We’ve received all the covers for DC Comics July solicitations, including the long awaited Games, the New Teen Titans graphic novel from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. And when I say long awaited, I mean two decades long– which kinda ties in with all the DC Retroactive titles coming out, including our favorite, Green Lantern reuniting the team of ComicMix contributors Dennis O’Neil and Mike Grell.
Take a look.
The 2011 Eisner Award nominations have just been announced.
Heading the 2011 nominees with five nominations is Return of the Dapper Men, a fantasy hardcover by writer Jim McCann and artist Janet Lee and published by Archaia, with nominations for Best Publication for Teens, Best Graphic Album–New, Best Writer, Best Artist, and Best Publication Design. Two comics series have four nominations: Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma (published by Shadowline/Image) and Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (published by IDW). A variety of titles have received three nominations, including the manga Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys
The creator with the most nominations is Mignola with five (including cover artist), followed by Spencer and Hill, each with four. Several creators received three nominations: McCann & Lee, Rodriquez, Urasawa, and Clowes, plus writer Ian Boothy (for Comic Book Guy: The Comic Book and other Bongo titles) and cartoonist Jimmy Gownley (for Best Publication for Kids plus coloring and lettering on his Amelia Rules!
Ballots with this year’s nominees will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers. A downloadable .pdf of the ballot will also be available online, and a special website has been set up for online voting. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 22 at Comic-Con International.
Congratulations to all the nominees!
Sometimes great minds think alike and even simultaneously. Two noted modern pulp writers within hours of each other sent ALL PULP an email, one asking to do an interview, the other wanting to submit an essay. Each of these writers wanted to use these vehicles to dig deeper into their own creative processes, to pull back the shade and show where some of the influences for their characters and some of the reasons behind creative decisions they made came from. The writer who requested the interview was Mike Bullock and that interview was posted yesterday on MOONSTONE MONDAY. The writer who’d written the essay is ALL PULP’s very own Barry Reese and it will be posted below to officially kick off BEHIND THE VEIL.
In the coming weeks, Perry Constantine, ALL PULP guest columnist will be contacting some pulp creators with a list of interview questions, not the basic questions, but some real get tough and deep type questions about relationships these writers have with particular characters they have created or have written. If you prefer, however, to do an essay as Barry did, then please do so and send that to allpulp@yahoo.com Both interviews and essays will be featured in BEHIND THE VEIL.
MIKE BULLOCK, Writer/Creator
AP: Mike, welcome back to ALL PULP.
Mike Bullock: Thanks! [looks at the new blinds] I love what you’ve
done with the place.
AP: Ha! Catch everyone up on what you’ve been up to and what you’re working on.
MB: Well, I have a lot of irons in the fire, but the ones that AP’s
readers are most likely interested in include putting the finishing
touches on the first Black Bat/Death Angel graphic novel, which heads
to the printer this week.
AP: You’ve been involved heavily in Moonstone’s pulp comic line,
including bringing your own character, Death Angel into the mix as
well as working with well known characters from Pulp’s Golden Age. In
general, what appeals to you about these types of characters as a
creator?
MB: Since the first moment I saw the Michael Whelan cover on A
Princess of Mars back in the ‘70s, I’ve been a pulp fan. There’s just
something about speculative fiction created in the early 20th century
that’s always captivated my imagination. I think it has something to
do with the sheer sense of wonder many of those tales possess. Those
stories were also more clear-cut, in that you always knew the hero,
always knew the villain and were never bogged down in the “shades of
grey” trends and anti-hero shtick that’s so prevalent these days. I’ve
since become greatly intrigued by the creation process many pulp
writers went through back then and how they combined elements from the
real world with what we now call “fringe science,” melding both into a
bubbling concoction of imaginative zeal.
AP: Let’s narrow the scope here. You are the writer behind
Moonstone’s BLACK BAT. This iconic character is credited for being the
inspiration for many heroes that followed him, most notably Batman and
Daredevil. Who/what is THE BLACK BAT?
