Paolo Rivera
Paolo Rivera’s extremely limited-edition ‘Iron Man 3′ poster
“Extremely limited edition” in this case means “you can’t have one.”
Artist Paolo Rivera has more reason than most to take pride in the box office success of Iron Man 3: He has blogged before about how thrilled he was that an early poster for the movie was based on his cover for Iron Man #63, and now he’s written about his emotional investment in seeing the film for the first time.
This would be noteworthy enough in its own right, but the piece is accompanied by a spectacular print that he’s painted exclusively for the cast and crew of the production. Rivera had previously produced a suitably 1940s-looking poster for those working on Captain America: The First Avenger, and the Iron Man 3 print is designed to resemble a battered old pulp novel (suitably enough, given the styling of the end credits animation and the origins of Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black’s previous collaboration). This is an extremely cool piece of art, and as exclusive as any limited edition poster you’re likely to see — do not expect to see copies of this one ever turning up on eBay (unlike, say, the gougers flogging his “Precious Cargo” at a helluva mark-up).
Watch the trailer for Ghostface Killah’s ‘Twelve Reasons to Die’
Halo 8 Entertainment has released a trailer for Ghostface Killah’s Twelve Reasons to Die, the upcoming comic series from the rapper and his fellow Wu-Tang Clan member RZA, who’s serving as producer.
Debuting May 29 from Black Mask Studios, following the release of the album by the same name, Twelve Reasons to Die blends horror and crime for “a brutal tale of gangsters, betrayal and one vengeful soul hunting the 12 most powerful crimelords in the world.”
What’s impressive, though, is the lineup of cover and interior artists: Tim Seeley (Revival, Hack/Slash), Paolo Rivera (Daredevil), Francesco Francavilla (Black Beetle, Detective Comics), Ramon Perez (Tale of Sand), Ben Templesmith (30 Days Of Night), Riley Rossmo (Bedlam), Garry Brown (The Massive), Jim Mahfood (Tank Girl), Kyle Strahm (Haunt), Toby Cypress (Blue Estate), Tyler Crook (B.P.R.D.), Joe Infurnari (Mush!), Breno Tamura (Pigs), Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), Gus Storms (Space Creep), Chris Mitten (30 Days of Night) and Ron Wimberly (Prince of Cats).
Twelve Reasons to Die was co-created by Ghostface Killer and Adrian Younge, and written by Matthew Rosenberg and Patrick Kindlon.
David Petersen and Paolo Rivera among Spectrum finalists
The gold and silver finalists were selected over the weekend for the 20th Spectrum Fantastic Art Annual, which honors the best in fantasy, science fiction and horror art.
Tor.com has the complete rundown of the nominees in all the categories, ranging from advertising to books to concept art — readers will recognize such names as Shaun Tan, Charles Vess, Dan Dos Santos and Greg Ruth — but what we’re really interested in are the comics finalists. You’ll find those below, with their art.
The winners will be announced at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live, held May 17-19 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Food or Comics? | Unsweetened chocolate or Uncanny X-Men
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a splurge item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
Uncanny X-Men #1
Corey Blake
If I had $15, I’d be tempted to blow it all on the recolored Death of Superman collection for the ’90s nostalgia. But then I’d probably flip through it and come to my senses, and instead get something new like Fatale #12 ($3.50) by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, which looks like it’s going to be a trip, flashing back to Medieval times but self-contained as a good entry point for new readers. That’s smart comics. Speaking of smarty-pants, I’d probably get The Manhattan Projects #9 ($3.50) by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra. It’s the first part of a two-part story about scientists trying to take over the world. There will probably be lots of words that leave me dizzy. I likely wouldn’t be able to resist Matt Wagner writing The Shadow: Year One #1 ($3.99) because, you know, The Shadow knows. I haven’t been following IDW’s G.I. Joe universe but G.I. Joe #1 ($3.99) by Fred Van Lente and Steve Kurth seems like a good opportunity to try it out. And I’d finish it off with Cyber Force #3 by Marc Silvestri and Koi Pham because it’s free.
With $30, I would add to the above. Darkhawk is on the cover of Avengers Arena #4 ($2.99) by Dennis Hopeless and Alessandro Vitti, so I’d be compelled to buy that. I’ve been meaning to check out Erik Burnham and Dan Schoening’s Ghostbusters since I hear it’s real fun, so the relaunched Ghostbusters #1 ($3.99) is a perfect opportunity. Morning Glories #24 ($2.99) by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma seems too intriguing to pass up. I am so behind on the X-books, but I’d be real tempted to try Brian Michael Bendis and Chris Bachalo’s Uncanny X-Men #1 ($3.99).
