would work with me again and what she would want to do, I’d write her anything. She said she wanted to do hardboiled crime, and since I had the same passion for it she did, I jumped at it, even though it scared me because it was so different from what I’m known for. She’s challenging me in incredible ways I would never challenge myself.” Can you discuss what ways this story challenged you?

Jamie S. Rich: Well, most immediately, it required some real plotting. Relationship stories like what I had previously been known for don’t require as much careful planning, they have a natural flow, peaks and valleys that are tied to the rhythm of real life. It’s often unpredictable, less structured, and there is no definite resolution beyond whether or not these people stay together. In a crime story, you have something that happened, and the discovery of how it happened has to be detailed and lead to the revelation of the truth or the punishment of the criminal. You can’t just have a random stranger suddenly emerge and say, “Oh, yeah, this homeless drifter did it.” I mean, you could, but a lot of people would call you out for cheating, that’s not a good story. For You Have Killed Me, I had to concoct a trail for Antonio Mercer, the private detective, to folloq, and each step had to kick up new dirt and I had to keep all of that dirt ordered, even when false or a red herring. There are expectations of that kind of plot. Just as Chekhov said if there is a gun in the first act, it will go off in the third, if you need a gun to go off in the third, you might have to think about having it show up in the first. There is far less left to chance.

The other is just the notion that one must approach a thing he or she loves with a healthy respect. It’s hubris tempered with humility. I look at the tradition of great crime stories, and I have to think I can somehow be a part of that tradition, and yet, it wouldn’t suit me to denigrate it. To succeed at that bold bid to join the ranks, we had to rise to meet the quality of the pioneers who led the way. There are plenty of examples of mistagged so-called noir movies, for instance, that don’t do that. Last year there was this film called Dark Streets that was a lot of empty style, operating with just a surface notion of a jazz-age tale. Or you see these things come out, I can think of a couple of recent comic book examples but shouldn’t name any names, that are jokey about it. As a lifelong smartass, I can tell you for a fact that using ironic winks as the building blocks for your story is about the easiest thing you can do. It takes no skill, and it’s easy to get by doing it. It’s also very hard to be memorable, and that kind of material fades. We wanted to make a book that sticks around.

O’Shea: Do you have some dialogue lines just pop in your head and you store them to use down the road, or do lines like “You homicide cops, you have it lucky.” just pop up naturally in the creation of the story?

Rich: It’s a little bit of both. My brain is often working ahead of what is on the page, anticipating what is coming. I know, for instance, there is a line about lollipops that I wrote long before I got to the part in the story where it would fit. It came to me while I was thinking about other things and I had to write it down and file it away. Often, I either have a separate documents of random notes like that, or I might even have pages at the end of the manuscript where notes are laid out in a certain order, and when I reach them, I join those pages into the larger script. In fact, I have a leftover file from You Have Killed Me, the stuff that I never joined up with.

Other times it just comes from being in the scene. I feel a writer has to be willing to let things happen. Sometimes the worst lines are the ones I force, where I plug a hole where I know something snappy will do the trick. In the romance stuff, it actually comes when a character first meets his or her love, and trying to find something to describe that feeling. In Cut My Hair, it was something like how Mason wanted to jump in the air and bounce the moon off his head like a soccer ball. I remember that coming very easy, and some of the lines that came in later books landed with just as much ease, but sometimes it was a tough thing, trying to find something like the moon and the soccer ball, and it ends up like one of those millions of TV shows where the pilot is passed out and a person with no experience has to land the plane. I am the guy in the control tower trying to talk the line into existence, bring the metaphor in for a landing, step by step.

I don’t specifically recall writing Mercer’s line about homicide cops, but I think that’s just one that came with the scene. It’s late in the book, so by then I could really “hear” the voices of all the characters, and the writing had become like a conversation between them and me. Most of Spell Checkers is written that way. Like a good conversation in real life, one statement prompts a logical response.

O’Shea: Of the characters you wrote for this story, can you think of one or two characters who had a role that expanded beyond your original expectations when you first started building the tale?

Rich: The bartender was originally a one scene guy, then it became two, he was the natural person to give Kane a heads up that someone was looking for him and so he stuck around for that. Then he re-emerged again when I needed some kind of transition, and it felt right to have him both advocate a certain humanity on behalf of the crook, but also to ask Mercer to retain some of his own. It serves a very good purpose, I think, in that it shows Mercer making a tough choice. It also fit the emerging themes of family and the ties that bind, and Mercer’s hard reaction to the same.

The doctor is the only other one, even though like most of the side characters, he only gets one scene. That scene became more meaningful than I had anticipated, both for myself and Joëlle, whose reaction to it was what actually made me realize there was something deeper there. She said she took special care in how she designed his look, because for her that scene was rather tender. She viewed Doc as Mercer’s only real friend, he was lonely except for that. He might get along with Tynan, the head police detective, but it’s adversarial and Tynan expects something from it. Doc comes to Mercer to help him because he believes Mercer deserves some compassion.

O’Shea: In terms of the structure, you and Jones utilize chapters for the story. You rarely see that in graphic novels. What motivated this choice?

Rich: Honestly, it’s just the way I think. Just about everything I’ve done, be it prose or comics, has had chapters, including Love the Way You Love, which had the issues of the series but also chapters in each issue. I just think that using a chapter-based structures causes the authors to think more in terms of units and natural breaks in the story. It also gives the reader a moment to pause and adds impact to a scene. Like when a chapter ends with Mercer being knocked unconscious, it’s much nicer to then have a page of nothing after, and we pick up with him when he returns home, having come out of the blackout. It’s another tool we can use.

O’Shea: What is the advantage of writing a period piece–and on the flip side what are the challenges to writing a story in a different era and making sure you don’t slip in modern day elements by accident?

Rich: I suppose the advantage is you don’t have to worry about being current. You don’t have to fear your story becoming outdated really fast. If you think about movies from the 1980s and 1990s that dealt with emergent computer technology and virtual reality and the like, they look hokey now, we can’t imagine how anyone ever thought that tech would take such turns. Whereas at the time, they may have seemed cutting edge.

When it came to slang and things, I had to keep myself in check, had to consider what the characters were saying. I also had to consider certain social issues, some of which I decided to not get into, like Kane being black. I let that just be an unspoken part of the story, as this wasn’t the right place to examine it without derailing what was happening. Given Mercer’s background, though, as a child of immigrants and new money, I could see it being more important later. But even that we only hint at for Mercer in You Have Killed Me. A writer has to pick his battles and know what suits this outing, maybe let the reader fill in more. In some ways, I like the imposed structure of the time period, it makes me think in ways I might not otherwise, keeps me from falling back on my own tricks. One of the more disappointing scenes in Inglourious Basterds was the big preparation for the climax when Tarantino tosses in a David Bowie song, and it completely destroyed the mood he had otherwise created. He had been doing so well, he had gotten out of his box, and then he climbed right back in. Hell, I remember arguing with Chynna Clugston about her soundtrack choices for Blue Monday. She had a specific time frame in mind for the series, but then she’d toss in a Supergrass song that wasn’t even recorded when she was in high school, and we had a disagreement over whether or not she could do that. Granted, years later in Love the Way You Love I would steal the same idea of a sort of specific timeframe, since the book allegedly happens at the same time as Cut My Hair, and I ended up breaking that in much the same way she did. But we were also both dealing with the immediate past, whereas Basterds and You Have Killed Me were both much further back.

O’Shea: I agree with you regarding Inglorious Basterds, but the moment that first derailed the storytelling for me was the scene introducing Hugo Stiglitz–complete with 1970s logo. Did that scene bother you as well?

Rich: Hugo Stiglitz was another sequence that bugged me. I liked the sequence itself, but yes, the logo and the voiceover were too self-indulgent. Maybe if we had stories about all the other Basterds in a similar vein, then it could have worked, but it was like an idea he brings up and then drops. The second voiceover sequence was bad, as well, particularly since all the info had kind of been explained in the dialogue immediately prior.

O’Shea: Not every book you work on warrants an art exhibit of its own. How pleased were you when the Art Institute of Portland and Meltdown Comics both hosted an “Art of Joelle Jones” exhibit–and how did that come together?

Rich: Leslie Waara at the Art Institute was fan and she actually got in touch with me for it because they had an open show month and thought maybe it would be interesting to bring a different kind of art into the space. It was very flattering and really neat to see comic art showcased in that context. The Meltdown show came out of that. They saw the news about the gallery display and asked if they could get the show when it was done. Given that they are, of course, one of the best-known and respected stores in the country, and that the shop is in a primary market like Los Angeles, we jumped at the chance. I’m still sad that the arrangement time didn’t allow for me to go down there and be there for the opening night, but hopefully we’ll get a chance to visit the store some other time.

