I was waiting in line at Modern Myths in Northampton, MA, picking up a few books. Among them, The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, a book I first heard of at NYCC, but in name only. My friends had gotten to the counter first, so (impatient nerd that I am) I flipped through a few pages of Strode while I waited.
Three pages in, I stepped out of line. I was not going to walk out of there without issue two.
The book revolves around (surprise surprise) Luther Strode, tall and lanky high schooler wanting nothing more than to beef up for the ladies. To that end, he orders a copy of the “Hercules” system (a parody of old Charles Atlas ads) to beef up. Miracle of miracles–it works!
Oh, does it ever work.
Strode is like the the mashup of a high school teen sex comedy and a horror flick. It plays a lot like the former, before surprising you with absolute bananas levels of violence. My friends can attest–I finished issue one while in a parking lot (outside of said comic shop) and would punctuate my reading with sudden “Whoa!”s and “Gah!”s. The book balances each genre brilliantly, with the horror flick making a small (yet memorable) appearance in this first issue. As for the teen sex comedy, it’s a little like if Revenge of the Nerds was less about the psychological victory and more about beating the piss out of people. (more…)
Before you open the first issue of Shane and Chris Houghton’s Reed Gunther, ask yourself the following question: “How awesome is a cowboy riding a bear and fighting monsters?” If your answer was “The most awesome” then you’re going to love this book. Even if that wasn’t your answer, you’re still going to love this book.
Reed Gunther focuses on the titular cowboy, his smarter-than-average bear Sterling and their adventures through an Old West filled with giant snakes, shark monsters and ancient totems. The central man/bear duo is incredibly charming, akin to a Wild West Wallace & Gromit. Reed’s overconfident, super-manly nature contrasts nicely with Sterling’s silent but expressive puppy-dog nature. Granted, Reed is also a bit of a coward and Sterling can be an absolute badass, which provides for some great character moments. There’s an hysterical joke about their somewhat one-sided communication in issue 4, which I won’t ruin, but was easily the biggest laugh in this first story arc, which is saying a lot as this book is often laugh out loud funny.
Image Comics has announced a Feb. 15 launch for Peter Panzerfaust, by writer Kurtis Wiebe and artist Tyler Jenkins.
Peter Panzerfaust is set in the city of Calais, the first city in France to fall to the Germans in the spring of 1940. A mysterious American boy named Peter rallies a handful of plucky French orphans, and they must work together to survive Europe’s darkest hour!
“Peter Panzerfaust is a story Tyler and I have been wanting to tell for years,” Wiebe said. ” It’s an action series set during World War II that blends in a fresh take on the Peter Pan mythology. There’s a real rich setting we’ve developed in this series and I’m thrilled to share it with everyone.”
There are few songwriters – few writers – I respect more than Pete Townshend. Were this a music column I’d go into detail why I hold this belief, but today in this venue he’s a means to an end.
Last week, Pete (okay, we’re not on a first name basis; the only time we were within 10 feet was when he bashed my boss in the back of his head with his guitar) accused Apple’s iTunes online retail store of being a “digital vampire.” His analysis was fraught with mistakes and revealed a genuine lack of knowledge of the situation. He was defending a system that treated him and his band, The Who, very, very well – a system that no longer exists as a creative outlet for newcomers going back at least a full generation. He also mistook iTunes for a label and not what it actually is: a retail outlet. A very successful one, but then again Pete’s net worth is in the neighborhood of $75,000,000 – a true one-percenter – so success isn’t the issue here.
What does this have to do with the wonderful world of comics? Hang on. I’ll get there.
Pete also said “It would be better if music lovers treated music like food, and paid for every helping, rather than only when it suited them … Why can’t music lovers just pay for music rather than steal it?” That’s the heart of my diatribe today: people who sort of steal artists’ works instead of paying for it.
Bootlegging is a serious issue, but more a moral one than financial. Sure, Disney and Warners will bitch about all the milions they’re losing but that’s because they see every bootlegged item as a lost sale. Few are.
When it comes to comics, sometimes it’s a matter of convenience. Some people boot stuff they’ve already purchased because they prefer reading on a tablet. After all, we’re in our third generation of comics fans who go bugfuck whenever somebody folds the cover back in order to read the damn thing. Still others are sampling new wares: with literally over 300 new comics released each month and maybe a third of them brand-new titles or “reboots” (a word with unintended irony) a reader can’t afford to sample even a fraction of the new stuff.
And then there are the idiots. Stupid people who live the life of Wile E. Coyote until they finally look down.
Our buddy Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool reports of a guy named Stephen Chandler out in Glasgow, Scotland who is offering every comic book published each month by the “major” publishers (DC, Marvel, IDW, Image, Dark Horse, Dynamite, and perhaps others) in electronic form for the low price of about $27.00 a month – 20 Euros, so the price fluctuates.
His is a for-profit operation. No matter what you think of readers downloading comics illegally, this guy is taking money out of publishers’ pockets. Most publishers can’t afford that; even the big guys are responsible for delivering an acceptable bottom line to their masters.
Steve, pal… look. Maybe your heart is in the right place. Most comics readers pay more than $27 a month for a fraction of the content you’re delivering on disc. And you’re entitled to a reasonable profit for your work. But that’s only in the sense that Al Capone was entitled to a reasonable profit for his work.
Eventually, Wile E. Coyote looked down. So will you, Steve. You work and perhaps live near the All-Saints Secondary School. You might dine at the Delhi Darber. Maybe you drink at the Aushinairn Tavern and shop at Asda Robroyston. Or perhaps you go to the Food Cooperative off of Wallacewell Road.
Summit Entertainment just acquired screen rights to Area 52, and will develop a live action adaptation based on the four-issue comic book series from Brian Haberlin published by Image Comics in 2001.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian will produce, and JC Spink will be executive producer through Benderspink. The comic focused on a top secret warehouse in Antarctica called Area 52, a government storage dump for otherworldly discoveries, manned by a ragtag group of misfits who have been exiled to the middle of nowhere to staff it. When an alien killing machine is accidentally hatched in this repository, the group must band together and use the stored mythological weapons and artifacts to save themselves and the world.
BEST AMERICAN EDITION OF FOREIGN MATERIAL: BLACKSAD, Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, Dark Horse Comics
BEST INKER: Mark Morales, THOR, Marvel Comics
BEST NEW SERIES: AMERICAN VAMPIRE, Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque, Vertigo/DC Comics
MOST PROMISING NEW TALENT: Chris Samnee, THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER, Marvel Comics
SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR IN COMICS: Roger Langridge, THE MUPPET SHOW, BOOM! Studios
BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC PUBLICATION FOR YOUNGER READERS: TINY TITANS, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, DC Comics
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: BEASTS OF BURDEN: ANIMAL RITES, Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson, Dark Horse Comics
BEST ANTHOLOGY: POPGUN # 4, edited by D.J. Kirkbride, Anthony Wu and Adam P. Knave, Image Comics
BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT: DAVE STEVENS’ THE ROCKETEER: ARTIST’S EDITION, designed by Randall Dahlk & edited by Scott Dunbier, IDW
BEST COVER ARTIST: Mike Mignola, HELLBOY, Dark Horse Comics
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION: THE ART OF JAIME HERNANDEZ: THE SECRETS OF LIFE AND DEATH, edited by Todd Hignite, Abrams ComicArts
SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION: DAVE STEVENS’ THE ROCKETEER: ARITIST’S EDITION, designed by Randall Dahlk & edited by Scott Dunbier, IDW
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – ORIGINAL: SCOTT PILGRM VOLUME 6: SCOTT PILGRIM’S FINEST HOUR, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Oni Press
BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES: LOVE AND ROCKETS: VOLUME 3, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Fantagraphics
BEST WRITER: Roger Langridge, THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER, Marvel Comics
BEST ARTIST: Darwyn Cooke, RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: THE OUTFIT, IDW
BEST CARTOONIST: Darwyn Cooke, RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: THE OUTFIT, IDW
BEST SINGLE ISSUE or STORY: DAYTRIPPER, Fabio Moon and Gabiel Ba, Vertigo/DC Comics
Special Awards: to Paul McSpadden, Harvey Award Administrator, presented by Denis Kitchen.
Hero Initiative Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year: Mike Gold, presented by Mark Wheatley
Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award: Stan Lee, presented by Mark Waid
Update: No wifi here, so live results will be on Twitter. Follow us there!
The 2011 Harvey Awards are being presented at a banquet tonight at the Baltimore Comic-Con, and we’re liveblogging and tweeting the ceremony results and awards.
Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art.
Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators – those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. They are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. Thank you to all that have already participated by submitting a nomination ballot.
This will be the sixth year for the Harvey Awards in Baltimore, MD. Our Master of Ceremonies this year for the third year in a row will be Scott Kurtz (www.pvponline.com). And this year’s keynote speaker has a hard job, as last year’s infamous keynote speech from Mark Waid will be tough to top.
Below are the 2011 Harvey Award Nominees. Winners will be highlighted in bold as they are announced. (more…)
Pulp 2.0 Press Acquires Publishing Rights to Big Bang Universe
Pulp Publisher to reprint classic Big Bang Comics as Collector’s Volumes
Los Angeles, CA – Pulp 2.0 Press CEO Bill Cunningham today announced that the company has acquired the publishing and media licensing rights to the library of work by creators Gary Carlson and Chris Ecker under their Big Bang Comics imprint. This deal signals another expansion for the company’s library of graphic novels. “I’ve always loved the history and the classic sensibility of the Big Bang Comics characters like Knight Watchman, Ultiman,Thunder Girl and others that Gary and Chris have created. I’m very pleased we have a chance to bring their work and the work of celebrated giants like Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Shelly Moldoff, and Marty Nodell out in collector’s editions that capture that four color fun we all enjoyed when we were kids.”
The company plans to issue their editions as showcases to each individual Big Bang Comics character by collecting all of that character’s work under one cover, and adding historical reference, essays and rare, behind-the-scenes photos, sketches, covers, and memorabilia. Formerly published by Image comics, Big Bang made a reputation for itself as the place where comics were fun again by creating the classic comics work of BB giants like Tom King and Jack Kingler. “Big Bang Comics is an example of the kind of of fun we want to inject back into book publishing,” said Cunningham. “I grew up reading books like The Great Comic Book Heroes and Batman: From the 30’s to the 70’s. Each Big Bang character deserves the same sort of presentation so fans old and new can read and appreciate both the comics and the history behind the company just like I did.”
“Big Bang Comics began in 1992 when Chris Ecker told me that he was tired of comic book publishers and art directors telling him that he drew like an “old guy” and that he was going to sit down and draw an old style comic book story and that I was going to write it. We talked his ideaover at a small comic convention in Elgin, Illinois where we both lived. Then we got Gary Reed at Caliber Press involved as our first publisher and the rest is history. With Big Bang I got to write stories about the characters I had loved and even got to work with some of my favorite creators: Shelly Moldoff, Mart Nodell, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson (they even signed it “Swanderson”!), Dave Cockrum and Rich Buckler,” said Big Bang Creator Gary Carlson.
Big Bang Co-Creator Chris Ecker adds, “If the Golden Age and Silver Age creators had the opportunity to see their work available on “space aged” digital devices (like, say a Kindle or Nook), they’d have jumped at it. With Pulp2.0, we’re able to do things with our “vintage” comic universe that they could only dream–and write or draw–about. I also think there’s an untapped group of potential fans that aren’t familiar with Big Bang out there, and the digital and print on demand capabilities that our Pulp 2.0 partnership presents will allow them total access. “
Individual editions in Pulp 2.0’s Big Bang Comics Collector’s series will be announced as they become available. The first editions are scheduled for 2nd quarter 2012. For more information on Big Bang go to: www.bigbangcomics.com
About Pulp 2.0:
Pulp 2.0 is a publishing and media company that creates and distributes quality pulp entertainment media in every manner possible for its audience all over the world to enjoy. The company licenses, redesigns and republishes classic pulp, exploitation paperbacks and magazines through a variety of print and digital media; breathing new life into many of these ‘lost’ properties.
The company also creates new pulp entertainment for its target audience including the original vampire blaxploitation novel Brother Blood by Donald F. Glut, the internet radio adventure serial “The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight” (produced in association with Toronto’s Decoder Ring Theater), and the tribute to legendary radio adventure historian Jim Harmon, Radio Western Adventures that features a lost western tale by Doc Savage creator Lester Dent. In addition, the company is developing the re-release of Glut’s widely acclaimed horror-adventure book series The New Adventures of Frankenstein in collectible editions for print and digital. For more information go to: www.pulp2ohpress.com
Well, we know who we’re voting for and ComicMix will be on hand, covering events and news happening at next month’s Baltimore Comic-Con.
BALTIMORE, MD (July 5, 2011) — The 2011 Harvey Awards Nominees have been announced with the release of the final ballot, presented by the Executive Committees of the Harvey Awards and the Baltimore Comic-Con. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. They will be presented August 20, 2011 in Baltimore, MD, in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con.
Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators – those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. They are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. Thank you to all that have already participated by submitting a nomination ballot.
Final ballots are due to the Harvey Awards by Saturday, August 6, 2011. Full details for submission of completed ballots can be found on the final ballot. Voting is open to anyone professionally involved in a creative capacity within the comics field. Final ballots are available for download at www.harveyawards.org. Those without Internet access may request that paper ballots be sent to them via mail or fax by calling the Baltimore Comic-Con (410-526-7410) or e-mailing baltimorecomiccon@yahoo.com.
This will be the sixth year for the Harvey Awards in Baltimore, MD. Our Master of Ceremonies this year for the 3rd year in a row will be Scott Kurtz (www.pvponline.com).
This year’s Baltimore Comic-Con will be held August 20-21, 2011. The ceremony and banquet for the 2011 Harvey Awards will be held Saturday night, August 20.
Without further delay, the 2011 Harvey Award Nominees: (more…)
What will you do while awaiting the second season of HBO’s stellar adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones? Well, there’s that slightly overdue fifth book in the series coming in a matter of weeks then there’s today’s announcement that the first novel is being adapted for comics.
NEW YORK, NY – June 29th, 2011 – Bantam Books, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, announced today Alex Ross and Mike S. Miller as the cover artists for the comic adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series.
The series will be illustrated by Tommy Patterson and adapted and scripted by Daniel Abraham, the award-winning and bestselling author of The Long Price Quartet. The first issue of the monthly comic-which will be published by Dynamite Entertainment-is planned to release in September 2011, with compilations of the comics in graphic novel form to follow under the Bantam imprint.
“It has been fifteen years since I first edited A GAME OF THRONES, and it is a genuine joy to be revisiting and adapting this landmark novel into a format that suits it so perfectly,” says Senior Editor at Random House Anne Groell. “George’s writing has always been highly visual, painting rich, detailed and striking images in the reader’s minds and hearts. And now seeing such a talented group of artists bringing that so vividly to life is truly exciting. I couldn’t be more pleased with everything I have seen so far–and I can’t wait for what is yet to come!”
“It’s a real privilege and a treat to be involved with reinterpreting Game of Thrones,” says writer Daniel Abraham. “It’s a brilliant piece of work, and watching the strength of that story come into a visual medium is fantastic.”
“George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is the best book series I’ve ever read,” says cover artist Mike Miller. “Not just in the fantasy genre, but in ANY genre. Just as I hear people saying Game of Thrones is the best series on TV, I’m sure they’ll be saying the same about the comic book. You can’t find a better writer anywhere than George, and I was very excited to get the opportunity to draw covers for the comic book adaptation.” (more…)
Apparently the first case taken on by the television adaptation of Powerswill be “Who Killed Retro Girl?” now that the title character has been cast. Sexy model Carly Foulkes, best known for the T-Mobile ad campaign of the last two years, has been added to the FX pilot.
Series co-creator Brian Michael Bendis revealed this casting tidbit when appearing on on Sirius XM’s Geektime radio show over the weekend. The 23-year old Canadian model turned actress will leap from pretty-in-pink pitchman to geek immortality with this move.
She joins a cast already including Jason Patric and Lucy Punch as the Powers Homicide detectives in the drama series based on the long-running series by Bendis and co-creator Michael Avon Oeming.
Who Killed Retro Girl? is the name of the first Powers collection, including the debut storyline from the series when it was published in 2000 from Image Comics. The story remains in print as a hardcover or softcover.
I was waiting in line at Modern Myths in Northampton, MA, picking up a few books. Among them, The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, a book I first heard of at NYCC, but in name only. My friends had gotten to the counter first, so (impatient nerd that I am) I flipped through a few pages of Strode while I waited.