My splurge item would be tough. I’d be real tempted to get either the Iron Man Omnibus collecting the entire run of David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr., including the famous alcoholism story, or Counter X: Generation X – Four Days by Brian Wood. But I’d probably end up instead getting the Daredevil By Mark Waid, Vol. 1 hardcover for $35. I don’t know, do I need to justify this purchase? It’s probably the most beloved superhero comic of last year, maybe for the last couple of years. It paved the way for similarly rejuvenating series at Marvel like Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, and Young Avengers. The art by Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin is swoon-worthy. And it wants to be on my bookshelf, dagnabbit!
Watch Paolo Rivera draw a Daredevil cover in 11 minutes
Yes, I realize I just posted something about Paolo Rivera on Friday, but this is too good to pass up: The artist has put together a time-lapse video detailing his process for Daredevil #22 (above). It’s at 20 times the normal speed, compressing three hours of work into just 11 minutes.
“It’s a pretty straight forward time lapse, but there are 3 things that I’d like to point out as you watch,” Rivera writes on his blog. “First, I use reference of my own hand to facilitate the drawing process. This photo is taken on the fly using Photo Booth on my iMac. It’s as easy as using a mirror, but with more options. Second, I employ a digital perspective template of my own design for the background. It’s extremely useful, but has a steep learning curve — I plan on releasing it to the public later this year. Lastly, toward the end of the video, you can see that I had trouble with Daredevil’s legs as he’s scaling Stilt-Man’s serpentine legs. The cover as a whole went pretty smoothly, but it took me a long time to find a pose for him that didn’t look totally awkward to me. Spidey, on the other hand, was a breeze — characters who are flying/falling are always easier to draw since they don’t have to interact with any other entities.”
Check out Paolo Rivera’s cover for The Walking Dead ’100 Project’
Paolo Rivera has debuted his stunning contribution The Hero Initiative’s latest “100 Project,” in which 100 artists draw their own covers for the milestone 100th issue of The Walking Dead. The covers, by the likes of Charlie Adlard, Kevin Eastman, Dan Brereton, Mark dos Santos and, yes, Robert Kirkman, will be collected in a book (for sale sometime this year), with the originals auctioned off to benefit The Hero Initiative.
In his blog post, Rivera also reveals he’ll be doing his very first work for DC Comics: a variant cover for Action Comics #18.
Paolo Rivera creates LOTR-themed ‘Precious Cargo’ print for Mondo
Paolo Rivera has become the latest comic artist to produce a poster for design house supreme Mondo: It’s a great composition, centering on a key scene from The Lord of the Rings, in a 10-color (!) screen print. Like all of Mondo’s designs, it will be strictly limited on a first come, first served basis, so follow them on Twitter to find out when it becomes available.
Exclusive Preview | Daredevil #22
How do you follow last week’s big status-quo shakeup in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, in which Doctor Octopus assumes the mantle of the wall-crawler? For starters, how about a team-up between the Superior Spider-Man and the Man Without Fear?
Courtesy of Marvel arrives an exclusive expanded preview from Daredevil #22, by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee and Paolo Rivera, which also sees the return of Stilt-Man! That does seem like a job for Spider-Man — or at least Doc Ock. The issue goes on sale Jan. 16.
Art for Sandy Relief: Bid on cool art to help hurricane victims
Art for Sandy Relief
Hurricane Sandy left a wake of devastation across the East Coast last week, and following the superstorm’s destruction come efforts to help those who were affected by it. One of the great things about the comic industry is that there are always people who work in it willing to do what they can to help people out, and this time is no different.
Art for Sandy Relief is an effort by Rich Ginter and Jim Viscardi. Viscardi currently works at Marvel in New York, while Rich left Marvel earlier this year to take a job as a digital designer in Disney’s publishing department in Glendale, Calif. He made the move to California just two months before the hurricane hit his former home.
Both gentleman were kind enough to answer some questions about the initiative. Before getting into it, though, their first art auctions went live today, and you can head over to eBay to bid on them now. Rich also shares some other ways that you can help out below, either via direct donation, by donating art or just by spreading the word.
