scott morse
Comics A.M. | How digital changed Geoff Johns’ approach to writing
Aquaman #1
Digital comics | Geoff Johns explains how digital presentation made him re-evaluate his approach to writing Aquaman #1, as digital readers focus on stories panel by panel rather than page by page. He notes that they also spend more time on individual panels, taking in all the details before moving on: “It’s weird to go back and look at some of the old comics now. If you read something in this fashion you will notice stuff that you skipped over so quickly because your eye takes in the whole page instead of the panel individually. I think that’s probably one of the biggest advantages of digital.” Johns also reveals digital considerations have also led him to scale back on internal dialogue to “let the art and characters expressions speak for themselves.” [Variety]
Digital comics | On a related note, Shaun Huston ponders the challenges of making “comics as we know them” work on digital devices: “While there’s some latitude to read full pages on the iPad, and the Fire at 4.7” x 7.5” (or the Nooks) affords that option more realistically than the iPhone or similarly-sized devices, in all of these cases there will be situations where most readers will shift to Guided View in order to effectively see some particular detail on a page. For many, Guided View will be the primary choice, which is a qualitatively different experience than reading page-by-page. In fact, while in that mode, ‘the page’ arguably becomes irrelevant as panels are strung together into one linear sequence, rather than into a series of page-specific sequences.” [PopMatters]
- January 12, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Scott Morse and Skottie Young launch webcomic
Acclaimed artists Scott Morse and Skottie Young took their six-month-old sketchblog in a new dimension this morning with the debut of a not-yet-titled webcomic starring Asher and Spittle, anthropomorphic animals described as “our dynamic duo, our Laurel and Hardy, our Artoo and Threepio.”
“We’re creating these one page at a time with no outline to work from: we’re shooting from the hip,” Morse writes. “This could backfire and destroy comics and the internet itself … or succeed and make the internet a better place and comics the medium of choice for storytellers. Or at the very least make you smile twice weekly.”
Morse’s pages will update every Monday, while Young’s will appear every Friday.
- August 29, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Tr!ckster Symposia tickets go on sale Monday
Last month Scott Morse, Ted Mathot and many others announced Tr!ckster, a creator-focused event that will take place July 21-24 in San Diego. The event will feature an art gallery, retail space for participating creators and a series of symposia — “rigorous workshop events for focused creative individuals to add new ways of thinking to your work ethic.”
Creators like Skottie Young, Steve Niles, Mike Mignola, Jill Thompson, Mike Allred and many more will take about such topics as character design and development, art technique, visual storytelling and the creative process. They’ll run two a day July 21-24. While admission to Tr!ckster is free, you’ll need tickets to get into the symposia, which go on sale Monday. And since the event is at a wine bar, wine will be served during the sessions.
You can find a list of all the symposia after the jump, and come Monday you’ll be able to buy tickets on their website.
- June 9, 2011 @ 12:14 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Mysterius the Unfathomable
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at the comics and other stuff we’ve been enjoying lately. Our special guests this week are Aaron Alexovich (Invader Zim, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Serenity Rose, Fables) and Drew Rausch (Sullengrey, The Dark Goodbye, Cthulhu Tales), the creative team behind the horror/comedy comic Eldritch!
To see what Aaron, Drew and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click below …
- May 29, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Tr!ckster to hold creator-focused event across the street from San Diego Comic Con
Tr!ckster
Last July, right before the San Diego Comic Con kicked off, a group of creators started planning an alternative to Comic Con International via Facebook and other channels.
“It appeared to us that a dramatic shift was taking place, a move away from individual artists, creators, and comics… There are a number of folks that have decided to bow out this year,” creator Ted Mathot, who creators comics like Rose & Isabel when he isn’t making movies for Pixar, told Brand X last year. He said they hoped to have an alternative to San Diego in 2011.
And now we know exactly what that is — Tr!ckster, a free event that will take place July 19-24 at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center, which is across Harbor Drive from the San Diego Convention Center. The event will include retail space for creators to sell “creator-owned wares” like “small run and limited edition books, fine art prints, toys, clothing, and more;” a fine art gallery space; and a series of “focused, creator-driven demonstrations and discussions of method, process, and theory concerning the act of creating new, uniquely-voiced works of art.” Each Symposia will be a ticketed event and will feature creators like Mike Mignola, Mike Allred, Steve Niles, Bernie Wrightson, Skottie Young, Jim Mahfood, Scott Morse, Mathot, Derek Thompson, Greg Rucka, Craig Yoe and more. They plan to run two per day.
The group also plans to offer a $20, 48-page hardcover art book at the event, with illustrations by Mathot, Young, Doug TenNapel, Andy Kuhn, David Mack, Mike and Laura Allred, Mike Huddleston and many more, plus an eight-page story by Morse.
For more information on the event, visit their home page or Facebook page.
- May 16, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Skottie Young finds your lack of cute disturbing
If you haven’t checked out Skottie Young and Scott Morse’s joint sketchblog lately, you’re missing some awesome stuff. One of the coolest things about it – besides just some damn good art – is observing their different approaches to the same subjects. For instance, Morse had a very whimsical take on the Spider-Man villains, but I thought that Young captured the magic of Harry Potter especially well. And though Morse is taking a brief break at the moment, it’s going to be tough to beat Young’s Star Wars drawings – including this homage to VW’s Li’l Vader – when he gets back.
It’s not a competition and I don’t mean to make it sound like it is; I just find it fascinating to watch how these two fantastic artists think differently about these various characters and series.
- April 25, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Michael May
Two Sc(k)otts, one sketch blog
Green Goblin by Scott Morse
Comic creators Skottie Young and Scott Morse have teamed up to launch a brand-new sketch blog called SkottieScott where “you’ll get a daily(?!) punch in the face consisting of character sketches by everyone’s favorite comics makers.” They’ve been drawing Spider-Man’s villains over the past few days, so head over there to see the Green Goblin, Kraven, Mysterio and more.
- February 25, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Niles, Morse team for Crime and Terror ongoing
Crime and Terror
Scott Morse (Strange Science Fantasy, Soulwind) and Steve Niles (30 Days of Night,Criminal Macabre) are teaming up on a new monthly series called Crime and Terror. Both writers announced the project on their respective blogs.
“It’s filled with episodes detailing the events in the life of a detective named Mike Fallon who’s going through some serious personal problems,” Morse said on his blog. “On top of THAT, we’ll be smacking you upside the head with a bunch of short, stand-alone stories: noir, horror, sci-fi, whatever we want. All drawn by me, some written by me, some by Steve. On top of THAT, we’ll be throwing in new prose stories with spot-illos by me. Seriously, monthly is the plan, and every month, you’ll cry with glee as you scream your face off.”
“I’m thrilled about this project,” Niles told me over email. “It’s sort of the ultimate DIY book, Scott and I are emailing each other back and forth with stories and ideas and we’re going straight to the comic page! Scott is incredible and fast and the excitement of see thing thing grow daily is amazing. I did a small Frankenstein book with Scott years ago but that was more of a case of my writing and him doing the art. This is immediate, and spontaneous and I’m loving the results.”
The Frankenstein story appeared in the IDW-published Big Book of Horror, which also included Niles’ collaborations with artists Ted McKeever and Richard Sala.
“Scott and I have known each other for years. I think we actually met at House of Secret, a comic store in Burbank where we all hang. Scott and I both have a huge love of pulp and the pre-hero monster books. Scott actually reads Tales to Astonish and books like that to his boys. I love that,” Niles said. “So we’re doing this. We have no idea where it will wind up, but we’re doing it.”
Morse, whose day job at Pixar keeps him pretty busy, also noted he’s working on another five-issue series for later this year called Ten Against the World, which he described as “hot rods and monsters, Rebel Without A Cause a’la pre-hero Kirby. Kinetic, insane, pure comic.”
- February 2, 2011 @ 01:01 PM by JK Parkin
Themed sketchbooks: Jamie S. Rich’s Audrey Hepburns
Yesterday we took a tour of Marvel’s Timely era, courtesy of writer B. Clay Moore, and now we turn to one of the icons of the silver screen: Audrey Hepburn.
by Joëlle Jones
Portland-based writer and editor Jamie S. Rich has one of the most popular and unique sketchbooks I’ve ran across, documenting the various looks and personae of actress Audrey Hepburn. Here’s what he had to say about it:
- September 29, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Buy tons of Top Shelf books for $3
You can buy this book for three bucks
Goodness gracious, look at all the terrific titles that are on sale for $3 over at Top Shelf Productions’ website. That’s some 70 in all, including books by Alan Moore, Jeffrey Brown, James Kochalka, Scott Morse, Liz Prince, and Renee French. Another 30-plus comics and graphic novels are also on sale for suitably impressive amounts — the complete Lost Girls from Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie and the complete Alec: The Years Have Pants by Eddie Campbell may be purchased for just $25 and $20 respectively, for pete’s sake. Top Shelf’s $3 Sale lasts through Friday, September 24th, so get ‘em while the gettin’s good!
- September 13, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Cartoonists for Criterion
Night of the Hunter, by Matt Kindt
Top-of-the-line DVD house the Criterion Collection is no stranger to comics. In addition to employing the likes of Adrian Tomine and Jaime Hernandez to draw covers for classic films from around the globe, they’ve also recently received rave reviews for their deluxe rerelease of Terry Zwigoff’s stranger-than-fiction documentary Crumb.
- August 30, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
The Middle Ground #2: In Which I Hate On Previews
Sometimes, it feels like there are too many comics out there.
I know, I know; that’s not exactly the most popular opinion to hold, never mind share on a website devoted to comics and the worship thereof, but we all know it’s true. I’m far from the only one who sees solicitations for months ahead, or lists of that week’s new releases, and has at least one “Seriously? There’s really enough of a market for that?” moment. It’s easiest to do when looking at, say, Marvel’s upcoming releases and counting what’re essentially seven monthly Avengers books (Adjectiveless, New, Secret, Academy, alternating bi-monthlies Children’s Crusade and Prime and, of course, New Ultimates and Ultimate Avengers, for those who were wondering about my math), but all it takes is one step inside the non-premier publishers section of Diamond’s Previews to realize that there’s a lot of noise hiding the signal in the world of indie publishers, as well. Continue Reading »
- April 27, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Graeme McMillan
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves | A roundup of publishing news
3X4
- AdHouse will distribute 3X4, by Scott Morse, Lou Romano, Don Shank and Nate Wragg, the guys behind Sex and Science and The Ancient Book of Myth and War. AdHouse describes the book as “a unique collection of paintings built around the simple aesthetic of the numbers 3 and 4. Be it shape, line, texture, or color, this collection dares to boldly add a new perspective to modern art.”
- Per Ross Campbell, the sixth edition of his popular Wet Moon series of graphic novels from Oni Press is now slated to come out next year. “I’ll be finished with the book on the same schedule, but Oni has restructured their workflow a bit so their turnaround/build time is longer now, making WM6 most likely a February 2011 release,” he wrote.
- Heidi at the Beat points out that this preview of the London Book Fair by Publishers Weekly reveals that Ben McCool and Billy Tucci are working on a graphic novel adaptation of the film Alexander Nevsky by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein.
- Jim Rugg will debut a new Rambo minicomic at this weekend’s SPACE event.
- Meathaus has scans of a Charles Burns minicomic called Free Shit “with preview art from an upcoming project of his.”
- Rami Efal has self-published Never Forget, Never Forgive, which was originally serialized on the webcomics collective site ACT-I-VATE. “It is a tragedy taking place in 16th century Japan and is a cross between Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Sophocles’ Antigone, and Lone Wolf and Cub,” according to the author.
- April 23, 2010 @ 01:09 PM by JK Parkin
Morse’s Strange Science Fantasy coming from IDW
Strange Science Fantasy
Last year Scott Morse shared a series of fun stories called “Strange Science Fantasy” on his blog. They were only up for a short time, and he went on to print them up to sell in San Diego. And now he reports on his blog that IDW Publishing will publish a six-issue Strange Science Fantasy series beginning in July.
“You heard it right, folks: STRANGE SCIENCE FANTASY will hit the stands properly with the help of the amazing IDW, this July through December! Six issues of retro-crazy pure comics storytelling, featuring the stories you’ve come to love here on the blog, CONTINUED! I promise, this will be unlike ANYTHING on the stands this year, and you have IDW to thank!” he wrote. “Oh, and PAUL POPE will be delivering one-page back-up features. PAUL POPE, people!”
The first issue will have an incentive alternate cover, pictured to the right.
- March 15, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Scott Morse shares his APE commissions
Hellboy
Artist Scott Morse shares on his blog several commissions he did at APE last weekend, including this one of Hellboy.
- October 23, 2009 @ 08:25 AM by JK Parkin