kurt busiek
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Batman Incorporated #1
Welcome to another installment of “Food or Comics?” Every week we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comes home and what stays on the shelves. So join us as we run down what comics we’d buy if they only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad money” to splurge with.
Check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Graeme McMillan
If I had $15, at least $9 of it – okay, $8.98 – would be already spoken for. The first issue of Batman Incorporated ($3.99) and one-shot lead-in Batman: The Return #1 ($4.99) offer up the first glimpses of what Grant Morrison has in mind for his new Batus-quo and, after the way he brought the RIP/Return of Bruce Wayne storyline to a close, I’m pretty much on board no matter what. The remaining money…? It’s a tough one, but I’m going to go for Spider-Girl #1 ($3.99), pretty much because I like Paul Tobin’s writing, I like the Twitter gimmick (Somewhere, Joe Casey’s going “I did it first in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance!” and I know, Joe), and, most importantly, the Spider-Girl short was my favorite part of last week’s Amazing Spider-Man relaunch issue. Who could’ve seen that coming?
- November 16, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Another One Piece sales record, another cartoonist layoff
One Piece, Vol. 6
Publishing | The 60th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s popular pirate manga One Piece sold more than 2 million copies in its first four days of release. It’s the first book to move more than 2 million copies in its first week of sales since the Japanese market survey company Oricon began reporting its charts in 2008. As we reported last week, this volume’s 3.4 million-copy first printing set a record, and propelled the series past the 200 million-copy mark. [Anime News Network]
Editorial cartoons | Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Davies has been laid off by the Gannett-owned Journal News in White Plains, N.Y. [Comic Riffs]
Publishing | Abrams has made three comics-related promotions: Susan Van Metre to senior vice president and publisher, overseeing all comic arts books as well as Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books; Charles Kochman to editorial director of Abrams ComicArts; and Chad W. Beckerman to creative director, overseeing design for all comic arts books as well as Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books. [Abrams]
- November 11, 2010 @ 08:39 AM by Kevin Melrose
Busiek offers a glimpse at The Witchlands
The Witchlands
Here’s one I’ve personally been waiting for … writer Kurt Busiek previews his The Witchlands project over on his blog, offering a look at the cover by Zachary Baldus and some of the interior art by Conner Willumsen.
The project was first announced in San Diego in 2009 at the WildStorm panel and was originally titled Kurt Busiek’s American Gothic. With WildStorm going away, he told Heidi at The Beat that it will likely be coming from somewhere else within DC.
Be sure to click on over to his blog to see Willumsen’s interior art.
- October 27, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by JK Parkin
Robot 666 | Dracula: The Company of Monsters #3 preview
Dracula: The Company of Monsters #3
Courtesy of our fiendishly fine friends at BOOM! Studios and just in time for Robot 666 week comes a preview of Dracula: The Company of Monsters #3. Written by Kurt Busiek and Daryl Gregory, with art by Damian Couceiro, this issue features a “revived, enchained and seemingly tamed” Dracula under the control of the Barrington Corporation … or is he?
Check out the preview and solicitation text after the jump.
- October 25, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Kurt Busiek, artcomix aficionado
from Seth's pencils for the Coober Skeber 2 cover
The other day we linked you to the saga of Coober Skeber 2, the Marvel-spoofing, copyright-defying anthology put together by influential alternative comics publisher Tom Devlin and a small galaxy of future alternative-comics stars in the late 1990s. Well, now it’s time for genuine superhero-comics superstar Kurt Busiek to weigh in on the book. On his blog, the Buse shares his memories of getting a copy at Comic-Con International in 1997 and digging it so much he helped get one participant hired by Marvel:
I liked the Hulk story so much that when I got home, I photocopied the story and faxed it to Tom Brevoort at Marvel (this was in those halcyon days before scanners were common), and urged him to get someone to buy it from Kochalka and have it colored and run it as a backup somewhere. It was too cool not to show to Hulk fans everywhere.
Tom wasn’t editing Hulk at the time, but he took over the book a little later, and eventually did try to buy the story. Kochalka wanted to re-do it, so Tom hired him to re-do the story, in color, and it ran in Hulk 2001, that year’s Annual.
