keith giffen
Talking Comics with Tim | Thomas Scioli
American Barbarian
Back in 2010, when Thomas Scioli started bolstering his online presence and entered the realm of webcomics with American Barbarian, I was curious to see how things would play out (as may or may not have been obvious in my June 2010 interview of him). I’ll be honest and admit that now, more than a year later (and with far more of the project online to read), American Barbarian far exceeds what I expected. As much as I have always enjoyed and respected his Kirby-influenced approach to visual storytelling, after reading this double post Apocalyptic tale, I am far more impressed with Scioli’s funky ear for dialogue. It’s like reading a 1970s comic written by a minimalist version of David Mamet. Doubting my quirky endorsement of the work? Then realize AdHouse is collecting the webcomic for a 256-page/6 ” x 9 ” /hardcover release early this year. If you don’t trust my tastes, then you should definitely trust AdHouse publisher Chris Pitzer. To mark the upcoming release, Scioli and I did another of our quick email interviews. Before diving into the interview, let me take a second to agree with JK Parkin’s sentiment in this post, back in June, that DC Comics should have considered Scioli for one of the New 52 titles that it launched back in September. So I was surprised to learn (as you can read in this interview) that DC did not contact Scioli when assembling the creative team for the new OMAC title. As I edited this interview I realized it was hard to find my favorite part of our discussion, but it may be the revelation that the look for Two-Tank Omen came to Scioli in a dream. A close second was learning a bit about his next webcomic, Final Frontier. Feel free to chime in with your favorite part of this interview and/or Scioli’s work in the comments section, please.
Tim O’Shea: As an independent creator, the job of marketing your work falls to you. Do you think over the years, you have gotten more comfortable marketing yourself? On a related note, how did you decide upon doing this one minute trailer for American Barbarian?
Thomas Scioli: Even the largest comics publishers don’t seem to have a budget for promotion, so I’d say any creator, independent or mainstream, can benefit from doing their own promotion. It’s something that I’ve never been comfortable with, but do out of necessity. I think I have gotten better about it, because in the beginning, it would give me crippling anxiety, now it’s just mild trepidation. The idea for doing a trailer came from having seen other people do it. AdHouse’s own Afrodisiac trailer and [Top Shelf's] Infinite Kung-Fu [trailer] are two that made an impression on me when they made the rounds. It got me excited about those two works, so I wanted to do the same. I’d been dabbling with animation, back when I started AmBarb so it was a natural outgrowth of that, too. Once you start doing a webcomic it isn’t long before you realize, hey, why not just do a cartoon?
- January 2, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Tim O'Shea
Grumpy Old Fan | A full bracket for DC’s March solicits
OMAC #7
Since the March solicitations kick off the back half of the New 52′s first year, it’s probably worth noting that the whole line remains unchanged: no “midseason replacements” like Justice Society, but no cancellations either. If I hear relieved sighs from OMAC and Men of War, certainly Dan DiDio and Jim Lee have to be pleased generally that they’ve gotten this far with the 52 intact.
Well, pleased or stubborn, I suppose. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.
Ahem. Away we go…!
HISTORY LESSONS
One of my pet peeves about the New-52 is the sense that it lacks a meaningful “history.” For at least the last few decades, a reader might not have known exactly what had happened or when, but s/he could tell that these characters hadn’t just fallen off the turnip truck. I say this because the solicits for Justice League #7 and Flash #7 both allude to their books’ untold backstories. With Justice League, we’ll learn about membership turnover and other details of the five years between the League’s debut and today. (To be sure, some of that has already been alluded to in the League’s previous present-day appearances, like JL Dark #1.)
- December 15, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Successor stories
Justice League America #61
Don’t ask me how I remember this, but it was just about twenty years ago that the first previews of Dan Jurgens’ Justice League began appearing. After five years, the “bwah-ha-ha” era was winding down, and Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis were leaving Justice League America. Giffen was also stepping away from plots and breakdowns for Justice League Europe, with JLE’s scripter Gerard Jones taking over as the book’s only writer; and Brian Augustyn replaced Andy Helfer as both books’ editor.
