Laura Allred
Mike and Laura Allred’s home ransacked, computers stolen
Michael and Laura Allred’s home, from 2007
FF artist Michael Allred and colorist Laura Allred returned this morning from a trip to Arizona to find their home near Eugene, Oregon, burglarized.
“Just home from Arizona to met by cops,” Michael Allred wrote this afternoon on Twitter. “Our house has been broken into. Trashed. Computers gone. Monitors. And won’t know what else [...] Appreciate all concerned. Teary eyes held high. Only tweeted this cuz won’t have access to emails for a while. Yay 21st Century!”
“Good will & happy thoughts are all we need,” he continued. “Main concern is getting next issues of FF in on time. Good timing with @Joe_Quinones guesting. It’s just stuff, right?”
The Allreds’ lakeside home was featured in 2007 as part of Comic Book Resources’ “Studio Tours” series.
Robot Roulette | Jamie S. Rich
Thirty-six questions. Six answers. One random number generator. Welcome to Robot Roulette, where creators roll the virtual dice and answer our questions about their lives, careers, interests and more.
Today we welcome Jamie S. Rich, writer of You Have Killed Me, Spell Checkers, Bobby Pins and Mary Janes, A Boy And A Girl, and It Girl & the Atomics — for which he has given us an exclusive preview of issue #7, featuring the art of Mike Norton. It arrives in stores this Wednesday.
Now let’s get to it …
Some thoughts on all the comics I bought Wednesday
It’s Thursday afternoon as you’re reading this, but it’s still Wednesday night as I write it. Usually on Wednesdays, I work at my day job until 5 p.m., and then, after I shout “Yabba-dabba-doo!” and slide down the tail of my sauropod/steam shovel, I hop into my car and drive to my local comic shop and pick up a small stack of comic books. Then I return to my apartment and read them, and then I write brief reviews of them all for a weekly feature I post on my home blog and then I write my weekly post for Robot 6.
Wednesdays are, generally speaking, pretty busy days for me. This one’s even busier than usual, as in addition to the above, I have a few extra writing assignments I need to finish before the end of the week and I still have two homemade Christmas presents for loved ones I need to finish putting together.
So then I had a brilliant idea! Well, an idea. Maybe instead of writing two blog posts tonight, one for Every Day Is Like Wednesday and one for Robot 6, I would just write my usual Wednesday-night blog post and put it here instead of there, thus killing two birds with one stone, as the saying, which was popularized back when people still killed birds with stones, goes.
Here then, are a few paragraphs about each of the new comic books I bought and read this Wednesday (now if only I could give blog posts as a Christmas gifts to my family members, the rest of this week would be pretty chill):
What Are You Reading? with Joshua Henaman
Godzilla: Half Century War
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, where we regularly talk about the comics we’ve been reading lately. Our special guest today is homebrewing enthusiast and first-time publisher Joshua Henaman. He’s the creator of Bigfoot – Sword of the Earthman, a sword, sorcery and Sasquatch epic self-published under the Brewhouse Comics banner with art duties by Andy Taylor. It’s available in select stores and via online ordering at www.bigfootcomic.com.
To see what Joshua and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
Chain Reactions | FF #1
FF #1
The Marvel NOW line-up continues to roll out first issues galore, with this past Wednesday bringing the snappiest-looking relaunch so far–FF #1 by Matt Fraction, Michael Allred, Laura Allred and Clayton Cowles. The sister title to Marvel’s original first family, FF #1 features a hand-picked replacement team that’s needed to fill in for Reed and company for a whole four minutes. What could possibly go wrong?
If you were on the fence about the title, here are a few opinions from around the web to help you decide which way to fall:
Ryan K. Lindsay, Comic Book Resources: “FF #1 looked to be the wildest book of the Marvel NOW! line up: Matt Fraction and Michael Allred on a crazy new science team for the Fantastic Four world. It was one of those books that was either going to be too good to be true or belly flop hard. Unfortunately, this issue doesn’t give much of an indicator either way except to leave worry it’s not off to a dazzling start — not that it feels like it’s started yet.”
