top shelf
Talking Comics with Tim | Robert Venditti
The Homeland Directive
As an Atlanta native, in terms of pro sports teams, I root for the Braves and Falcons every season. In a similar vein, when something from Top Shelf (partially based out of the Atlanta metro area) is published, much less by a talented Atlanta-based writer like Robert Venditti, I aim to support that project, but only if that support is warranted. I am happy to say that Venditti and artist Mike Huddleston’s The Homeland Directive has more than earned my full and enthusiastic support. Don’t trust my gut? Consider what The Middle Ground columnist Graeme McMillan’s wrote about the 152-page graphic novel: “It’s unlikely you’ll find a book that looks as good as The Homeland Directive this year.” The book, released last month, is best framed by the publisher: “As a leading researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Laura Regan is one of the world’s foremost authorities on viral and bacteriological study. Having dedicated her career to halting the spread of infectious disease, she has always considered herself one of the good guys. But when her research partner is murdered and Laura is blamed for the crime, she finds herself at the heart of a vast and deadly conspiracy. Aided by three rogue federal agents who believe the government is behind the frame-up, Laura must evade law enforcement, mercenaries, and a team of cyber-detectives who know more about her life than she does—all while trying to expose a sinister plot that will impact the lives of every American.” My thanks to Venditti for his time and be sure to visit the Top Shelf website for a six-page preview of the book.
Tim O’Shea: Was there any one factor (influencing your decision more than others) as to why you tapped artist Huddleston for the project?
Robert Venditti: I wrote the book having no idea who the artist was going to be or, for that matter, if it was even going to get published. When I turned in the script to Chris and Brett at Top Shelf, Mike Huddleston was one of the first names they mentioned. I’d never met Mike before, but I was a fan of his work on The Coffin, so I was immediately onboard with the idea. He’s an amazing talent, and he proved himself to be a consummate professional as well. It was an absolute joy to work with him.
- August 8, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Food or Comics? | The League of Spontaneous Olympians
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop 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 a “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
Spontaneous #1
Graeme McMillan
If I had $15 this week, the first thing I’d grab would be a complete nostalgia-buy: DC Retroactive: Justice League of America – The 70s #1 (DC, $4.99), because I am a complete and utter sucker for JLA stories, and grew up reading old back issues of the title I found at used bookstores. This would be worth it for the reprint at the back alone, never mind the new story by Cary Bates that looks like it’s playing around with the multiverse one more time. To accompany that, I’d also pick up the first two issues of Joe Harris and Brett Weldele’s Spontaneous (both $3.99), because – even though I missed the Free Comic Book Day release of the debut – I’m a fan of Harris’ Ghost Projekt and Weldele’s work on The Surrogates, and curious to see just where a book about spontaneous human combustion can actually go.
- July 26, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Michael May
SDCC ’11 | Nate Powell explores Any Empire
Any Empire
Nate Powell wowed indie readers back in 2009 with the release of Swallow Me Whole, a haunting graphic novel about a teen-age brother and sister suffering from mental illness and attempting to hold themselves and their family together.
Now Powell has released his follow-up to Swallow, Any Empire. The book, available through Top Shelf, examines the way children are taught about war and violence and how even “acceptable” military violence can end up appearing on our city and town streets.
The book debuts in San Diego this week, and should be in stores next month. We talked to Powell about the book and its underlying themes, both political and social.
Let’s start by talking about the book’s origins. How did Any Empire first take shape?
Well, the book emerged as I was finishing up Swallow Me Whole, and I’d been pretty impacted by the books Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker, On Killing by Dave Grossman, the movie Children of Men, and also a zine supplement in an LP by some friends Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack. I’d been very focused on the long history of the state’s prime directive of ensuring its own existence, even if that meant killing or imprisoning its own citizens, or provoking air raids to flatten its own cities for a “proper” moral justification for war (as was one of Churchill’s many shadier moments leading into WWII). We’ve all grown up accustomed to seeing smoldering wastelands on CNN, but I began imagining the rubble as buildings, transplanting foliage back onto the blight, and couldn’t stop imagining my own neighborhood as a wasteland indistinguishable from the ones I’m so used to seeing on the news.
- July 22, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
SDCC ’11 | Top Shelf goes digital
Top Shelf announced yesterday that it is going digital, starting out by making over 70 of its graphic novels available via the Comics+ app, which is powered by iVerse. Prices range from 99 cents to $9.99 for an assortment of graphic novels, including Andy Runton’s Owly, James Kochalka’s Johnny Boo, Jeff Lemire’s Essex County, and Nate Powell’s Swallow Me Whole.
This announcement raised all sorts of questions in our minds, and fortunately, Chris Ross, Top Shelf’s director of digital publishing, was here to explain it all to us. Read on for lots more info, including the answer to the burning question “Will we ever see Lost Girls on digital?” as well as whether they will do same-day print and digital releases.