MB: He is a DA, a hero, a man who burns with a desire to use
everything at his disposal to bring the guilty to justice. In his
pre-Bat life, Anthony Quinn was nearly single-minded in his pursuit of justice through the legal system. I’ve often found that those who truly excel at what they do share this trait, and sometimes it takes them to heights those of us who tend to multi-task can never hope to achieve. That was true of Anthony Quinn, which put him directly in the crosshairs of organized crime. After an attempt to destroy evidence
goes horribly wrong, blinding Quinn in the courtroom that was his battlefield, he learns to adapt, (with that same single-mindedness) and move outside the confines of the system he so diligently defends by taking on the persona of the Black Bat.
AP: When you were given the BLACK BAT to write, what sort of feelings
went through your head, how did you feel about taking on a character
that, although not well known, had a definite established history,
personality, and a loyal fan base?
MB: Whether I like it or not, I’m no stranger to dealing with a
character with a decades-old, passionate, vocal fan-base. I mean, you
can’t write a character like The Phantom and not have that ghost
hanging over you every time you work on a story. So, that part of
taking on Black Bat didn’t faze me much. I’m cognizant of the fact
that some people will love what I’ve done, some will hate it and some
will find themselves indifferent. The only group I really fret over is
the last one.
AP: What’s the creative process you used when you started working on
BLACK BAT? Any special techniques, rituals, etc. that you go through
when writing a character for the first time and/or when developing a
story line?
MB: First, I dig around and read as much as I can about the character
such as past stories, online bios, information by knowledgeable fans,
etc. Then I sit down and try to imagine what was going through the
original creator’s mind when coming at the character for the first
time. Once I have a handle on how I feel the character will react to
certain situations and themes, I then turn around and try to concoct a
series of events I can transform into a story based on how the
character will interact with them.
AP: As you considered the directions you might go with the character, what stood out to you the most from the BLACK BAT’s story? What aspects hooked you as a fan that you then wanted to bring out to the readers?
MB: As I mentioned upstream, it’s the single-mindedness of Quinn. I’ve been fascinated with people many consider “game changers” for years
now, studying how they approach things. One commonality I’ve seen in such people, from sports icons, to filmmakers, to inventors, is their
single-mindedness. Men such as Robert E. Howard, Bruce Lee, Dale Earnhardt, Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan and George Lucas all embody this
trait and it’s something that jumped out at me about Black Bat; a laser-like focus on the task at hand. While none of these men are striving to be the absolute best at what they do as an end game, their dedication to the craft brings that about as a by-product.
AP: A major discussion that goes on all the time in various media, but
particularly it seems where pulp characters are concerned, is why
modern creators change the classic characters in some way when they
write them. Did you come to BLACK BAT intending to change it, to
update it, to make it fit with modern stories? Or was that more of an
organic process, change happening as you put the idea together?
MB: I certainly didn’t set out to do that, but somewhere along the
line I think I did re-imagine him to a certain extent, or possibly a
more accurate way to say it would be ‘re-create’ him. My fascination
with the old pulp writers, combined with the study of game-changing
men made me stop and take a hard look at just what I thought a man
like Norman Daniels might do with Black Bat were he to create the
character now instead of the 1930s. He’d have the backdrop of the
early 21st century mindset to work from, with our lessened societal
moral code: what was considered “R” rated in the 20th century is “PG”
these days. He’d also have a solid working knowledge of post-traumatic
stress disorder and how it can ‘cause personality fragmentation. He’d
know how personality fragmentation works and how it manifests. He’d
also know that rarely is a man who is so driven justified with what
most consider normal.
All those factors lead to a perfect storm of sorts, ignited by the
acid that hit Quinn in the face and brought the genesis of the Black
Bat.
AP: One change, subtle to some, glaring to others, is that your BLACK
BAT is a killer. Even though BLACK BAT did sometimes use maximum force in the original stories, your take on Tony Quinn is definitely more savage, more ruthless. What was the motivation behind this? Was it because these types of characters sell or was it more to do with the character itself?
MB: I don’t do anything because I think it will sell, because honestly
I have no clue what will or won’t sell. If I did know, I wouldn’t need
to write anymore, except to sign my name to royalty checks at the bank [laughing]. The decision to go there with this incarnation of Black Bat was nothing more than the logical progression of what I mentioned above: A single-minded, traumatized, fractured man who views criminals as a disease that needs to be cured. Or, maybe it’s all part of a larger campaign to strike fear in the powerful men behind those Black Bat encounters? Since the original Black Bat vowed to use fear as a weapon, it makes sense that he would communicate that fear in a language his adversaries speak. In the interests of not spoiling what’s to come, I don’t want to say which way it’s really going…
AP: Is your version of BLACK BAT more relevant today than the
original version? Does relevance even matter?
MB: I have no idea. Relevance is in the eye of the beholder. Some
might only find it relevant if I adhere exactly to what’s come before,
others might see it as me doing something that fits into modern times,
others might only consider it relevant if they’re entertained. That’s
another one of those questions, like “what sells” that I’m just not
smart enough to answer.
AP: One of the arguments many of the pulp purists have when discussing
changing existing characters is “If you want to make him different
than what he was, give him a different name and create a new
character!” What are your thoughts on that? Why are creators looking
at these old, largely forgotten properties and tweaking and changing
them instead of creating whole new characters from top to bottom?
MB: I couldn’t speak for why anyone else does that other than creators create, it’s in our DNA. For me, I acknowledge that no one will ever write a Black Bat story as good as the ones already in print written by the Bat’s creator. No one will ever write Conan as well as Howard, no one will ever write Doc Savage as well as Lester Dent and I never wrote a Phantom story that measures up to one from Lee Falk. So, instead of trying to do the impossible, I felt led to try and sit in Daniels’ seat, think inside his parameters, but include what we know these days in regards to the psychology of fear.
All the old tales, and all the news ones as well, always have a
certain degree of social commentary, a certain amount of the writer’s
worldview and life experience built into them, sometimes overtly, but
more often than not subconsciously. I think we have to acknowledge the
age old adage: Life imitates art. It’s hard to imitate certain aspects
of a life we’ve never led, while striving to remove aspects of the one
we do lead.
There’s also the real possibility I’m simply off my rocker…
And, to touch on the other point, I did create my own pulp character
from top to bottom with Death Angel.
AP: To follow that tangent, tell us about that. What makes Death Angel
fit into the pulp world?
MB: Death Angel is a combination of unquenchable drive, righteous anger and fringe science all balled into one package of “night stalking” vigilante. ‘Angel is my tip of the hat to the great writers who heralded the golden age of speculative fiction from the 20th century. My chance to create my own take, do with it as I want, and tell the sorts of stories that have no place in my other creator-owned properties like Lions, Tigers and Bears or Timothy and the Transgalactic Towel. So far, reader feedback has been very positive, so I think I’m doing something right… for once [laughing]
AP: All right, soapbox time. You have as long as you want to pitch
BLACK BAT to the purists, to the readers and fans who feel like you should have left BLACK BAT as is. Why should they read what you’re doing with the character? What will they find that they can connect to in your take on this character?
MB: All I’d ask is that everyone waits for the story to unfold before jumping to any conclusions. I know it falls under the “not your Father’s” cliché, but I love the character and really tried to imbue that into the stories. I really want to show people who never read
Black Bat stories why he’s such a great character, and hopefully, that
will lead them back to the source material. Unlike some people who
have taken on older characters of late, I truly love the pulp “genre”,
truly love the characters and want them to regain the spotlight they
deserve. If you disagree, then by all means, speak your mind, but I’d
ask that you give it a fair shake before deciding it is or isn’t for
you. That’s all I can ask.
AP: What else do you have cooking, pulp wise and beyond, in the future?
MB: Well, I’m looking forward to doing more with Black Bat and Death Angel, as well as Captain Future and a few other things. Joe Gentile and I are slowly laying the ground work for a Return of the Originals: Battle for LA sequel, of sorts (not really a continuation of what CJ Henderson wrote, but just another epic tale featuring a multitude of pulp heroes). On the pulp event-horizon you’ll find Savage Beauty, our new jungle girl book, and Air Vixens, featuring a new tale with Bald Eagle, Black Angel and Jasmine LaForge of Iron Ace fame.
I’m working on another “brought back to life” property that I can’t
talk about just yet, but I can say the last time the character was in
comics, he was one of the five most popular comic characters on Earth.
For anyone into all-ages comics, my own Lions, Tigers and Bears is
roaring back into book stores in May, with the debut of volume III,
followed soon thereafter by re-issues of volume I & II. I also have
another all-ages property I’m creating right now that will hopefully
hit stores in 2012.
AP: Thanks, Mike!
MIKE BULLOCK, Writer/Creator
AP: Mike, welcome back to ALL PULP.
Mike Bullock: Thanks! [looks at the new blinds] I love what you’ve
done with the place.
AP: Ha! Catch everyone up on what you’ve been up to and what you’re working on.
MB: Well, I have a lot of irons in the fire, but the ones that AP’s
readers are most likely interested in include putting the finishing
touches on the first Black Bat/Death Angel graphic novel, which heads
to the printer this week.
AP: You’ve been involved heavily in Moonstone’s pulp comic line,
including bringing your own character, Death Angel into the mix as
well as working with well known characters from Pulp’s Golden Age. In
general, what appeals to you about these types of characters as a
creator?
MB: Since the first moment I saw the Michael Whelan cover on A
Princess of Mars back in the ‘70s, I’ve been a pulp fan. There’s just
something about speculative fiction created in the early 20th century
that’s always captivated my imagination. I think it has something to
do with the sheer sense of wonder many of those tales possess. Those
stories were also more clear-cut, in that you always knew the hero,
always knew the villain and were never bogged down in the “shades of
grey” trends and anti-hero shtick that’s so prevalent these days. I’ve
since become greatly intrigued by the creation process many pulp
writers went through back then and how they combined elements from the
real world with what we now call “fringe science,” melding both into a
bubbling concoction of imaginative zeal.
AP: Let’s narrow the scope here. You are the writer behind
Moonstone’s BLACK BAT. This iconic character is credited for being the
inspiration for many heroes that followed him, most notably Batman and
Daredevil. Who/what is THE BLACK BAT?
MB: He is a DA, a hero, a man who burns with a desire to use
everything at his disposal to bring the guilty to justice. In his
pre-Bat life, Anthony Quinn was nearly single-minded in his pursuit of
justice through the legal system. I’ve often found that those who
truly excel at what they do share this trait, and sometimes it takes
them to heights those of us who tend to multi-task can never hope to
achieve. That was true of Anthony Quinn, which put him directly in the
crosshairs of organized crime. After an attempt to destroy evidence
goes horribly wrong, blinding Quinn in the courtroom that was his
battlefield, he learns to adapt, (with that same single-mindedness)
and move outside the confines of the system he so diligently defends
by taking on the persona of the Black Bat.
AP: When you were given the BLACK BAT to write, what sort of feelings
went through your head, how did you feel about taking on a character
that, although not well known, had a definite established history,
personality, and a loyal fan base?
MB: Whether I like it or not, I’m no stranger to dealing with a
character with a decades-old, passionate, vocal fan-base. I mean, you
can’t write a character like The Phantom and not have that ghost
hanging over you every time you work on a story. So, that part of
taking on Black Bat didn’t faze me much. I’m cognizant of the fact
that some people will love what I’ve done, some will hate it and some
will find themselves indifferent. The only group I really fret over is
the last one.
AP: What’s the creative process you used when you started working on
BLACK BAT? Any special techniques, rituals, etc. that you go through
when writing a character for the first time and/or when developing a
story line?
MB: First, I dig around and read as much as I can about the character
such as past stories, online bios, information by knowledgeable fans,
etc. Then I sit down and try to imagine what was going through the
original creator’s mind when coming at the character for the first
time. Once I have a handle on how I feel the character will react to
certain situations and themes, I then turn around and try to concoct a
series of events I can transform into a story based on how the
character will interact with them.
AP: As you considered the directions you might go with the character,
what stood out to you the most from the BLACK BAT’s story? What
aspects hooked you as a fan that you then wanted to bring out to the
readers?
MB: As I mentioned upstream, it’s the single-mindedness of Quinn. I’ve
been fascinated with people many consider “game changers” for years
now, studying how they approach things. One commonality I’ve seen in
such people, from sports icons, to filmmakers, to inventors, is their
single-mindedness. Men such as Robert E. Howard, Bruce Lee, Dale
Earnhardt, Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan and George Lucas all embody this
trait and it’s something that jumped out at me about Black Bat; a
laser-like focus on the task at hand. While none of these men are
striving to be the absolute best at what they do as an end game, their
dedication to the craft brings that about as a by-product.
AP: A major discussion that goes on all the time in various media, but
particularly it seems where pulp characters are concerned, is why
modern creators change the classic characters in some way when they
write them. Did you come to BLACK BAT intending to change it, to
update it, to make it fit with modern stories? Or was that more of an
organic process, change happening as you put the idea together?
MB: I certainly didn’t set out to do that, but somewhere along the
line I think I did re-imagine him to a certain extent, or possibly a
more accurate way to say it would be ‘re-create’ him. My fascination
with the old pulp writers, combined with the study of game-changing
men made me stop and take a hard look at just what I thought a man
like Norman Daniels might do with Black Bat were he to create the
character now instead of the 1930s. He’d have the backdrop of the
early 21st century mindset to work from, with our lessened societal
moral code: what was considered “R” rated in the 20th century is “PG”
these days. He’d also have a solid working knowledge of post-traumatic
stress disorder and how it can ‘cause personality fragmentation. He’d
know how personality fragmentation works and how it manifests. He’d
also know that rarely is a man who is so driven justified with what
most consider normal.
All those factors lead to a perfect storm of sorts, ignited by the
acid that hit Quinn in the face and brought the genesis of the Black
Bat.
AP: One change, subtle to some, glaring to others, is that your BLACK
BAT is a killer. Even though BLACK BAT did sometimes use maximum force
in the original stories, your take on Tony Quinn is definitely more
savage, more ruthless. What was the motivation behind this? Was it
because these types of characters sell or was it more to do with the
character itself?
MB: I don’t do anything because I think it will sell, because honestly
I have no clue what will or won’t sell. If I did know, I wouldn’t need
to write anymore, except to sign my name to royalty checks at the bank
[laughing]. The decision to go there with this incarnation of Black
Bat was nothing more than the logical progression of what I mentioned
above: A single-minded, traumatized, fractured man who views criminals
as a disease that needs to be cured. Or, maybe it’s all part of a
larger campaign to strike fear in the powerful men behind those Black
Bat encounters? Since the original Black Bat vowed to use fear as a
weapon, it makes sense that he would communicate that fear in a
language his adversaries speak. In the interests of not spoiling
what’s to come, I don’t want to say which way it’s really going…
AP: Is your version of BLACK BAT more relevant today than the
original version? Does relevance even matter?
MB: I have no idea. Relevance is in the eye of the beholder. Some
might only find it relevant if I adhere exactly to what’s come before,
others might see it as me doing something that fits into modern times,
others might only consider it relevant if they’re entertained. That’s
another one of those questions, like “what sells” that I’m just not
smart enough to answer.
AP: One of the arguments many of the pulp purists have when discussing
changing existing characters is “If you want to make him different
than what he was, give him a different name and create a new
character!” What are your thoughts on that? Why are creators looking
at these old, largely forgotten properties and tweaking and changing
them instead of creating whole new characters from top to bottom?
MB: I couldn’t speak for why anyone else does that other than creators
create, it’s in our DNA. For me, I acknowledge that no one will ever
write a Black Bat story as good as the ones already in print written
by the Bat’s creator. No one will ever write Conan as well as Howard,
no one will ever write Doc Savage as well as Lester Dent and I never
wrote a Phantom story that measures up to one from Lee Falk. So,
instead of trying to do the impossible, I felt led to try and sit in
Daniels’ seat, think inside his parameters, but include what we know
these days in regards to the psychology of fear.
All the old tales, and all the news ones as well, always have a
certain degree of social commentary, a certain amount of the writer’s
worldview and life experience built into them, sometimes overtly, but
more often than not subconsciously. I think we have to acknowledge the
age old adage: Life imitates art. It’s hard to imitate certain aspects
of a life we’ve never led, while striving to remove aspects of the one
we do lead.
There’s also the real possibility I’m simply off my rocker…
And, to touch on the other point, I did create my own pulp character
from top to bottom with Death Angel.
AP: To follow that tangent, tell us about that. What makes Death Angel
fit into the pulp world?
MB: Death Angel is a combination of unquenchable drive, righteous
anger and fringe science all balled into one package of “night
stalking” vigilante. ‘Angel is my tip of the hat to the great writers
who heralded the golden age of speculative fiction from the 20th
century. My chance to create my own take, do with it as I want, and
tell the sorts of stories that have no place in my other creator-owned
properties like Lions, Tigers and Bears or Timothy and the
Transgalactic Towel. So far, reader feedback has been very positive,
so I think I’m doing something right… for once [laughing]
AP: All right, soapbox time. You have as long as you want to pitch
BLACK BAT to the purists, to the readers and fans who feel like you
should have left BLACK BAT as is. Why should they read what you’re
doing with the character? What will they find that they can connect to
in your take on this character?
MB: All I’d ask is that everyone waits for the story to unfold before
jumping to any conclusions. I know it falls under the “not your
Father’s” cliché, but I love the character and really tried to imbue
that into the stories. I really want to show people who never read
Black Bat stories why he’s such a great character, and hopefully, that
will lead them back to the source material. Unlike some people who
have taken on older characters of late, I truly love the pulp “genre”,
truly love the characters and want them to regain the spotlight they
deserve. If you disagree, then by all means, speak your mind, but I’d
ask that you give it a fair shake before deciding it is or isn’t for
you. That’s all I can ask.
AP: What else do you have cooking, pulp wise and beyond, in the future?
MB: Well, I’m looking forward to doing more with Black Bat and Death
Angel, as well as Captain Future and a few other things. Joe Gentile
and I are slowly laying the ground work for a Return of the Originals:
Battle for LA sequel, of sorts (not really a continuation of what CJ
Henderson wrote, but just another epic tale featuring a multitude of
pulp heroes). On the pulp event-horizon you’ll find Savage Beauty, our
new jungle girl book, and Air Vixens, featuring a new tale with Bald
Eagle, Black Angel and Jasmine LaForge of Iron Ace fame.
I’m working on another “brought back to life” property that I can’t
talk about just yet, but I can say the last time the character was in
comics, he was one of the five most popular comic characters on Earth.
For anyone into all-ages comics, my own Lions, Tigers and Bears is
roaring back into book stores in May, with the debut of volume III,
followed soon thereafter by re-issues of volume I & II. I also have
another all-ages property I’m creating right now that will hopefully
hit stores in 2012.
AP: Thanks, Mike!