With a number of the New 52 titles changing creative teams before they’re even a year old, it’s too early to start talking about any long-lived, let alone definitive, runs on a particular book. Still, DC clearly hopes these books will be around for a while, even without the folks who launched ‘em. It got me thinking about past changes of the guard, and how they have followed some well-established interpretations.
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- December 8, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Comics A.M. | Fan/pro Bill of Rights; comics used in major drug ring
Bill of Rights
Creators | Writer Peter David shares a “Fan/Pro Bill of Rights” related to proper behavior at conventions, starting with a “Prime Directive”: “Fans and Pros have the right to be treated by each other with the same courtesy that they themselves would expect to be treated. Fans and Pros who act like jerks abrogate the right to complain when they themselves are treated like jerks.” [Peter David]
Crime | A Denver judge sentenced Aaron Castro to 45 years in prison after Castro pleaded guilty to drug and extortion charges. Prosecutors say he ran a major methamphetamine distribution ring and laundered the profits by buying and selling valuable comics in the collector’s market. [KMGH Denver]
Digital | Robot 6 contributor Graeme McMillan catches an error in Marvel’s press release from last week: Marvel was not the first comics publisher to release an entire line of comics simultaneously in print and digital—Archie Comics was. [Blog@Newsarama]
- November 14, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by JK Parkin
Nicola Scott joins Superman for three issues
Art from Superman #3
Former Birds of Prey artist Nicola Scott will step in for Jesus Merino on three issues of Superman, beginning with this month’s Issue 3.
DC Comics announced this morning that Scott will illustrate issues 3, 5 and 6, with regular artist Merino penciling Issue 4 before returning for Issue 7, which features the debut of new writers Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen. The duo replaces George Perez, who leaves as writer and breakdown artist following the sixth issue.
Scott, a DC-exclusive artist who also worked on Secret Six and Wonder Woman, will next collaborate with James Robinson on the relaunched Justice Society of America.
Superman #3, which pits the Man of Steel against a new foe targeting those dearest to Clark Kent, goes on sale Nov. 23. Check out a preview of the issue below.
- November 2, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Nate Powell at U.N.; Stan Lee’s YouTube World of Heroes
Nate Powell at the U.N.
Creators | Any Empire and Swallow Me Whole creator (and our special guest this weekend for What Are You Reading?) Nate Powell appeared at the United Nations earlier this month with several teen-fiction writers who contributed to What You Wish For, a benefit book to fund libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad. Video of the event can now be found on the U.N. website. [Top Shelf]
Business | Details on the collaboration between Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment Inc. and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s Vuguru have emerged: The two companies will work on a YouTube channel called “Stan Lee’s YouTube World of Heroes.” The channel is one of the 100 online video channels announced by the Google-owned video site, which seeks to add “professional, high-quality programming” to its site. [Los Angeles Times]
Business | They might move slow and eat people, but MSNBC estimates that zombies are worth about $5 billion to the economy. [MSNBC]
- October 31, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Already? DC Solicits for January 2012
"I throw him a growl I've brought all the way from Africa"
I was going to open with some snotty Wow, the holidays went by super-quickly! comment, but then I read the first issue of Justice League in seven weeks. Sometimes DC gets ahead of itself; sometimes it’s a little behind. Happens to the best of us — sometimes you do two solicitation roundups in three weeks….
Anyway, with the January solicitations, the New-52 books each turn five issues old. Series wrapping up their first arcs this month include Blackhawks, Batwoman, Animal Man, and the Deadman feature in DC Universe Presents. (Not to worry about the latter, because there is a lot of Deadman in these solicits.) I’m not sure why five issues is such a wonky number for story arcs — there are five-issue miniseries all the time and they collect just fine. Still, I expected most of the New-52 books to take six issues for their introductory stories, and most of them may yet do that. Only a few books look to finish their first arcs after December’s issue #4s (Hawkman and Frankenstein, probably OMAC, maybe Batgirl), and those plus this month’s are barely an eighth of the relaunched line. It makes next month’s solicits more intriguing, I suppose.
Regardless, we live in the now (as it were…) so — onward to January!
