Posts filed under "comic-book-news"
Vertigo Number 1s - A pretty large collection of some of the best comics have to offer, numbers for you to download as pdfs.
Mark Waid Interview - One of my favourite writers being interviewed at AICN. The best are the behind the scenes stories (you never hear about this sort of thing usually, as writers are typically afraid of burning bridges).
When Worlds Collide - Spock Confronts the Ultimate Challenge. Comic from Paul Pope, to get you in the Star Trek mood, just before the movie comes out.
Travis Charest’s Blog - Seems it’s only been up for a little over a month. The good news is that the man seems to be getting more drawing done now than I’ve seen from him in years. The better news is that he’s even more depressingly good than what he was a few years ago. If anything the little Metabaron sabbatical did him some good in honing his already IMMENSE talent. Park this one under easily one of my favourite artists of all time.
Watchmen on CBR - A whole slew of articles and videos covering the Watchmen phenomenon. Clearly Alan Moore’ curse or spell didn’t really have any effect on the movie, and by the looks of things it’s going to kick some ass in the box office as well. I just got back from watching it, so there’s bound to be a review of it in due course.
Buck Rogers for a Quarter - I have got to give it to Dynamite, even though their logo is terrible and their overall design sense seems lacking, one thing they have got a definite eye for is getting older properties and bringing the right people to breathe some life into them (mainly John Cassaday, but then again, I’d buy Cassaday’s shopping list if he drew it).
I seem to always reread Sidekicks by J.Torres and Takeshi Miyazawa whenever I come back to Greece. It’s such a well put together book, which I find a crime that it’s not such a massive hit. The last page of the trade (which is the first edition of The Transfer Student) has a great way of ending, which I have always loved.
Have you ever had one of those days? One of those days that changed your whole week? One of those days that determined an outlook for an entire month. One of those days that you look back on after a year and think. “Yeah. That’s when it all started.”
Today is not one of those days, but I really want one of those days to come soon.
In anticipation of the new Watchmen movie (hopefully coming to a cinema near you), there is actually a slew of great books on offer to enhance the whole experience. If you’ve not read the source material, SHAME ON YOU. Your homework is to buy the Absolute Edition of this masterpiece and get reading. If you’ve already done that, don’t forget to grab the Dave Gibbons artbook, Watching the Watchmen.
If you are more into movie related books (I personally do like a good one), there is the standard Film companion (which is probably the weakest offering actually) as you can have the Art of the Film which is bound to be more interesting, especially when you get work by such greats as Adam Hughes (who has always been one of my favourite artists of all time). But possibly my favourite tie in book of the entire movie might have to be the Portraits book, which is a collection of black and white photographs taken during the making of the movie.
Don’t forget to read these books while listening to the official soundtrack. Yeah this movie is going to make someone a TON of money, some definitely from me.
CBR Top 100 Comics of 2008 parts 1, 2, 3,4 and 5 - Interesting collection. Don’t agree with everything on the list, I should be publishing my top ten list soonish.
Judge Dredd movie is go - While I thought the Stallone movie left a lot to be desired, one of the things that I did like about that movie was the sets and some of the props (not all of them). Hopefully DNA will take the good things from that production and actually have a decent story attached to it.
Kickback Exhibition - Art from David Lloyd (you know of V for Vendetta fame)
Yesterday I went to the V&A and saw the talk/interview with Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie. I’m not the only one that considers this man a complete genius at what he does and it was an amazing hour. They mainly discussed ‘Lost Girls’, which you would do, as they’ve been working on this for nearly 16 years so it’s definitely something that they are proud of and want to reach as wide an audience as possible.
From the moment I saw Alan standing in the doorway I had this completely dumbstruck face, with this huge smile on my face it actually hurt an hour later. The first thing I noticed was just how tall the man is and then obviously just how much hair he had collected on his face over the years. There was nothing new there however as I’ve seen photos of the main many many times before, however what did completely surprise me was his accent. This incredibly thick accent came out and I was initially taken aback. That initial shock was quickly overtaken by awe again as he started discussing Lost Girls and the process and his marriage to Melinda.
I’ve read countless interviews with Alan Moore, however this was incredible special as he infused humour with his views on everything from pornography to the arts to politics and everything inbetween.
Obviously there was the question regarding the Watchmen trailer, which while was dismissed instantly by the interviewer (who did a very good job I thought) was actually answered by Alan. He did explain that he could never like anything that the creators of the movie were going to do, regardless of who they were. So that’s a good sign that it’s not a personal attack on Zack Snyder but at the same time I did feel a bit sad about how he saw the eventual movie. The people behind the Watchmen movie aren’t doing it because they want to rape the material, but rather because of the love that they have for the source material, which Zack has shown he is capable of treating with a great deal of respect.
