Comic Book Resources

Straight for the art | Paul Pope's "Shakedown"

"Shakedown" by Paul Pope

I have no idea what this was drawn for, but c'mon, like I'm not gonna post a Paul Pope picture of a naked girl rocking out on a strategically placed guitar.

Paul Pope, Dustin Harbin do Dune

Dune art by Paul Pope

Cartoonist and Heroes Con creative director Dustin Harbin is obviously a comics guy. But even for sequential-art partisans, every once in a while the literary spice must flow. Thus Harbin has created the Dune book club, a weekly discussion of the original science-fiction classic by author Frank Herbert, hosted on Harbin's blog. In addition to thought-provoking posts and comment-thread chats about the book, which Harbin calls "probably my favorite novel ever," the book club is also something of an art club, with Harbin, Paul Pope, Patrick Keck, Peter Lazarski, Pen Ward, Thomas "Smo" Smolenski, and Evan Dahm all providing luscious comics and stand-alone illustrations based on the book. (Pope, another big-time Dune devotee, had already drawn a scene from the book in the style of a Wednesday Comics page.) Personally, I'm waiting for someone to take a crack at a sandworm.

Quote of the day | Paul Pope on lessons learned from Wednesday Comics

Paul Pope draws Dune

"I wanted to try applying the lessons learned from the Wednesday Comics experience to a different subject, here finding a source which would be difficult to illustrate as a page of comics, given that there is very little suggested action. I find that with the format of Wednesday Comics (which is really the traditional Sunday Comics page), one must condense the plot and action to the briefest yet most vivid bursts of information available-- there is a lot of space on the page for the illustrations to really overwhelm the reader/viewer, but there isn't a lot of space for story development in the sense of how we'd develop a plot or work up dialogue for a typical comic book page. In a comic book, one page may be well drawn or well written, but it is still just a single facet of a larger whole. One page can be preceded or followed by another, but no one page carries the entire weight of the sustained narrative. The Wednesday Comics single page format forces the artist to create a story unit which may well be part of a larger storyline, however it still must be able to stand alone."

--Paul Pope

(Also, click the link to check out his really awesome Dune artwork).

Video: Paul Pope illustrates Complex Magazine photo shoot

Complex Magazine enlisted artist Paul Pope to illustrate their models as part of a photo spread. Here's a video of Marc Ecko and Pope talking about how they approached it, along with some of Pope's art:

FYI, while there's no nudity, there are scantily clad models rolling around on the floor, so it might be NSFW in some instances ...

(Thanks, Tim!)

Paul Pope channels Akira Kurosawa for new poster

Yojimbo by Paul Pope

The pop culture fashion site Nakatomi Inc. has a limited edition T-shirt and poster available from Paul Pope. The poster, above, is called Yojimbo, after the Akira Kurosawa film of the same name.

"The central calligraphy reads 'Yojimbo' and the banner in the circle device at bottom reads 'Toshiro Mifune' with the actor's birth and death dates," the creator wrote on his blog.

The shirt features "Watson Robot Industries" from his THB comic series. The set is limited to 250 copies and are available this month only.

Paul Pope debuts his Adam Strange adventure

Adam Strange from "Wednesday Comics," by Paul Pope Jose Villarrubia

I'd told myself that, despite my fondness for many of the creators involved, I wasn't going to post anything more for a while about DC Comics' upcoming Wednesday Comics miniseries. But then I saw that Paul Pope had uploaded to his Flickr account the first installment of his Adam Strange serial, and I happily went back on my promise.

The art is colored by Pope's Batman: Year 100 collaborator Jose Villarrubia whom, he notes, is limiting his palette to the 144 colors available to publishers in the 1940s.

The weekly Wednesday Comics kicks off on July 8.

Paul Pope draws butt-kicking, panther-fighting young Spock

From "When Worlds Collide" Star Trek comic, illustrated by Paul Pope

The only thing better than a teen-aged Spock taking down an alien panther with an old-fashioned Vulcan nerve pinch is having the whole thing illustrated by Paul Pope.

The May issue of Wired magazine is guest-edited J.J. Abrams and, unsurprisingly, contains a healthy dose of Star Trek-related content -- including a six-page Spock comic called "When Worlds Collide," penned by screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and drawn by Pope.

According to TrekMovie.com, the comic features an aged Spock remembering the years his youth, from his panther-fighting days to his early time aboard the Enterprise.

TrekMovie and io9.com both have excerpts from the comic.

(Thanks, Tom)

Paul Pope covers Hexed hardcover

Hexed cover by Paul Pope

Over in the BOOM! Studios forum, BOOM!'s Chip Mosher posts Paul Pope's cover to the upcoming hardcover collection of Hexed. The book is due in July.

Via Ian Brill

Loverman, oh where can you be?

Pope's 'Loverman'

I was looking for an excuse to post this Paul Pope page for a story he's doing for the French magazine Pilote. And then I remembered: It's Paul Pope, man. No excuse is needed.

Hornschemeier, Pope, Rugg and more in Marvel anthology

Because I was at WonderCon, I missed this past weekend's MyCup 'o Joe when it popped up on MySpace, but Paul Hornschemeier points out a question from a fan about Marvel's upcoming "indie project," for lack of a better name (and I'm sure there is one) that'll feature stories by Hornschemeier, Jim Rugg, Stan Sakai, Paul Pope and, holy crap, Jason, among others:

Paul Pope draws the Marvel Universe

At the New York Comic Con, CB Cebulski mentioned that the Marvel "Indie Project" was coming along nicely. I'm wondering if you could tell us any of the talent involved or tease some artwork. Anyone in particular you are stoked to have on board?

JQ: It's definitely moving forward—and looking better and better every day. There are some huge names in indy comics involved with this project and we couldn't be more excited about the work they're turning in. Just to name a few of the talents involved, we've got Paul Pope, Stan Sakai, Paul Hornschemeier, Dash Shaw, Junko Mizuno, Jim Rugg, Corey Lewis…and a bunch more small press superstars contributing some truly amazing stories. We just got some outstanding pages in from the cartoonist JASON and I gotta tell you, this is going to be one awesome book. Stay tuned!

Marvel.com has several sample pages, including one from Hornschemeier's Nightcrawler/Molecule Man story and Rugg's Machine Man story.

WonderCon | Paul Pope moves into The Unknown

The Unknown

During their panel at WonderCon today (or yesterday, I guess, as it is now past midnight -- crap, I need to go to bed) BOOM!revealed one of the covers for The Unknown ... this one by Paul Pope. Watch for my full panel report soon on the main CBR site. And by soon I mean most likely in the morning, as I'm sure all the sane people who work for CBR are asleep, while I'm still up and about.

Sleep awaits ...

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Achewood

Webcomics | Chris Onstad's enormously popular Achewood returned on Monday from its "official strip hiatus." [The A.V. Club]

Publishing | Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing were named Publishers of the Year in Diamond's annual Gem Awards, which recognize "outstanding suppliers in the comic book specialty market." Marvel's Secret Invasion #1 was dubbed Comic Book of the Year in the over-$3 division; Image's The Walking Dead #50 for under $3. DC Comics' Joker was named Original Graphic Novel of the Year. [Diamond Comic Distributors]

Conventions | Blogger Deb Aoki provides a manga-centric guide to this weekend's New York Comic Con. [About.com]

Creators | Congratulations to Jeff and Leslie-Anne Lemire on the birth of their son Gus Michael Lemire. [Top Shelf Productions]

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