Robot 6: Why did you choose to go with iVerse over the other distributors?
Chris Ross: Actually, our initial offering is with iVerse, but we’re planning on using many distributors over the next few months. They were the first to approach us, so they’re the first one out the gate.
Robot 6: Did you consider doing your own Top Shelf app? If so, why did you decide against it?
Chris: We have and we will. We’ll be creating two apps in 2011—a company branded app and a kid’s club app.
Robot 6: Have you considered other modes of digital such as Kindle, Nook, or direct download?
- July 21, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Your video of the day | Kagan McLeod’s Kung-Fu is Infinite
Kagan McLeod‘s Infinite Kung Fu collection arrives from Top Shelf at the San Diego Comic Con next week, and to promote it Top Shelf has tipped us off to this fun little trailer that Kagan and his brother Sean put together. Take a gander, and if you like it, you can read the first 250 pages of the book over on Top Shelf’s website.
- July 12, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC Wishlist | Top Shelf has new Powell, Gentlemen and kung fu
Top Shelf will debut three new books at the San Diego Comic-Con later this month, including the new Nate Powell book, new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Infinite Kung Fu. In addition, James Kochalka will at their booth with his entire family signing a special family portrait print, and Craig Thompson will sign the new hardcover and softcover editions of Blankets.
Check out the debuts below.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 3 Century #2
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III): Century #2 – 1969
by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is back! Our merry metafictional marauders continue their bestselling adventures through the 20th century! In this volume, the League must battle dark cultists amid the sit-ins, sitars, and psychedelics of 1960s swinging London.
- July 9, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
The Middle Ground #57 | When things look this good…
For those who thought that Butcher Baker: The Righteous Maker was the best-looking superhero comic of the year – and if you didn’t at least consider the possibility, it’s probably because you haven’t picked up a copy yet – I should let you know: Mike Huddleston’s work in the new Top Shelf graphic novel The Homeland Directive is possibly even better.
Continue Reading »
- June 14, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Graeme McMillan
The perfect publisher’s blog?
There are a lot of ways to run a blog promoting your publishing company. Dark Horse uses its blog primarily to remind readers of new product. DC breaks news about its comics and runs interviews with its creators. Top Shelf and First Second talk about their own product, but also make time to discuss books they’re enjoying from other publishers.
One of my favorite publisher’s blogs right now is Hermes Press‘ relatively new one. Since they publish a lot of reprints of classic. licensed material, they not only keep readers updated on their publishing schedule, but also link to news about what others are doing with those same licenses. For example, Hermes is reprinting old Dark Shadows comics, so they’re also following production on the Tim Burton Dark Shadows movie. They reprint Buck Rogers strips, so here’s some news about a Buck Rogers screening in New York. They reprint Roy Rogers, so here are some links to other bloggers who are talking about Roy. It’s a fun blog that doesn’t just promote product; it engages in the larger conversation about the things it’s interested in. Some of the other blogs are doing that too (First Second and Top Shelf in particular), but Hermes is going all out.
What makes a perfect publisher’s blog in your opinion?
- June 13, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by Michael May
Six by 6 | Six noteworthy debut comics
Good-Bye Chunky Rice
Cartoonists rarely produce great work right out of the starting gate. It usually it takes lots of time and lots of effort for an artist to hone their style and storytelling abilities. Debut comics — even those made by the greats — rarely offer any indication of what type of treasures lie ahead. Even Chris Ware had to make Floyd Farland before he could produce Jimmy Corrigan.
Still, sometimes a cartoonist seems to spring out of the sea foam fully formed, producing a work that not only draws attention and great buzz, but also indicates exactly where they’re headed — what direction they plan to take as an artist and what you as a reader can expect from them.
Here then, are six debut comics that made people go “Who the heck is this guy? And why haven’t I heard of him before?” I’m sure I missed someone. I always do. Be a dear and let me know who I forgot in the comments section, won’t you?
- May 20, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Read a huge chunk of Infinite Kung Fu for free
Kagan McLeod began publishing single issues of his martial arts/horror extravaganza Infinite Kung Fu way back in 2000, but as he told JK Parkin in an interview last summer, he hasn’t given up on it. He’s been hard at work and all 464 pages of the epic are coming out from Top Shelf in July.
For anyone who read those single issues, this is great news. But what’s even better is that Top Shelf 2.0 has more than half the book posted right now for free. Whether you’re already a fan or yet to be converted, that’s a hell of a lot of awesome.