O’Shea: Speaking of the art, can you select a favorite page? (For me, it’s the page in chapter 6 when Mercer is looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, as he draws a bath for himself–and his image slowly disappears over three panels, while steam fills the room)

Rich: I like that page. In my head, I originally saw the next page as even better. Mercer wipes away the steam and in the reflection, the bathroom is the one that Julie disappeared from, and not his own. It was all kind of complicated, though, and when Joëlle thumbnailed it, she saw it wasn’t going to work and went for the full-page instead. She was right, it was overly ambitious and cluttered. Comics writers sometimes have to remember that just because they can see something in their head, it doesn’t mean it can be effectively communicated in a drawing.

For me it’s probably page 63, though. That’s the page of original art I kept from the book, it was the turning point page for me in the writing, and Joëlle captured it exactly like I imagined–sometimes what I see in my head can be effectively drawn, and sometimes I can even effectively communicate it. It’s the page where Mercer is looking at the race track and amidst the blur of the horses, he sees the woman he is looking for, the missing girl, only to have his gaze diverted when he hears the scream of someone discovering another dead body. It’s both a great looking page and an example of writer and artist being in sync.

O’Shea: I love the quirky elements you insert in a story-for instance how (and/or why) did you come up with your use of almonds for this story?

Rich: There wasn’t a lot of thought given to that, it shows up in the first couple of pages and is part of a sense memory of the woman that Mercer loved and that he is now being hired to find, though here the sister of that woman is wearing her older sibling’s perfume, which was meat to play with his head. I chose almonds because I both liked the smell and it’s also got deadly connotations, a similar scent being a signifier of cyanide. So, for the readers who pick up on that, it’s meant to make them think of the ex-lover as poison. If it didn’t have that connotation for a reader, that was fine, too. I couldn’t have Mercer make a point out of it, it would have been too obvious and maybe too self-aware for him, as well. I tried to approach the narration where he describes the smell as a stream-of-consciousness narration, just as it appears in the book. It’s like a long monologue, really, and each detail flows into the next and there are themes recalled, clues revisited, a parallel to the mystery itself. I largely thought to do that because it would help me avoid the narrative cliche, and I also thought it was something that you could only do in comics. You can’t write that kind of narration in prose, it would be too disjointed in this kind of story. Turns out you can do it in the movies, though. Matt Damon’s narration in The Informant! is quite similar, even coming around to enter reality when the monologue runs out.

O’Shea: Given our shared appreciation for film, would you say certain movies helped inform (not necessarily influence per se) the tale?

Rich: Most definitely. Again, it’s the nature of genre to look back at the foundation of said genre, to discern the tropes, etc. For me, the movies really influenced the rhythm of the writing as well as the visual thinking. I often suggested the light sources and how we might use shadows based on shot compositions from movies like Laura and Out of the Past and movies by Siodmak and Fritz Lang. At the same time, I thought about crime comics like Sin City and The Spirit and It Rhymes with Lust. I thought about Blacksad and Union Station by Parks and Barreto, The Damned by Bunn and Hurtt and Benkei in New York. Milligan’s Human Target is a favorite, particularly for the main character, and of course Sandman Mystery Theatre.

Joëlle was actually the one more schooled in detective fiction, in the prose side of things, and we talked a lot about the expectations of the style. She had specific things she felt were important, such as Mercer getting clocked all the time. Every other chapter or so, someone has to knock him out. That makes him punching that mouthy cop really cathartic. I love how she drew that. POW!

O’Shea: Any chance Jones and you may do another tale with Mercer?

Rich: We’d like to. It’s a matter of timing. I actually wrote a script in the months You Have Killed Me was being prepped and printed. I’ve been sitting on it, only Joëlle has it. It gets into some of those issues of class and race I mention above, gets into Mercer’s past, and it also establishes who may be the regular cast, including return players. But nothing is set in stone yet. If Joëlle reads it and decides she hates it…well, if we do another book and it’s nothing like what I just said, that’s likely what happened. Ideally, I would like to do a series of Mercer books, four or five, but it’s going to be at least a year before Joëlle even has time to consider it, so we’ll really just have to wait and see.

O’Shea: Is it too early to start teasing folks about your upcoming Oni project, Spell Checkers (which has you working with Jones and Nicolas Hitori de)?

Rich: No, the cat’s pretty much out of the bag on that. In fact, I’m actually writing the second volume of it right now. A good writer is always one step ahead of his artists, so I can’t let Nico finish volume 1 without a script for volume 2 waiting for him. We have mapped out three books with Oni, and the first will come out in April, likely debuting at the time of the Chicago Comic Book and Entertainment Expo, which we all have tentative plans to attend, including Nico flying over from France. We’re all really excited about the book. It’s a rude high school comedy with magic, about three teenage witches who quite literally rule their school. They are mean girls with actual power, even if no one actually knows that they are using magic. Kimmie, Cynthia, and Jesse are wild children with abilities that exceed their learned social behavior, who have been able to do whatever they wanted since elementary school, and so they know how to manipulate the system and have a good time. In the first book, however, someone challenges their rule by spreading dirty graffiti about them, and it may be part of a magical curse.

Joëlle is drawing flashbacks that will give us the back story to these girls, while Nico draws the here and now. He’s really talented, and though Joëlle and I came up with the central characters, he’s really a full partner. We didn’t want to go ahead with the book without her drawing it unless we found just the right person, and he is it.

His coming on board has given Joëlle the space to draw the Dr. Horrible one-shot from Dark Horse and do two issues of Madame Xanadu, which I believe are #19 and #20, January and February, so there will be lots of work from her leading up to Spell Checkers. I’m also in the planning stages with Mike Allred for a Madman special next year, featuring a new story by him and three short stories with talent we’re excited by doing their fresh takes on the character. I have already recruited two awesome people. That should be on its way in the summer or thereabouts.

You Have Killed Me

by Jamie S. Rich, with art by Joëlle Jones

The comic book creative process is a mysterious, fascinating thing to both fans of comics and non-fans alike. People always want to know how a writer/artist team works. What comes first? The images or the words? How much detail does the writer demand in the script? How involved is the artist in plotting?

So, to clear some of this up, I decided to pick a four-page sequence from the middle of You Have Killed Me and show you the script pages side by side with the final art.

When planning a job, there are only a handful of basic steps. We begin with the germ of the idea, which generally gets discussed between Joëlle and I before I move on to Step 2, which is basically laying down notes. I am not a heavy outline guy, nor do I create detailed synopses. Usually I just keep a running computer document full of ideas that I can pull from whenever I need to. That also includes stuff that I might put into my Moleskin and then transfer to the computer. Later notes will usually be put into the script itself, either as a space marker or ahead of the last page I’ve written.

The script is Step 3. I write a pretty detailed page-by-page, working in full script format. With each successive collaboration with Joëlle, my level of description gets less and less exact, and I leave far more open to her. I rarely call out panel size, though I have been known to suggest a layout when I see something clearly. I usually end up thumbnailing 25% of the pages myself, it’s an excellent writing tool if a particular scene is proving troublesome, but I never show those thumbnails to the artist. I prefer to let my partner roam.

If there is a detail that is particularly important, I will emphasize it. I don’t play any cat-and-mouse games in my script. You can’t tell an artist that a shadowy figure is going to attack your private detective and then not tell her the identity of said shadow, because one assumes that this person’s silhouette would be the same shape as they are. Likewise, I have to lay props early, and so as I was writing You Have Killed Me and realized that on page 76 I needed a bottle to konk someone on the head, I double-checked that the first time we saw that room on page 41, the bottle was there, even if the reader isn’t going to notice it. (Hypothetically speaking, of course. Page 76 is actually a flashback.)

These pages from You Have Killed Me, pages 82 through 85, should give a pretty good example for the way, as a writer, I lay the scene, and how as an artist, Joëlle grows the material from there. I give a lot of descriptions of things that we don’t need to see, and stuff that maybe can’t even be drawn. The idea is to create the frame, set the mood, and move the pieces around, but to let Joëlle direct the reader’s eye through a scene as she sees fit. I don’t think I’ve ever made her go back and do something closer to how it was written, even when a change might frustrate me (I don’t even need the fingers on one hand to count those instances, though). I try to forget what was in the manuscript and see her drawings as if it were the first time the story is being told to me. Surprisingly, I’ve never had to rewrite dialogue to fit what she’s done, she never indulges on a flight of fancy that leaves the story behind.

Note when comparing script and finish product that there are moments where Joëlle stays very close to what was written, and moments she goes a different way. The first two pages are pretty close to the original script, though she does edit. Dropping the tray of chips from the third panel of the second page is a good example of deleting an unnecessary detail. Likewise, when she starts to deviate from the script on page 3, she saw correctly how Mercer’s false disguise probably wouldn’t work on the page. Fans of the Howard Hawks’ adaptation of The Big Sleep might see how I am borrowing from the bookstore scenes in that movie, when Bogie puts on glasses and flips the brim on his hat to pose as an effete book collector. The banter between Mercer and the girl is also inspired by that scene, and I would even rip it off again in the very next chapter. When Mercer goes to the hall of records in City Hall, I described the girl working the counter so that she would ultimately look like that lady bookseller. Though I never told Joëlle to reference that, she got it just right.

