A&D is the way my fellow classmates refer to the high school we attended, The High School of Art and Design in New York City. A&D is without a doubt the greatest high school on earth.
Really.
I know for a fact that my high school is the greatest high school in the history of the world. If you went there, you would think so also. Oh, before I forget, fuck the High School of Music and Art. They were our rivals as were those mofos from the High School of Performing Arts as well as the High School of Fashion industries can all kiss my ass.
School pride… yeahhhhhh!
All of the high schools I’ve mentioned are in New York City. None of them are as good as A&D but clearly they have something to offer. All of the schools I’ve mentioned are magnet schools for the arts. Remember that movie Fame?
Fame was the story of the High School of Performing Arts, or as they referred to it in the film, P.A. I have to admit I really liked the film but P.A. can still kiss my ass.
School pride… yeahhhhhh!
I won’t bore you with the list of bad ass comic book and other artists that graduated from A&D but it’s as impressive as shit. Check out this linkif you care to know just how A&D rolls.
I’m not writing this just to brag about A&D and put down our rivals, I’m writing this because the arts in this country are under serious attack. The GOP is threatening to pull funding from art programs like the National Endowment Of the Arts and the first thing cut in any high school budget are the music and art programs.
What kind of goddamn country would this be without art? What kind of comics will there be in a generation if comic artists don’t have places like A&D to attend? Like I said, all of the high schools I mentioned are in New York City.
New York leads the world in the arts. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
America needs and quite frankly wants the arts. The mega popular show, America’s Got Talent, had two – that’s two – artists in the finals.
If the comic book and related industries just turn a blind eye to the assault on the arts then we will get what we deserve. That’s work that sucks and leads to a continuing declining fan base and the death of comics.
Lastly, I’m sure you know I did not mean all the rude things I said about the rivals of A&D. They are great schools and I have nothing but respect for them. In case anyone is wondering I did my undergrad work at The Pratt Institute and I’d just like to say, fuck Cooper Union, the School of Visual Arts, Parsons and a special fuckyou to Art Center.
Two hundred and twenty five years ago today, the final draft of the Constitution of the United States was adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The First Amendment of the Constitution states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
We mention this because earlier today, comic book artist Molly Crabapple (that’s her artwork above, previously published in The Nation) peaceably assembled on the streets of New York City for the anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Apparently, the NYPD insisted everyone get on the pavement, and once they were on the pavement they were arrested.
Molly live-tweeted her arrest on her Twitter account. Warren Ellis started the hashtag #FreeMollyCrabapple, which rapidly became a trending topic on Twitter, and was covered by numerous news outlets. And this evening, Ms. Crabapple was released.
We’re sure she’ll have much more to say later. For now, we’re just happy she’s out.
Last Saturday was a busy day if you were a Doctor Who fan in New York City. The first episode of the new series, Asylum of the Daleks, had its US premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater, the largest single-screen theater in the city they could lay their hands on. After a minor frenzy to obtain tickets, fans were treated to an hour-long thrill ride as The Doctor and his friends Amy and Rory fought against more Daleks than you could shake an eye-stalk at. But the activity began earlier in the day, as the folks at BBC America made stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, as well as co-producer Caroline Skinner available for interviews to the appreciative hordes of the working press.
Matt Smith (The Doctor) is currently shooting the Christmas special (“Which you have to shoot in August, because what could be more silly” explained Caro Skinner) and arranged a break in his schedule so he could fly to New York specifically to attend the premiere. “I want to film every single episode in New York, I want to get that out there right now. I absolutely love this place. Any way you point a camera, there’s something wonderful and beautiful to look at. The Light here sort of falls between the grids of the buildings so wonderfully. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’d like to come live here one day. And it’s great to do a sort of periody piece here – the locations afford you so much.”
In the aforementioned special, “[The Doctor] meets his new chum…or someone he thinks is his new chum”, played by newcomer to the series, Jenna-Louise Coleman. When asked about how The Doctor acts when he hasn’t got a companion, Matt admits he’s “really interested by the time he spends on his own. I think he gets more dangerous when he’s on his own. I think he needs that sort of human moral compass, that human sensibility. He needs that, he doesn’t have the same grasp of it. It’s interesting to think about the character becoming more reclusive, and on his own. Just this old man, wandering around the universe, trying to put things right…killing loads of innocent people along the way. when you look at it, there’s a lot of clerics that die in certain episodes.”
