The Sixth Gun
Kickin’ the Gun #1: Bunn, Zubkavich on Skullkickers, Sixth Gun, process and more
Cullen Bunn and Jim Zubkavich
Many who have been following this blog know I’m a fan of both Image’s Skullkickers and Oni’s The Sixth Gun. So when I saw that the two creator-owned books were having a mini-crossover of sorts — or, to be more specific, an ad swap — I thought it might be fun to see if Skullkickers writer Jim “Zub” Zubkavich and The Sixth Gun‘ writer Cullen Bunn might be up for interviewing each other.
So the duo hit Skype and had a long conversation that covered many different topics — how they pitched their books, their writing process, how they work with their artists, finding time to write and much more. My thanks to both Cullen and Jim for doing this, with an extra tip of the hat to Jim for transcribing it. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the second part of the interview.
*****
Zub: So, let’s start right off with the big news. Did I hear correctly that you’re now writing full time? You quit your day job?
Cullen: I did. This is my third week as a full-time writer.
Zub: Awesome. What were you doing before that?
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
20th century Boys
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.
Brigid Alverson
If I had $15,
I’d get volume 13 of 20th Century Boys. This series is fantastic, and I hear there’s a big reveal in this volume.
If I had $30,
I’d add some floppies to the mix. This is a good week for a lot of the series I have been following on and off: Atomic Robo: Deadly Art of Science #4 ($3.50), Sixth Gun #9 ($3.99), Kill Shakespeare #9 ($3.99). Since I have a bit left over, I’ll throw in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #716 ($3.99), because I really have been enjoying that classic Disney.
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Infestation #1
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.
Graeme McMillan
If I had $15 to spend at the comic store this week, the first thing I’d grab would be Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s New York Five #1 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99), the follow-up to New York Four (obviously), their contribution to the much-loved-by-me-at-least Minx imprint. Really, almost everything else pales into comparison, but I’ll also go for IDW’s Infestation #1 ($3.99, which I was convinced came out last week), the fun opener for the zombie crossover that’s about to go across their licensed line for the next few months. My superhero fix for the week comes from Paul Cornell and Pete Woods’ always-entertaining Action Comics (#897, DC Comics, $2.99), which pits Lex and the Joker against each other, and Age of X: Alpha #1 (Marvel Comics, $3.99), which starts off another reality-altering timequake or something for the X-Men. I’m not expecting much from this, to be honest, but Mike Carey has proven me wrong before…
What Are You Reading?
The Sixth Gun
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is Jim Zubkavich, writer of the Image Comics series Skullkickers and a project manager at UDON Entertainment.
To see what Jim and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click the link below.
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Batman & Robin #15
If it’s Tuesday, it must be time for Food or Comics?, where every week some of the Robot 6 crew talk about what comics we’d buy if we were subject to certain spending limits — $15 and $30, as well as if we had extra money to spend on what we call our “Splurge” item. Check out Diamond’s release list to see what arrives in comic shops this week,then play along in our comments section.
Chris Mautner
If I had $15:
I’d get Batman & Robin #15 ($2.99), the final chapter in the “Batman Must Die” arc, which, I think we can all agree, as been one of the best runs in the series so far, thanks largely to the stellar work of artist Frazer Irving. I’d also get Highland Laddie #3 ($3.99), the latest issue in the Boys spin-off mini-series. I haven’t been as impressed with this one as I was with the current storyline in Boys, but I remain ever hopeful that it will come together in some fashion by the end.
If I had $30:
I’d chuck those comics aside like so many election mail flyers and nab Picture This ($29.95), the latest book by Lynda Barry and a sequel to her stellar What It Is. As with that book, this uses collage, comics, autobiography and more to provide an inspirational, thoughtful examination of drawing and the artistic process. I can’t wait to sit down with a copy. If it’s half as good as its predecessor, it will be fantastic.
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Batman and Robin #14
Welcome once again to our weekly round of “What would you buy if your budget was limited?” — or, as we call it, 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 Brigid Alverson, Chris Mautner, Kevin Melrose and me as we run down what comics we’d buy if we only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad” money to splurge with.
