Comic Book Resources

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.

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | Science Fiction Classics

Science Fiction Classics

Science Fiction Classics (Graphic Classics, Volume 17)
Written by Hans Christian Andersen, Ben Avery, Antonella Caputo, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Dunsany, Hunt Emerson, EM Forster. Rod Lott, Tom Pomplun, Rich Rainey, Jules Verne, Stanley G Weinbaum, and HG Wells

Illustrated by Hunt Emerson, Micah Farritor, Roger Langridge, Ellen L Lindner, Johnny Ryan, George Sellas, and Brad Teare

Edited by Tom Pomplun
Eureka Productions; $17.95

You might think that a book full of classic science fiction would be a natural subject to talk about in a column concerning adventure fiction, but I actually reconsidered it a couple of times. While I love robots, aliens, spaceships, and laser guns, I’m not someone that real science fiction fans would want to let into their club. Gimme Star Wars and Flash Gordon; you can keep your Asimov and Clarke over there. An anthology of the "classics" of scifi is likely going to need some serious spicing up to keep me interested. Fortunately, Science Fiction Classics has a full rack.

There are a couple of reasons that the anthology is appropriate for this space. First, it’s Volume 17 in Eureka’s Graphic Classics series. That means that there’s no way it’s going to be anything less than excellent in terms of how stories are selected and presented. Editor Tom Pomplun’s got the selection formula figured out and he’s great at executing it. He always has at least one, hugely popular story that everyone knows (War of the Worlds, for instance), but then he fills the rest of the book with lesser known material by a mixture of authors. The result is always surprising. Hans Christian Andersen and EM Forster aren’t exactly renowned for their scifi work, for example. And even writers who are – like Jules Verne – are represented by interesting picks (Verne’s “In the Year 2889,” for instance, instead of, say, From the Earth to the Moon).

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Android dreams: BOOM! previews Philip K. Dick maxi-series

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

BOOM! sent out five preview pages from their forthcoming comic book version of writer Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Androids, of course, was the 1968 novel that was the basis for the film Blade Runner.

Per BOOM!, this isn't an adaptation, but the full novel -- every word -- in comics form (which explains why the series will be 24 issues). They've even got the "he said/she said" text in it. BOOM! co-founder Ross Richie is doing panel descriptions for artist Tony Parker, and the first issue will have four different covers by Denis Calero, Bill Sienkiewicz, Scott Keating and Moritat (which is a retailer incentive cover). Ultimate Fantastic Four's Blond is coloring it, Richard Starkings' Comicraft is lettering it and Ian Brill is editing it.

But wait, there's more -- BOOM! has recruited a few people you may have heard of to provide "back matter" for the comic. Issue one will have back matter by Warren Ellis, Matt Fraction provides it for issue two, Ed Brubaker's on tap for issue three and Farscape creator Rockne S. O'Bannon is doing issue four.

All the covers and the first five pages from the first issue can be found after the jump.

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Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Anna Mercury

Anna Mercury, Volume 1: The Cutter

Anna Mercury: The Cutter
Written by Warren Ellis; Illustrated by Facundo Percio
Avatar; $19.99

I'm a late adapter about most things, but it seems especially true about Warren Ellis. I mean, I think he's one of the smartest people in the room when talking about the future of comics, but I can count on one hand the number of stories I've actually read by him. Fell, Ocean, and Orbiter are the only ones that immediately come to mind. I know I should at least read NextWave; I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I could easily derail this article by trying to analyze why I haven't read more of Ellis' stuff when I really do love what I've read so far. I'll skip that bit, but I think it has something to do with how smart he is and how I normally don't equate "smart" with "exciting."

I know I'm gonna get in trouble for that last statement, so let me explain. I don't think that intelligent writing equals boring, but so much of what I read from Ellis - in his newsletter; on his messageboard - is him talking about ideas. Where things are going and how best to capitalize on that. It's fascinating stuff, but I'm finding that as I consider picking up his fiction I have this expectation that it's going to be more of that. I mean, he's a science fiction writer. Science fiction is all about predicting the future and commenting about it through stories. And honestly? I'm not a fan of hard science fiction. Give me Flash Gordon and John Carter over 2001 and the Foundation Trilogy any day (you can see how up-to-date I am on the latest sci-fi).

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