Airship 27 Presents All-Star Pulp Comics #2 is now available from Redbud Studios.
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
AIRSHIP 27 presents ALL STAR PULP COMICS # 2 (Portion of Profits Goes to Boston Red Cross)
Airship 27 Productions has once again teamed with Redbud Studio comics to release the second in their on-going pulp comics anthology. The first giant issue in this series won the coveted Pulp Ark Award for Best Pulp Comic of 2010.
Volume two of the series, co-edited by creators Ron Fortier and Rob Davis, is even bigger than that stellar premier issue. Contained here are eight stories featuring both modern and classic pulp heroes; Ki-Gor the Jungle Lord, the Black Bat, Cain, Robin Hood, Lance Star, Brothers Bones, Dillon and Domino Lady.
The cover is by Will Meugniot and features Ki-Gor’s lovely mate, Helene, battling back to back with Derrick
#1 Cover Art: Jeff Butler
Ferguson’s modern day adventurer, Dillon. Other creators represented are Russ Anderson, Fortier, Davis, Ian Watson, Thomas Deja, Michelle Sciuto, Sean Taylor, Aaron Meade, Todd Jones, Lee Oaks, James Gaubatz, Van Plexico, Andrew Salmon and Kelly Everaert.
The book is available from Indy Planet.com and part of the proceeds are being donated to the Boston Red Cross. “We were the last stages of assembling the book,” explains Editor Foriter, “when the Patriots’ Day bombings occurred in Boston. All of us, like the rest of the country, were in shock and felt helpless to do anything.” It was writer Van Plexico who contacted Fortier about possibly offering some of the sales proceeds to help those injured in the terror attack. “The second Van brought up, I knew it was something we had to do,” Fortier continues. He contacted Davis and all the creators and the decision was made to take all the profits earned by the book during its first six months in print and donate them to the Boston Red Cross.
“We truly hope our fans, when they learn of this idea, will want to rally around a truly good cause and help us put sales over the top,” adds co-editor Rob Davis. “We really want this to be the best selling title Redbud Studio has ever produced.”
JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN to be published by Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics. Based on the classic anthology by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Written by Martin Powell and illustrated by Daren Bader, Pablo Marcos, Terry Beatty, Will Meugniot, Nik Poliwko, Antonio Romero Olmedo, Mark Wheatley, Diana Leto, Steven E. Gordon, Lowell Isaac, Tom Floyd and Jamie Chase.
Airship 27 Productions publisher, Ron Fortier shared a sneak peek (above) at a page from the New Pulp Publisher’s upcoming second volume of All-Star Pulp Comics in his weekly Flight Log at www.airship27.com.
All Pulp will post more news about All-Star Pulp Comics #2 when it becomes available.
Artist Will Meugniot provides the cover (at left) to All-Star Pulp Comics #2 featuring Ki-Gor’s lady love, Helene teaming up with Derrick Ferguson’s pulp adventurer, Dillon.
Artist Will Meugniot shared his step-by-step process for creating the cover for Airship 27‘s upcoming All-Star Pulp Comics #2 featuring Derrick Ferguson’s Dillon and Helene from Ki-Gor. You can see it all here.
Keep watching all pulp for more on All-Star Pulp Comics #2.
Pro Se Productions has released the cover art by George Sellas for their upcoming release, Gravedigger. Written by New Pulp Author, Barry Reese, look for Gravedigger from Pro Se in 2013!
Plus, take a peek at this illustration of Gravedigger villain, Thanatos by artist Will Meugniot.
Airship 27 Productions and Redbud Studio’s All-Star Pulp Comics #2 is in production and will feature comic tales of some of pulp’s favorite characters by some of New Pulp‘s best. Cover artist Will Meugniot shared his behind-the-scenes process for designing the cover on his Facebook page.
From Will Meugniot: Here’s a preview of the new cover I just completed for Airship 27’s ALL-STAR PULP COMICS #2 out early next year. That complicated man with the Tommy gun is Derrick Ferguson’s exciting new pulp era adventure hero, Dillon, battling unknown evils alongside classic hero Ki-gor’s lovely mate, the crimson tressed Helene. On the left is the comp, at center is the inks and to the right, the finish. Hope you all will pick up a copy!