This week we’re coming to you a day late, as comics won’t arrive in shops in the United States until tomorrow due to this past Monday’s big holiday. And check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Chris Mautner
If I had $15 …
Batman and Robin #14 ($2.99)
Glamourpuss #15 ($3)
Starstruck #13 ($3.99)
My three main purchases for the week. The one of note is the final issue of Elaine May and Michael Kaluta’s Starstruck. I have no idea if IDW plans on collecting the series or not, or if there are other Starstruck mini-series in the works (I’m guessing not; my Spidey-sense tells me that the series wasn’t a solid seller for the company), but if this is the end (at least for now), I’m grateful to IDW for taking a chance and introducing me to what can only be described as an utterly dense and utterly unique comics-reading experience.
Six by 6 by Sixth Gun | Cullen Bunn’s six nostalgic dream projects
Editor’s note: In our continuing series of posts by the creators of Oni’s The Sixth Gun, writer Cullen Bunn shares his creative side and his childhood in today’s special edition of Six by 6.
by Cullen Bunn
This is an exercise in nostalgia for me. My collaborator on The Sixth Gun, Brian Hurtt, suggested this topic, and he said he could probably guess the projects I’d mention. Anyone who talks to me long enough will have a pretty good idea of the books that meant a lot to me during my formative years. Hell, you might think most of my comic book influences came out of one of those Whitman 3-packs so prevalent in Piggly Wiggly and Stuckey’s in the 70s. Well, you might be right. I think every comic creator has a list of a dozen or so books they’d love to work on. Here are just a few of the titles I’d love to take a crack at reinventing or re-imagining. I could easily create a second (and maybe a third) list of six projects I’d love to tackle. Rom: Spaceknight … Scare Tactics … Blackwulf … Warlock 5 … The list goes on and on … but the following list are the dream jobs that pop most readily into my skull.
Keep in mind, this isn’t about blowing anyone away with these notions. It’s about daydreaming.
The Micronauts
Easily my pick for favorite comic book of all time. I credit The Micronauts with getting me into collecting comics … not just reading, but really collecting. I can remember the first day I stumbled onto an issue of the book very clearly … from picking it up at the grocery store to reading it a dozen or so times in the back room of my dad’s office. For a comic about a line of toys, The Micronauts (like ROM: Spaceknight) tore past its humble origins into something really special. Of course, I would almost kill to write their story.
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
This week Shelf Porn and our ongoing “Robot Sixth Gun” features collide, as The Sixth Gun writer Cullen Bunn shares his inner sanctum with us. If you’d like to show off your shelves here, drop me an email and we’ll make it happen.
Now let’s hear from Cullen …
Robot Sixth Gun | An interview with Cullen Bunn
The Sixth Gun #1
One of the standout offerings from Free Comic Book Day was undoubtedly the debut issue of The Sixth Gun, a new supernatural Western from Oni Press that reteams The Damned collaborators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt.
Set in the American West in the aftermath of the Civil War, The Sixth Gun centers on the pursuit of a pistol that possesses a dark and otherworldly power. The first issue will be re-released on July 14, the same day that Issue 2 arrives in stores.
In anticipation of that second issue, Robot 6 is featuring a series of posts dedicated to the new monthly series (we like to call them “Robot Sixth Gun”). You’ve likely already devoured the first issue, and gotten a glimpse of what the book’s creators are reading.
Today we talk to writer Cullen Bunn about the importance of setting the story in the Old West, the role of the supernatural, what we can expect from the second arc, and more.
What Are You Reading?
Scalped
With the school year ending and summer arriving faster than you know it, now’s the time to update your summer reading list — and there’s no better place to find some good stuff to read than right here in our weekly What Are You Reading? column. This week our guests are Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, the creative team behind The Sixth Gun, published by Oni Press. You’ll be seeing a lot of Cullen and Brian over the next few weeks here at Robot 6, so here’s the perfect opportunity to find out what comics they’re into.