Wonder Woman leaps onto Ms. magazine’s 40th anniversary cover
From Michael Allred and Laura Allred's Ms. magazine cover
In 1972, Wonder Woman famously graced the cover of the premiere issue of Ms. under the words “Wonder Woman For President,” and now, four decades later, she returns in an illustration by Michael Allred and Laura Allred for the magazine’s 40th anniversary. The cover’s subject was teased last week on Twitter with three hints: “This woman was born during World War II,” “This woman has her own line of MAC cosmetics” and, just in case that wasn’t enough, “She has been featured on her own television series.”
This marks Wonder Woman’s fourth time on the cover of Ms. (you can see all of her appearances below). The magazine is even offering the Allreds’ illustration as a poster, if you subscribe.
What Are You Reading? with Caleb Goellner
Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Our guest today is Caleb Goellner, pug lover and senior editor of ComicsAlliance.
To see what Caleb and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
Chain Reactions | Daredevil #17
Daredevil #17
Since its relaunch 17 issues ago, Daredevil has boasted quite the list of artistic talent. So when your regular artists have included the likes of Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera and Chris Samnee, who do you get to ensure your “special guest” fill-in art is really something special? Someone who fans are going to hear about and say, “Yeah, that’s a great idea” or “Oh, he’s the perfect guy to go with the tone Mark Waid has established” or even “Great move; maybe I should be buying this book.” Someone like Madman and X-Statix artist Mike Allred.
Allred, along with his wife, colorist Laura Allred, joins Waid for a tale that pits Daredevil against Stilt Man and delves into the relationship between Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson. I thought it worked extremely well myself; if you don’t believe me, here are a few more opinions from around the web:
Gilbert Short, Multiversity Comics: “While Daredevil hasn’t had the opportunity to stick to one artist, Waid’s immense talent and skill lets him write the book to his contributors’ strengths. Issue #17 is no different, as he writes like he and Allred have been collaborating for at least 25 years in the run. Their chemistry is damn near explosive, and makes for one of the best issues of the book since the newest volume started.” (9/10)
Ryan K. Lindsay, Comic Book Resources: “Stilt-Man is one of the main obvious draws for this issue. He’s such a ridiculous rogue, it’s impossible for readers to resist discovering how Waid brings him some street cred. Having Stilt-Man in a flashback is the first smart move considering his shtick doesn’t stack up well for modern comics. Stilt-Man smashes through the Nelson & Murdock window and trots off at quite a pace. He crushes a taxi and even manages to flick a helicopter into a building — surprising, considering it’s actually Daredevil’s fault. Finally, Waid delivers his grand moment — something he teased in most interviews: the terror of being under one of those legs at the bottom of a river. It’s a great sequence that makes you feel the power and possible presence Stilt-Man could have.” (3.5/5)
Talking Comics with Tim | Jamie S. Rich
It Girl & the Atomics #1
I look forward to a day when there’s no substantial imbalance between the number of successful male characters/creators and successful female characters/creators in comics. When I get a chance to talk about a book with a female lead, I make sure to discuss that very aspect. I was clearly not thinking of who I was asking when I interviewed Jamie S. Rich, writer of the new Image ongoing series launching Wednesday, It Girl & the Atomics. As Rich was quick to remind me, earlier in his comics career as an editor he consistently “hired women all the time and published comics that showcased their point of view”. An equally interesting aspect of the project we discuss is being the writer who crafts Mike Allred/Madman universe tales (without Madman) but with Allred’s support and trust (a hell of a compliment/endorsement in and of itself). In addition to reading this interview, please be sure to garner additional insight from CBR’s TJ Dietsch’s July interview with Rich.