- May 12, 2011 @ 12:30 PM by Michael May
Stumptown swag: Objects of desire
MoCCA on the East Coast, Stumptown on the West Coast—the past two weeks have been busy ones for comics creators and fans alike. I made it to MoCCA, but the grass is always greener on the other side of the country, and it looks like there was a lot to see—and buy—at Stumptown. Here’s a sample of the offerings, starting with Dylan Meconis’s slew of tiny watercolor paintings, above.
- April 18, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Zip to publish Pekar’s Cleveland
Heidi has a nice bit of news at The Beat: Zip Comics is going to be publishing Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, and Top Shelf will distribute it. I don’t think that first bit is exactly news, because Zip posted it on their blog when Pekar died, last July:
ZIP is proud to be publishing Harvey Pekar’s CLEVELAND which he finished writing and which is currently being illustrated by Joseph Remnant. We will keep you updated, and right now we’re looking at a summer/fall 2011 release for that.
According to the press release (quoted in full at The Beat), the book will mix Pekar’s own story with the history of Cleveland:
Harvey Pekar’s CLEVELAND covers familiar American Splendor-ous territory while weaving in chunks of Cleveland history, including the Indians winning the 1948 World Series, the notorious 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River as well as profiles of Cleveland “characters” like Charles Ruthenberg, leader of the city’s Communist party whose ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall. And of course cameos by Pekarverse regulars like Toby the Genuine Nerd, Mr. Boats and Harvey’s wife Joyce.
Sounds like my kind of book.
- April 8, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
MoCCA debut: Liar’s Kiss preview
Liar's Kiss
Courtesy of our friends at Top Shelf, we’re pleased to present the opening pages of Liar’s Kiss by Eric Skillman and Jhomar Soriano, which debuts tomorrow at New York’s MoCCA Festival. Skillman will be there to sign it.
Check out the preview after the jump; it contains nudity, so consider it NSFW and for mature readers only.
- April 8, 2011 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
Make mine MoCCA: Publishers
MoCCA Fest 2011 is this coming Saturday and Sunday, April 9 and 10, and as always, the show is bulging with new artists and established creators showing off their latest, most experimental, projects. I’m going to round up of some of the announcements that have come our way, starting with those from publishers.
Fantagraphics plans to have creators signing at their booth pretty much the whole time, with a roster that includes Kim Dietch, Peter Bagge, Dash Shaw, Michael Kupperman, Gahan Wilson, and others too numerous to mention—check out the full list at their blog. Their people are also going to be involved in a ton of panels, and with a four-table block (J1, J2, K1, K2), they should be hard to miss.
Abrams will have their usual crowd of A-list creators at their booth: Jerry Robinson, Michael Uslan, Chip Kidd, Al Jaffee, and Craig Yoe. Jaffee will receive the 2011 Klein Award for volunteer of the year, and Uslan and Robinson will be on the panel Batman, the Joker and Beyond on Sunday.
Top Shelf will be debuting two new books, Liar’s Kiss by Eric Skillman and Jhomar Soriano, and Night Animals, by Brecht Evens. Both Skillman and Evens will be there to show off their new books. Jess Fink will also be in attendance, although her Chester 5000 isn’t due out until May.
- April 7, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Talking Comics with Tim | Jess Fink
Chester 5000
At least one constructive thing came out of Jess Fink‘s latest battle with copyright thieves, I became aware that her new “erotic, robotic” book, Chester 5000, was set to be released this May from Top Shelf. Be advised (if the erotic adjective was not clear enough) that as beautiful as I find Fink’s work, a good majority of it is NSFW, so be aware of that before clicking any links (though in Top Shelf’s defense, its five-page preview carries nothing too erotically risque [though proceed with caution if you're at the office reading this]). Mindful of the fast approaching release date, I emailed some questions to Fink this past week. Here’s the official Top Shelf description of the book: “1885: an age of industrial revolution and sexual frustration. Pricilla is a woman with needs, and her inventor husband Robert is a little too busy with his experiments to keep her fully satisfied. Science to the rescue! With a few gears and springs, the proper appendages, a little lubrication, and a lot of love, Chester 5000 is born! He’s the perfect tool for the job… but what if Chester is more than just a machine? What are the consequences of trying to engineer love?” We also discuss her other Top Shelf book, We Can Fix It!, as well the stress of battling the copyright crooks.
Tim O’Shea: Chester 5000 is definitely erotically charged, but I think you’re also enamored of working diagrams into your stories (Extendo Limbus, for example). Where does your love of things mechanical and diagrams begin?
Jess Fink: I really love mechanical drawings from the 1800′s. Or even just product drawings from adds and catalogs. After photography was invented it was still much cheaper to hire artists to draw your products so we get these lovely, detailed little drawings of just about anything you can imagine. The diagrams in Chester were partly inspired by these. You can find a great deal of reference for Victorian items in the Sears and Roebuck catalog.
- April 4, 2011 @ 03:30 PM by Tim O'Shea