So, what does Joëlle do to replace Mercer’s hat and collar shenanigans? Makes the scene sexier! You’re not going to hear any complaints from me, that’s for sure.

You Have Killed Me, Page 82

You Have Killed Me, Page 83

You Have Killed Me, Page 84

You Have Killed Me, Page 85

Blacksad

PART I: THE RETURN OF BLACKSAD!

When planning out my week here at Robot 6, I considered writing something about how someone needed to get the rights to Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido’s Blacksad series and not just put the first two volumes back in print so folks could get them at an affordable price, but finally release the third Spanish volume stateside so the fans of the wicked cool crime series could see how it ends at last. Then, lo and behold, Dark Horse Comics announces at Comic Con that they have gotten hold of the series. My prayers were answered! So, instead of writing about my wish for the book, I thought I’d talk to the editor responsible for the new printing, Katie Moody.

JAMIE S. RICH: So, Blacksad had become a bit of a Holy Grail for its fans over the last couple of years. I originally saw the book at Matt Wagner’s house. He had just gotten the sketchbook that had come out from its previous publisher, and it was the first time I had looked at the work closely, I think I had always dismissed it prior. It was then a game of catch-up to actually read it. I eventually tracked down a reasonably priced second volume at a used bookstore, but could only get the first volume from the library–and they had to borrow it from an out-of-town library as the local copy had been stolen. Dark Horse bringing it out is a great boon to comics readers. Can you tell us a little bit about how that came to pass and how you’ll be presenting it?

KATIE MOODY: Blacksad had been on my radar for a few years–I remember seeing the first album’s solicitation in Previews and reading the series after the 2004 Eisner nominations–but I hadn’t been proactive about getting my own copies of the albums. By the time I decided to get it in gear they were already out of print and I was out of luck. (A situation familiar to many by this point.)

Flash forward to last year at the San Diego con, on what has become my annual pilgrimage to Stuart Ng Books’ booth. For those who aren’t familiar, his booth is a veritable Mecca of hard-to-find art books from domestic and foreign markets…the man should be knighted by the comic-art-lovers’ community. So, lo and behold, they had two of the three iBooks albums. I inquired after the third, ended up talking to Mr. Ng himself, and he relayed how the title had been without an English-language publisher since the tragic passing of Byron Preiss, the driving force behind iBooks. After the shock of his death, and iBooks’ subsequent bankruptcy and auction proceedings, the title had been swept along and still remained in limbo. I knew that the work needed to be available in English and that Dark Horse would be a great fit for it, so I immediately asked our man in Licensing to inquire after the title once we returned from the show. But after only a couple days, Juanjo Guarnido independently emailed out of the blue! Stuart Ng had relayed Dark Horse’s interest to him, and–since Juanjo was in a position to sort out English-language deals himself–we were able to start discussions immediately.

The presentation is something that we talked about extensively, and we worked through a number of different format scenarios to see how the numbers would work out. Printing costs are a big obstacle, especially when it comes to oversized full-color books, but it’s a testament to Juanjo’s commitment and passion for the series (to say nothing of his patience!) that we emerged from that months-long process with something that satisfied everyone’s major concerns. It’ll be a hardcover of the same size as the Creepy and Eerie archives, collecting all three European albums published thus far, and with a matte cover finish. This’ll be the first time that the most recent album, Ame Rouge (“Red Soul”), will be available in English.

I’m thrilled. This is a dream project to work on.

Oh, my God. I’m even more excited than ever. That just sounds lovely. Just having read the first two volumes, I can see the character of Blacksad already changing, that the world he lives in is affecting him, and so it will be great to see it as one big book, to follow him from one case to the next and see his development.

Speaking of that, let’s talk some about the appeal of the books. I know it sounds ironic coming from a guy who once edited Usagi Yojimbo, but I actually didn’t pay attention to Blacksad due to the fact that it stars animals. Maybe it’s because I’ve see people do the “adult Disney” thing before, and it’s usually just a gimmick. That’s so not the case here. Like Stan Sakai, or like Art Spiegelman, to name a couple of contemporary “funny animal” cartoonists, Guarnido and writer Juan Diaz Canales use the abstraction for a variety of things. One, it creates a racial and social divide by playing on types but without the baggage of the human analogues, almost allowing the characters in the story to be more human as a result. Two, he also chooses his animals to fit the character. Blacksad is a black cat, so he is predatory, lithe, independent, but also a symbol of bad luck, which is rather funny when you consider private eye tropes.

You are spot on about the freedom to explore social and racial issues they get through this method, and I think that’s one of the (many) reasons why they’ve received such international critical acclaim with Blacksad. Not only is the reader removed from their own personal perspective through the use of animals–whereby racial differences read more metaphorically–but the realism with how the characters relate to one another can then show the absurdity of those prejudices.

So, Blacksad operates on a variety of different levels, since it’s a loving send-up of the noir tradition even while it’s making some social commentary. (It’s amazing how relevant 1950s America becomes in the hands of these two Spanish creators.) It satisfies readers after an enjoyable yarn, those who need more theme or metaphor to sink their teeth into, and aesthetes who just want to pore over Guarnido’s jaw-dropping paintings.

And as you also point out, it has a different flavor than the usual “funny animal” titles. I devoured the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics while growing up, am an ardent fan of Usagi Yojimbo [fist-bump of UY solidarity], and look forward to digging into Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge at some point, which is widely recognized as genius work. So in no way do I think that the visual trope is without fundamental merit. But each of these prominent books follows more of a cartooning tradition, and Guarnido’s realism is ultimately rooted in caricature. What he does in Blacksad transcends anthropomorphism–a boxer is literally a gorilla, a cold-hearted villain is an actual reptile–to the extent that the term “anthropomorphism” itself feels backwards; he’s not giving animals human-like qualities so much as he’s giving his human cast animal-like qualities. (Which would be what, bestepomorphism?) However you want to describe it, the result is creative alchemy, as the title’s “holy grail” popularity can attest.

So, are you a fan of the crime genre? In comics or otherwise?

It’s funny; for as much heartfelt enthusiasm as I have for this title, TV procedurals like Homicide: Life on the Streets, Ed Brubaker’s writing, and the early crime stuff from Bendis, I feel that my general appreciation for the hardboiled genre suffers from poor imitation. So many modern noir send-ups emphasize the macho nature of a male protagonist–an independent loner who is (more often than not) plagued by the presence of an extremely desirable femme fatale. That’s a setup that can work marvelously in talented hands, wherein the characters are fleshed-out and nuanced and their relationships are compelling. Unfortunately, in my experience the stylish scenario often leads to thin stories about a Manly Man who drinks alone a lot while the female characters have little going on besides sex appeal. That’s just not the kind of fiction I’m inclined to seek out.

I clearly need to go back to the source and read some old-school, 1930s Raymond Chandler.

Or read You Have Killed Me. I hear it’s pretty good, and despite at least one blogger’s opinion, I am actually a sissy. Har!

That said, I’m going to ask you a question people keep asking me about Mercer in You Have Killed Me and the role of the P.I. in modern society. Though Blacksad is set in the past, why is he a hero relevant to today?

Gosh, for the same reason that Batman has remained relevant after seventy years: John Blacksad is, above all, acting in the interest of justice. It’s a deeply satisfying pursuit to read about, since we’re in a world where horrible things can happen to decent people and criminals aren’t always caught, much less prosecuted to the full extent of the law. (And sometimes they’re given performance bonuses.) So the notion that the scum of the earth will someday get what’s coming to them is a gratifying one, and Blacksad has more flexibility as a P.I. than a cop would with regard to the law and vigilantism. As an added bonus, that puts him at odds with police, since his extralegal actions always risk arrest.

And yeah, most of my all-time favorite comics defy easy genre categories. Transmetropolitan is technically science-fiction, but it follows a journalist in a busy, near-future, media-saturated city that readers will find familiar. Usagi is primarily adventure, but it’s steeped in history and there’s plenty of drama and humor. Love and Rockets has elements of science-fiction and superheroes woven into the day-to-day lives of its pantheon of characters. It makes sense that Blacksad fits this bill, since any truly complex work is going to defy pigeonholes. I’ve got to say, the enthusiastic fan response to the San Diego Blacksad announcement has been very rewarding.

So, when is this out? Will it have the sketchbook, as well? Anything new?

It’ll hit bookstores in April 2010, or thereabouts. No sketchbook materials in this collection, but hopefully we’ll be able to do something with Juanjo’s amazing behind-the-scenes legwork in a separate collection at some point.

And what, is an entire album not enough “new” for you?

No, I am very demanding. To wrap this up, are there any other books you’re editing similar to Blacksad or that might appeal to the same readership that you want to make mention of?

Similar? Not personally, but Diana Schutz is putting together another of her acclaimed black-and-white anthologies of high-profile creators, and this one’s titled Noir. It’s been in the works for years, so it’s an easy bet that it’ll be well worth checking out.