Another April Fool’s Day has come and gone, leaving in its wake a trail of confusion as comics news sites posted fake news article after fake news article in an attempt to hoax their audiences into believing things that couldn’t possibly be true.
Naturally, ComicMix condemns all such shenanigans as juvenile and unworthy.
All the same, now that we’ve had a day or two to process, there have been six recent happenings in the comics world that stood out as so weird, so unlikely, that we were completely floored when they turned out to be true. But don’t take our word for it, take a look below.
Stan Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger are teaming up for The Governator, a comic and TV show detailing the adventures of the ex-Governor of California, ex-King of Aquilonia as he teams up with a precocious pre-teen hacker to fight crime. This is a thing that’s going to happen. Not a joke. We couldn’t believe it either. You’d think after Peter Paul and the Clintons Stan would stay clear of politicians.
Rob Granito, internationally known artist and illustrator, will write and draw his own biography comic for Bluewater Productions.
“In the past two weeks, Granito’s name and work have been on everyone’s lips,” mused Bluewater president Darren Davis. “He might be the most famous comic artist of the year. We expect ‘Fame: Rob Granito’ to be a one-of -a-kind experience.”
Granito has worked for over 15 years in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic art. His name has been attached to major projects for companies such as Warner Brothers, DC and Marvel Comics, Disney, MTV, and VH1, where he has worked on comics, graphic novels, trading cards, animation, as well as book, CD, magazine, and novel covers.
Rob’s recent work has been on “Iron Man 2” for Marvel, “Spider-man Archives” and “X-Men” for Upper Deck, “Marvel Masterpieces” for Ritten House, and the Playbill for the Broadway musical and posters for the 25th and the 27th Anniversary celebration of “A Christmas Story”.
Never being one to ride on past successes, Rob is currently hard at work on projects for Noel “Lois Lane” Neill, and Olympic snowboarding sensation Ross Powers, a CD project for music innovators Midnight Syndicate, the soon to be released USPS Comic Strip stamps, and a project for a few classic comic strip/cartoon.
Some of Rob’s past work includes cel work on the Animated Batman Superman Adventures, X-Men and Spider-man to name a few.
Rob is also in negotiations for a project involving the Boxing Hall of Fame, a children’s book for Scholastic, a project with comic/television icon “The Incredible Hulk”, and a truly exciting charity project for the NHL’s N.Y. Rangers: Garden of Dreams.
The standard 32-page issue retails for $3.99. It will be available through local comic book stores . The special collector’s edition (which will feature over forty pages and the alternative covers), will retail for $7.99. will be available through several online venues including Amazon.com (and Amazon UK) and the Barnes and Noble and Borders.
About Bluewater Productions
Bluewater Productions Inc. is one of the top independent production studios of comic books, young adult books and graphic novels. Its extensive catalog of titles includes the bestsellers “10th Muse” and “The Legend of Isis” ”Bluewater publishes comic books in partnership with entertainment icon William Shatner (“TekWar Chronicles”), legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen (“Wrath of the Titans,” “Sinbad: Rogue of Mars,” “Jason and the Argonauts,” et al) and celebrated actor Vincent Price (“Vincent Price Presents”). Additionally, Bluewater publishes a highly successful line of biographical comics under the titles “Female Force” and “Political Power.”
Bluewater aims to unite cutting-edge art and engaging stories produced by its stable of the publishing industry’s top artists and writers.
For more information, visit www.bluewaterprod.com. We’d link to robgranito.com but it seems to have been taken down for copyright violation.
While at the C2E2 retailers summit a few weeks ago, a few details fans might be excited to find out about were accidentally leaked. At a DC Nation panel, the mid-western retailers were shown a few slides of “in-production” artwork, and DC’s Jim Lee and Dan DiDio were teleconferenced in with Marvel’s Axel Alonso to prime the pump for the 2011 summer event. While cameras and laptops were forced off before the event, a few local shop owners emerged from the panel with some juicy tidbits. Here’s the skinny:
• Current Marvel heavyweight Matt Fraction will be penning the five part mini-series with co-plotters J.T. Krul and Tony Bedard from DC. All that was said was “Access (from Marvel Vs. DC 1) returns a far more powerful man than when we left him.” Krul said. “He finds a way to tap into the power cosmic and gets his mitts on the White Lantern… but that’s really only the catalyst to it all.”