Continue Reading »
- October 20, 2011 @ 02:12 PM by Tom Bondurant
Giffen and Jurgens to replace Pérez on Superman
George Pérez will step down as writer and breakdown artist of Superman, Newsarama reports, to be replaced by Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens with Issue 7.
Pérez was teamed with artist Jesus Merino on the relaunched title, which debuted this week. There’s a possibility that Pérez will remain as finisher/inker.
Superman will be the second title from DC Comics’ New 52 that Giffen has stepped into as writer. News surfaced just last week that he will replace J.T. Krul on Green Arrow, teaming with Jurgens as penciler and Pérez as inker on the series.
Giffen is also drawing and co-writing O.M.A.C., while Jurgens is writing the relaunched Justice League International.
- September 30, 2011 @ 12:10 PM by Kevin Melrose
DC’s push for the New 52: A Supergirl for The Hunger Games crowd
Supergirl #1, by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar
• USA Today talks with Supergirl co-writers Mike Johnson and Michael Green about their approach to the relaunched title, and provides a five-page preview of the first issue, which goes on sale Wednesday. “We’re really excited about the opportunity to hand this book to a female reader who is into things like The Hunger Games,” Johnson says. “This is a strong character with her own point of view.”
• Writer J.T. Krul will be replaced by Keith Giffen and artist Dan Jurgens on Green Arrow with December’s Issue 4. The news comes just days after John Rozum announced he’s leaving Static Shock.
- September 19, 2011 @ 01:25 PM by Kevin Melrose
How many Justice Leaguers can fit in the first issue of a Justice League comic?
I found Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Scott Williams’ Justice League #1, the inaugural effort in DC’s “New 52″ effort, to be thunderously disappointing. Listening to three months of sustained, daily hype has a way of raising expectations, I guess, and as cynical as I remained about so many aspects of DC’s relaunch, and despite the fact that I took each new tidbit of information with a grain of salt, that much exposure to positive PR still managed to raise my expectations rather high. Particularly for this book, since it was the flagship one, and the one being written by the publisher’s chief creative officer and drawn by its co-publisher.
But the quality of the comic book just didn’t really meet those high expectations.
There are a variety of reasons for this, but one of the most obvious, and one I saw cited most often in the slew of reviews and reactions I’ve since seen online, is that it fails to meet even the most basic, vague promise of its own cover: It’s not a Justice League comic, as the logo says, and it doesn’t features the characters pictured on the front. Two of them star in the book, and two more cameo, but it read more like The Brave and The Bold featuring Batman and Green Lantern…albeit a theoretical version of The Brave and The Bold, perhaps written by Brian Michael Bendis for an eventual trade collection of the first six-issue arc, as DC’s various Brave and the Bold books almost always tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end in each and every single issue.
- September 15, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by J. Caleb Mozzocco
DC Comics unveils decade-specific logos for Retro-Active
"Retro-Active" 1980s logo
Following DC Comics’ announcement at WonderCon of its Retro-Active one-shots bringing together writers and artists from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, the publisher has unveiled the decade-specific logos for the three series.
Debuting in July, each issue of Retro-Active will feature 26 pages of new content plus 20 pages classic stories reprinted from that era, spotlighting such characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and the Justice League of America.
Although DC has yet to announce all of the artists involved, the writers include Dennis O’Neil, Cary Bates, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, William Messner-Loebs, Mike W. Barr, Louise Simonson (with Jon Bogdanove on ’90s Superman), and Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis (with Kevin Maguire on ’90s Justice League).
“The way [DC Comics] put it was, look at your run back when you were doing Justice League International, find a moment there and tell an untold story,” Giffen told Comic Book Resources. “It’s one last blow-out. It’s one last hoorah for the characters.”
Check out the other two Retro-Active logos below.
- April 4, 2011 @ 06:49 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | Unto us an Archive is given: DC Comics Solicitations for March 2011
DC Special Series #21
It was both a frustration and a relief to see the DC solicitations this week. I was prepping a holiday column, because it’s my last chance to do something seasonal and I always like doing those. Part of what I wanted to say appears at the end, but the March solicits help keep the more sappy impulses in check.
Anyway, let’s see what’s under the tree, shall we?