And speaking of genre-defying comics, that’s the spirit behind a new imprint I’ve been shepherding for Editorial lately: Dark Horse Originals. You’ll be hearing a lot more about it later this year, now that we’ve accrued enough works for critical mass, but it’s an umbrella under which new, hard-to-categorize, stand-alone works will now be found at Dark Horse. The first was a hardcover collection of the acclaimed graphic novel Fluffy, the most recent was the character-driven Pixu, and works by Rick Geary, Larry Marder, Matt Kindt, and Jesse Reklaw, among others, have been in between, with many more to come. There tend to be only a handful of projects like these that we publish in a year and they’re all edited by different people, so it’s been marvelous to finally have a way to refer to them in toto–and in a way that won’t make our Marketing staff throw up their hands in despair.

You know, every time you see a penny in the street, it’s really a marketing man’s tears.

PART II: JANET EVANOVICH, RAFAEL GRAMPÁ, DR. HORRIBLE — SIERRA HAHN KNOWS WHERE THE BODIES ARE

I’ve known Sierra Hahn for a little while now. Most readers will recognize her name as one of the driving editorial forces behind some of Dark Horse’s top comics, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Umbrella Academy, the aforementioned Pixu, and, of course, My Space Dark Horse Presents, the digital age remodeling of the flagship series I had edited for a short while when I was at the Horse. Like Katie, Sierra had several crime-related comics announced at San Diego, and so I took some time to catch up with her regarding those.

JAMIE S. RICH: It was announced just prior to Comic Con that Dark Horse is going to be teaming up with Janet Evanovich. This should be a fairly high profile project, as Janet is a best-selling author whose thrillers are very popular and attract a devoted following. What’s the premise, and what brings her to comics?

SIERRA HAHN: Janet Evanovich grew up reading comics like Little Lulu, and today, as a long time fan of Joss Whedon’s various projects, keeps up on Buffy Season Eight. Her obviously superb reading tastes made it inevitable that Dark Horse would want to work with her should she ever consider a career in comics. Fortunately, she was totally into the idea of working with us, and furthermore, wanted to bring some of her pre-existing characters in the comics world. Next year we’ll be publishing the third book in a series of pre-existing novels based on the misadventures of NASCAR mechanic Alexandra Barnaby, her on-again, off-again love interest, the smashing NASCAR driver, Hooker, and his ginormous St. Bernard, Beans.

That sounds cool, and a totally unique setting for a comic book. I like the idea that a novelist is continuing a successful franchise in comics, much like how Buffy Season Eight is keeping the Whedonverse going. Comics as a natural extension to the existing material, rather than just a place to dump stuff no one else wants. Coincidentally, too, you’re starting to corner the market on crime-tinged comics with motor vehicles. You are helming the reprint of Rafael Grampá‘s Mesmo Delivery, which I read in its self-published form. High-speed truckers and the dangerous stuff they encounter on the road.

Can you tell us a little bit about how that came about, and what his new series Furry Water entails?

One day I’m sittin’ at my desk and John Arcudi calls me and asks if I’ll buy him a copy of this book Mesmo Delivery by this crazy awesome artist that he’s totally stoked on. This was just prior to San Diego Comic Con in 2008. I checked out Rafael Grampá’s blog and was enthralled by his work. It was exciting and full of energy, and I couldn’t wait to meet the guy. I asked Gabriel Bá to introduce me to his artist friend. We met. I kept my cool, and after a few days I asked him to keep in touch and pitch me a series when he was ready. Grampá and I kept in touch for several months, and then finally…he pitched Furry Water, a series that he’s co-writing with Daniel Pellizzari.

Furry Water is a six-issue miniseries that follows the Nobunagas–five outlaw siblings on a mission to fulfill their mother’s dying wish to find their missing brother. The story takes place in a world devastated by a toxic rainfall that kills anything it touches, annihilating most of civilization. Cities are run by a strict military regime set on destroying the rebellious Nobunaga siblings, who are known for their dedication to a strict honor code–the Dalacarpa–and their revolutionary leanings. Furry Water is going to be a massive, powerful, heartbreaking, action-packed adventure. I’m so freakin’ excited!!!

But to backtrack a bit–I really lucked out when I was told that Mesmo Delivery was out of print. I mean, it sucks that it’s out of print, but had I not heard that piece of news (thanks, Mike Allred) I wouldn’t have pestered Grampá about the severe shortage of copies of his book. Turns out he’d only printed a limited number and that Mesmo needed a loving home if it was going to be seen on shelves again. So yeah, that was a no-brainer for me, and Dark Horse will re-publish Mesmo in February.

Mike Allred doesn’t know much, but when he knows something, it’s usually pretty good. Speaking of, crime is all about who you know, who is in your crew, and so are comics, and I remember sitting around at lunch with you and the Allreds and planning future hits on the sequential public at larger, and that was when you set us up with the killer Grampá pin-up we’re running in Madman Atomic Comics #17. You’re also working with Joëlle Jones, who is a crazy good artist and my own Bonnie Parker on You Have Killed Me. The Dr. Horrible one-shot is set for November, yes?

The Dr. Horrible one-shot goes on sale November 18th.

The whole Dr. Horrible writing crew are really psyched to have their very own single-issue comic that gives fans a peek into the life and times of a young Dr. Horrible. I’m a huge fan of Joëlle’s art, and when I recommended her for the project, the writer of the comic, Zack Whedon, was totally wowed and moved by her work. When everyone saw her character designs we all kinda went gaga for Joëlle. She nailed every character brilliantly–their personalities and likenesses. So good.

Now you know what it’s like to be me. Such a rare honor. She knocks my socks off every time. (Much to her chagrin. My feet aren’t pretty.)

What else should folks expect from your editorial docket that might pull a heist on our wallets in the coming months?

In September everyone should start picking up Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson. Seriously. EVERYONE. I could get really preachy about this series (I’ll try to contain myself) but I’m just that passionate about the work they’ve done and the world they’ve created. The stories follow this incredible cast of characters that are, yeah, dogs and cats. They form this unit and find themselves involved with all sorts of paranormal mischief. It’s not for the faint of heart, to be honest. Some seriously creepy stuff happens, and some seriously funny stuff happens, too. Each issue feels self-contained, but all four issues create this big, fun world that these amazing little animals get to play around in. Jill Thompson–she’s a phenomenally talented artist. She just won another Eisner for her phenomenal work. Everyone has to read this series. It’s going to blow minds! (I got really preachy, didn’t I?)

Yeah, but I’m used to you trying to tell me what to do. And based on the stories Jill and Evan did in those Dark Horse Book of… horror anthologies, I’m a soft sell on this one. Maybe we can really milk things and have the Beasts meet Blacksad. One of the dogs gets lost, Blacksad has to go look for him…

I’ll have a pitch on your desk by morning!

Special thanks to both Katie and Sierra for taking the time to discuss their editorial docket with me. Tell your local retailer that you want these comics now. Maybe do it when you’re buying You Have Killed Me. Maximize your trip!

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.

Fast-forward to spring 2008: I read in The Oregonian that Akashic was seeking submissions for the Portland anthology. And it was being edited by my co-worker, Kevin Sampsell, whom I knew mainly through email exchanges.

And what led to your specific story, “The Red Room”? You get to use a setting that is pretty unique: your workplace, Powell’s City of Books. For folks who aren’t from Portland, that’s one of the largest and most revered bookstores in the U.S. It’s just huge, and it has both new and used books. The graphic novel sections would blow most comics fans’ minds.

I’d like to say it came to me instantly, but that would be lying. Each story in the Akashic Noir books is set in a different part of town, to give a feel for the overall city. My initial thought was to write about the Sunnyside area, since I’ve bounced around there for most of my ten years here, but that failed to generate much in the way of story ideas.

I can’t recall precisely when Powell’s jumped into my head, or why.

(Random aside: I need to start jotting down the genesis of ideas, because for some reason the lightning bolt is the first thing to eject from my memory. I’ve done a few interviews for Smash, and the first question is almost invariably, “What was your inspiration for the character?” I have a vague recollection–enough to provide a semi-coherent answer–but I cannot for the life of me recall my Dr. Frankenstein moment when I threw my head back and hollered to the stormy heavens, “Eureka! SMASH IS ALIVE!!!“)

Anyway, as soon as I thought of Powell’s, the years of colorful stories I’d heard from co-workers came flying at me, and I knew I had something. After all, it’s a bookstore that encompasses an entire city block and is four stories tall! A lot of devious things can happen in that much space, and a great many honorable intentions can go horribly, utterly awry. I emailed Kevin with the idea and he was intrigued.

What about you? Did you come up with “Gone Doggy Gone” on your own impetus, or was it conceived specifically for the anthology? And did Kevin approach you, or did you come to him?

Kevin came to me. He knew that there was such a vibrant comics scene in Portland that it had to be represented somehow, and so he started to feel around for someone who might be willing to do it. I knew him from the late ’90s or thereabouts, when we were both writing reviews for some of the Portland arts papers. He actually set me up with a reading at Powell’s in 2000 when my first novel, Cut My Hair, was coming out. It was only after that I found out what a big deal that was, you just don’t walk into Powell’s and get a reading.