Alan did discuss his upcoming book with Steve Moore which is a Dummy’s guide to magic which sounded like good fun but that seems to be a few years away from completion. Nothing was discussed regarding the upcoming ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ with Kevin O’Neill but I’m sure they’ll heavily promote that in the future no doubt.
I do wish I’d asked a question regarding his ‘retirement’ from comics and how I hope apart from the upcoming League book that he’s got other books in the pipeline but unfortunately it seems that his output will be somewhat limited, which while is unfortunate, means I can spend more time completing the holes in my Moore collection, of which there are many.
Comica Festival 2008 - Already brought my ticket for Alan Moore and probably going to try and make it to the Alex Maleev talk as well.
Chip Kidd Responds to Bat-Manga Controversy - and the make sure to read the followup by Chris on this topic. Seriously don’t people (and I mean the comic blogging community) have better things to discuss? What is this a slow comic week or something?
http://www.brokenkode.com/chip-kidd-responds-to-bat-manga-controversy
Battling Boy by Paul Hope to be made into a film by Plan B (Brad Pitt’s company that doesn’t have a website). I’m happy for Paul, but this is even before he’s released the book, which is coming from First Second. I guess considering the talent involved it’s a safe bet that it’ll be a pretty awesome graphic novel, but as a movie? Hollywood is weird.
Interview with Craig Schulz (Charlie’s son) regarding the 20 Peanuts digital shorts that are to be released online. Still haven’t completed reading the first volume of Peanuts, but I’ve got a massive soft spot for the animated series of old.
DC Solicitations for January 2009 are up - As always, all the interesting covers can be found at Elsewhere (powered by Asaph).
Trade Paperback List - Awesome resource that seems to be kept up to date (moderately) for trade paperbacks and graphic novels that have been published. Search as a title or from a creator.
Making of Dark Horse Comics section. As I’ve been emmersing myself in the comic book world lately, as I truck on with the script that has been on the back burner for 6 years ago (it’s moving along slowly but nicely). This is a great series of making of comics. The nice thing about them is that they show the entire process from script to pencil to ink to colour to lettering.
Frakking toasters by Jeanette Atwood is in many ways the best commentary on Battlestar Galactica I’ve ever read (the fact it’s a comic is just icing on the cake for me). Shame there is no RSS link. C’mon Jeanette, sort it out.
I saw the PATH graphic novel in the comic book store the other day, but the cover design left a lot to be desired from. However I am all over the artwork on the inside. I’ve got to say that those are some of the funkiest character designs I’ve seen in a while and the colour tones that have been chosen for the art really work with the character’s expressions.
For those of you in the dark, Frank Miller (he of 300, Sin City and the Dark Knight Strikes Back fame) will be directing the Spirit movie, in case you missed it. This is based on a great little series that was created by the great Will Eisner. The website is up and they’ve got the first poster up (which I think is BRILLIANT). Love the quote:
My City Screams. She is my Lover. And I am her Spirit.
Fucking love it. This movie can’t come out soon enough as far as I’m concerned.
Don’t forget the first issue of Warren Ellis’s Freakangels debuts later on today. Got a good feeling about this. Here’s the RSS feed for everyone.
Freakangles by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. Freakangel is a long form weekly comic (seems like 5 pages a week) that’s going to debut in February 2008. At some point I’m sure it’ll come out in print. This is pretty old news, but I only just noticed how good that bastard kid Paul Duffield. I know age shouldn’t matter much, but at 23 the little runt is far too good for his age. Go have a look at his stuff. The good news is that it seems that Paul will be doing some cover work for Ellis’s usually visually sub-par work published by Avatar (and also the reason I’ve only ever brought one Avatar book by Warren). It’s not that I think the art that’s published by Avatar is bad as such, it’s all technically adequate I guess, however it lacks a certain amount of finesse and class that Paul is bringing to the table, especially with his cover work for the new Ellis series, Anna Mercury.
Comics are just as much a visual medium as they are a written one; if the creators forget that, and see the art as something any monkey can contribute towards, they’ve missed the point COMPLETELY. It’s something I’ve noticed recently. When was the last time comic artwork truly inspired the reader? From my point of view, there are few artists that do that currently. Joshua Middleton is definitely one of them, as is James Jean, Tony Harris is always incredible to look at, Tomer Hanuka is another up and comer.