To mark this Wednesday’s launch of the series, Rich will be visiting three different hometown comic book stores to sign comics and chat with customers. The three shops where he will be sign It Girl & the Atomics 1 ($2.99) are Floating World Comics (from approximately 2 pm to 3:30 pm) at 400 NW Couch, Bridge City Comics (4 pm to 5 pm) at 3725 N. Mississippi, and Cosmic Monkey Comics (from 6 pm to 7 pm) at 5335 NE Sandy.
Tim O’Shea: It Girl and the Atomics is a book that captures the Madman universe (without Madman, as he left the world for space at the end of his own series). How well does it speak of Mike Allred’s world-building/writing skills that you are able to create a series in Madman’s world, but without Madman?
Jamie S. Rich: That was really the experiment. Madman has such a gravitational pull, particularly for Mike as an artist, that he really has a tendency to dominate. Yet, the Atomics are a team, and in any successful team, all the players are there for a reason. So, when it’s their turn in the spotlight, they are just as capable, they are ready to take that stage.
What Are You Reading?
Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is Shannon Wheeler, New Yorker cartoonist and creator of the Eisner Award-winning comic book Too Much Coffee Man, Oil & Water, the Eisner-nominated I Thought You Would Be Funnier and the upcoming Grandpa Won’t Wake Up.
To see what Shannon and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
Talking Comics with Tim | Nick Dragotta
Pages from Vengeance 1
If you were one of those folks who not heard of artist Nick Dragotta before this year, it’s quite feasible you learned about the storyteller after his work on Fantastic Four 588 (the silent mourning for Johnny Storm issue). If Dragotta’s next project is half as successful as I expect it to be, even more folks will know and like his art. That project? He and writer Joe Casey’s six-issue Marvel miniseries, Vengeance [set to be released July 6]. As described by Marvel: “When MAGNETO of the X-Men tries to rescue a young Mutant on the run, he accidently kicks off a series of events that will shake the very Marvel Universe to it’s core! Who are the new TEEN BRIGADE?! Who are the Brotherhood and what do they want with the YOUNG MASTERS OF EVIL?! And how is the RED SKULL pulling the strings from beyond the grave?” My thanks to Dragotta for the interview (and for the above preview art from the first issue). Once you’ve read this interview, be sure to also read Timothy Callahan’s When Words Collide column/Joe Casey interview.
Talking Comics with Tim | Laura Allred
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.
Talking Comics with Tim | Chris Roberson
Superman 710
Writer Chris Roberson is one of those folks that deserves to get more than one Eisner nomination, but alas he–oh wait yes he did. In all seriousness, this interview occurred before the Eisner nominations were announced last week. So while I congratulate Roberson for his nominations in the categories of Best Limited Series (along with Shawn McManus) for Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love and Best New Series (along with Mike Allred) for iZombie, the focus of the interview is mainly on Superman, while iZombie and the new Cinderella miniseries (Fables Are Forever) are discussed briefly. This Wednesday, April 13, marks the release of both Superman 710 and Cinderella: Fables Are Forever 3 (of 6), so we discuss his upcoming Superman and Cinderella issues (plus gaining a bit of insight into last month’s Lex Luthor’s 40 Cakes homage in Superman 709). To get greater context on Roberson’s upcoming work, be sure to also read CBR News’ recent Roberson coverage from late February and early March.
Tim O’Shea: The comics reading audience can prove to be a fickle lot, some readers thrive on minutiae, others do not. But there’s no doubt a lot of people recently got a kick (myself included) out of the Lex Luthor/40 cakes retcon in Superman 709. How did that idea come to pass (I know it was partially inspired by a tweet)?
Chris Roberson: It was really simple, actually. I’m a huge fan of the Super Dictionary, and have a copy of it on my shelf, but it hadn’t occurred to me that I might include anything from it until it was suggested to me. Once someone on Twitter first mentioned the idea (@loganjames, in fact), it seemed intuitively obvious in retrospect.