It was the perfect book at the right time for Joëlle and I. We were already working on our own crime-related stuff and were maybe about halfway through You Have Killed Me and Oni Press was on board for publishing it. I had also written, and I think she already drew, “The Jailhouse Swing” for the third Popgun, which was our boxing story. We both like stories where boxers are used as the heavies.

Anyway, I doubt Kevin knew that, but I had heard of the Akashic Noir series and jumped at it. I almost immediately had the idea that I wanted to work in my neighborhood, the upper Northwest, and I wanted to do something about a lost dog. It’s loosely based on a sort of true, sort of urban legend from the neighborhood. A dog had gotten stolen, and there were these posters everywhere, it was on MySpace, the award kept getting bigger. I took that idea and thought, okay, where can that dog be and who should find him. I tied it back into the notion of Portland being a comics town by making our main character an indie cartoonist. It all kind of fit.

I remember asking you why you hadn’t done a comic when we ran into each other, actually.

Honestly, it never occurred to me to submit a comic–but after I heard what you and Joëlle were doing, I was instantly envious! Kyle and I have talked about doing a noir comic based on Prohibition Rose, Portland’s legendary bootlegger (who was, to my knowledge, the only woman bootlegger in the country), and I realized too late how perfect that would have been for this book. But you never know, maybe there will be a Portland Noir II…

There may have been one other city that had a comic story in the book, I am not sure. They kept calling it a “graphic story,” and I was like, “No! That makes it sound like it’s full of sex and violence!”

I’ve heard it was Wall Street Noir. Which… I mean, really? Does Wall Street scream “comics” to you? Makes me curious to check it out.

I guess we’ll never really come to terms with the whole graphic novel/comic book labeling issue. At least manga has a name everyone can agree on!

So, have you participated in any of the readings yet? (And how would that go, exactly? Would you describe the panel to the audience or use an overhead projector?) Kevin does a great job hosting the events, coming up with a noirish intro for each writer. In mine he mentions my “suspicious” middle initial, wondering what it could stand for: “Adolf, Anarchy, Abraham? The mind races with possibilities.”

For the record, it’s “Addison.” (Not nearly as cool as the suspicious versions.) I added it mainly because there are a great many Chris Boltons in this world. There was even another Chris Bolton working at Powell’s a few years back, which caused much confusion.

As a fellow middle-initialer, I wonder how you feel about this. Did you add the “S.” to be mysterious, or controversial…or because you run into a Jamie Rich everywhere you go?

I get asked about it all the time, and I haven’t told anyone what it is in years. I never go on the record, and it became a gag with some local baristas at a coffee shop where I used to go and write, they’d write different guesses on my coffee cup. For me, I don’t think I’ve ever run into another Jamie Rich, though I get Google Alerts for a guy who runs the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Kansas City. I added the middle initial when I was 10 or 11 because I was tired of being told I had a “girl’s name” and decided to spruce it up. It just kind of stuck. It’s funny, because I get annoyed when people refer to me verbally as Jamie S. Rich like it’s some ostentatious thing, and I get annoyed when they drop it from something in print. You can’t win with me.

I haven’t done any readings for this story, but I did a performance of “The Jailhouse Swing” once. I broke it down by panels and did a power point. I also once did a reading from 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, my first book with Joëlle, where I took a few pages of script and pared it down to the essential narration and read it as a dialogue between the two characters. It worked pretty well.

Now, people are always curious when they talk to me about the difference between writing comics and prose. It seems to boggle the mind that one might do both. Personally, I have no problem going from one to the other, they serve different functions for me. What draws you to do something in prose vs. doing it as a comic story?

The biggest factors in choosing my medium are probably difficulty and available resources. In July I premiered a web-series called “Wage Slaves” (www.WageSlaveSeries.com) that I shot last summer, and spent most of the past year doing postproduction. Shooting a film or web-series is a huge undertaking, even with a minimal budget, so I have to really love a project to endure all of that. [IMG: cast.jpg]

By comparison, sitting down by yourself and creating all of the characters, settings, and dialogue on a piece of paper feels like a vacation. When it comes to prose, the strongest advantage for me is Voice. You can work that into film and comics, of course, but prose is where the author’s voice is strongest because it’s pervasive; if all you have is the author’s words, then you’re completely at the mercy of her Voice.

The only comic artist I’m involved with creatively (or even personally know) is my brother Kyle, who’s too busy with the artwork for Smash to work on anything else, so that presently limits my options with comics. I hope that will change once we start hitting the convention circuit this year and I get to meet more artists.

I imagine you have a handy list of artists you can call up besides Joëlle when you have a comic idea. Does the nature of the project determine who you want to draw it, or is it more a matter of who’s available and/or interested?

These days, I tend to write for the artist, I don’t sit there and dream up a story and then wonder who might come with me on the expedition. In finding both Joëlle for 12 Reasons and Marc Ellerby for Love the Way You Love, it seemed like an endless trek to cast the right artist. It wasn’t much fun, and I think part of that was trying to match something in my head, whatever vague image of what the book was supposed to look like. The flipside is now I have scripts, particularly for Joëlle, where I feel like I’d rather they not get done if she can’t draw them. I don’t want to readjust my thinking. I guess I’m an all or nothing kind of guy. Like, I would never want to work with anyone else on any follow-ups to You Have Killed Me. It just wouldn’t be right.

You Have Killed Me

I think, especially in that case, the reader would also feel it wasn’t right. More and more I find myself envying the writer/artist “two-fers,” creators like Jeff Smith, Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, and Craig Thompson, who don’t have to rely on a creative partner to tell their stories in comic form.

On a related note, I love the portrait of the Portland comics scene in “Gone Doggy Gone,” with the split between mainstream and indie creators. How close-knit is the Portland comics scene? I’m still a stranger to the community, but I hope to get a little closer after next year’s Stumptown Fest. The fest has filled up before the application deadline two years in a row; next year we’re submitting our application two seconds after they open!

A couple of years ago, Scott McCloud gave a presentation at the main branch of the Portland library where he noted that comics tend to be tribal, and that Portland is full of many tribes. (Though, now that I say this, I am starting to wonder if it was Scott or Douglas Wolk who made that point…) I elbowed Joëlle and said we must be our own tribe, since we tend to mostly hang out with ourselves. It’s a little high school. The cliques all get along, but we still have cliques. That’s also just geography, we are scattered. When we do come together, though, it can be fun. The Top Shelf guys hang out with the Oni guys, the different comic book store owners go to each other’s events. I guess things have changed a little, too, since I’ve joined a book club that is all comic book professionals. It’s really fun, though sometimes our literature discussions get derailed by industry gossip.

I like the notion of comic tribes roaming this city. Right now I’m something of a ronin, but I’m always looking for a group to join forces with. Maybe that should be a Craigslist ad: “Comic-writing ronin seeks like-minded samurai for Southeast Portland-based tribe.”

Of course, in addition to your comics, you’ve written several novels yourself (including Cut My Hair, which I read in 2001 and completely related to). What makes you decide which form to use for which idea? What are the different functions that you mentioned?

Honestly, it’s never a question for me what form an idea will take. I either have a comic book idea or I have a prose idea. I just know when it hits me. It’s weird, I have a hard time getting some people to understand that, and I’ve been pretty adamant against switching gears midway. I have a script called This World and Body that was once suggested to me would be an easier “sell” as prose, and it made me have very violent thoughts against the person suggesting it. It’s a script that is so fundamentally visual, to turn it into prose would be to suck the specialness right out. Like plucking the feathers off a chicken and sending it on its way. People are just going to wonder what happened to that chicken.

I love that analogy! It’s just a shame Hollywood so often ignores the chicken and lunges for the handful of feathers. I wrote a screenplay for an animated film about lemmings that got some nibbles, but was ultimately deemed “too dark” for kids. Apparently, even the notion of mass suicide is a turn-off. But if you asked any child what a lemming is, they’d tell you (erroneously) it’s a little rodent that stampedes to its death in the ocean. So, what’s the problem here?

I’ve often considered trying to adapt it into a children’s book or a comic series in the Asterix vein, but each time I try…well, your chicken analogy never occurred to me before, but it certainly will from now on.

Recently, I wrote a prose sequel to Love the Way You Love, and it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done, just changing how I viewed the characters, getting a prose groove going. Even though it was successful, the difficulty of it…well, I think it proved my point. “Don’t do that again!” For me, comics provide something a little looser, a little more free, while also more tightly structured–you must work within pages and panels, it must be a certain length. It’s where I can collaborate, where I can start the process and let someone else finish it and share ideas. Prose is more private, it’s all me. There’s a split that fits my Gemini personality. Again, it keeps being all or nothing with me.