All-Star Pulp Comics #1 is still available. Features cover art by Jeffrey Butler. You can find it here.
Keep watching All Pulp for more details on All-Star Pulp Comics #2 when they become available.
Ask me to name my favorite cartoon shows growing up. Suffice to say, nearly every one I have feelings for was in some way, shape, or form was touched by the amazing Will Meugniot. That’s pronounced Min-EE-Oh, just in case you missed the boat yesterday. What’s that? You missed our last installment? Shame on you! For the rest who didn’t though, we pick up where I left off, as I casually shifted our conversation towards Will’s amazing career in animation! Roll the tape…
COMICMIX:: I’d be remiss if I didn’t start pelting you with questions on all the series you worked on that literally defined my childhood into early teens… Let’s start with my personal favorite…EXO SQUAD! Tell the fine ComicMixers out there what you did on the show.
WILL MEUGNIOT: Well, I’d been working on the first season of X-Men, but with the production delays on the show, no episodes had aired and no one knew for sure it was going to be a hit, and we were headed for a gap in the production schedule. Then I was offered a chance to work on a pilot by Universal Studios. At that time, the series was called Exo-Force. They already had a huge ‘bible’ (guidebook) written, and Playmates had already partnered with Universal to create the toys. Before I got there, Playmates did their proposed designs for J.T. Marsh, Alex De Leon and Phaeton’s e-frames and the studio went through a parallel design process which resulted in some very generic Syd Mead-style designs. After seeing both, my first decision was to push for the Playmates version of the key E-Frames. They reminded me of some of my favorite anime like Ideon and Dougram with that feeling of being real-looking, but funky hardware. I designed most of the actual human characters in the show, and really hit it off with Jeff Segal, who was running Universal’s TV animation division. Long story short, they let me make the pilot, which was a 45 second piece animated by my friends at Sunrise in Japan. By the time the film was delivered, Exo-Force’s title was changed to Exo-Squad.
COMICMIX: Oh to have been a fly on that wall, Will. I mean as a fly I’d be dead in 24 hours. But to have seen that show in it’s infancy? Worth it. Can you tell I loved the show a bit too much? One of my favorite things about the show was how it rooted itself in an amazing continuity and complex plot. It never shied away from being something above the standard toy-tie-in series. Do you think shows today are drawing inspiration from it?
WILL MEUGNIOT: Not so much. One of my real disappointments with the medium is that I felt through the 80’s and early 90s, many shows, like X-Men, Batman, and Phantom 2040 showed a new maturity, a real rising in their adult sensibilities and quality of animation. Today? I’m not seeing it so much. Today, I feel like the new shows are structured more like cartoons were back in the early 80’s or even late 70’s. Shows are really just one off stories. Not too much serialized continuity. And sadly, I think it’s going to be that way for a while longer.
COMICMIX: Geeky question: Which is your favorite Exo-Suit, and if you don’t say Wolf Bronsky’s, I’ll cry.
WILL MEUGNIOT: I designed Wolf’s, and I do like it. But my favorite? It’d be a later E-Frame which wasn’t assigned to a character, but which had a motor and could actually walk! I’m not an engineer mind you, but I’m such a fan of the Japanese toys, I figured out how it could walk with the body working like a weighted pendulum swinging on ratchet mechanisms in the shoulder joints. I did a sketch and Playmates took it from there, resulting in a walking toy which looked very much like the original sketch.
COMICMIX: Easily one of the deepest and most complex villains in the series was Phaeton. Was he inspired by similar villains at the time (like Megatron, or Cobra Commander) or something else?
WILL MEUGNIOT: He’s really more an original creation, I believe. Phaeton was already created as a written character when I came on board. Louis Williams and I designed him for animation. As a side note, it’s a common misconception that I “created” the show, when in fact there was plenty of development done by the time I signed on to do it. I helped to refine it, but the series’ actual creator is Jeff Segal. My contribution was in the designs of the characters, and helping to make them internally consistent as scripts came in. The concept of the show was tied largely to Jeff and my love of Japan, and the shows coming out of there. We’d both spent time in Tokyo, and felt like the time was right to bring an anime-like level of sophistication to the market in the states via Exosquad.