Click the link to read the whole story — and to get a look at the full pencils for Seth’s cover, which Busiek bought. This makes me wonder: Does Astro City have a hipster enclave full of superheroes that look like Fort Thunder drawings?
- September 30, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Six by 6 | Six awesome WildStorm titles
Sleeper #1
After 18 years, former Image studio and current DC Comics imprint WildStorm is shutting down this December. And as many have noted already, the house that Jim built has produced many awesome, memorable and even game-changing (to steal a phrase from Rob Liefeld) works in the last two decades.
Here are six of them that we found to be particularly awesome; let us know what we missed in the comments section.
1. Sleeper: There have been many comics that mash up superheroes with down-and-dirty genres like crime and espionage over the past decade; this may just be the best. The high concept is a gripping one: Super-spy Holden Carver is so deep undercover in an international super-criminal organization that when his one contact is placed in a coma, literally no one knows he’s secretly on the side of the angels. Carver’s predicament, the way he plays and gets played by both sides, his growing unwillingness or inability to draw the ethical lines needed to save his soul, if not his life–such is the stuff of a great crime drama. Superstar in the making Ed Brubaker brings all his talents and obsessions to the table here: his knack for crafting morally compromised characters while neither romanticizing their misdeeds nor softening them up, his recurring theme of how the secrets and sins of our pasts never truly leave us, his belief that damaged people seek out other damaged people to repair that damage, his eye for and ability to work with strong visual stylists. In this case that meant Sean Phillips, never better in his ability to believably root spectacular action and super-powers in a naturalist-noir milieu. All of this in a WildC.A.T.s spinoff, proving just how wild WildStorm was once willing to go.
Even its relatively short run redounds to its benefit: The complete story of Holden Carver is yours to own inexpensively, read easily, and ponder at your leisure. (Sean T. Collins)
- September 25, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Around the web: The end of WildStorm
Planetary #21
This week brings the end of an era, as DC Entertainment announced that the WildStorm imprint is shutting down in December. That, of course, has brought a lot of commentary and remembrances around the web.
- Both Newsarama and The Beat have round-ups of reactions from creators and former WildStorm employees. As Heidi notes in her intro, “…it isn’t just another in a long list of comics imprints that have ended over the years. It’s the end of a comics company that made history for 18 years as a vital part of several revolutions in commercial comics.” She received a comment from Rob Liefeld that really drives home how game-changing WildStorm was, noting how several prominent creators got their start under WildStorm, and how WildStorm published some of the biggest comics works of the past two decades.
- My favorite piece on WildStorm is probably Andy Khouri’s essay on ComicsAlliance, where he talks about the generation of comic fans who have grown up with WildStorm (and Fairchild’s breasts). “… the history of WildStorm tracks well with that of many turn-of-the-century babies like myself, whose unconditional affection for the comics medium (and, in some cases, employment in the comics industry) can be traced back to WildStorm founder Jim Lee’s pied piper act, where the most influential comic book artist of the 1990s lured a generation away from the safe, altruistic heroes of our childhoods and into much darker, much sexier and much more violent comic book worlds where we roamed free before he finally led us back to water,” he wrote.
- September 24, 2010 @ 05:00 AM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day II | A WildStorm hits Kurt Busiek
“Hoping for the best for friends at Wildstorm, and the business side of DC…All I know about this, I’ve learned from Twitter. I assume I’ll find out more when the guys at Wildstorm have dealt with whatever eruptions this is causing for them.
“To all who’ve been asking: They haven’t said anything yet about creator-owned Wildstorm books. Presumably they want to talk to us first. And right now, they’re busy absorbing what this means for them. So I doubt I’ll know anything for a day or two.”
–Astro City writer Kurt Busiek, whose guess as to how the move of much of DC’s business end to Burbank and the closure of WildStorm will impact his colleagues — not to mention on his long-running creator-owned title, heretofore published through that imprint — is apparently as good as ours.
- September 21, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
What Are You Reading?
Scarlet #1
Hello and welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where the Robot 6 crew talk about the comics and graphic novels that they’ve been enjoying lately.
Today’s special guest is Ryan K Lindsay, a staff writer for comic news and reviews site The Weekly Crisis. He also runs a comic scripting challenge site called thoughtballoons where each week a character is picked, and every member of the site must write a one-page script about that character. He’s also been known to throw a think piece up at Gestalt Mash and is hoping one day to have his many comic pitches drawn by people with pencils.
