Irredeemable

comiXology and BOOM! announced today that the first four issues of the Mark Waid-written Irredeemable is now available via comiXology's iPhone application. The individual issues can be downloaded for $1.99, and there's also a free preview available as well.

Irredeemable is the first BOOM! book available via comiXology's application. BOOM!'s Farscape, Eureka and Hexed comics are all available from iVerse.

The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh

Any regular readers of What Are You Reading? likely know how much I enjoy Mark Waid's writing. So when Waid made himself available for a brief email interview regarding BOOM!'s The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh, the first issue of which goes on sale tomorrow, I jumped at the chance. As I found out in this interview, Waid and I share a love of research. My thanks to Waid for the interview, and please be sure to check out CBR's five-page preview of issue 1 here. As detailed at the preview: "Back by popular demand, Mark Waid brings another installment of the world’s greatest detective! With only six months to live, Catherine Allingham’s condition is terminal. But nothing will stop her from trying to solve even more mysteries. It’s international suspense and hair-raising macabre as time runs out for our detective."

Tim O'Shea: It was years ago and in a different corporate universe, but as a fan of your run on Ruse, I have to ask--is Catherine Allingham a creative descendant of Emma Bishop to some extent?

Mark Waid: Ha! Man, someday, I've really got to go into hypnotherapy and see if someone can help me remember which prototypical Sarcastic Genius became the template for my scientists and investigators. Actually, Emma's more tender than Catherine. Catherine has no time for tenderness.

O'Shea: What was the appeal to mixing a spiritual quest with scientific exploration?

Waid: The appeal was in making an attempt to use science to answer (or at least approach) the great metaphysical mysteries. Detective fiction is full of excellent gumshoes who can tell you whodunnit. I wanted to get more into the impossible questions; a detective's only as interesting as the challenges she faces.

O'Shea: Early in the first Unknown miniseries, Catherine is shown reading Pierre Bayard's Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Was that a throwaway bit on the creative team's part, or does this project find some inspiration in Bayard's book?

Waid: It had no specific bearing on the story; it was just perfect reading for Catherine. The fact that she enjoys a book like that tells you volumes about her and her level of arrogance.

O'Shea: On some level, do you consider Unknown to be a modern noir? What makes me ask is the great chase scene on the train in issue 2.

Waid: On some level, yes, but I think of it more as modern pulp. The original "Hollywood paragraph" was "Doc Savage as written by David Lynch." Less noir in the sequel, The Devil Made Flesh, in part because the settings are less exotic--though the mystery is more macabre.

O'Shea: In The Devil Made Flesh, are we going to learn more about James Doyle's tragic past, or are you saving that for another miniseries down the road?

Waid: We learn MUCH more about James Doyle's tragic past. Sadly, he does not. As will be evident.

O'Shea: In terms of developing Allingham's back story, how large a collection of untold solved cases have you developed--potentially to tap for "present day" story reference or maybe even a back-up feature at some point?

Waid: A ton. A bookfull. You could spend an entire workday just surfing the sites I've bookmarked, to say nothing of the actual books and magazine articles I've accumulated--but that's because I collect "impossible crimes" material anyway, have for years, and I've been busy making notes where I've inserted Catherine into these mysteries and come up with her solutions. I've got LOTS to draw upon.

O'Shea: Given your duties as an EIC for BOOM!, plus your freelance commitments at Marvel, I doubt the term "relaxing" is one that matches your work pace. That being said, given the miniseries nature of BOOM! properties, is it a bit less stressful not dealing with the worries of cancellation as much as if you were attempting a series of monthly ongoing BOOM! properties?

Waid: Good question. I suppose it's some comfort to know that nothing'll be yanked out from under me, though I've been pretty lucky in my career and haven't had a series cancelled out from under me since the Impact Comics days. Still, the pressure to deliver and deliver big is always there, regardless of who I'm working for or how long the commitment. So I'm not sure I understand this concept of "less stressful" of which you speak.

O'Shea: With the start of the new Unknown project, will you be looking to expand the supporting cast? What new international locales will you be taking the tales?