In your “Red Room” story, there is a feeling that some of the participants in the crime aren’t really criminals. They are playing “dress-up,” as it were, they are taking on the role and almost living out a fantasy. Is this something you thought about? Is it maybe a theme of yours? I ask because I don’t think your Smash character is that different in that sense: it’s a little kid putting on a costume and being his favorite hero. It’s like Calvin actually getting powers in Calvin & Hobbes–which I guess would make him Captain Marvel, talking tiger and all, wouldn’t it?

I hadn’t really thought about that, but it makes a lot of sense. I try to avoid easy labels and flip expectations whenever possible, and I’m also enormously fascinated by the various roles people play in their own lives. Perhaps it comes from spending so much time in a day job and having to clarify to people that I’m really a writer/filmmaker/ballerina/what-have-you.

In the case of “The Red Room,” I didn’t want any of the characters to be what they seemed–the client wasn’t really an anarchist punk, the crooks are actually cops, and the main character is definitely not a detective or an action hero. In fact, strangely enough, I envisioned him very similarly to the way Joëlle draws Craig in “Gone Doggy Gone.”

Wow–I guess you’re right about Calvin turning into Captain Marvel. Although, I think Stupendous Man would have wreaked a lot more havoc…and I can’t imagine Calvin with actual powers staying on the side of good.

Incidentally, I like Captain Marvel (well, I liked Jeff Smith’s version of him), but I think the major flaw in that character is he becomes an ADULT superhero. When I was a kid, I didn’t want to be an adult–I didn’t really like or understand adults. I wanted to stay a KID, but have the freedom to do what I want–and super-powers, of course. Rather than the kid being the hero of the story, with Captain Marvel it’s like they just rolled the hero and the sidekick into one body.

Yeah, I wanted to be a kid that had extraordinary abilities and could whoop an adult’s butt. That’s the sweeter revenge. “You think I’m a weak kid? I’ll show you!”

I just took a Facebook quiz the other day, the one where it tells you which Calvin alter-ego you are, and funnily enough, I got his private detective persona, Tracer Bullet. I didn’t cheat or anything. And that oh-so-insightful quiz leads me to why I asked the question, that there is something inherent in what we do, regardless of genre, that is fundamentally us whether we know it or not. One of the common reactions to You Have Killed Me is surprise at how well I have transitioned from relationship literature to a pretty straightforward genre piece, and in answering that, I realized–and so did some of the askers–that my previous characters aren’t all that different. I write about people searching for something, looking for answers to big questions, and a dead body can just be a stand-in for a personal foible.

And maybe now people will stop wondering, “Did this really happen to you?” Or I can pull my gat out of my trenchcoat and say, “Yes, yes, it did.”

I took that same quiz and my result was “Safari Al,” a character so obscure that, despite re-reading every Calvin & Hobbes book each year for the past 20 years, I didn’t recognize him. (He was in one strip, which I remembered once I found it, but the mention of his name is so brief and insignificant that it sailed right past me.) I don’t know what to make of the implications of that, so I’m trying not to read too deeply into it. At least he carries a machete.

As for your “transition,” I’m not at all surprised by it. I felt that 12 Reasons Why I Love Her had a genuine noir edge: the search through the past for answers to something inherently unknowable, Joëlle’s use of chiaroscuro lighting (I recall at one point there’s even the noir staple of light slatted through blinds), and the nonlinear storytelling, which used to be almost exclusively confined to the crime genre (you had to go backwards and forwards to figure out how and why the crime happened) but has recently become more accepted into “mainstream” storytelling. It was noir looking for a crime, and I can’t wait to see what happens with You Have Killed Me.

12 Reasons is one of those books that jumped off the shelves at me, and every single page was impressive. I must confess, I did slip into the trap of wondering, “Is this based on the writer’s experience?” I think it’s nearly impossible to avoid that when it feels like a very personal and intimate story. That seems like it should be a compliment to the writer, but I think it’s more of a frustrating no-win situation. If you took it from your own life, there’s an implication that you didn’t actually have to write (as in, create) anything (WRONG). Whereas, if it is fiction, it’s great that you “fooled” the reader, but they’re probably going to think you just took it from your own life anyway.

Yeah, you have to be kind of polite and nod when people say that, and tell them no, it isn’t me, that didn’t happen, etc. Naturally, some of it did, some germ of reality makes it through, but I’m usually quite honest and say that the things that did happen would surprise them in how obscure and insignifcant they are. Though, none of You Have Killed Me is based on real life at all. Except me and Mercer both like having conversations with cats.

It’s funny, I have a hard enough time getting words on paper the way they first arrange themselves in my head, I can’t imagine trying to be true to an actual event. It always changes. It’s like when people look at a performance by someone in a movie and say, “He is just playing himself,” like that’s nothing. I always say, “Can I put a camera on you, then, and have you recite lines I wrote for you?” They’d find it’s not so easy.

You and Joëlle seem like a perfect creative match. Is the collaboration as smooth as it appears, or are there ever disagreements and friction?

Nothing too dramatic. We’ve had points where we haven’t fully agreed on a decision, but we always talk it out. It’s never turned into a big deal. It’s usually just moving stuff around, maybe changing how we approach something. I’ve never changed a word of dialogue, though, I don’t think, and I’ve never made her redraw a panel to match my own vision. We both are pretty respectful of the other’s instincts, and once we hear the case for why something is the way it is, we trust the other person. With You Have Killed Me, we talked about the story as I wrote it, so any major objections on her part could be sorted out sooner rather than later. Stuff like layouts or small, inconsequential details that don’t play well on the page, that’s her prerogative to edit out.

What about you? You’re working with your brother, so is there sibling rivalry or old childhood resentments that ever come out? Did you guys create Smash together?

Most of our friction comes from the involuntary muscle spasm siblings develop when they have to share a bedroom for the first ten years of their lives. Luckily, we’ve managed to overcome that “You aren’t the boss of me!” pettiness. I almost never give Kyle notes on his art anymore–I agree with your notion that it’s the artist’s prerogative. However, I sometimes have to remind him that I need to include a large chunk of exposition in a given panel, and if he doesn’t leave me room at the top, someone is going to get his head chopped off by a razor-sharp plot point.

The only real difficulty I have anymore is having to defend small details that are present for the sake of the narrative. I like to toss out a lot of plot/character seeds that can sprout later, or just lie there unnoticed if I decide not to use them. But if Kyle doesn’t understand why something’s there, he’ll challenge me on it–which is good, because then I have to explain my thought process: “This is because, in episode three of Season 2, the Magus is going to buy a Cold Stone franchise, so I’m setting up his childhood love of ice cream that the reader didn’t realize at the time would be a major plot development…” In doing so, I sometimes realize what a lame idea it is (the Magus is not buying a Cold Stone franchise). Other times, Kyle confirms that it’s a good idea, and even seems impressed that his older brother is capable of plotting that far ahead.

We didn’t actually create Smash together: I came up with the initial concept, he designed the character, and it evolved from there. Since then, I would say it’s been a very mutual collaboration–there’s no element of the series, from the characters and their backstories to their costumes and powers, that we don’t contribute to equally. And sometimes, fight about passionately…but always for the good of the comic!

In writing crime, I find it’s far more exacting than the relationship stuff. I had to go back a lot and lay down things I didn’t now I needed. Like, “Stick a razor in his desk drawer on this page so people won’t be confused when he shaves on this next page.” I was done with You Have Killed Me before Joëlle even started, so it was pretty easy to make sure she knew what was important and what may just be my fanciful thinking.

What’s next for you, Jamie? Do you have any plans to revisit Craig from “Gone Doggy Gone”? Could there be a noir series about a down-on-his-luck indie comic creator who keeps stumbling into the criminal underbelly of Northwest Portland?

Nah, Craig is dead and buried in my mind. I had such a hard time writing that story, he’s not really my favorite boyfriend right now, anyway. It’s funny, it was one of the more difficult things I’ve ever worked on. There is an unfinished earlier draft, and a whole other separate script called “You Cross My Path” that has nothing to do with a dog or cartoonists or anything that we decided not to do in favor of “Doggy.” It’s way, way darker, plays up the anti-California xenophobia you find in Portland, as well as an old school punk vs. young hip-hop white suburbanites. And indie rockers. And drug-dealing cabbies.

My immediate future is another left turn, a high-school comedy about witches called Spell Checkers that Joëlle and I co-created, and we’re working with an artist from France named Nicolas Hitori de. That’s the one thing that’s in production. I have some prose that I am currently shopping around, some stuff with Joëlle we hope to get to one day–she’s a busy girl. She’s doing Dr. Horrible comics for Dark Horse, and some issues of Madame Xanadu for Vertigo, and she’s got lots of offers besides.

What about you? To wrap this up, what’s the plan for Smash? You have “Season One” just about finished, correct? What is next for the little guy, and are there non-Smash comics in your future?

I’ve caught an online preview of Spell Checkers and I’m really looking forward to it. However, I’m dismayed to discover I haven’t pointed something out yet, so let me say for the record: Joëlle’s art is fantastic! The idea of her illustrating a Dr. Horrible comic fills me with enough glee to break into song. (Almost.)