COMICMIX: The themes the show itself covered topics ranging from the horrors and loss in war, to politics and trade, and even class warfare. How exactly did you get a these things into a kid’s cartoon and not scare every suit tied to the project?
WILL MEUGNIOT: The show was picked up as a syndicated show. The only constraint we were ever given was to keep it “in good taste”, and ensure standards and practices didn’t have any issues with the final product. It was the blessing and curse of working with Universal. Nearly complete freedom from censorship, but the downside of that was because Exo was taken into syndication, we couldn’t get the show put in the time slot we’d hoped for… on after X-Men with Fox.
COMICMIX: That certainly would have affected the target audience! Since we’ve name dropped them a few dozen times already, let’s talk a bit about the X-Men, Shall we? You were integral to bringing the X-Men to the television with your work first on Pryde of the X-Men, and then the Fox Kids show, and finally X-Men: Evolution. Why do you think the X-Men have been such a TV staple?
WILL MEUGNIOT: If you use a sports term: I’d say it’s because the bench is so deep. Plenty of great characters, and plenty of great stories to mine from. I’m actually a bit surprised that Pryde of the X-Men didn’t take off when we put it out. Even though that wasn’t “quite right”, there was plenty to work with there. But I remember after we’d finished it, and I showed it to some network exec friends and they said “Who is Wolverine guy? What’s with him, and why is he so mean?” And before I forget — one of the things that drove all of us nuts: At the time we put Pryde out, Marvel was under the “New World” umbrella, and they were working on a Wolverine film treatment that moved the character to Australia, ergo the much-hated Australian accent.
COMICMIX: OK, you see, I always wondered by he sounded like he wanted to put another shrimp on the barbie… Now if we move to the Fox Kids show– I’m curious. Whose idea was it to put Morph into the show?
WILL MEUGNIOT: Actually? That was me! You see, originally I wanted to have Thunderbird be the pilot and have him die as in the comic book. This would make a contract with the audience that someone could die in the show. Now, as it turned out, during our production of the first episode, Marvel did a story in their short-lived ‘Super-Pro’ comic with a villain using a Native American symbol for evil, which created all sorts of public relations problems for Marvel. The network and Marvel were afraid that showing a Native American dying on the pilot might cause similar problems for the series. With that in mind, Eric Lewald and I created Morph, with the idea to make Morph the “designated die-er”. Of course standards and practices didn’t want him “dead-dead”. So we made the deal that the death wouldn’t be shown in a manner that prevented us from bringing him back later. And then, much to our surprise, Morph broke out as a character! Kids loved him.
COMICMIX: Well, without Morph, the only comic relief / tie to the kids who are watching would basically be just Jubilee…
WILL MEUGNIOT: I know. Sometimes you have to create a character to fit a need in the story. And as it turns out I prize my ‘Morph’ action figure. Who knew that he’d be so popular?
COMICMIX: Any regrets concerning X-Men?
WILL MEUGNIOT: I wish we could have had the production values of X-Men Evolution for our first X-Men series. That series by my friends the late Boyd Kirkland and Steve Gordon simply had better animation than we did. I always felt like we had better stories though.
COMICMIX: OK. Last geeky question (for now….). Who is your favorite X-Man to draw?
WILL MEUGNIOT: Well, I’ve always been drawn to Rogue. She has such a great unique look to her. And aside from the women, who I love to draw, I’m a fan of the bigger-than-normal-human-proportions guys. I’ve always been a fan of Beast.
Will Meugniot is a writer / artist / producer / director of countless shows, including Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters, Exo-Squad, Jem, Captain Planet, and several incarnations of the X-Men. He’s currently promoting his homage to the 60’s by way of the 40’s with the N.E.D.O.R. Agents! Do yourself a solid, and check out some great previews of the said book (from FemForce #157) on Comics Continuum on Comics Continuum.
Every week it’s a visceral war for my attention: between using my time to produce articles, write or draw comics, complete freelance design projects, or be a lazy bastard. Not 12 feet from my Hacktintosh work station is my present to myself. A 46” HDTV, a Sega Saturn, my DVD collection, and an XBox 360. When I moved into my house last year, I put all these amazing toys in said man-cave so I would have a space where I could create, and reward myself when I was finished. Here I sit a year later…clickity-clacking away for you, the fine readers of ComicMix, my entertainment center gathering a thick layer of dust. And it strikes me that I’m toiling away nervously hoping that my words will excite and amaze you when I could be doing something much more important.
I could be saving Gotham City.
Earlier this month, Arkham City, the sequel to the hit video game Arkham Asylum, hit the store shelves. Presumably millions of copies found their way to similar basements as my own. When the game debuted, I decided to be an adult. I abstained. You see, I waited almost a year and a half to buy Arkham Asylum. I’d nabbed it in the used bin at a Gamestop over Hannukah last year. Since, I’d played it handful of times. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Never beat it though. And thus I gave myself every reason with which to remain stoic in my stance. I didn’t need a $60 investment in time wasting. I have articles to write! Comics to draw! A pregnant wife to attend to! A nursery to paint and organize! And I still haven’t beaten the first one!
That Friday, at the weekly Unshaven Comic work-night, my will grew weak. Matt entered my basement with a hearty “Dude, why don’t you have Arkham City yet?” I shook my head in a desperate plea. “Duuuuuuude!” My knees felt weak. Kyle descended into our dank pit of creativity next. “Hey guys. Marc, did you get it yet?” Damnit! I turned to a nearby die. I declared to my cohorts if I rolled a five or a six, I would get up straight away and get the damned thing. I chucked the six-sided keeper of fate to the floor. It skitted around the vinyl tile in a red blur. And there, staring back at our hopeful faces… one lowly dot. Fate, as it were, was giving me a message. “Stay strong.” Screw fate. I rolled it again. Two. Four. One again. Matt and Kyle chortled as lay on the cold floor, forever mocked by my lack of fortune.
The following week, the work-night began as it had the last. “Dude?! Now?!” No, Matt. I had to pay the mortgage and bills. I can’t be tossing away my cash all the time. I bought books this week anyways. Kyle came down, a rustle of plastic tucked between his arm and body. “Well, I got it!” Poop. We worked hard for an hour or so. Set some dates for conventions we’ll attend next year. We bitched to one another about our printer problems. And like a beacon light guiding us away from our duties as creators… Bruce Wayne called out. “My Unshaven Lads! The hammers of justice are yearning to strike down the nails of tyranny. Only you three can unleash my vengeance upon the night! C’mon, just watch the introduction story!”
A hour later we forced the game off. We pried it from my disk tray. We sealed it back inside its plastic Pandora’s box. With the night ending, Kyle whisked the game from my house, and my life. I could always borrow it when he’s finished, I told myself. I’m plenty busy anyways.
That Sunday, Kyle and Matt returned to record our podcast. Kyle entered with a knowing smirk. “Gas pellets, Marc. Gas. Pellets.” No. “Seriously. You get them like right after the part when we turned the game off. You get the gas pellets.” And you can throw them to the ground, and then fire off your grappling gun, and zip away in a puff of smoke? “Oh yeah. And the game is an open world this time, so you could just go around doing that, and beating up thugs for hours.”
Kyle didn’t even get a chance to finish that sentence before the wisps of my Brut aftershave left a Marc-sized silhouette where I was sitting.
And here I am, finishing up this little tale of woe for you. The game sits on the desk next to me, unopened. It’s been sitting there since I brought it home last Sunday. Between interviews for ComicMix, my day job, drawing the next installment of TheSamurnauts and finding time to sleep, I’ve yet to crack it open. The anticipation at this point is unsettling. I’ve considered hugging people with the flu in hopes of having a legitimate reason to call in sick.