To see what Ryan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading this week, click the link below …
- August 29, 2010 @ 01:23 PM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim: Daryl Gregory
Dracula: The Company of Monsters
Back when I interviewed novelist Daryl Gregory in February for my pop culture blog (TalkingwithTim) I found myself thinking: “I bet it’s not long before Gregory’s writing comics”. But to find out a few months later that he was teaming with one of my favorite comics writer, Kurt Busiek, still took me by surprise (in a positive way, promise). On August 25 (next Wednesday), BOOM! Studios will release the first issue of Busiek and Gregory’s Dracula: The Company Of Monsters #1. Back on August 9, CBR offered a preview of the first issue. As described there, the concept of the ongoing series is “A powerful, predatory corporation acquires a valuable asset…Dracula! They think they own him, but no one can own the Son of the Dragon. There’s a monster in their midst that puts Hannibal Lecter to shame–and he plans to gain his freedom in blood. It’s bloodsuckers vs. bloodsucker, as Busiek brings an incredibly modern spin to the Dracula mythos.” In addition to the preview, once you’ve read this interview with Gregory, be sure to enjoy CBR’s July 29 interview with Busiek about the project. All combined, with this info you’ll hopefully find a number of reasons to be on the lookout for the first issue next Wednesday.
Tim O’Shea: Did BOOM or Busiek contact you to join the project?
Daryl Gregory: Matt Gagnon from BOOM! contacted me. Chris Roberson, a friend of mine and a fantastic writer who’s doing a book for them (DUST TO DUST, the officially sanctioned prequel to DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRONIC SHEEP), basically forced my first novel into Matt’s hands. Kurt had pitched them his idea for Dracula but didn’t have room on his schedule to write it, and fortunately, something in Matt’s head went “ding!” When he asked me if I’d like to co-write a comic with Kurt Busiek, I thought about it for perhaps 2 nanoseconds. I’ve been a fan of Kurt’s since THUNDERBOLTS, and MARVELS was a huge influence on me.
- August 18, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
SDCC ’10 | A roundup of Saturday’s news
Comic-Con International
Saturday at Comic-Con International in San Diego, once upon a time, was “big movie day” at the con … back before every day became big movie day at the con. Still, today somewhat lived up to its reputation for being eventful, as the Avengers assembled on stage, Green Lantern movie footage was shown and one poor fan was stabbed in the eye while attending programming in Hall H, where several of the big movie panels took place. The victim was taken to UCSD Medical Center, while his attacker was taken away by police after attendees detained him.
In happier news, here’s what was announced on the comics front:
• Marvel Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada confirmed that Marvel is “gonna be doing some CrossGen stuff.” CrossGen, which published numerous titles like Sojourn, Way of the Rat, Abadazad and Meridian starting 1998, went bankrupt in 2004. Disney bought their assets that same year.
Their titles covered many different genres, from fantasy to horror to detective stories. “I think with the CrossGen stuff you’re going to see us attempt a little more genre publishing, which I think is much-needed in our imprint,” Quesada said. No word yet on what properties they plan to bring back.
• Kurt Busiek announced that American Gothic, the urban fantasy comic announced at last year’s WildStorm panel, will now be called Witchlands. The series will be drawn by Connor Willumson. Busiek is also working on an Arrowsmith novel titled Arrowsmith: Far from the Fields We Know, which will include illustrations by Carlos Pacheco.
- July 24, 2010 @ 11:50 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | A roundup of Wednesday’s news [Updated]
Comic-Con International in San Diego doesn’t officially kick off until tomorrow, but they are hosting a preview night tonight. And not surprisingly, there were some announcements today, albeit not as many as we’ve seen on Wednesday in years past — or at least not as many as I remember on Wednesdays from years past. Maybe the fact that we’ve had so many announcements leading up to Comic-Con over the last week or so led to a quieter pre-con Wednesday. I won’t complain; instead, let’s see what was announced …
• BOOM! Studios announced at a press conference this afternoon that writers Paul Cornell and Chris Roberson would join Mark Waid as the trio of writers working with Stan Lee on a new line of comics. Cornell and artist Javier Pina will bring Soldier Zero to life in October, Mark Waid and Chad Hardin will tackle The Traveler in November, and Chris Roberson and Khary Randolph’s Starborn debuts in December.