Right now I’m busy planning and writing the next seasons of Smash and “Wage Slaves.” This summer, Kyle and I had planned to work on a pitch for a new comic series, a supernatural comedy-thriller, during our (brief) hiatus from Smash. But we’re also seeking a publisher to put out a Season One collection, so we’re finding our hands a little fuller than we’d anticipated. Still, it’s hard to complain about that.

Every now and again, I find myself pulling out the ol’ Moleskin notebook and scribbling another chapter of a novel with my protagonist from the Portland Noir story. Except I’m going to have to change his name. He was dubbed “Jacob Black” a long time before a young adult romance novel about vampires became a huge success and the former Cedric Diggory forever claimed that title for himself.

And on that note…thanks again, Jamie, it’s been fun! Anytime you want to continue this chat over beers, just drop me a line.

Sure. But if we’re going to sit around and talk about more crime, make it something stiffer. We’re writers, we’ve got a reputation to uphold! [insert laughter here]

Francesca Ghermandi is one of the people whose packages I cherished when they used to come to me. I think she wrote me twice, and as a result, I have copies of Helter Skelter and Hiawata Pete, both in Italian, both absolutely brimming with amazing cartooning. These would be great candidates for that Robot 6 column where they demand books get translated, and boy, I’d sure love to read them someday. For now, I just look at the pictures.

In with these is a plastic comb notebook with a clear cover and photocopied pages of the first several chapters of Pop. 666, then called Suburbia. It only had one chapter in English, the one published by David Mazzuchelli in Rubber Blanket, the rest was not translated. Like the hardbound cartoon books Francesca had sent me, however, the strange and grotesquely beautiful world she drew sucked me in. I really wanted to publish this stuff in Dark Horse Presents. I don’t know why it didn’t come to pass, maybe I couldn’t get anyone else to see what I saw. There is no date on the letter, Francesca could have sent the same packet to Fantagraphics right about then. The timing makes sense. They started serializing the story off and on in their anthology Zero Zero beginning with the 19th issue in the summer of 1997. They eventually printed all 90 pages, but unlike some of the other strips from the magazine, Pop. 666 has never gotten its own collected edition.

I’m not sure who came up with the title Pop. 666, but it calls to mind the title of Jim Thompson’s western novel Pop. 1280. Thompson is one of the best of the hardboiled school, having written classic genre pieces like After Dark, My Sweet and The Grifters, inspiring many a modern crime writer and filmmaker. Thompson’s book is about a sheriff at odds with his town, the kind of squalid community where all life is a give-and-take proposition. These people are damned by their own evil deeds, they are the future populace of hell. Pop. 666.

Ghermandi and Semerano’s story is set in an unspecified slum village out in the middle of nowhere. As the tragically lost and soon-to-be-dead married couple who accidentally arrive there in the first chapter let us know, you’ve got to be plenty off the beaten path to land down in this sub-Dante inferno. Despite this being a junkyard society for the homeless, the folks in the area are muscled by a fat, one-eyed lout named Rocco. There may be no landlord, no deeds of ownership, but Rocco collects taxes all the same. He would rule the area completely if not for two things: the sinister Snake Eyes who refuses to pay this sweaty hood tribute and the fading movie star Hilde Historietta. Fear and love, many a villain and many a hero have fallen into the fire because of those two emotions.

All of this is pretty much set up in the first two chapters, and the storytellers take us through a labyrinth of weird twists and creepy scenarios from there. Social workers with a mean streak, mad scientist labs, vain television hosts–all of these get sucked into the overall plot. When life is on the skids, there are those who just lean into it and those who try to drive their way out. Some get run over, some step on the gas. In Pop. 666, fortunes change at moment’s notice, and events are never anything short of bizarre.

If Pop. 666 were a movie, it might actually be too bizarre for its own good. No matter how wicked the special effects, the filmmakers would run the risk of making it seem like it’s weird for no reason. They’d end up with something like Dan Ackroyd’s Nothing but Trouble rather than Jeunet’s City of Lost Children or von Trier’s The Element of Crime. Comics have always had the benefit of being their own self-contained worlds without having to rely on any fleshy things or real world stumbling blocks to build on. It’s all paper and pen, and with a clear vision like Francesca Ghermandi’s, the world is complete and need no justification to seem believable. In his profile of the cartoonist, Paul Gravett mentions both Tex Avery and Chester Gould, both of whom provide pointers to Ghermandi’s sense of slapstick and monstrous mugs. Her flare for tarnished glitz also reminds me of her fellow Italian, Federico Fellini, whose later cinematic portrayals of the dimming glamour of the performing life may have influenced Hilde Historietta. Maybe some David Lynch, as well? The 1950s monster movie tropes and the strange snouts Ghermandi gives a lot of her characters also recall the skewed work of Charles Burns. Her ink lines are as fluid as Burns’, flowing naturally into rounder shapes, avoiding harsh angles. (No surprise, then, that she would invent Pastil, the girl with the aspirin tablet for a head.)

Fantagraphics has been promising Ghermandi’s latest book, Grenuord, for a while now. Last explanation I read was that it was taking Kim Thompson longer than expected to translate, and since the third issue was published in 2006, we’ve been patiently waiting for the rest to be translated and one big book to be released. While this production continues, might I suggest a repackaging of Pop. 666 in the meantime? This weird and creepy sci-fi horror crime comic is a loopy piece of work, and it deserves to be experienced by more readers and might even lead the way to reminding some about Ghermandi in anticipation of Grenuord.

I mean, stranger things have happened. And if they did, it was probably in a Francesca Ghermandi comic.

When it came down to writing You Have Killed Me, style came before plot. Joëlle Jones and I knew we wanted to do a comic book that paid tribute to the private detective lore that we loved, but we had to decide how. No irony, no modern context, no gimmicks–we wanted to do it straight. But how straight was too straight? Where does homage become rip-off?

You Have Killed Me p. 83

Before I sat down to type a word, I had what could be called “the Hollywood pitch.” It’s that thing they do in the picture business, where everything is broken down into two comparable things and, by their combination, we can believe the new thing will be twice as successful as the old. I want to make Movie C, and it’s Movie A meets Movie B.

You Have Killed Me is Michelangelo Antonioni directing The Big Sleep.

That’s how the pitch began, and it’s the descriptive that has stuck with the book since. I’ve said it often, and it still holds true.

If The Big Sleep isn’t the quintessential private detective movie, it’s at least the quintessential Bogart and Bacall movie. Directed by Howard Hawks, based on a novel by Raymond Chandler and adapted by three writers, including William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett (the writer of Rio Bravo and later, the most non-quintessential Philip Marlowe picture, Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye), it was released in 1946. Though it has shades of film noir, it’s not a snug fit in terms of that artistic movement. Not as dark, not as cynical, it’s rooted more firmly in the pulpy traditions that spawned it. Humphrey Bogart stars as Marlowe, a PI that Chandler described as “a white knight in a trenchcoat,” and indeed, he would come to embody the idea of the shamus as a sort of modern-day noble warrior whose armor has seen better days. Marlowe’s outer shell can use a bit of a polish, but he essentially stands for something. Though The Maltese Falcon was the movie that made me fall for Bogie, over the years I’ve come to begrudgingly admit that The Big Sleep is the superior picture.

The plot of the film is anything but simple. Marlowe is hired by old man Sternwood (Charles Waldron) to take care of a blackmailer in possession of gambling notes owed by his youngest daughter, the petulant party girl Carmen (Martha Vickers). Turns out Carmen runs with a dangerous crowd, and on the first night of his trailing her, Marlowe ends up with two bodies on his hands and several more not long after. He also ends up trading barbs with Carmen’s older sister, Vivian (Bacall). She’s the one that Marlowe will fall in love with, and the one he hopes and prays isn’t tangled up in this mess of gamblers, con artists, and wanton women any more than having a dizzy sister sitting in the middle of it.

Howard Hawks is a director who is as efficient as he is stylish. If there is anything that a visual storyteller should take away from his movies is his speed of delivery. There is hardly any time to pause for a breath in his best pictures. When he made His Girl Friday in 1940, he famously amped up the comedy by turning up the speed, instructing his actors to remove all the pauses after a line, for the first word of one bit of dialogue to come immediately on top of the punctuation of the preceding dialogue, resulting in two pages of script for every one minute of film, as opposed to the usual one-to-one ratio. He sticks to that kind of speed in The Big Sleep. It’s particularly noticeable in the male/female dynamic, just as it was in Friday, though now it’s Bogart and Bacall rather than Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

This keeps the story moving at a pace that keeps the audience as confused as the hero they are following, but since it’s coming so rapidly, there’s no time to pause and worry about it. Hawks and his writers expertly insert exposition throughout the movie, layering it naturally into the conversation so we don’t realize we’re playing catch-up. I also like how Marlowe moves his case along, usually by pretending to know more than he does and playing his hunches, letting his target’s reaction confirm what he suspects. He can be rather playful and tricky about it. It’s a trait that was even more obvious when Dick Powell played the snooper two years earlier in Murder, My Sweet, and a tactic I borrowed for Antonio Mercer in You Have Killed Me. Vivian asks Marlowe, “You like to play games, don’t you?” In response, he smiles slyly and says he does.