Robot Sixth Gun | Read the first issue of Oni’s The Sixth Gun right here
The Sixth Gun
Last weekend Oni Press released the first issue of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s new ongoing series The Sixth Gun as one of their Free Comic Book Day offerings. If you missed it last Saturday, never fear — you’ll have the opportunity to buy it (with a new cover) on the same day that issue #2 is due in stores in July. And even better, courtesy of our friends at Oni, you can also read it right here on Robot 6 for free!
Here’s a description of the book: “During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. The Sixth Gun – the most dangerous of the weapons – has vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Villains thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing anyone in their path. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunslinger with a shadowy past, stands in their way.”
But wait, he said, there’s more! As we’ve been anticipating The Sixth Gun for awhile now, we’ve invited the creators to guest blog with us here at “Robot Sixth Gun” over the next few weeks as we get closer to the release of the second issue. We’ve got a lot of cool stuff lined up, from Cullen and Brian helping us out with stuff like Shelf Porn and What are you reading?, to interviews and some secret surprise Sixth Gun stuff.
Check out the full issue after the jump, where you’ll also find a press release about the reissue and an order form you can take to your retailer to reserve the reissue and the second issue. Or you can download it as a PDF.
Straight for the art | ‘Spoiler-free panels’ from Oni’s The Sixth Gun
The Sixth Gun
Over on his blog artist Brian Hurtt has been sharing “spoiler free” panels from The Sixth Gun, his upcoming comic with writer Cullen Bunn.
“Really wanted to share something from THE SIXTH GUN with you but I’m a little limited in my options right now,” he wrote on his blog. “My main worry is sharing anything that has any kind of spoilers in it. I’ve found a handful of images from the first issue that are spoiler-free and I’ll be sharing those here on the blog over the next couple weeks.”
You can find the first one here and the second one up above. The first issue is Oni’s contribution to Free Comic Book Day and is due in stores May 1.
Talking Comics with Tim: Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt
The Sixth Gun's Them What Ails Ya: A Christmas Yarn
Tomorrow, writer Cullen Bunn and artist Brian Hurtt‘s holiday prose/sequential art tale, The Sixth Gun Short Story, Them What Ails Ya: A Christmas Yarn, reaches its final installment at the Oni Press blog. As described when initially announced: “A tale of medicine shows, magic tonics, outlaws, cannibals, and bona fide Christmas miracles will run every Tuesday beginning December 1st and ending December 22nd on the Oni Press blog. Each segment will feature another chapter of Cullen Bunn’s prose short accompanied by a Brian Hurtt illustration and an original comic-strip will bookend the story.” My thanks to Bunn and Hurtt for their time.
Tim O’Shea: In what ways has your collaborative style evolved–comparing your present day work with the experience of creating The Damned?
Cullen Bunn: Over the years, I think Brian and I have gotten more comfortable working with other. We really have a good feel for how we work best. We’ve thrown ideas for collaborations around for years, but I don’t think we realized how often we were “on the same page” until we started working on The Damned and The Sixth Gun. I can’t tell you how many times one of us has come up with a “brilliant idea” only to learn that the other had a similar or complementary thought. We’ve also gotten a lot more comfortable letting each other know when we’re traveling down the wrong path. With the Sixth Gun, we spent a lot more time at a white board, thumbnailing, outlining, and even scripting certain scenes. It’s a different approach for both of us, but it has been successful. We’ll probably do more of this with future projects.
Oni’s The Sixth Gun Christmas yarn kicks off Tuesday
The Sixth Gun
Oni Press has announced that they’ll be running a “Christmas yarn” this December on their website’s blog. Called Them What Ails Ya: A Christmas Yarn, it’s an illustrated prose story by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, creators of the upcoming Oni title The Sixth Gun. The story is set in the same world as the supernatural western book, and will feature “medicine shows, magic tonics, outlaws, cannibals and bona fide Christmas miracles.”
Look for the first chapter on Dec. 1. The ongoing Sixth Gun comic series starts in May.