This season of thirteen regular episodes is broken into a short set of five, the final eight coming in 2013, after the Christmas special. The only “arc” in this five is what matt calls “The fall of the Ponds”. “We start off exactly where we left him,” Matt explains, “a man who is trying to step back a bit, into the shadows, and be less prominent, less famous, less apparent, less destructive. less of all those things that he started to struggle with. We see him trying to deal with that, as a character, or personality trait, it’s absolutely something he’s trying to deal with. Perhaps it does make his soul a bit darker, because he’s alone a lot more. As Amy says, it’s unhealthy for him, I think, ultimately, to be alone too long.”
When discussing the new episode, everyone has said the Daleks are “scary again”. “We’ve got the design of them better,” says Matt. “We’ve drawn from every Dalek, every one ever on its…well, you can’t say ‘legs’, can you? On their…space wheels. And The Asylum, you’ll see tonight, it’s…Dalek-Land. Like a perfect theme park – everything’s made for Daleks, it’s sort of ridiculous. The doors all go like that (makes a triangle shape with his hands) cause they’re all fat at the bottom. The world is really sort of gruesome and frightening. The design, and the tone, and the way it’s lit, I think we’ve achieved our intention with their nature.”
Karen Gillan (Amy Pond Williams) admitted something fairly major – “I’ve never found the Daleks…all that scary. I’ve loved them, cause they’re so iconic. But in this episode, they’re properly frightening.
I wondered if this “asylum” was more in the sense of a place where you keep mad people, of a place where dangerous people beg to be kept safe. Matt surmised, “I think it is [the first], but I rather like the idea of Daleks SO mad, they’re asking, ‘don’t let me out’. If they had more of a human consciousness, the latter could apply, but the Daleks don’t have that, it’s just not there. It’s just alien evil, encased in a tank. That’s why The Doctor has had this life-long war, that’s why they are his greatest foe, there’s nothing redemptive about them. They are only evil, and that’s the way he sees them; only evil.”
“This is an interesting episode for the nature of the Daleks”, Matt thinks. “We learn a lot, Steven cleverly reveals. As I think you have to with any villain that comes back. They have to have moved on somehow. And I think Steven’s done that here, he’s explored their nature in a very interesting way.”
The recurring theme of meeting historical figures will come round again, in an odd way. “In episode four, we encounter someone’s feet. He was a king, and he’s chasing us…and I’m not gonna give anything else away.” When asked what figure he might like to see appear, Matt was introspective. “Was Tarzan real? He wasn’t real was he? I kind of like the idea of The Doctor swinging from the branches, but being really bad at it.”
Gillan had a rather definite opinion about her character, specifically about the possibility of a return after this season’s assuredly dramatic departure. “I’ve always said that when I go, I want it to be for good. Because I want that final scene to have that same impact, maybe ten years on. I want people to be able to revisit it and still have the same emotion. That’s really important for me, so for that reason, I think I’m going to rule out any returns.” However, when I quietly complimented her on her ability to lie, she replied, “I learned it from the best!”
This season will start with a five-part webisode prequel, Pond Life, which will be made available on the BBC’s You Tube channel. “That was really interesting,” Karen recalls. “Cause you never get to see the snippets in between their adventures with The Doctor. And that’s what Pond Life is all about. And the in episode four (The Power of Three) that’s what the whole episode is about – these two people trying to deal with their domestic life, with this time-traveler popping in and out of their lives, whisking them off into these crazy adventures.”
“Steven (Moffat) and I wanted to do a fairly substantial piece about the Ponds and their relationship with The Doctor,” explained Executive producer Caroline Skinner, “kind of in general, and in between series six and seven. And one of the exciting thing about this series of episodes is you’ve got Amy and Rory as a married couple, and The Doctor popping in and out of their life, and taking them on adventures, and then dropping them off again. And we wanted something to set up that context, and really let people get an emotional sense of their relationship. And to see what The Doctor popping in and out meant from their point of view. You’ve got him coming in like that crazy little child, and throwing everything up in the air.”
