Todd Klein
J is for Joyride: Klein, Ha team for art print
Letterer and designer Todd Klein has been making his way through the alphabet for the last few years in a series of art prints that he sells on his site. Each print finds him teaming with a different writer or artist, including Steve Rude, Shawn McManus and Dave Gibbons, just to name a few.
His 10th print, which cna be found below, is sponsored by the letter “J.” It finds Klein and artist Gene Ha taking a joyride into Greek mythology and the story of the Pegasus.
“Famed artist Gene Ha has illustrated a key moment from the story of Bellerophon, a hero of Greek myth, who has captured the winged horse Pegasus and returned to his lady love, Princess Philona of Lycia to give her the ride of her life,” Klein said in a press release. It’s based on a short story written by Klein, inspired by the retelling of the Pegasus myth by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Both stories can be found on Klein’s website, where you can also buy the print.
What Are You Reading? with Mark Sable
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today our guest is Mark Sable, the writer and co-creator of Image’s Graveyard of Empires with Paul Azaceta and the upcoming Duplicate from Kickstart Comics with Andy MacDonald. You can find his work and thoughts at marksable.com and contact him @marksable on the Twitter.
To see what Mark and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
Take a walk down memory lane to DC’s production department
Freelancer Mike Catron doing some typing, circa 1979
Todd Klein has posted a fascinating set of photos of the DC Comics production department circa 1979, taken by artist José Luis Garcia-López. Klein supplements the grainy, black-and-white photos with his own memories of working for DC in the late ’70s and throws in some anecdotes about the staff as well. Klein also plays history detective, puzzling out the date of the photos from the tiniest visual clues, and he also notes the staff who are not in the photos because they were laid off during the DC “Implosion.” The photos will evoke a certain nostalgia from those of us who remember how things were done in the days of paper (rubber cement, blue pencils, and photostat machines), and they should be interesting to anyone who wonders how they made comics in the pre-computer era. Todd has posted more photos, including a vintage shot of actor Christopher Reeve visiting the offices.
(via Blog@Newsarama)
What Are You Reading? with Chris Williams
America's Got Powers #1
Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Chris Williams, editor of the web series The Variants.
To see what Chris and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
Comics A.M. | Comic-Con hotel reservations open Thursday
Comic-Con International
Conventions | The hotel reservation system for Comic-Con International in San Diego will open Thursday at 9 a.m. PT, as the yearly mad dash for discounted hotel rates begins. CCI has posted a list of hotels, and if you’re willing to stay in Mission Valley, you can book a room early. The process will be the same as last year — select up to 20 hotels where you’d be willing to stay, and you’ll get a confirmation email no later than April 1. You can leave your April Fool’s jokes in the comments below. Also of note this year, shuttles to and from hotels will run 24 hours a day during the show, beginning at 5 a.m. Thursday. [CCI]
Editorial cartoons | Michael Cavna rounds up nine editorial cartoons commenting on the killing of Florida teenager Tryavon Martin. [The Washington Post]
Chain Reactions | Fairest #1
Fairest #1
The latest member of the Fables family came into the world last Wednesday, as Fairest #1 by Bill Willingham, Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, Andrew Dalhouse and Todd Klein. The book promises to explore “the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others.” The first story arc picks up where Fables #107 left off, as it focuses on Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty after she is stolen away by the goblin army.
So what do people think of this latest spinoff of the popular and long-running Fables franchise? Here’s a round-up of a few reviews …
Alex Zalben, MTV Geek: “By gobsmacking, of course, I’m referring to the plot of the issue: a thief we haven’t seen in a good long while picks up a jar we may have forgotten about, and sets in search of a lady or two who have been trapped by goblins. Much smacking of said gobs ensues… Though mostly by one of the most bad-ass wooden puppets you might ever hope to meet. And all of this involves characters or ideas that have been seeded throughout Fables the past few years, but one of the beauties of the book (beyond, you know, Sleeping Beauty) is that Willingham provides easy entry for even the newest reader.”
Don MacPherson, Eye on Comics: “There’s no denying this is a Fables spinoff. One has to be familiar with a fair bit of continuity from the mother title to figure out where the characters are in this story and what their deal is (especially Oakheart). I haven’t read Fables in a while, but fortunately, what I remember from before I stopped following the book was enough to pick up on the appropriate and required references here. Of course, not everyone will be privy to the same backstory from Fables. Of course, one could argue DC expects only Fables readers to pick up Fairest, but limiting one’s expected readership to an audience within an established audience seems like it would be setting the bar far too low. Willingham’s script really could’ve used more exposition.”
Todd Klein and Dave Gibbons explain what ‘It Is’
It Is
Designer and letterer Todd Klein continues his artistic trek through the alphabet with another art print, as he and Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons team up on one called “It Is.”
“Dave has written a poem focusing on the ever-changing nature of our internal perception, that which makes up our own personal ‘I.’ I’ve designed and hand-lettered it,” Klein says on his blog. The print can be purchased from his website for $20 plus shipping.
Comics A.M. | Comics rebound in 2011 while graphic novels slump
Justice League #4
Publishing | John Jackson Miller takes apart the December sales numbers and finds that while comics were up for the month, graphic novel sales fell just enough to prevent the direct market from having its first up year since 2008. In fact, trades are down 16 percent from December 2010, and Miller spends some time discussing why that might be — and why next year might be different. [The Comichron]
Publishing | Houghton Mifflin has high hopes for Are You My Mother?, the new graphic novel from Fun Home author Alison Bechdel: The publisher plans a first printing of 100,000 copies. [Publishers Weekly]
Retailing | Diamond’s Retailer Summit will be held the two days before the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, with attendees receiving free admission to the April 13-15 convention. [ICv2]
Klein and McManus create board-game inspired art print, Go Freelance!