GLBXPT!
The long-awaited Sugar & Spike Archives are finally on the schedule — but I am careful to note that similarly-anticipated projects like Suicide Squad collections and the New Teen Titans: Games graphic novel have also made it to the solicits without (so far) showing up on bookshelves. Therefore, Sugar & Spike goes in the “I’ll believe it when I hold it in my grubby paws” category. It’s also ironic to me that Sugar & Spike gets the Archives treatment just as DC seems to be phasing out the Archives line in favor of the imposing Omnibus format.
Continue Reading »
- December 23, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | A week full-to-bursting with birds, bats, and Booster
The Return Of Bruce Wayne #1
This is a pretty big week for DC.
I know I said that four weeks ago, when Brightest Day #0 and The Flash vol. 3 #1 appeared in comics shops, and I don’t want to take too much away from that.
Still, today saw the debuts of The Return Of Bruce Wayne #1, the relaunched Birds Of Prey #1, and Keith Giffen returning to his old charges from Justice League International. Not unsurprisingly, each of these comics builds on many years’ worth of stories, and each nevertheless aims to be accessible to the uninitiated. Therefore, this week let’s see how effective these four introductory issues are.
SPOILERS FOLLOW for Return Of Bruce Wayne #1, Birds Of Prey #1, Booster Gold #32, and Justice League: Generation Lost #1.
- May 13, 2010 @ 02:15 PM by Tom Bondurant
Giffen, Winick team on Justice League: Generation Lost
Justice League: Generation Lost by Tony Harris
DC Comics announced on The Source this morning that Keith Giffen and Judd Winick will team to write Justice League: Generation Lost, a 26-issue bi-weekly series featuring many of the characters from Giffen’s classic run on Justice League back in the late 1980s.
The two writers spoke with Vaneta Rogers over at Newsarama about the project, where Giffen addressed why his JLI co-conspirator, J.M. DeMatteis, isn’t working on it.
“Because Marc and I – along with artist Chris Batista – are taking over Booster Gold, that’s why. And yes, it’s exactly what you think it is,” he said.
According to Giffen, the new bi-weekly series will feature Captain Atom, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice and Rocket Red, among others. Check out the interview over at Newsarama for more details.
- January 12, 2010 @ 09:38 AM by JK Parkin
Six by 6 | Six comics that made us laugh out loud
A couple of weeks ago Chris Mautner and I listed the six comics that made us cry. You guys responded with more than 160 comments filled with memories of comics that brought you to tears as well. It was very cool and kind of overwhelming to see that many people open up like that, so from both of us, thank you.
One commenter, cinorjer, suggested we name “six comics that made us laugh out loud.” Which we thought was a great idea — thanks, cinorjer! — so wipe away your tears and get ready to exercise your funnybone.
Joining Chris and I this week is Tom Bondurant, who was quick to come back with an example when I asked for suggestions. So let’s make with the ha ha’s and get down to it … and please share your own favorites in the comments section.
1. “What am I s’posed to do with a whole dollar!?”
I laughed aloud at much of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s “Architecture & Mortality” storyline from the recent Tales of the Unexpected miniseries. There were the Primate Patrol’s obvious (but well-executed) Planet of the Apes references; Traci 13′s “paper covers rock” spell; and the part where Infectious Lass says she’ll never know the touch of a man, about which I … Vampire! observes “perhaps if you changed your name….”
However, I particularly liked Dr. 13′s first real meeting with Genius Jones, the smartest little boy in the world. He’ll answer any question for a dime, but he won’t deal with Dr. 13 — because the Doc only has a dollar bill. “What am I s’posed to do with a whole dollar!?” Genius wonders.
“Tell you what — I have ten questions,” Dr. 13 responds.
“Do you have ten dimes?”
Eyes practically bulging out of his glasses, and beads of sweat leaping off his forehead, Dr. 13 spits, “I have a DOLLAR!”
It goes on like that for another few panels, until the head of the Primate Patrol bursts in: “How ’bout I geev you a nickel saun’wich?” And … scene!
–Tom Bondurant
- July 12, 2009 @ 11:37 AM by JK Parkin