Here are the auctions that are currently up:
- Amazing Spider-Man #577 page 19 artwork by Paolo Rivera, donated personally by him. If the piece raises $400 or more, he will donate another piece.
- Fear Agent #28 page 22 by Tony Moore and Mike Hawthorne, donated by Zack Rosenberg
- Batman TV Series Villains by Ejay Russell
- Doctor Doom by Tommy Lee Edwards, donated by Pat Loika
- Captain America by John Paul Leon, donated by Pat Loika
Paolo Rivera looks back on 2008′s Mythos: Captain America
Paolo Rivera’s blog posts are always interesting and informative, but few can top this reflection on Mythos: Captain America, his 2008 collaboration with Paul Jenkins that retold the origin of the Sentinel of Liberty (it was part of a series of one-shots that, in Rivera’s words, was designed to “bridge the gap between Marvel comics and Marvel movies”).
Sprinkled liberally with Rivera’s stunning work, the post also serves as a reminder of how quickly the artist has risen through the ranks of comics talent since 2006, when the Mythos series debuted. “The series did less than amazing in terms of sales, but Marvel still followed through with the project until we had enough issues to collect into a beautiful hardcover,” he recalls. “If nothing else, it proved to be a fantastic platform for jumpstarting my career — aside from being paired with a top-tier writer, I got to illustrate the cream of the crop in terms of Marvel characters. And all that while I was still a rookie: when they gave me the job, I had painted just 34 pages for them.”
What Are You Reading? with Jay Faerber
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what’s been on our nightstands lately. Our guest this week is Jay Faerber, writer of Dynamo 5, Near Death and Noble Causes. The second Near Death trade just came out this week, and his new comic, Point of Impact, comes out Oct. 10.
To see what Jay and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
Wondering what the fuss is about? Download Daredevil #1 for free
If, for some reason, you haven’t been reading Marvel’s relaunched Daredevil series and were puzzled by all of those Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards for the comic and for the creative team of Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera and Joe Rivera, and yet still hadn’t checked out the title — well, now you have no excuse: Marvel and comiXology are offering Daredevil #1 for free in digital form.
No grousing about how you don’t like to read on the screen; just go download the comic and enjoy.
The Middle Ground #108 | Something in the air tonight
It’s one of those weeks when you see things that are connected, and feel the pull of something larger behind all of them, just waiting to happen. You might not know what that “something larger” is, necessarily, but you know it’s there, and that’s somehow enough to make you simultaneously impatient for it; both nervous of and oddly exhilarated by whatever will come afterward.
Rivera leaving Daredevil to work on creator-owned comics
Rivera's secret project
Following in the footsteps of Marcos Martin, who left Marvel’s Daredevil to focus on creator-owned work, Paolo Rivera is leaving the title for similar reasons. Rivera’s last issue was #10.
“So why am I leaving? The short answer: ownership,” Rivera said on his blog. “With the exception of just a few published pieces of art (which belong to other companies), Marvel owns the copyrights to my entire professional portfolio. And why shouldn’t they? I was, of course, compensated fairly for it, and for that I’m grateful — but the sum total of that work is not enough to support me in the distant future. My page rate is essentially the same as when I started at 21, so I’ve decided to invest in myself. What I create in the next decade needs to pay dividends when my vision gets blurry and my hands start to shake (and who knows what else). Now is the time to make that choice, while I’m still young, possess ‘great power,’ but have few responsibilities.”
This doesn’t mean the end of his relationship withe Marvel, however. “…I’m not done with Marvel by any means. They’ve been nothing but supportive throughout my decision, as has been the case throughout my career. I will continue to do covers for them and occasional projects as I see fit, just not exclusively.” It’s a very classy exit post from a classy guy, so be sure to head over to his blog to read the whole thing. He also teased a secret project he’s got in the works on Twitter.
Daredevil, written by Mark Waid, is arguably Marvel’s most critically acclaimed title right now; in fact, the word “arguably” in that statement is probably the most arguable part of it. It was certainly a favorite in Robot 6′s year-end round-up of our favorite titles, and it topped Comic Book Resources’ top comics of 2011. Chris Samnee, who joined the title recently on rotating arcs with Rivera, is taking over as the artist of the title full time.
What Are You Reading? with Ryan Ferrier
Hell Yeah #3
Happy Mother’s Day and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Ryan Ferrier, who I spoke to a couple of weeks ago about his comic Tiger Lawyer and recently kicked off an Indie GoGo project to fund the second issue.
To see what Ryan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.