Go Freelance!
Letterer and designer Todd Klein announced another print in his “alphabet” series, where he teams with various comic creators to create some nice looking art. This time around, he’s teamed up with artist Shawn McManus to create a print that doubles as what will likely be the hottest new game in comicdom when the holiday season arrives, Go Freelance! — “a board game that outlines the lives of two budding comics artists.”
“Here you’ll meet Artie and Scribbler as they make their way from childhood to retirement through the challenges, pitfalls, rewards and catastrophes of a creative livelihood,” Klein wrote on his blog.
The print costs $20 and can be purchased on Klein’s website.
Comics A.M. | Kirby family lawyer vows to appeal copyright ruling
Jack Kirby
Legal | Marc Toberoff, the lawyer suing Marvel on behalf of Jack Kirby’s heirs, plans to appeal Thursday’s ruling by New York federal judge Colleen McMahon that the Kirby estate had no claim to copyrights on the superheroes Kirby co-created for Marvel Comics. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and intend to appeal this matter to the Second Circuit,” Toberoff told The Hollywood Reporter. “Sometimes you have to lose in order to win.” [The Hollywood Reporter]
Creators | Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison chat about Supergods, The Sandman, Superman and more. “…when I did comics, it was also a performance,” Morrison said. “It’s like playing live. You don’t get much time to edit; we don’t really do second drafts in our business. I love that aspect of comics, where you could have a Sandman out and people would be talking about it immediately, and we could be responding to things that were happening all around us and it could be published three months later, or two months later, depending on how late we were. It’s not like writing a book, which is over a span of years like building a cathedral. The comic is so instant. That’s why it covers the seismic shifts of culture very, very accurately.” [Shelf Life]
Joe Casey and Nathan Fox take the reins on Haunt
Joe Casey and Nathan Fox have been named as the new creative team on Haunt, replacing co-creator/writer Robert Kirkman and artist Greg Capullo with September’s Issue 19.
Co-created by Todd McFarlane, the Image Comics series centers on Daniel Kilgore, a Catholic priest who’s haunted by the ghost of his estranged brother Kurt, a murdered secret agent. The two combine to form the superhero Haunt.
“The word ‘haunt’ is a very evocative word,” McFarlane tells USA Today. “I didn’t think we had hit that word yet in terms of being dark and moody and creepy in some of the things.” Casey says that he and Fox, who collaborated on Marvel’s Dark Reign: Zodiac, are taking “a real grindhouse/exploitation approach to the series. Hopefully the end result will be appropriately lurid and over-the-top while being a real nail-biter at the same time.”
Kirkman is reportedly leaving Haunt because of demands on his time by AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead — the second season began shooting this week outside of Atlanta — while Capullo is teaming with writer Scott Snyder on the September relaunch of DC Comics’ Batman.
Klein, Rude team up to offer ‘Hope’
Hope
Designer and letterer Todd Klein continues his artistic trek through the alphabet — skipping “G,” but he says he’ll get back to it — with another awesome art print, this time teaming up with Nexus creator Steve Rude to offer one titled “Hope.”
“I’ve been a fan of Steve Rude’s work since discovering NEXUS in the early 1980s, and I’ve worked with Steve as a letterer several times, most recently on his self-published issues of NEXUS, which was challenging but also a thrill to do,” Klein said in a post that details the creation of the print (you can find part 2 of the process here). “Steve’s work has always seemed to me to have a classical feel in the figure work, so I thought he might enjoy depicting Pandora and Hope. I asked Steve, above, when we met in San Diego, and though he was hesitant at first, he was intrigued by the subject, and finally agreed to do a print with me.”
Rude joins an impressive list of creators who have teamed with Klein to create prints — Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Alex Ross, J.H. Williams III, Mark Buckingham and Bill Willingham. All the prints, including the new one, can be purchased on his site.
Saturday Shelf Porn
Welcome once again to Shelf Porn, where fans show off their collections of comics, graphic novels and the like. Today’s Shelf Porn was submitted by Fritz Park from Seoul, Korea, whose collection is currently on display at a local bookstore.
If you’d like to submit your own Shelf Porn, we could certainly use it — just send a write-ups and jpgs to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
And now here’s Fritz.
To do: Todd Klein signing in Philadelphia
From "F The Enchanted Letter," by Bill Willingham and Todd Klein
East Coast comics fans who are looking for something to do the night before MoCCA Festival could do far, far worse than the party and signing being held Friday evening for multiple award-winning letterer and designer Todd Klein at at Locust Moon Comics and Movies in Philadelphia.
The event will begins at 7:30 p.m. at the store, located at 4040 Locust St., near the University of Pennsylvania campus. Check out the press release after the break.
Illustrated poem by Gaiman, Lee and Klein available digitally
100 Words
Last year comic writer and author Neil Gaiman, artist and DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee and letterer Todd Klein collaborated on an illustrated poem called “100 Words” that appeared in the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Liberty Comics anthology and is also available as a limited edition print from Neil Gaiman’s NeverWear site. Today DC Comics announced that the seven-page poem is now available via its digital apps and its website.
It’s available for 99 cents, and DC is donating their proceeds from it to the CBLDF — making it a very easy and inexpensive way to benefit a good cause.