But who am I kidding? Even when I’m sick I log on to do my day job out of guilt and fear I’ll be missed. And I love drawing and writing comics. And interviewing Will Meungiot this week? It was like a 60 minute conversation with the friend I wish I’d had years ago. Maybe I’m just a masochist. Like Bruce Wayne. Bruce. … What’s that Bruce? Gotham City is overrun with gangsters, psychopaths, and malevolent psychologists hells bent on overtaking the city and exposing your secret to the world? Only I can help you?
With a resume that could best be described as the very definition of awesometasticness, Will Meugniot is a working legend. Given the opportunity to sit down with him–if only through these odd and twisted halls of the interwebs and Skype–I was tempted to simply pelt him with geeky question after geeky question. Allow me a quick explantion: Reading through his resume, Will Meugniot has worked on an amazing array of projects anyone in Generation X or before would swoon over. As a storyboard artist, writer, producer, and director for (amongst other things) Captain Planet, EXOsquad (aka EXO-Force as you’ll see in our next installment), Jem, Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters, and comics like Tigra, The DNAgents, and Vanity… suffice to say I had a hard time not grilling the poor man for several days.
As we mentioned previously, Will is writing and drawing a brand new comic with an old school feel. The N.E.D.O.R. Agents will be hitting your local comic shop shelves, today (November 9th, 2011), and Will was nice enough to sit down with me to give all you ComicMixers the 411. And don’t worry, we totally dish on his work in animation, later this week. Read on!
COMICMIX: Before we get ahead of ourselves, could you tell me, and all of those butchering your name from above how we pronounce your last name?
WILL MEUGNIOT: It’s pronounced Min-Ee-Oh. I think many people have [butchered my name] in the past. Mark Evanier and I used to dub ourselves “The most unpronounceable team in comics!”
CMIX: First and foremost, let’s talk about what brings you here today… the N.E.D.O.R. Agents… Give the ComicMix readers the ‘elevator pitch’ of the project.
MEUGNIOT: First and foremost, it’s a piece I myself would want to be reading right now. N.E.D.O.R. Agents is a period piece; taking these characters from the 40s and reviving them into 1965. I’m treating them the same way other publishers treated revival characters like Captain America, Green Lantern, Flash, and characters of the period were. This is an update for the atomic age. It places these classic characters of the 1940’s in the world of 1965, and the race to space. Of course the race is interrupted by aliens who are already invading Earth!
CMIX: And are the characters being “retconned” here into starting their careers in 1965, or have they simply been elsewhere?
MEUGNIOT: Well, actually the reason these characters haven’t been seen since the 40’s (as you’ll find within the story) is because they have been secretly forming a covert team of superpowered individuals to fight an impending invasion. Now 20 years after the creation of that agency, we’re catching up with them and their super kids!
To celebrate the November 9th release of Will Meugniot’s new N.E.D.O.R. Agents series first full length 26 page adventure in AC Comics’ FemForce #157, the artist has teamed with PREVIEWSworld on Facebook for an original art giveaway. Three pieces of Meugniot’s art are up for grabs, one for cosplayers, one for retailers, and one for fans. The full contest rules and directions can be found on PREVIEWSworld’s Facebook page. Meugniot is best known as co-creator of the DNAgents, creator of Vanity, and animation producer director of X-Men TAS, Jem, Captain Planet, The Real Ghostbusters, and EXOsquad.
“I’m very excited about PREVIEWSworld hosting this contest for my comic”, says Meugniot. “It’s been over 20 years since my last long form stories in DNAgents and Vanity, and it’s thrilling to see the interest N.E.D.O.R. Agents is garnering. Vince Brusio at Previews World, Bill Black and Mark Heike at AC and I are trying to give something back to the people who support independent comics in the form of a fun give away.”
Ask me to name my favorite cartoon shows growing up. Suffice to say, nearly every one I have feelings for was in some way, shape, or form was touched by the amazing Will Meugniot. That’s pronounced Min-EE-Oh, just in case you missed the boat yesterday. What’s that? You missed our last installment? Shame on you! For the rest who didn’t though, we pick up where I left off, as I casually shifted our conversation towards Will’s amazing career in animation! Roll the tape…
COMICMIX: Any regrets concerning X-Men?
