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Talking Comics with Tim | Dennis Culver on ‘Edison Rex’
Edison Rex
Several weeks ago when I interviewed Edison Rex co-creator Chris Roberson, we had hoped to include co-creator Dennis Culver in the discussion. Schedules didn’t work out at the time, but happily, on the eve of the deadline to pre-order the Edison Rex trade paperback (Diamond Code APR130377), Culver’s schedule freed up for an interview about his co-creation.
As if collecting the Edison Rex issues 1-6 isn’t enough to interest you in this IDW Publishing release, Roberson and Culver have scored an introduction by the great Kurt Busiek. The collection will hit shelves June 12.
Tim O’Shea: How did the IDW publishing deal come together?
Dennis Culver: That was all [Monkeybrain Comics co-publishers] Chris [Roberson] and Allison [Baker]. From what I understand, IDW had expressed an interest in print collections fairly early in the Monkeybrain launch, and I was on board as soon as I heard. They gave us a fair deal and they put out great looking books. I’m very happy to publish Rex through them!
New Tumblr lists welcoming comics shops—but do we need it?
Comics shops are like any other retail establishments, I guess, in that there are good ones and bad ones. The difference between comics shops and coffee shops, though, is that people seldom accuse coffee shops of being unwelcoming to women. The food may be bad, but everyone’s money is the same color to them.
Comics shops, on the other hand, have developed a reputation for being uncomfortable places for anyone who isn’t a straight white male. I used to live down the street from a place like that, and I quit shopping there because of it—but that was in 1986.
That’s why I have mixed feelings about the Tumblr Safe Spaces for Comics Fans. On the one hand, I think it’s great to have a place for people to recommend (or warn against) particular shops. On the other hand, just by its very existence, it perpetuates the notion of comics shops as unfriendly to women, gay people, and people of color, and I’m not so sure that stereotype is true any more. Are there bad stores? Yes there are, but if you look at the blog, most of the comments are positive, with people giving shout-outs to local comics shops that treat them well. I think—I want to think—that this reflects reality. I want to think that the default is a friendly comics shop with good customer service for all its customers, and that places like this are the exception. The problem is that the bad places are more visible—that photo in the link has been reTweeted and reblogged all over the place—while the good places get taken for granted. So I guess in the end I am glad that the Safe Spaces Tumblr exists, if only as a place to recognize the retailers who get it right.
Talking Comics with Tim | LP’s Curt Pires
LP
Once and a while a comic drops in my inbox that carries some distinct element that snags my interest. LP, by writer Curt Pires and artist Ramon Villalobos, focuses on the life of a musician named F and the LP he possesses, which has unique qualities — far more unique than your average round piece of vinyl. The comic, which Pires is self-distributing, debuts Sept. 26 (it received a pre-release endorsement from guest Ed Brisson in this week’s What Are You Reading?”). In anticipation of its release, Pires took some time to answer my questions regarding his new collaboration with Villalobos — as well as to give me a chance to discuss music a smidge (something I always love to do).
Tim O’Shea: LP centers on a vinyl record (aka LP) — could this story have ever worked for you if it had centered around a CD or an MP3 player?
Curt Pires: I definitely think this story only works on vinyl. There’s something romantic about vinyl — something tactile. Something that you don’t really get with CDs or MP3s. I think a lot of my thoughts as towards this are sort of folded into the story. Sometimes intentionally — other times maybe not so much.
Did you have the story already written when you teamed with Ramon Villalobos, or did you construct the story with his art style in mind?
I had the full script written by the time Ramon had hoped on board to draw the book. I was definitely looking for someone with a bit more of European clean line style to draw this book. I’m a huge fan of this style of art. So Ramon’s sort of Darrow/Grampa/Quitely-influenced style was perfect for this book.
At last, the Watchmen/Parks & Rec meme we’ve been waiting for
In what very well could be comics’ answer to Texts from Hillary, cartoonist Jon Morris has launched Ron Sworschach, a blog that combines “the words of Alan Moore’s doomed objectivist vigilante Rorschach with images of Parks and Recreations‘ lovingly stern libertarian Ron Swanson. Or sometimes maybe the other way around.”
Why it’s taken this long for a Ron Swanson/Rorschach mash-up is one of life’s great and frustrating mysteries …
Talking Comics with Tim | Brian Churilla
The Secret History of D.B. Cooper
On March 14 folks got their chance to buy the first issue of writer/artist Brian Churilla‘s new monthly ongoing series, The Secret History of D.B. Cooper (Oni). If you missed out on this quirky and engaging effort to reveal what transpired 40 years ago when Cooper hijacked a plane, held it for ransom and disappeared seemingly forever via parachute–you missed a memorable first issue. Don’t trust my opinion–consider what CBR reviewer Ryan K. Lindsay wrote in his recent review: “The story is the type of fun you’d need to commit an illegal act to find elsewhere, the art is top quality and the entire package is one hell of a show. You won’t forget about this comic after reading. Get in on the ground floor and enjoy a comic that deserves your attention.” In the wake of the ever-increasing buzz of this new series, I decided to get in as close to the ground floor via an email interview with Churilla. After reading this interview, get more of Churilla’s perspective by reading CBR’s initial interview with Churilla about the project from August 2011. Later this week (March 30 to April 1, to be exact), if you are attending Emerald City Comicon, you can visit Churilla at Booth 802. Finally, congrats to Churilla and Oni on the initial response to the series, given (as he notes in our interview): “the book was sold out at Diamond about a week after its release”.