- July 21, 2010 @ 10:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Hamner redeemed, BOOM! parties and ‘Zod Hates Nags’
Zod Hates Nags
Comic-Con International in San Diego kicks off Wednesday night, July 21 and runs through July 25.
• Artist Cully Hamner wasn’t originally listed as appearing on the Red movie panel on Thursday, despite the fact that he drew the limited series, but it looks like everything’s been worked out and he will indeed be there. Here’s his full schedule.
• BOOM! Studios will host their annual party on Thursday night at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Odysea Bar, starting at 9 p.m. The BOOM! Studios Five-Year Anniversary Drink Up will feature Mark Waid, Ross Richie, Matt Gagnon, Chip Mosher and the rest of the BOOM! crew with various BOOM! creators in attendance “for a night of relaxed fun.” No RSVP or tickets are required.
And speaking of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, I received an email from them about their Comic-Con plans as well:
“Odysea Lounge at Hilton San Diego Bayfront hopes you will make us your ‘Con Bar’ this July. We welcome all attendees of Comic-Con International to indulge in our fresh, hand-muddled cocktails and our dazzling bay front views. Come order right from your seat from one of our brand new iPads and enjoy Happy Hour daily, 4P-6P and 10P-12A. Our staff is ready to serve you throughout Comic-Con and look forward to making this year a memorable one.”
• Radical Publishing has released their booth schedule, which will include signings by Jimmy Palmiotti, Wesley Snipes, Peter Milligan, Paul Gulacy, Sam Worthington, Rick Remender and many more.
• Kurt Busiek shares his schedule for the con, as well as some thoughts on the Westboro Baptist Church picket that Kevin mentioned last week. He says the best way to respond is to ignore them, then adds, “But on Twitter last night, among the suggestions for counter-statements against the WBC’s rallying cry of ‘God Hates Fags,’ this lovely response came up, coined by Lori Matsumoto and designed by Dane Ault.” Check out the image up top to see the suggested response.
• Which reminds me, Andy Mangels sent word about the 23rd annual Gays in Comics panel and a mixer/silent auction, both on Saturday at the show:
- July 12, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
BOOM! and Busiek bring Dracula to the boardroom
Dracula: The Company Of Monsters
Astro City writer Kurt Busiek and novelist Daryl Gregory are teaming up on a new Dracula title, Dracula: The Company Of Monsters — coming from BOOM! Studios in August.
“So. I’m creating and co-writing a new series about a very, very old character, thrust into a modern world unfamiliar to him in a lot of surface ways, but very familiar underneath,” Busiek wrote on his blog this morning.
The book features art by Scott Godlewski and will “take you through the dark corridors of the corporate American boardroom and show you vampires aren’t the only kinds of bloodsuckers!” according to the press release.
“Dracula’s a character who’s always fascinated me,” Busiek said, “and getting a chance to build something firmly rooted in Dracula’s real-world (and Stoker-novel) history, but with a very modern edge, is the kind of creative challenge I love. It’s the world’s greatest vampire against the corporate world — and there’s no easy way to tell who’s the real villain, and who’s the hero. I’m thrilled to be working with Daryl, Scott and BOOM! on this. Putting it together feels like the early days of working on Conan, and I think the results are going to be a real treat for readers.”
Busiek has written everything from Avengers to Thunderbolts to Conan to DC’s Trinity series, as well as the creator-owned Astro City and an upcoming series from Wildstorm that used to be called American Gothic.
- May 27, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Enter the Heroic Age
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading? where we ask, “If you were stuck on an island with the smoke monster, what would you bring to read?” Yes, that was my lame attempt to make today’s edition topical. Sorry. Let’s just write that off as me being really excited to see the end of Lost.
This week our special guest is comics retailer Randy Lander, who you can find selling comics at Rogues Gallery Comics & Games in Round Rock, Texas or blogging over at Inside Joke Theatre. To see what Randy and the rest of our merry castaways have been reading, click the link below …
- May 23, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin