Stuart Immonen
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Joe the Barbarian #8
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday 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 what we call our “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Chris Arrant
$15:
This week’s a big week for me, so with only $15 I’d have to leave a lot of things back and make some hard choices. My five under $15 would start with Joe The Barbarian #8 (DC/Vertigo, $3.99) by Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy. I’m a big fan of both guys, but I have to admit the story went over my head the same way The Filth did in serialization. Be that as it may, I’ve kept buying the issues just to amaze myself with Murphy’s art. Now that the complete series is out, I’ll re-read it all in one sitting and hope for the best. Second would be the fourth issue of Incognito: Bad Influences (Marvel/Icon, $3.50) because, well, Brubaker and Phillips can do no wrong. After that I’d get Secret Warriors #25 (Marvel, $3.99) because Hickman’s writing here plays up to all the things I like — espionage, secrets, and overly-complicated story arcs. Over on the DC side I would pick up Brightest Day #21 (DC, $2.99). This series has ebbed and flowed for me, depending on which story arcs are brought to the fore in each issue… but I’m excited to see what happens and that’s what it should be about, right? My last pick is a cheat — I only have some change left, but thankfully the Fear Itself Sketchbook (Marvel) coming out is a free promotional item. I’ll take Stuart Immonen sketches any day!
- March 1, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Marvel revives the line-wide mega-event era with ‘Fear Itself’
Cue the Welcome Back, Kotter theme music: At a live press conference from NYC’s Midtown Comics today, Marvel unveiled “Fear Itself,” a line-wide event beginning in March. Featuring a prologue one-shot by Ed Brubaker and Scot Eaton, tie-ins, spin-off stand-alone miniseries, and an April-launching seven-issue core limited series by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen, it’s very much in the vein of past mega-events like “Civil War,” a comparison company personnel made repeatedly at the presser. If anything, it sounds even bigger than “Civil War,” as the two core Marvel franchises who’ve traditionally been kept at arms’ length from the big events of late, the Hulk and the X-Men, look to be playing an integral role right along with the Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and so on.
- December 21, 2010 @ 02:10 PM by Sean T. Collins
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Batman Incorporated #1
Welcome to another installment of “Food or Comics?” Every week we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comes home and what stays on the shelves. So join us as we run down what comics we’d buy if they only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad money” to splurge with.
Check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Graeme McMillan
If I had $15, at least $9 of it – okay, $8.98 – would be already spoken for. The first issue of Batman Incorporated ($3.99) and one-shot lead-in Batman: The Return #1 ($4.99) offer up the first glimpses of what Grant Morrison has in mind for his new Batus-quo and, after the way he brought the RIP/Return of Bruce Wayne storyline to a close, I’m pretty much on board no matter what. The remaining money…? It’s a tough one, but I’m going to go for Spider-Girl #1 ($3.99), pretty much because I like Paul Tobin’s writing, I like the Twitter gimmick (Somewhere, Joe Casey’s going “I did it first in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance!” and I know, Joe), and, most importantly, the Spider-Girl short was my favorite part of last week’s Amazing Spider-Man relaunch issue. Who could’ve seen that coming?
- November 16, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Four-Color Fear
Welcome to another spook-tacular edition of What Are You Reading? Our special guest this week is writer Sam Costello, who operates and writes horror comics for the site Split Lip. If you’re looking for some spooky stories to read tonight, it’s a good place to start.
To see what Sam and the rest of the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below, if you dare …
- October 31, 2010 @ 02:55 PM by JK Parkin
Stuart Immonen on being a top Marvel artist while nurturing his own pursuits
Stuart Immonen
Stuart Immonen is a comic artist’s comic artist.
Although he might argue with me there, his name has cropped up numerous times in years of conversations with comic creators as a highwater mark for artists working on superheroes, with his yeoman-like work ethic and ability to get to the top of the charts without compromising himself or his work. Immonen’s art blazes a trail between realism and exaggeration, and the cartoonist really hit his stride in the public eye with the 2006 series Nextwave. Immonen had been on some top-sellers before, including the Red/Blue Superman, the alt-realty Superman: Secret Identity and earlier stints on both Avengers and Fantastic Four, but it was his work on Nextwave and the genre-bending style that allowed him to show a more diverse skillset. Marvel and its star writer Brian Michael Bendis took notice, bringing him on-board for Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers and, well, New Avengers again with the series’ recent relaunch.
But one of the things that gets me is Immonen’s devotion to his own creations with wife and fellow comicker Kathryn. They got their start in the world of cartooning with their own self-published series, and jumped back into it a few years back with several webcomics and printed books. Last year, Top Shelf released their webcomic strip Moving Pictures, and the duo has plans for a new creator-owned original graphic novel for next year.
- September 30, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Spider-Man is a New Avenger
New Avengers teaser by Stuart Immonen
Everything old is New again: Spider-Man will still be a member of the New Avengers when that team’s book relaunches with a new #1 from Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen this June. The proof: the above teaser from Marvel.com, the second in what I imagine will be a week-long series akin to those for Avengers (in which Spidey is also a member) and Secret Avengers. Stay tuned!
- March 2, 2010 @ 09:40 AM by Sean T. Collins
Bendis’ two Avengers titles to feature back-up stories
New Avengers #1 teaser art by Stuart Immonen
Hot on the heels of this morning’s announcement of New Avengers‘ June relaunch with a new issue #1, writer Brian Michael Bendis is revealing a little more about his upcoming work with the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. On his Twitter account, the Avengers and New Avengers scribe wrote,
both my avengers titles have back ups written by me. every month. it’s what we call in the biz, a handsome package.
The first of those two titles, the adjectiveless Avengers, debuts in May with art by John Romita Jr., while the following month’s New Avengers #1 will be drawn by Bendis’ longtime Ultimate Spider-Man and New Avengers collaborator Stuart Immonen — and co-star newly minted Thunderbolt Luke Cage, apparently. Or as Bendis puts it:
two avengers titles with rock star artists who CAN DO A MONTHLY! NA 1 is almost in the can!
The post-Siege world of “The Heroic Age” is starting to come into sharper focus. So too, perhaps, are Marvel’s plans for books bearing the $3.99 price point. And will we see back-ups in Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato’s Secret Avengers as well, I wonder?
- March 1, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Take a look inside Top Shelf’s Moving Pictures collection, due in May 2010
Moving Pictures by Kathryn & Stewart Immonen
You might have read somewhere that Moving Pictures, a webcomic created by Stuart and Kathryn Immonen, is slated to for collection by Top Shelf. The book is due next May, and Top Shelf was kind enough to pass on a preview for our big anniversary. You can check out the solicitation text and several pages from the collection after the jump.
- January 2, 2010 @ 04:52 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Immonen’s Flickr People
Check out this set of caricatures by Stuart Immonen based on pictures uploaded to Flickr’s “most recent photos” page. Apparently this is a daily exercise for him, so stop by often. (found via Dirk)
- October 8, 2009 @ 11:35 AM by Chris Mautner
Six by 6 | Six comics that made us laugh out loud
A couple of weeks ago Chris Mautner and I listed the six comics that made us cry. You guys responded with more than 160 comments filled with memories of comics that brought you to tears as well. It was very cool and kind of overwhelming to see that many people open up like that, so from both of us, thank you.
One commenter, cinorjer, suggested we name “six comics that made us laugh out loud.” Which we thought was a great idea — thanks, cinorjer! — so wipe away your tears and get ready to exercise your funnybone.
Joining Chris and I this week is Tom Bondurant, who was quick to come back with an example when I asked for suggestions. So let’s make with the ha ha’s and get down to it … and please share your own favorites in the comments section.
1. “What am I s’posed to do with a whole dollar!?”
I laughed aloud at much of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s “Architecture & Mortality” storyline from the recent Tales of the Unexpected miniseries. There were the Primate Patrol’s obvious (but well-executed) Planet of the Apes references; Traci 13′s “paper covers rock” spell; and the part where Infectious Lass says she’ll never know the touch of a man, about which I … Vampire! observes “perhaps if you changed your name….”
However, I particularly liked Dr. 13′s first real meeting with Genius Jones, the smartest little boy in the world. He’ll answer any question for a dime, but he won’t deal with Dr. 13 — because the Doc only has a dollar bill. “What am I s’posed to do with a whole dollar!?” Genius wonders.
“Tell you what — I have ten questions,” Dr. 13 responds.
“Do you have ten dimes?”
Eyes practically bulging out of his glasses, and beads of sweat leaping off his forehead, Dr. 13 spits, “I have a DOLLAR!”
It goes on like that for another few panels, until the head of the Primate Patrol bursts in: “How ’bout I geev you a nickel saun’wich?” And … scene!
–Tom Bondurant
- July 12, 2009 @ 11:37 AM by JK Parkin
Six by 6 | Six other comics I’d like to see more of
Miracleman #23
After almost 20 years, it looked like the first two issues of Big Numbers were the only issues we’d ever see. But last week the third issue miraculously surfaced on the internet.
Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz’s aborted epic is one of those series that, even 20 years later, still gets people talking and wondering about what might have been. On his blog, Eddie Campbell remembers talking to Kevin Eastman about why the third issue was never published, even though it was finished: “I recall asking publisher Kevin Eastman at the time why, even though the 12-issue series was abandoned, he couldn’t put out the existing third issue,” Campbell writes. “He looked at me as though I was daft. Who would want a third issue if they knew there wouldn’t be any after that?”
And yet here we are, in 2009, talking about a third issue no one would want.
Big Numbers is far from the only series that ever fell into comic limbo. In honor of Pádraig O Méalóid’s eBay purchase, here are six other comics that I’d like to see more of. Note that for the purpose of this list, I avoided titles that were officially canceled for sales reasons (like Blue Beetle, Aztek or Chase … that’s another list for another day) and instead focused on comics that we expected to see one day, but for some reason or another, they were never published (at least not yet, anyway). Books where I feel I could use some closure. Like last week, I received a little help from my fellow Robot 6 bloggers, so thanks to Kevin Melrose, Tim O’Shea and Michael May for their suggestions.
1. Miracleman: I would consider three comic titles the “holy trinity” of stories lost to comic book limbo — three books that were created but never saw print for one reason or another. One would be the previously mentioned Big Numbers #3, while another would be Miracleman #25. Written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Mark Buckingham, the 25th issue of this epic series was never published.
- March 29, 2009 @ 12:37 PM by JK Parkin