Waid: There are two important new additions to the cast--a woman named Adriana who shows up in issue one, and a strangely articulate assistant who debuts in issue two. I can't say anything more about either without revealing too much, but both are fascinating to write for.

O'Shea: In writing for artist Minck Oosterveer, what strengths of his skillset do you try to tap to best suit Unknown?

Waid: His storytelling is exemplary; he communicates setting and mood with little details in the art that keep me from having to over-write and use words where pictures would be better. Plus, the man can draw anything. That allows my imagination to run totally free without ever worrying that I'm overreaching. What a godsend, that guy.

O'Shea: What about the mystery genre do you enjoy most when writing in it?

Waid: The elaborate plotting. The jigsaw-puzzle nature of it. The challenge of dispensing information in a play-fair way that doesn't make the mysteries too transparent. The research. All of it. Seriously, all of it.

Well, it turns out maybe Mark Waid is no longer as evil as we were led to believe:

Mark Waid Was Evil

I saw the above ad on Kevin Church's blog, which links to this page. Last time it was an ad campaign for Irredeemable ... I wonder if this new campaign is somehow tied to that book or if it's for a new title entirely.

D23 Expo

Disney's D23 Expo kicks off today at the Anaheim Convention Center. The four-day event brings together all the various aspects of the Disney company -- from theme parks to movies to TV to yes, even comics -- under one roof, for panels, screenings, autograph signings and of course the opportunity to buy some Disney stuff. The complete schedule can be found here.

As I first mentioned back in June, BOOM! Studios, which publishes licensed comics based on several Disney properties, will be there and will have two booths at the show. Mark Waid, BOOM!'s editor-in-chief and writer of The Incredibles comic, will be at BOOM!'s display booth in the Disney Consumer Products area (#2209-41) Friday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Grace Randolph and Amy Mebberson, who also have worked on some of the titles, will be there throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. BOOM! will also have a booth in the Collector's Forum area, #430, where they'll be selling many of their Disney titles.

Other guests at the show include Tim Burton, Robert Zemeckis, Nicholas Cage, Courteney Cox, John Lasseter and many more. Panels will focus on upcoming films like The Princess and the Frog, Tron: Legacy, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, among others. And no, there's no mention of anything Marvel-related, nor would I expect there to be considering the deal isn't final. Maybe next year, though.

My wife's a huge Disney fan -- this is kind of like her Comic-Con -- so we'll be there Friday through Sunday. I plan to post pictures on the CBR Live blog throughout the day, God and iPhone willing, and will likely blog about it when I get a chance. So check back this weekend for updates.

Flights of Fantasy

When Mark Waid concedes someone knows more than he does on a subject (in this case the 1940s ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN radio program), it gets my attention. Both at his BOOM! blog, as well as a review at Amazon, Waid wrote in praise of Michael J. Hayde's 536-page book, Flights of Fantasy: The Unauthorized but True Story of Radio & TV's Adventures of Superman. So I tracked Hayde (a self-described "writer and researcher of radio & television history") down to discuss his book in an email interview. In the interview, we also discuss his upcoming interview (tomorrow [August 28] at 11:30 PM [EST]) with Howard Margolin for Margolin's show Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction over WUSB-FM.

Tim O'Shea: How satisfying was it when Mark Waid (popular comics writer and current EIC of BOOM Comics) wrote: "I’m as big a fan and student of the 1940s ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN radio program as anyone alive, and I thought I was the expert. I was wrong. Added bonus: I learned GOBS from Flights of Fantasy about the 1950s television show...The book is well-written, well put-together, detailed without being mind-numbing (YMMV), and a testament to stupendous research."

Michael J. Hayde: That was a HUGE thrill! I didn’t know Mark personally, but people who did were plugging the book simply because he liked it. He wrote in his review for Amazon.com that he’d been researching the “Superman” radio show for 30 years. That’s about 27 years more than me. That I was able to uncover things he didn’t know doesn’t speak badly about his research, but about the sorry state of accessible information about the radio show. Very little material was available, so some bad guesses were made by a few historians and authors over the years. Anthony Tollin, the historian for Radio Spirits, tried to correct some of these myths in the booklets that accompanied the audio box sets back in the late 1990’s, but they didn’t reach a wide audience. Just last year, a radio-themed book mentioned a “limited regional run” of “Superman” radio shows during 1939. That’s a myth. The four episodes that have been cited as “evidence” of such a run were audition recordings that never aired. Superman’s radio debut was during the week of February 12, 1940, period.