Tim O’Shea: A recent review of the first issue by Don McPherson notes “His overall look reminds me so much of Cooke’s take on the afore-mentioned Parker from The Hunter and The Outfit, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a direct inspiration involved in Churilla’s choices.” Is McPherson right to see a connection?
Brian Churilla: Nope. I started out by looking at that iconic police sketch of Cooper from 1971 and worked from there. If I had stayed faithful to that sketch, he would have ended up looking like an amalgam of Kevin Spacey and Ed Norton. It wouldn’t have captured the look I was going for, so I took some liberties. I wanted him to have a boxer/tough guy look. I can definitely see how Don could see a similarity though.
After nearly seven years, Hulkling and Wiccan finally kiss
From "Avengers: The Children's Crusade" #9
That roar you hear is the collective jubilant shout of legions of Tumblr users upon reading this week’s Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #9. You see, after nearly seven years as (arguably) Marvel’s highest-profile gay couple, Teddy (Hulkling) Altman and Billy (Wiccan) Kaplan finally had their first on-panel kiss. And, boy, was it a doozy, capping off a heartfelt apology turned possible marriage proposal. That’s right, Marvel Universe could be heading toward its first superhero same-sex wedding — but given how long it took Teddy and Billy to just kiss on the page, we probably shouldn’t look for those embossed invitations anytime soon.
Still, as Gay League notes, “These boys get more action than Rawhide Kid – and without a mature readers label to boot!” Of course now that they have kissed, what’s left for all of those fanfic artists to draw?
Read the full sequence below, and check out one of the more entertaining reactions to the Big Moment.
Talking Comics with Tim | Andrew Foley
Done to Death
Anyone who has had the displeasure of editing or reading poorly executed copycat literature is likely entertained by the core premise of writer Andrew Foley & artist Fiona Staples’ Done to Death trade collection: an editor who sets out to kill the writers of bad literature. This trade collection, which was released by IDW on September 21, had quite a six-year journey to get on the shelves, as Foley explained to me in this email interview. My thanks to Foley for his time. Once you’ve read this interview, be sure to read the late September interview that Foley did with CBR’s Shaun Manning.
Tim O’Shea: How long have you been developing Done to Death and how did it come to be at IDW?
Andrew Foley: It’s taken a little over six years to finally get this collection on the shelves. The original five issues took a little more than a year from to get from the initial pitch to publication. After parting ways with Markosia Fiona and I spent quite a while looking for the right publisher for the collection. In the early portion of my career, I had publishers I was working with: abruptly go out of business; unilaterally break contracts they’d agreed to; elect not to publish several graphic novels (at least one fully illustrated) I wrote for them while being constantly reassured they would see the light of day; stiff dozens of creators when the publisher decided the moment for their wildly ambitious anthology series had passed; and just generally try to advance themselves on the backs of passionate (if naïve) creators.
There are some great indy publishers out there. Red 5 springs to mind. But there are also a distressingly high number of predatory companies around whose sole purpose is to acquire or control as much intellectual property for as little as possible in the hopes that one will become 30 Days of Night or Cowboys & Aliens and get optioned for millions of dollars. It’s a bit like playing the lottery, only each ticket represents hundreds of hours of labour on the creators’ parts.
Talking Comics with Tim | Laura Morley on Womanthology
Pretty much since the Womanthology initiative began, Robot 6 has done its best to cover it. A few weeks back, some questions came about how the money raised for the Womanthology project was to be spent and further questions resulted based on the response to the concerns. Rather than stand on the sidelines as the discussion played out, I contacted Womanthology organizers to see if an email interview was possible. Laura Morley, Womanthology’s project administrator, was willing to take my questions. Thanks to Morley for her time, as well as to Michael May, Sean T. Collins and Graeme McMillan for interview prep support.
Tim O’Shea: Laura, how did you come to be involved with Womanthology?
Laura Morley: I’m an aspiring comics writer, and saw the original tweet Renae De Liz sent out in May, seeking women to contribute comics to an anthology for charity. I hadn’t actually crossed paths with Renae back then, and saw the message via someone else’s retweet – I wish I could remember whose, so I could thank them! It’s been an amazing experience for me. Then, since I’m one of those perverse people who gets a kick out of wrangling spreadsheets, I sent an email offering to help out with admin for the project – from that I wound up coordinating the admin effort, which has meant acting as a first point of contact for our contributors and our Kickstarter backers. You can also hear me sounding British on the Womanthology Kickstarter video.