Wonder Woman has been through a lot lately. J. Michael Straczynski — the writer best known for the universally-beloved Spider-Man: One More Day — signed on in the last half of 2010 for a storyline that completely revamped the Amazon princess’ origins. But after the success of Superman: Earth One, the original graphic novel that saw JMS completely break out of his comfort zone by revamping the Last Son of Krypton’s origins, he decided to focus on the sequel and leave Wonder Woman to Phil Hester. But now Hester is leaving, too, unable to resist the temptation of working on the hotly-anticipated 2012 relaunch of Marville for the other guys.
But Diana of Themyscira is in good hands with Dave Sim, the self-publishing legend and creative force behind the eight million-page Cerebus the Aardvark saga, writing and drawing her monthly adventures starting with April’s issue #401. And if that weren’t enough, cartoonist Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, who recently rose to prominence with some enlightened treatises on the feminist movement, will be providing eight-page “Tales Of Diana” backups.
Details are still scarce, but early word has it that Sim will keep with the “Odyssey” timeline established by JMS and Hester in his feature stories. The younger, angrier Princess Diana will meet this timeline’s version of Steve Trevor, an ex-Air Force pilot who quit when he realized that society wasn’t advanced far enough to deserve his servitude.
Under Sim’s guidance, Trevor is expected to teach Diana to embrace the aspects of womanhood she has ignored for so long – namely, submission to the powerful men around her. On Justice League missions, Diana will choose to stand back in the face Superman and Batman’s leadership, deferring to their wisdom. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman cannot be a “normal” woman. It becomes clear the joys of femininity must remain unknown to her, as her repressed aggression manifests into a demon that the men around her have to defeat alone.
As for the Scott Adams backup stories, the Dilbert scribe is aiming for humor over dramatics, as you might expect. Wonder Woman attempts to find Mr. Right in New York City while defeating a slew of villains who roll over and turn themselves into the police rather than fight her. Over the course of his six issues, you can expect to see Adams address such hot-button topics as premenstrual syndrome, shoe shopping, and cubicle life. David E. Kelley has reportedly seen the scripts early and may integrate elements into the new TV series.
Here at ComicMix, we’re very excited to see what may well be the most empowering and popular take on a female superhero since Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder.
Image via Wikipedia
In a bizarre turn of events, Henry Cavill has been pushed out of Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Superman: Man of Steel.” Mr. Cavill’s name had first come up as a likely candidate for Superman when McG was slated to direct in 2002, however as fans remember, McG cancelled out to direct Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, and Bryan Singer was locked to replace him in 2004 to direct Superman Returns with Brandon Routh wearing the eminently recognizable red cape and blue tights.
When Henry Cavill was locked as Superman, he was seen as very appropriate and incredibly humble in casting as reported by MTV.com. Between his casting, Christopher Nolan producing and Zack Snyder directing, the “Superman: Man of Steel” movie was going to be what Batman Begins was for the Dark Knight. Further casting details like actors Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as Martha and Jonathan Kent shaped this revitalized Superman movie into a projected fan favorite, but all of that changed this ominous morning. Dallas Smith, Henry Cavill’s agent at United Agents, was unavailable for comment. Repeated calls and emails to producers Chris Nolan’s and Charles Roven’s offices have not been returned, however an anonymous source directly involved at Chris Nolan’s production company Syncopy said that a formal statement would be forthcoming about Mr. Cavill’s abrupt departure as well as something more odd– a new producer and who would be returning to wear the cape.
Excuse me? RETURNING?
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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