O'Shea: What were some of the hardest aspects of the history to research?

Hayde: Certainly the lengthiest part was gathering information about the radio series. Fortunately, I had help from one of the finest old-time radio historians alive: Elizabeth McLeod. She sent me a list of “must-see” publications, most of which were available at the Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland, College Park. One of their archivists, Michael Henry, steered me to other appropriate resources.

O'Shea: In your research, what do you consider to be some of the more obscure gems of historical information you were able to uncover?

Hayde: There were a lot of these. I guess, aside from the unused scenes from the TV scripts, my favorite was unearthing the details behind Kellogg’s exit from the radio show in 1947. That was one of the biggest mysteries, because the show was still one of the highest-rated juvenile programs. It won its time slot every day and had a large adult audience to boot.

O'Shea: Have you been a fan of the radio shows since childhood, or did your appreciation take root in a more recent period?

Hayde: I was a fan of the George Reeves TV show from early childhood. My appreciation of the radio series came while I was researching the book.

O'Shea: Out of the various folks involved with the shows' history, who do you most wish you could have interviewed but were unable to (due to them no-longer being alive or other less permanent logistical obstacles)?

Hayde: Undoubtedly that would be producer Robert Maxwell, who died in 1971. As near as I can tell, he gave no interviews during the “Superman” years and precious few afterwards. Another would be writer Ben Peter Freeman. He lived until 1991, and that he apparently was never interviewed about his years as a “Superman” scribe for both radio and TV astonishes me.

O'Shea: You call the book "the Unauthorized, but True Story"--did you try to get the book to be authorized at some point, or is that more of a marketing device to get potential readers attention?

Hayde: It’s mostly a marketing device, but I also wanted the freedom to write without a corporate entity like DC Comics looking over my shoulder. Not that I was going to say anything that would trash their property, but I think they could have treated some of their people better – beginning with Siegel & Shuster, naturally – and I wanted to say so.

O'Shea: The book features "'Deleted scenes' direct from TV scripts"--how did you get access to the TV scripts?

Hayde: They were at the Library of Congress! National Comics (DC’s then-corporate name) had each one registered for copyright, as well as the episode films themselves. Most production companies only registered the completed films. Being a publisher, National had the scripts registered as well. Only two were missing: “The Monkey Mystery,” which was apparently overlooked as the Library has no record of it, and “Crime Wave,” which was checked out in 1984 by somebody and never returned.

O'Shea: The book exceeds 500 pages. Were you able to fit everything you wanted to in the book?

Hayde: The great thing about my publisher, BearManor Media, was that I could have all the space I wanted. A fellow author advised me to split the work in two: one book for radio and one for TV. I rejected that because I specifically wanted the TV show fans to learn about the radio series and vice-versa. They’re both closely intertwined and comprise a single, fascinating story.

O'Shea: You wrote in the book: "Had Superman on radio failed to capture a mass audience, there would have been no Superman cartoons, no Superman movie serials, no novels, no TV series, no feature film franchise... and the Superman comic books would probably have perished." Was this something you believed before embarking upon the book, or is this a belief you reached in the process of researching it?

Hayde: This thesis emerged during the course of writing. Of course, Action Comics was a phenomenon, and its success led to the “Superman” newspaper strip. But the cultural graveyard is packed with comic books and strips that didn’t stand the test of time, and more than a few that were popular were “taken down” when critics like Frederic Wertham were given a wide forum. “Superman” came to radio about a year after the newspaper strip debuted and almost immediately out-performed its competition. Its players voiced the earliest Max Fleischer “Superman” cartoons. The cartoons only lasted two years. Would the comic strip’s popularity also diminished if the radio show wasn’t still drawing a big audience? The ratings suggest “Adventures of Superman” was being heard by many more people than those who purchased comic books, especially adult women. Then, in 1946, the radio show began airing stories pitting Superman against racism, religious persecution and juvenile delinquency. The goodwill that this generated from civic organizations and the press helped protect the character when Wertham first rose to prominence two years later. Additionally, both of the Kirk Alyn “Superman” serials were based on radio storylines. So radio’s “Superman” had a direct impact on all of the character’s film adaptations until the first Christopher Reeve movie.