“We were working at the time with brilliant writer Chris Chibnall (writer of 42 and The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood for Who, and numerous episodes of Torchwood), and he’s just got the most beautiful way for writing for Amy and Rory, and we asked him to put pen to paper, and that’s what we got.”
In this, her first full season producing the show, Caro brings to the table “A huge amount of passion for [the series], I’ve always loved it, and massive enthusiasm and ambition to make this the biggest series ever. And so does Steven. I sat down on day minus-one, just before I got the job, and he pitched me what he wanted to do with the series. And miraculously, in fifteen minutes, he’d pitched me all 13 stories for each episode, and I was just sat there saying ‘Wow, that’s quite a lot.’ And it was just so exciting to hear, to be honest, and I just wanted to bring my enthusiasm to bear to make all those ideas come to life, in the most ambitious way that we could.”
While chatting, Karen shared a problem she had with the many deaths of Rory Williams: “Each time, I have to invent a sort of new ‘death reaction.’ What am I going to do now?” She didn’t have any such problems filming her final scenes. “It not even acting, it’s just real. And it was honestly, just one of the most powerful feelings, and I just related it to how I genuinely felt. [that scene] was fairly far along in the shooting, but our very last scene was kind of an insignificant one, just us getting into the TARDIS, going ‘bye!’ But it became significant, cause it was the last time were going into the TARDIS together. So Matt closed the door, and we were in total darkness, and we all had a massive hug in the dark. And I cried, and milked it for all it was worth. It was amazing.”
Of all the episodes she’s filmed, Karen still considered The Eleventh Hour to be her favorite. “There was a particular magic to that episode. We were introducing the characters and establishing their relationship for the first time, and it was all so exciting. Actually, my favorite scene doesn’t even involve me at all, it’s the fish/custard scene, with my little cousin (Caitlin Blackwood) and Matt.”
Karen’s met some very wonderful fans, but had a couple stories about a couple that…stuck in her mind. One was a fellow who had actually had his name changed to “River Song”, and dressed as her for the convention, and a second fellow from Australia who had customized his house to a Doctor Who theme – “He had a TARDIS elevator, the gates had the logo – it had to cost some money.”
All three of the guests agreed that filming in New York City was a wonderful experience. “We filmed in Central Park and had hundreds of fans,” Matt recalls, “following us. It was remarkable, like nothing I’d ever witnessed before.” Karen agreed – ” Just to contain the excitement of being in Central Park was a challenge. We didn’t have any sort of security, we didn’t think anything like [hundreds of fans] was going to happen. But what was really nice is everybody respected the shooting, they were really quiet, and the they said ‘Cut,’ and it was all ‘Sign my TARDIS!'” Caroline explained, “When we shoot in the UK, we’ll get quite a few people following us around, and the fan base absolutely adore the show. But in my career, I’ve never known anything…I don’t think anyone had prepared themselves for what shooting in New York would be like. Least of all, our producers here in New York, who had done various movies here, and they’re all saying, ‘Caro, I don’t mean to be funny, but you’ve got twice as many people as Julia Roberts here!’ Just a wonderful experience. We had maybe twenty, thirty people in central park in the morning, and the crowd just grew, and by the end, we were shooting at a big fountain, and we could hardly hold the people back. And the sheer love and passion for the show was in the air, and it made the entire experience so special.
Indeed, Caroline called Angels in Manhattan the most challenging episode of this front half of the season. “Challenging for Steven because he’s written the most beautiful and heartbreaking exit story and there are some scenes in there that just so absolutely emotional. It’s an enormous thing to change companions, and you absolutely have to get that story right. And at the same time, we wanted to make the New York setting as resonant as we possibly could, and really make it feel to every detail, that we’d set it over here. And we did, we came here. We worked incredibly hard to get to get out and about to every New York landmark that we could, but more so to create that sort of noirish atmosphere that shooting in this city is so famous for. To make the story feel as beautiful as it possibly could do.
As for next year, which will of course be 2013, the fiftieth anniversary year for the series. “All I can say at this point”, said Caroline, guardedly, “Is that next year i going to be the biggest year of Doctor Who, bar none. I spent a lot of my time in strange underground rooms, with senior people at the BBC, and talking about what we might do. And not just on television; but other things, cause obviously Doctor Who has a lot of live events. So there are many plans afoot, which are all wonderful, and are all absolutely top secret.”
Writing for science fiction is always a challenge, as eventually someone has to ask how much things will cost, and that’s ultimately Caroline’s job. “We are treated very nicely by the BBC, but it’s always, whatever show you do, however big of small the budget is, you always want more. The thing we do on Doctor Who, as much as we possibly can do, is to let writers write exactly what they want, and then try not to cut anything, What you tend to get, in a Doctor Who script, is if it doesn’t, in terms of the production challenges, within it, in terms of location, in terms of special effects, just sheer story-based ambition…if it doesn’t scare you, as well as the monsters, we’re none of us are working hard enough.”
Later that evening, Matt and Karen arrived at the Ziegfeld theater in twin DeLoreans, to the sound of the cheering crowds, and of reality folding in upon itself. The episode itself was met with delight by the audience, and as the trio were so earnest in their requests to keep it all a secret (especially the BIG where where…ok, sorry), well, who are we to refuse them. suffice to say we learn about a great deal more about how Daleks think, how they treat their failures, and what they see as beautiful. The question and answer session was filled with laughs as, among other things, we learned that Matt had to help Karen zip up her dress (“Twice!”), the cast think that Peter Sellers and Bill Nighy would make great Doctors, and in answer to a young girl who asked “Why does Amy always get in trouble?”, Karen simply answered “Well, she’s a risk-taker”. Matt shared a story about his Mum, who was with him at the premiere (and was received with great cheers). She’s quite the fan of the series herself, and when they were looking for the new Doctor, she sent him a text saying “You should be the new Doctor”, and he had already gotten cast, and couldn’t even tell her. So if he’s that good at keeping secrets, surely the 1,200 member of the audience can keep schtum for a week.
Asylum of the Daleks premieres September 1st at 9PM EDT on BBC America. Check you local listing, especially in HD as several major cable and satellite carries have recently added the BBC America HD channel to their lineups.
Doctor Who fans don’t have to hold it anymore. The Great Question has been answered. No, not the one about Life, The Universe and Everything, or even the one that will be asked on the Fields of Trenzilor at the Fall Of The Eleventh. The BIG question – “When will Doctor Who premiere?”
And the answer is, September 1st. And it’s the SAME answer whether you live in America or the UK, with only a slight variance in detail. In the UK, the premiere episode Asylum of the Daleks will broadcast at 7:20 PM, and in the states at 9 PM, EDT.
The episode has already seen its premiere in the UK via a gala celebration, and will see its US premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on August 25th. Tickets for the NYC event sold out in under half an hour, the rush of hopeful fans crashing the Movietickets.com website.
Over and above the welcome news of the premiere, the big surprise was that the premiere will be preceded by a five-part webisode mini series. The story, entitled “Pond Life”, will feature Amy and Rory PondWilliams attempting to live a normal life, outside the TARDIS. The synopsis of Asylum suggests that said normal life may not be going too smoothly. Series stars Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill discuss the mini-adventure on the BBC Website.
The episodes, written by Chris Chibnall, will be released one day, starting Monday, August 27th on the BBC website. They’ll also be made available in the UK, via BBC’s interactive “Red Button” service. Plans are proceeding on how the episodes will be released by BBC America— look for an update soon.
These webisodes are a continuation of the episode prequels from the previous season, each of which featured a brief extra scene from several episodes of the series. These prequels were included on the later video releases, it’s presumed this mini-series will also appear in this season’s set.
In honor of this surprise, Your Humble Reporter has crafted a suggested logo for the mini-series, inspired by a popular Britcom which starred a number of actors who later appeared on Doctor Who:
(Update: yes, 9/1, not 8/1 as we originally had in the headline. We’re dumb.)
In September of 1960 I began my high school career at a Catholic parochial school in New Hampshire. At the time I and my classmates arrived at the building, it had not even been fully constructed, which is why they were accepting only one class, we freshmen. We had no upper classmen and would remain the “senior class” all four years. I’ve some fun memories of sitting in a Civics class while jack-hammers pounded away directly across the hall in what would be our gymnasium. Six months into that first year, the Bishop visited to officiate at a very special dedication ceremony the highlight of which was setting the building’s final cornerstone. In that block of granite and cement had been placed a time-capsule containing the names of all the students and teachers present. I’ve never forgotten that day because the thought of my name in that time-capsule still excites my imagination. Who knows when in the far distant future, when that capsule is finally unearthed, what future students will think of us? Will they wonder what we were like and what our school days were like? What will their future world be like?
Time-capsules are hardly new and in this fast moving thriller by David Morrell they are the basis for a fascinating plot that involves a nightmarish race against death to uncover the ultimate time-capsule and expose its long forgotten secrets. Written as a sequel to his award winning thriller, “Creepers,” this book was published in 2007 and features the same hero, former army vet and police detective, Frank Balenger.
Belanger and his lover, Amanda Evert, are barely recovered both emotionally and physically from their horrible experiences in the first book when they are invited to a mysterious lecture concerning time-capsules sponsored by a historical society in New York City. On a whim they attend and in the middle of the presentation are drugged into unconsciousness. When Amanda awakens she finds herself somewhere in the southwest with four other kidnap victims. They soon learn they’ve been abducted by a psychotic games player who wishes them to discover a very unique time-capsule which supposedly contains the secrets of universe.
Meanwhile Belanger awakens on a Coney Island beach and realizes he and Amanda had been duped. Putting his police skills to use with the assistance of a city detective, he begins to unravel the mystery of the perpetrator behind the elaborate hoax. His overwhelming drive is to find Amanda whom he senses in is dire jeopardy. Thus the first half of the book jumps back and forth between Frank’s hunt throughout New York piecing together what few clues he can find and following Amanda and her fellow prisoners as they race across a rugged terrain filled with horrendous death-traps all the while trying to fathom the so called “rules” of the game they are being forced to play.
Morrell is easily one of the finest thriller writers of our age and his body of work attests to his prestigious standing amongst his peers. Though “Scavenger” is an enjoyable read and whips along at rocket speeds, the final act has it traveling down old and tired paths. Without spoiling the story, this reviewer found himself annoyed by having easily surmised which of the characters would survive and which would not. When you can predict the outcome of any book, its time for the writer to hang up over used plots and try something new.
When BBC America teased Wednesday that tickets would be made available for New York City Premiere of this season’s premiere episode of Doctor Who, there was little doubt they would be highly coveted. But when the link was released shortly after 2PM on Thursday, it was not expected that the rush of fans would crash the channel’s link forwarding service. A direct link to the sales page at Movetickets.com was hastily released, and the crush of eager purchasers quickly brought that website to its knees as well.
In a mini-repeat of recent bottlenecks for the San Diego Comic-Con, the ticket purchase system slowed to a crawl, and access was severely limited almost immediately after the links were announced. The site’s customer service number was jammed to bursting for several hours after tickets sold out as people attempted to see if aborted transactions resulted in a sale or not.
Those who could snag a connection and hold onto it for a full purchase session were able to secure ticket to the premiere of Asylum of the Daleks for the princely sum of eleven cents. The site would not allow them to give the tickets away for free, so the micro-fee (plus the website’s one-dollar service charge) was their way of tipping the hat to Matt Smith, the eleventh Doctor, while still granting almost free admission to the fans.
The site sold over 800 tickets in approximately twenty minutes, selling out New York’s Ziegfeld Theater, the largest theater they were able to secure.
BBC America has made it clear they’re very thankful that the event was so zealously accepted by the fans, and apologized that the process didn’t go as smoothly as it could have done. While there’s been no reports of a second showing, the site will be offering contests throughout the week to win tickets. Announcements will be made via their popular Twitter and Tumblr feeds.
During the information feeding frenzy of the (still unannounced) broadcast premiere of the show, BBC America has also been undertaking a massive publicity blitz for its first original series, the period police series Copper. Produced by Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, it tells the tale of one of New York City’s honest policemen in the wild and chaotic year 1864. Copper premieres this Sunday, August 19th, at 10PM on BBC America.
The Doctor Who premiere will be on August 25th at 6PM at the Ziegfeld Theater. It is presumed the line has already started.
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) announced yesterday via a press release that they will be closing its physical location effective immediately.
The SoHo museum, currently at 594 Broadway, New York City’s only cultural institution dedicated specifically to celebrating the comics medium, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. While the physical space is closing, plans are afoot to continue MoCCA in a new incarnation. An announcement of MoCCA’s future arrangements will be forthcoming by the end of July.
Current memberships will be honored at the new venue, as will table renewals for MoCCA Fest 2013.
MoCCA’s website has been scrubbed of all previously upcoming events.
Thanks to the efforts of the Hero Initiative and comics fans and pros, Robert L. Washington was able to receive a proper funeral.
On Monday, June 25th, a funeral service was held for Robert L. Washington III in the Bronx borough of New York City, with a second service to come in Detroit, Michigan. The service was attended by various comic book creators, classmates, and friends from Robert’s various creative, work, and hobby circles.
Through the actions of Robert’s friends from Milestone Media, Inc. and his classmates from The Roeper School, The Hero Initiative was able to use all of your donations to pay for the service and provide Robert’s mother and two of his sisters with the means to travel from Detroit, Michigan to New York and give him a proper funeral.
There were over 300 contributors to his cause, and we honor them below. But the work of the Hero Initiative is not done, and they can always use more funds. Consider donating today.
Contributors:
A. Michael Koloshinsky, Abhay Khosla, Al Ewing, Al Ewing, Alan Lee, Alex Bickmore, Alex Joss, Alex Ostroumov, Alexander Varney, Alexandra Alberstadt, Ali Kokmen, Amy Perry, Amy Voigt, Ande Tucker, Andreas Giannoukakis, Andrew Dahlhouse, Andrew Maniotes, Andrew Pepoy, Andrew Willis, Andy Khouri, Ann Busiek, Anthony Arevalo, Archi Fagan, Ardian Reynolds, Ariana Maher, Aruneshwar Singh, Ashwin Pande, Ben Slipman, Benjamin Corey, Benjamin Wilikins, Benny Gelillo, Blair Shed, Bob Heer, Braille Tshirts .com, Brandon Yates, Brian Covey, Brian Holst, Brian Rust, Brian Wood, Bruce Venne, Bryant Kotyk, C. David McDermott, C. Wichtendahl, Carl Andrew, Carlos del Rosario, Carson Rizor, Caryn Martinez, Catherine Bedard, Chapel Hill Comics, Charles Anderson, Charles Schenley, Charlotte McDuffie, Chris Baird, Chris Escobedo, Christian Berntsen, Christian Martinez-Kay, Christopher Adams, Christopher Fuller, Christopher Golden, Christopher Howard, Christopher Keels, Christopher Thorn, Claire M. Schwartz, Clayton Cowles, Colin O’Neil, Colleen Doran, Comics Conspiracy, Conjoined Comics, Courtney Wilson, Craig Hicks, Cullen Kiker, Damian Duffy, Daniel Cordon, Daniel Fish, Dark Tower Comics, Darrin Robinson, Darryl Pearle, David Brothers, David Ditmeyer, David Feig, David Fooden, David Goldfarb, David Lyons, David McCullough, David Snyder, David Worrell, Deborah Woodrum, Denis Sarrazin, Dennis Sarrazin, Derek Dingle, Derek Morton, Derek Richardson, Dewey’s Comic City, Diana Post, Don Reisig, Don Satow, Donna Herren, Donna Hutt-Stapfer, Doug Shank, Dylan Todd, Edward Barton, Egg Embry, Eric Huberty, Eric Siegel, Eric Wood, Evan Skolnick, Evelyn Lucas, Fernando Ospina, Flidget Jerome, Flop Productions, Frank Graves, Frank Jr, Gail Harris, George Kish, George Morrow, Glenn Carrere, Grady W. Smithey, Greg Matiasevich, Greg McElhatton, Greg Pak, Gregory Cashman, Gregory Secaur, Gregory Wright, Heather McKinney, Heidi MadDonald, Henry Malter, Howard Cohen, Howard Gold, Hughes Beaulne, Ian Gonzales, Ian Toledo, Jacob Boucher, Jacob Levy, Jacqueline Ching, James Mathurin, James Melvin, James Tan, Jamie Lawson, Janelle Asselin, Janet Harvey, Jared Fletcher, Jared Nelson, Jason Brice, Jason Deitcher, Jason Fliegel, Jason Medley, Jason VanSlycke, JBC Innovations, Jean Farmer, Jed Wasserman, Jeffrey Baumert, Jeffrey Bell, Jeffrey Lester, Jennifer Hachigan, Jennifer Killmer, Jeremy Beebe, Jesse Post, Jessica Hogan, Jim McLauchlin, Joan Beardslee, Joan Lucas, Joe Illidge, Joe Soares, Joey Robinson, John Evelev, John Figueroa, John Fortune, John Newcom, John Pappas, John Polojac, Jonathan Gelatt, Jonathan Schnabel, Jose Ferro, Joseph Cohen, Joseph Young, Josh Chamot, Joshua Reynolds, Juan Pablo Schultz, Judith Bogdanove, Justin Doherty, Justin Kim, Karen Walkowiak, Karsten Lawson, Katherine Hayes, Kathryn Fairman, Kelly Thompson, Ken Barnes, Kenneth Bartlett, Kenyon Chung, Kevin Huxford, Kevin Kluck, Kevin Maroney, Kimberly Stoltzfus, Kumate Works, Kurt Hellmuth, Kyle Gnepper, Lara Thompson, Larry Marder, Lea Harnandez, Leighton Connor, Leland Dugger, Lenette Herzog, Leon Feder, Lewis Smith, Lia Kinane, Linda Clark, Linda Dagenais, Lindsey Ljungquist, Little Shop of Comics, Lonie Beck, Luke Addington, Mackenzie Walton, Marc Dunning, Marc Siry, Marco Cordova, Margaret Lark Russell, Marie Javins, Mark Foo, Mark Lopez, Mark Smith, Marni Rachmiel, Martin Costello, Mary Glazek, Mary Sue Renfrow, Matthew Cary, Matthew Dale, Matthew Hesslin, Matthew Jackson, Matthew Rossetti, Maxwell Warner, Mayer Brenner, Megan Geldhof, Meghan Morse, Melanie Nazelrod, Miaoran Li, Michael Brisbois, Michael Hanretty, Michael Hoskin, Michael McGee, Michael Miller, Michael Perry, Michelle C. Smith, Mike and Carrie Nielsen, Mike Frame, Morgan Piatt, Nancy Porat, Nat Gertler, Nathan Alderman, Neil Cameron, Neil Curry, Nicholas Doyle, Nicole Dubuc, Nine Edgerton, Olajide Kuye, Owen Ryan, P. Jude LoCasto, Patricia M. Cotton, Patrick Gleason, Patrick McCuen, Patrick O’Connor, Patrick Pascual, Patrick Ridings, Patrick Stewart, Paul Burne, Paul Fosten, Paul Salvi, Pauline Weiss, Pedro Tejada, Peter Krause, Peter Lange, Phil Hester, Philip Lloyd, Philip Pearce, Phillip Suttkus, Rafi Stephan, Rajesh Shah, Randall Golden, Ray Cornwall, Ray Kosarin, Renee Crowl, Rens Houben, Reyes Delgado Jr., Ricardo Ruiz-Dana, Rich Thigpen, Richard Fowlie, Richard Nelson, Richard Starkings, Robert Alexander, Robert Dean, Robert Yoder, Robon Horasanian, Roger O’Donnell, Romaine Colston, Ronald Hood, Roshan Abraham, Ross Campbell, Roy Richardson, Ryan McKern, Sahar Tirband Dastgerdi, Sail Byrnes, Sail Music, Samarcand Books, Sandor Silverman, Sapna Sharma, Sarah Abraham, Sarah Worman, Saul Hansell, Scott Goeke, Scott Rowland, Sean Coverdell, Sean Darby, Sevan Ficici, Shane Hutchinson, Sharmylae Taffe-Fletcher, Shawn Manion, Shobha Kazinka, Simon Brewer, Stanley Willis, Stephanie Fisher, Stephanie Grant, Stephanie Hsieh, Stephen Barghusen, Stephen David Wark, Stephen Finch, Stephen Gerding, Steve Niles, Steve Pheley, Steven Shure, Suzanne Moran, Terry Allen, Thomas Barichella, Thomas Spurgeon, Tiara Daughtry, Tim Stacey, Tim Utsler, Timothy Finn, Tom Murphy, Tomas Bolino, Tommy Sanchez, Trisha Sebastian, Troy-David Phillips, Valentin Mata, Valerie D’Orazio, Veronne Sorensen, Walt Simonson, Warren Wannamaker, Wilfred Santiago, William Clarke III, William Cockrell, William Cucinota, William De Witt, William Messick, Wizard’s Asylum, Zachary Gabriel, and eleven anonymous contributors.
To promote the release of The Amazing Spider-Man in theaters on July 3, a number of events are taking place in New York City this week, starting with the cast of the movie appearing on The Today Show tomorrow morning, and continuing across all five boroughs from museums and zoos to Yankee Stadium and the Empire State Building.
Former BOOM! Stuidos exec/writer Ian Brill has been teasing us all week with some images and today he finally unveiled what he’s been up to. His new book is bypassing the Diamond distribution system and while he’s not alone in this bold step, he is one of the ore high profile people doing this. Here’s the formal release:
June 8th 2012 – Los Angeles – When Ian Brill set out to write a new vision of Dracula, he called on some of the greatest talents in comics to bring it to life —Tonci Zonjic (WHO IS JAKE ELLIS?), Rahsan Ekedal (ECHOES, SOLOMN KANE), Declan Shalvey (THUNDERBOLTS, 28 DAYS LATER), and Gabriel Hardman (HULK, BETRAYAL OF THE PLANET OF THE APES). This June 13th, comic fans everywhere can find DRACULA WORLD ORDER at select retailers across the North America and exclusively worldwide digitally on comiXology across their entire platform including iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire and the web.
Following in the foot steps of Sam Humphries’ OUR LOVE IS REAL and SACRIFICE, Ian Brill’s DRACULA WORLD ORDER is self-published by the author and is offered digitally on comiXology while at the same time a very limited 300 copy print run will be available from these retailers:
4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Beach Ball Comics in Anaheim, CA
The Beguiling in Toronto, Canada
Collector’s Paradise in Winnetka and Pasadena, CA
Comix Experience in San Francisco, CA
Desert Island in Brooklyn, NY
Laughing Ogre Comics in Lansdowne, VA, Fairfax, VA and Columbus, OH
Featuring an all star cast of today’s best artists and written by Ian Brill, DRACULA WORLD ORDER tells the story of how the greatest villain of all, Count Dracula, takes advantage of a world on the brink of economic collapse. In a world where the top 1% of the population are vampires, the rest of the human race are prisoners…or the 1%’s next meal. Dracula’s own son Alexandru leads the 99% in rebellion against the Vampire elite – in a battle that will leave you breathless.
Within four startling chapters Tonci Zonjic (WHO IS JAKE ELLIS?), Rahsan Ekedal (ECHOES, SOLOMN KANE), Declan Shalvey (THUNDERBOLTS, 28 DAYS LATER), and Gabriel Hardman (HULK, BETRAYAL OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) bring their amazing talents to Brill’s story. With Zonjic, Jordie Bellaire (BETRAYAL OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, FANTASTIC FOUR), and Stephen Downer (DRACULA: THE COMPANY OF MONSTERS, DRACULA THE UNCONQUERED) bring searing color art, with the amazing Josh Krach lettering the book. All of this under an amazing cover by Shalvey and Bellaire.
Advance praise for DRACULA WORLD ORDER:
“This would be incredibly cool even if it didn’t have some of my favorite artists working! Brill is making one of those books that get me excited about comics, and I would like to read a lot more of this. Read DWO and spread the word, this is the real deal!” says Jeff Parker, writer of HULK and THUNDERBOLTS.
Brill will be celebrating the release of DRACULA WORLD ORDER is dual signings on the release date. He will be at Beach Ball Comics in Anaheim, CA from 12-2 and Collector’s Paradise in Winnetka, CA from 5-8.
A&D is the way my fellow classmates refer to the high school we attended, The High School of Art and Design in New York City. A&D is without a doubt the greatest high school on earth.