Outside of the dialogue, Hawks used his mis en scene to drop clues on his audience, to tease the confusion and evoke intrigue. He often did this by hiding details, by only showing part of the picture. Watch the scene outside the house of the effete bookseller, when the first murder happens, and look at the details that both the moviegoer and Marlowe are privy to, thanks to Hawks and editor Christian Nyby. A flash of light, a gunshot, a scream, a door opening, feet running by, a speeding car. We don’t yet know anything, but we know someone was killed, a girl saw it, and someone else got away. It’s a very quick scene, and you could isolate each element into a single comic book panel to achieve the same effect. The details are specific. It’s obfuscation through precision.

Conversely, Antonioni’s 1960 film L’avventura is precise in its obfuscation. It explores, but it avoids discovering. The object is to go through the motions of looking for the answers while trying to eventually create as much distance between you and them as possible–though, whether the characters know that or not is up to interpretation. At one point, the main male figure refuses to tell his new lover he loves her. Why? Because she already knows!

Here is the story: society girl Anna (Lea Massari), her fiancé Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), and her sister Claudia (Monica Vitti) go out on a daytime boat trip with their affluent friends to visit some rocky islands out in the middle of the ocean. When it comes time to leave–the visual/narrative symbolism: a shark sighting drove them out of the water and to shore, a weather change is forcing them back to the boat–Anna is nowhere to be found. Is she hiding? Did she fall off the cliff? Did she find another way off the island? There are no clues. Claudia knows that Anna and Sandro were fighting, so whatever measure her sister took, Claudia blames her future brother-in-law. Determined to prove his dedication, Sandro goes looking for Anna, and he eventually reconnects with Claudia. They follow some leads–a newspaper reporter points them to a druggist in a nearby town–but only end up in each other’s arms. First Claudia denies Sandro, but she is drawn to him, perhaps drawn by the common bond of searching for Anna. Ultimately, though, she stops denying her desires, and as she does, not only does the search for the missing girl all but sputter out, but Claudia finds herself in her sister’s same boring shoes.

I wanted to construct the dilemma of You Have Killed Me‘s missing debutante, Julie, to be like Antonioni’s. Keeping the same two sisters device that both he and Chandler used, I had an older sister disappear from a locked bathroom. The younger sibling is in the bedroom outside of it, and to get out, Julie would conceivably have to pass Jennie. There are no other doors, no other windows, only a sheer cliff’s drop to the ocean on the other side of the wall. Engaged just the way Anna was, about to be married, what made Julie run?

I was pretty conscious of the basic conceit I was lifting from Antonioni (who wrote the screenplay alongside Elio Bartolini and Tonino Guerra), but until I watched the movie again to write this column, I wasn’t aware of how much the Italian filmmaker tapped in to the noirish tropes and how much I had really absorbed on my single viewing of the movie eight years ago. For a film that I’ve touted as one of my favorites, my memory of L’avventura was patchy, to say the least. For instance, I had no recollection of the overbearing father (Renzo Ricci) in L’avventura, and the conversation between he and Anna at the very start of the movie sets up a conflict that is similar to much of what is hinted at about Julie’s past with the jilted detective, Antonio Mercer, in You Have Killed Me. Antonioni is establishing a conflict between old tradition and modernity, between the past generation and the present. Daddy wants Anna to marry someone that fits her station, Anna will marry Sandro just to spite him.

Because she clearly doesn’t love him anymore. From what we see, Anna barely knows what she feels. As Antonioni sees them, people have become disconnected and out of touch with one another. Anna has cold feet, most likely because Sandro offers a marriage of convenience and a life that will trap her with its conformity. There is a scene where a distraught and lonely Claudia walks through an art gallery where baffled admirers look at abstract art. It appears to be leaping off the canvas, but yet confined by the square frame (not unlike a dynamic comic book panel). At the same time, the gallery building is crumbling and decomposing, and the stucco pattern on its walls could swallow the art into its own dying swirls if the barriers could be broken down. The threat of conformity is everywhere. Did Anna choose to run rather than be swallowed by it? Or did she choose the flux of the ocean, the ever-changing sea, as an escape? Is this the same choice Julie saw herself facing in You Have Killed Me?

There are signs of a certain age ending everywhere. The sisters talk of summer ending, inspired in this sad thinking, a rumination on carefree youth passing, by the shark that swims by, sniffing for blood. The encroaching modernity pops up again and again, often with a sexual or predatory guise, be it the foreign man who tries to trick the young girl on the train or the hungry pack of fellows making a spectacle out of a high-price hooker. Claudia will experience the same thing when left alone in one of the towns she and Sandro are searching, and she will also see the disrespect of lust up close when she meets the young artist who paints only nude pictures of women, and yet has no reverence for art. Anyone can pick up a brush, he says. Throughout, Antonioni uses motifs that suggest that his characters are at once pushing something old away and embracing something new, but that their eagerness to be free of puritanical restrictions has caused them to leap before they look. They are running to embrace new values, but they don’t know what they are. There is a recurring image of Claudia closing a door on infidelity, first with Anna and Sandro and then with her friend (Dominique Blanchar) and the painter, and it’s both her trying to keep these indiscretions a secret and to outrun them.

Antonioni also uses various touches straight out of crime stories to mark the path Claudia and Sandro are searching. Dishonest smugglers, disinterested police, rendezvous by train, and, of course, doppelgangers. The expensive prostitute looks like Anna, a more mature brunette to Claudia’s younger-looking blonde. There is even some confusion with the druggist–was the girl he saw a blonde or brunette? A customer or his mistress? In addition to trying on her sister’s boyfriend, Claudia tries out being her, wearing a shirt Anna gave her, and even once donning a brown wig. These sisterly entanglements are all basically variations on a theme, and though they may end up in different places, the Sternwood girls in The Big Sleep and the Roman girls in You Have Killed Me are all part of the same sorority.

The difference may be that in L’avventura, neither Anna nor Claudia is aggressor or victim, there is no crime or jealousy that passes between them, except for maybe a little early jealousy on Claudia’s part. I suppose some argue that Anna gets out of Claudia’s way and makes room for the romance, but Claudia might do better to interpret Anna’s actions as a warning rather than opening any doors (the ones you keep closing, Claudia! Yeesh!). Once Sandro and Claudia fully embrace their passion, Claudia starts to regret it, starts to see that Sandro is just a man who goes through the motions. He laments that modern buildings aren’t built to last–another case of where modern ideas are fleeting compared to the solid structures of yore–yet refuses to be an architect and design his own; instead, he prices out the ones others design. So, when Claudia wants to retreat to a new life, to stay indoors and avoid social obligation, Sandro returns to it, he doesn’t change at all. Now that he changes his tactic and tells her he loves her, he’s pretty much said the romance is dead. Claudia can choose to crawl in the casket with him, to accept the ennui and sadness, or she can follow Anna.

I made mention of how Howard Hawks and his editor used their cutting technique to tease out the information, to make scenes more exciting and heighten the mystery. Given that this is an article that is also comparing comics to film, I’d be remiss not to note that both directors would be nothing without their cinematographers, just as a comics writer would be nothing without his artist. In The Big Sleep, Hawks uses Sid Hickox’s sense of shadow and his expert maneuvering of a confined place to create sinister scenes where the room often seemed to close in on the two people trapped inside it, leaving them alone with their secrets. On the flip, Aldo Scavarda creates a world for Antonioni that is expansive and alienating, gritty with its own detritus. The hallways of the estate at the end of L’avventura dwarf Claudia, and her smallness emphasizes her shame (compare the hotel hallways and spatial grounds Sacha Vierny shot for Alain Resnais a year later in Last Year at Marienbad; last year at Antonioni’s?); when Scavarda moves away from these wide shots and in for a close-up, the effect is that the subject appears to be giant, once again emphasizing their singularity in a world that does not fit them. Both understand the variables of black-and-white, even if Hickox is more starkly defined and Scavarda is trying to smudge the very air into gray.

Joëlle Jones is my cinematographer for You Have Killed Me, and though I am fairly certain that she has never seen either The Big Sleep or L’avventura, she might find kindred spirits in both of their cameramen. Like them, she carves out space with an expert eye, whether it be the cramped basement where Mercer gets the daylights beat out of him or the wide shots of cliffside houses and racetracks, the scary hallways of abandoned hotels or the glitz of a jazz club. Her main tool is pure ink, and so she has more in common with Hickox’s clearly defined shadows, but her use of tones gives her some of the ambiguity of Scavarda. The pattern on a man’s suit, the sparkle of a woman’s dress–these things smudge the lines between good and bad, ugly and beautiful, moral and immoral. That’s why the auteur theory always breaks down, be it comics or cinema–unless you do it all exactly yourself, there is a shared vision at work. From the novel to the screen, through a director’s suggestion and out a camera lens, off my script page to Joëlle’s bristol board–it’s all interconnected.