O'Shea: Did you intentionally release the book the same year that marked the 50th anniversary of George Reeves' death or was the timing merely coincidental?

Hayde: I originally hoped to have it finished in time for Superman’s 70th anniversary in 2008. That proved to be an unreachable goal. The Reeves anniversary was, I guess, fortuitous but Flights of Fantasy speaks very little to his unfortunate death. I focused much more on his accomplishments and changing attitude toward portraying Superman.

O'Shea: Have you gotten feedback from anyone involved in the shows from that era or from their families?

Hayde: Not yet, but hopefully that will come.

O'Shea: Your website mentions a few documentaries and DVD extras you've contributed to, thanks to your knowledge--do you have any upcoming appearances folks might want to keep an eye out for?

Hayde: Yes! On August 28, I’ll be interviewed by Howard Margolin for his show Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction over WUSB-FM. This is one of the longest-running radio shows devoted to sci-fi, and Howard has had several prominent guests over the years, including various “Superman” writers and artists. I’m honored to have been invited to appear, and it was pretty much on the strength of Mark Waid’s comments. Your readers can listen at WUSB-FM.

O'Shea: Touring in support of the book, you've gotten to meet some interesting folks, can you tell us a little bit about meeting Ms. Noel Neill (the movies' first Lois Lane) and radio & TV legend Joe Franklin?

Hayde: I’ve met Noel several times over the years; she’s a delight. Of course her book “Truth, Justice and the American Way” was one of my primary resources in compiling the history of the TV show. It was a joy to see her again in Metropolis. That was my first visit to “Superman’s Home Town,” and they really do treat her like the First Lady, and rightfully so. She’s got a lot of charm and tells some great stories.

Joe Franklin is a treasure. I loved his “Memory Lane” show when I was growing up in the New York metro area. I think I was the only kid on my block that was happy when the Mets were rained out, because it meant that WOR would put Joe on, and he’d play old movies or records, or just tell great stories. I was interviewed by phone on his radio show for my first book (My Name’s Friday: The Unauthorized but True Story of ‘Dragnet’ and the Films of Jack Webb), and it was a thrill to meet him.

O'Shea: Are you already at work on another book or have plans for one in the near term?

Hayde: My immediate goal is to do all I can to make Flights of Fantasy a success. Maybe in a year or two I’ll be ready to tackle another book, if I can find a subject that interests me, and which hasn’t received the attention it deserves.

The Anchor

Writer Phil Hester is clearly enthused about his new creator-owned collaboration with artist Brian Churilla on BOOM's The Anchor. Not all creators are game to discuss the mechanics of the craft, and I was pleased when Hester was game. In addition to mechanics, we get to discuss the series ([Pre-Order at Your Local Comic Shop by August 25, 2009 {Today}; Diamond order code: AUG090716] set to launch in October).  As detailed at the BOOM! site: "THE ANCHOR. Holy warrior, unholy war. Freak of nature, beast of burden, hulking outcast, medieval prize fighter, Viking raider... God's leg-breaker. One thousand years ago a hulking outcast sought refuge in the crumbling ruins of an ancient monastery and offered in return the one thing he had to give - his fists. Transformed into an immortal warrior monk standing at the gates of Hell itself to keep our world free from its invading armies, The Anchor is mysteriously tricked into centuries of slumber. But today, this holy warrior rises to battle all the unholy monsters unleashed during his slumber." Be sure to also check out this preview of issue 1.

Tim O'Shea: What attracted you to working with BOOM! on this project, as opposed to pitching it to other companies?

Phil Hester: In all honesty, we pitched it a lot of places at once, and though other publishers made us offers BOOM! was the only place that saw our pitch and said "yes" without reservations. Also, they have a good reputation with retailers and fans, and among pros they're known as a publisher that will hustle their collective ass off to get your book in front of eyes.