O’Shea: Can you explain how it came to be that there is a hardback anthology and a sketchbook associated with Womanthology?
Morley: Publishing a hardcover volume was the plan from the beginning. The book is going to be pretty hefty – it’s over 300 pages long, on a 9×12 inch format, and we wanted to make something truly elegant that would serve as a good vehicle for the beautiful work inside. The sketchbook came about, I believe, as an opportunity to showcase some more of the work by our creators. Some contributors preferred to draw pinups than full stories, and some wanted to do both; some writers wanted to share samples from their scripts – we thought this would be a good way to get more of it out to the audience it deserves.
Talking Comics with Tim | Stuart Immonen
Centifolia II
This weekend marks Toronto Comics Art Festival 2011 (TCAF), where among the many great storytellers appearing, Stuart Immonen celebrates his “return to his eclectic collection of work” with the premiere of Centifolia II (and the return of the out-of-print Centifolia I). To mark the debut/return of Centifolia, I contacted Immonen for this hellaciously enjoyable interview. This exchange was a blast for me, particularly given that Immonen indulged numerous follow-up questions in our email exchanges. A great many storytellers are immensely funny people, but I genuinely think Immonen possesses a rare wit and wealth of knowledge that reveals itself not only in this interview, but more importantly, it informs his work. I wish I was attending TCAF, for numerous reasons, but the fact that “there will even be a limited (100) slipcase edition [available at TCAF] that includes a special S&N print and custom slipcase design” is the ultimate “damn I wish I was going” talking point for me. Need more convincing how great these books are? AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer (the publisher of Immonen’s Centifolia) offers consumers nine-page previews of Volume I and Volume II for everyone’s enjoyment.
Tim O’Shea: When one hears that the book is culled from your sketchbooks, it might seem a bit misleading. Not every sketchbook sports pages with fully designed logos (“9 Nuts and Why I Hate Them” for example).
Stuart Immonen: Well, I think that’s probably due to the term “sketchbook” being more often used to describe a collection of finished pinup drawings and not so much actual sketching– i.e. ideas in development, visual note-taking, idle doodling and so on. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the former– I love being able to enjoy and study the completed work of my favourite artists, but I’m also interested in process; the journey of how an artist gets to the final piece, and that’s what Centifolia tries to be.
Some of my most well-thumbed artist’s books fall into this category: Tardi’s Chiures De Gomme, Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Datebooks, Ashley Wood’s Sencilla Fanta… even Dupuy and Berberian’s Maybe Later qualifies.So… I’m interested in pulling back the curtain and showing readers a little of how I work.
Talking Comics with Tim | Alex Segura
Archie & Friends 156
My friendship and association with Alex Segura dates back to late 2004 when he invited me to join Robot 6‘s ancestor blog (or however you want to call its relation) The Great Curve. I wear my bias on my sleeve for this interview–I’ve always been a supporter of Segura’s work–be it years at DC Comics, or more recently, his current role as Executive Director of Publicity and Marketing at Archie Comics. In addition to discussing what he’s accomplished to date at Archie (and hopes to achieve in the near to long term), we delve into his own writing and musical pursuits (in the band, The Faulkner Detectives).
Tim O’Shea: Before your first stint with Archie a few years back, you worked at Wizard. So I gotta ask, what’s your reaction to the end of the print magazine?
Alex Segura: On a gut level, it’s sad. Wizard was a big part of my getting into comics – or at least, sticking with them – in middle school and into college. There were times when I wasn’t actively buying any regular comic books but would still pick up Wizard to keep tabs on the industry. Working there was also huge. It was my first full-time job in the industry and gave me a crash course in comics and how they work. I also met some of my best friends there – many of whom I still talk to on a regular basis. Hell, I live with Ryan Penagos, who I first met at Wizard. So, yeah. I have a lot of fond memories of both my time at the company and my relationship with the magazine leading up to that.
Professionally, I’m not all that surprised. There was a time when Wizard was a major tastemaker – they had a big part in the rise of Image and for a long while broke major news from the Big Two. But with the rise of comic news on the web, it just seemed like they got left behind. Hopefully this new incarnation can revive the company. We’ll see.
Kanye + Comics = pure gold
The Ultimates by Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch/"Who Will Survie in America" by Kanye West feat. Gil Scott-Heron
Just last week, Techland’s Douglas Wolk tracked the trend of Tumblr blogs dedicated to very specific kinds of comic-book imagery: UnMasquerade (heroes and villains unmasking themselves), A Nice Cup of Comics (comic-book characters drinking tea), A Moment of Moore (a daily dose of something Alan Moore-related), and Superheroes Lose (covers or promo images featuring defeated superheroes — run by yours truly!). And I know I’m late to this party, but I think we may have reached the apotheosis of the genre: Kanye + Comics, a site dedicated to combining superhero imagery and Kanye West lyrics. The results are often hilarious, and sometimes even profound. Kinda like Kanye himself!
The site accepts reader submissions, so like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, it’s a collaborative affair. My favorite Kanye/comic mash-ups are above and below; what are yours?