O'Shea: How helpful has BOOM! editorial staff been in refining the book, or were they fairly hands off?

Hester: That's one of the other benefits. Many times when you're doing a creator owned book for a smallish publisher the creative team is set adrift editorially and promotionally. At BOOM! Matt Gagnon has been making schedules and holding us to them from day one. As far as the concept and story go, Ross Richie (lord of BOOM!) and Mark Waid seem to be the kind of guys who understand that the most important editorial decisions come in picking a cool project and trusting the creators who brought it to you in the first place. That said, it always pays to have another set of eyes on the book and Matt has been offering pretty spot-on advice as we've rolled along.

O'Shea: In a recent CBR article, you mentioned that series artist Brian Churilla's work was in the same vein of many great artists, including Wally Wood. It seems you don't see many folks mention Wood's name these days. That made me curious, what about Churilla's work reminds you of Wood?

Hester: He understands lighting. I know that sounds simple, but Woody understood how to give characters depth and weight with the way light and shadow played across their forms. Brian has that same impulse.

O'Shea: How do you strike a balance of giving enough of a tease about The Anchor's backstory, to gain reader's interest, without giving too much of the mystery away?

Hester: I wish I knew. Imagine how much a drag season 1 of Lost would be knowing everything you know by season 5. I want people to be surprised in every issue of The Anchor, but understand that in today's comic market it's simply too much to ask a reader to take a chance on a project sight unseen. So, my answer is a non-answer, I guess. We're walking that tightrope and guessing at just how much leg to show, to mix metaphors.

O'Shea: Back to the art, how much is Churilla's work (which you already respected, obviously) boosted by colorists Dave Stewart (who colored the initial series preview) and Matthew Wilson (who is coloring the series)?

Hester: Dave colored only the preview in an attempt to get the book as one of his assignments at a publisher he had an existing relationship with. That didn't pan out, but he was cool enough to let us use that pitch for promotional purposes. He and Brian are buddies. That said, I think Dave's the most important colorist of the last twenty years or so, and asking Matthew to work in that vein isn't an insult. He's done a bang up job in that regard, too.

The bottom line for me is coloring that enhances the art and doesn't overpower it. Brian is making great decisions and sometimes modern comics coloring tries to usurp a lot of those choices. Not so on this book.

O'Shea: When the lead character's job is to be God's own leg-breaker, how hard is it to inject humor into a story where the forces of hell are involved?

Hester: I think any great action story is leavened by humor, in fact the action probably primes the audience for some kind of relief. I think our humor will come from an anachronism like The Anchor strolling around the twenty-first century.

O'Shea: You have already decided to expand Little Saint's role, due to the positive reaction from readers of the preview. Why do you think the character struck such a chord with characters and how surprised were you by the strong response?

Hester: I was pretty shocked. We invented him as an expository device for the pitch, but he seemed to click with nearly every publisher to whom we submitted the book. In my original plot for the book he comes and goes in just a few issues, but I already have plans for working him back in. I don't know, people must be pretty morbid- they like comics with dead kids in them.

BOOM!'s last slide

Well, at Comic-Con today, their last slide at their panel teased what appears to be another Mark Waid project of some sort. "Mark Waid is incorruptible." I figured the guy who wrote Incredibles couldn't be all bad.

Check out their full schedule after the jump.

COMIC-CON '09 BOOM! STUDIOS EXCLUSIVES:

* KILL AUDIO PREVIEW BOOK - $5
* KILL AUDIO VINYL TOY "Monotone Variant" $40
* FARSCAPE Vol. 1 Limited Edition HC "Scorpius Edition" - $50
* THE MUPPET SHOW COMIC BOOK HC, Limited to 250 - $50
* THE INCREDIBLES: FAMILY MATTERS HC, Limited to 250 - $50
* CARS: THE ROOKIE HC, Limited to 250 - $50
* THE INCREDIBLES: FAMILY MATTERS #1 C,D Holofoils - $20
* IRREDEEMABLE #4 Cassaday Sketch Variant - $10

Kill Audio preview book

SCHEDULED SIGNINGS AND PANELS:

Wednesday, July 22 - Preview Night
6:00 - 9:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
6:00 - 7:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
7:00 - 8:00 - Mark Waid Signing

Thursday, July 23
9:30 - 7:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
11:00 - 12:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
12:00 - 1:00 - Mark Waid Signing
12:30 - 1:30 - Indie Comics Marketing 101 Panel with Chip Mosher ROOM 4
1:30 - 2:30 - Spotlight on Jerry Robinson Moderated by Waid ROOM 4
3:30 - 4:30 - Digital Comics Now! Panel with Chip Mosher ROOM 4
4:00-5:00 - Spotlight on Gail Simone Moderated by Waid ROOM 5B
6:00 - 7:00 - Mark Waid Signing
9:00 - ?:?? - BOOM! Drink Up hosted by Mark Waid at the Manchester Hyatt Grand Lobby Bar

Friday, July 24
9:30 - 7:00 – Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
10:15 - 11:15 - Farscape 10th Anniversary Panel ROOM 6BCF
11:00 - 12:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
1:00 - 2:00 - BOOM! Studios Panel ROOM 32AB
2:00 - 3:00 - Mark Waid Signing
2:00 - 3:00 - Farscape’s Rockne S. O’Bannon Signing
3:00 - 4:00 - Eureka’s Andrew Cosby and Ed Quinn Signing
4:00 - 5:00 - Claudio Sanchez Signing
5:00 - 6:00 - Mark Waid Signing

Saturday, July 25
9:30 - 7:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
10:00 - 11:00 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
11:30 - 12:30 - Spotlight on Sheldon Moldoff Moderated by Waid ROOM 10
1:00 - 2:00 - Mark Waid Signing
2:30 - 3:30 - BOOM! Farscape Comics Panel ROOM 10
3:45 - 4:45 - Farscape’s Rockne S. O’Bannon Signing
4:00 - 5:00 - Claudio Sanchez Signing
5:00 - 6:00 - Mark Waid Signing

Sunday, July 26
9:30 - 5:00 - Roger Langridge, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Michael Alan Nelson signing all day
10:00-11:00 - BOOM! The Muppet Show Panel w/ Roger Langridge ROOM 32AB
11:30 - 12:30 - Exclusive Disney Pixar Hardcover signing w/ Langridge, Waid, Porter
2:00 - 3:00 - Mark Waid Signing
2:00 - 3:00 - Art of Pixar's Cars w/ Alan Porter ROOM 5AB

Irredeemable #5

BOOM! Studios announced yesterday that the first Irredeemable trade, which collects issues 1-4 of the superhero-turned-villain series by Mark Waid and Peter Krause, will retail for $9.99. In addition, issue #5 will cost 99 cents.

"That means you can get caught up on the whole series for just $11 bucks," the press release said. Both books will ship on the same day.

Irredeemable #5 will ship with three covers in a 50/25/25 split by Gene Ha (right), Dennis Calero and Dan Panosian. Irredeemable Volume 1 TPB features a variation of the cover art by John Cassaday for the first issue of the series and reprints the afterword by Grant Morrison that appeared in issue #1.

Check out the other two covers for issue 5 and the trade cover after the jump.

*****

Irredeemable #5

Irredeemable #5

Irredeemable Vol. 1 TPB

DMZ on Google Maps

Internet | Brian Wood uses Google Maps to highlight key locations from his Vertigo series DMZ.

Social media | Twitter, apparently, has taken the place of message boards as the preferred arena for fights between comic pros and gossip columnists.

Last Friday, an online dust-up occurred between comics writer Mark Waid and former All the Rage columnist Rich Johnston. You can read their respective takes on it here and here.

It was certainly a lot easier to follow the back-and-forth flames in the old days of message boards. Kids and their crazy newfangled internet tools ...

Digital comics | And now a look at the gentler side of Twitter ... also on Friday, Johnston interviewed Ryan Penagos, aka Agent_M, about Marvel.com and Marvel's Digital Comics Initiative. The interview took place on Twitter.

Internet | The New York Times talks to artists who were recently invited by Google to contribute artwork that would be used on their web browser, Google Chrome. Google asked them to do it for exposure rather than pay. (via)