Monthly Archive: March 2008

Press ‘Ctrl Alt Del’ For New Cover

  • News
  • March 25, 2008

Good news for fans of Ctrl+Alt+Del webcomic. The out-of-print, first-volume collection of the series, Ctrl+Alt+Del Volume 1: Insert Coin, will be reprinted with a brand new cover. It will also be offered in a signed hardcover format limited to 500 copies. Previous editions of the hardcovers sold out quickly, so creator Tim Buckley recently gave his fans the heads up on his website that they will be available soon.

Ctrl+Alt+Del chronicles the insanely funny adventures of roommates Ethan and Lucas. The pop-culture- and videogame-obsessed Ethan is barely held in check by his level-headed friend and a cast of characters including girlfriend Lilah and Zeke, a game console brought to life so that Ethan would always have somebody to play with. Besides being one of the most popular webcomics on the ‘Net, Ctrl+Alt+Del has been brought to life as an animated series online and on DVD.

Also shown on Buckley’s website was the cover to the second issue of Analog and D+Pad, the spinoff comic book that reimagines the cast of CAD as superheroes. Both books will be available in the CAD online store.

ComicMix Exclusive Interview: Joe Lansdale on ‘Pigeons from Hell’

  • News
  • March 25, 2008

Joe Lansdale is a prolific author of horror stories, both short and novel-length, including Drive In and Bubba Ho-Tep.  He’s also no stranger to comics, having partnered with Timothy Truman for projects featuring  such characters as Jonah Hex and The Lone Ranger, and has even written for Batman: The Animated Series and other television series.

This spring, Dark Horse Comics is releasing his four-part miniseries, Pigeons from Hell, adapting a story by Robert E. Howard.  It’s Lansdale’s first time working with artist Nathan Fox, and he recently sat down for a brief chat with ComicMix and a preview of the first issue.

COMICMIX: Thanks for agreeing to chat, Joe.  This is not your first work with Robert E. Howard.  You previously wrote a Conan miniseries. So tell me, what is it about Howard that you like?

JOE LANSDALE: Howard has always appealed to me because there is a raw storytelling talent at work, and he has a Texas background, and like me, he lived in a small town where the sort of profession he pursued was not entirely understood. I always thought he appealed to the little boy in all of us, and by that, I mean that part of us that loves a good raw story. He appeals to that aspect in all of us. Like Jack London, The Call of the Wild is eternal. I don’t think Howard had the same depth that some of London‘s work had, but it has the same primal element, if not the social element. Thing is, I don’t consider that bad or lesser, just different.

CMix: Did you ask to write Pigeons from Hell, or was it an assignment?

JL: I think it was mentioned to me by the film company that has Howard’s work, because I had written the Conan miniseries. It had been well-received, and I mentioned Pigeons From Hell, and it was thought an update might be fun, since Dark Horse had already done a literal adaptation, so, it just sort of snowballed from there and Dark Horse was for it. [It was] kind of an accident.

CMix: How did you approach expanding and adapting a prose work into a four-issue miniseries?

JL: I tried to use the original story as the frame, and I tried to bring younger contemporary characters into it. Howard’s work was of its time, and it could be casually racist, so I wanted to avoid that. I also added more mystical elements. Again, a perfect adaptation had already been done for the comics before, and there was a really good Thriller episode of the story years ago, though now it seems a little dated, so I wanted to approach it in a different manner. I think the story is still true to the original in most ways.

CMix: What is it about Howard’s work that you think still makes it relevant today?

JL: I think it’s the pure storytelling. You can learn to be a better writer with effort and time, but that is something that seems almost inborn, though I’m not sure how to explain it. But he has it, and the work is recyclable and constant. (more…)

Review: ‘Life Sucks’ by Abel, Soria and Pleece

It doesn’t seem a stretch to assume every possible vampire story has been done, from the classics to Anne Rice’s romanticizations to the modern Blade to the self-obsessed Shadow of the Vampire to the Dracula: Dead and Loving It spoof.

I won’t claim that Life Sucks (First Second, $19.95) is jaw-droppingly revolutionary, no. But it does deliver a riff on vampires that hasn’t been seen before.

To put it bluntly, Dave is a loser. He’s a wimpy young guy stuck working a dead-end job at an LA convenience store, and he’s in love with a goth girl who doesn’t know he exists. On top of all that, he’s a vampire, which just makes the life of the former-vegetarian all the more miserable.

The story of Life Sucks began several years ago when co-writers Jessica Abel and Gabe Soria were talking about vampires and wondered what it would be like for a young vampire stuck in the real world. After all, vampires don’t just start out with a big castle and tons of wealth, Soria told me.

Like a typical young adult, Dave is just starting out and trying to establish a life for himself. The vampire angle adds to his difficulties (despite a few cool powers), with the need to hide from sunlight, forage for blood and obey his master, Count Radu, the old vampire who infected him and owns the convenience store where Dave works.

Instead of obsessing with drudgery, the authors craft a simple but effective story of Dave’s pursuit of love, one that becomes expectedly complicated given the indie comics background of Abel. Life Sucks works because it’s a good little yarn about young adulthood, with the vampire angle serving more than anything as extra flavoring.

The art, by Warren Pleece, is appropriately grounded and manages to stay lively even during lulls in action. I interviewed him about his work on the book a little back, which you can read right here.

Confirmed Iron Man Cameo in ‘The Incredible Hulk’

  • News
  • March 25, 2008

One of the things made Marvel Comics stand out from other publishers back in the Silver Age was the concept of a shared universe. Other publishers would have guest stars every now and then, but Stan Lee reasoned that if all these costumed types were all running around New York City, they should be bumping into each other left and right. And fans loved it.

Marvel Studios is taking a cue from its comics roots and is having Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. cameo as inventor Tony Stark in this summer’s other Marvel superhero movie The Incredible Hulk.

Downey confirmed the rumor in an interview on MTV Movies Blog.

“It happens to be a scene where I basically approach [William Hurt’s character, General Ross], and we may be considering going into some sort of limited partnership together,” Downey stated.

Downey also teased that another unnamed star would appear in the Iron Man credits. Maybe the Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury rumor buzz we’ve been hearing? Hmm. We’ll be sure to stay in our seats until the end for both movies this summer.

Dark Horse Offers ‘Making Of’ for ‘Serenity: Better Days’ #1

  • News
  • March 24, 2008

If you’re reading ComicMix, chances are you’re a fan of sci-fi, movies, TV and, of course, you probably read comic books on a regular basis. Being a fan and reader of comics, perhaps you’ve wondered how all the elements from script to art to color to lettering come together to form the finished comic you hold in your hands and read each week?

If you have wondered about this magical process, the folks at Dark Horse Comics have got something for you. At their website, they’ve put up a "How-To" guide which takes you through the steps from script to finished page of their brand-new Serenity: Better Days comic book.

Clicking through the guide you can see the original script pages written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, rough sketches of the panel placement, art and pencils by Will Conrad, colors by Michele Madsen and letters by Michael Heisler — all the elements that go into a finished comic book page.

It’s an interesting look at how things go from normal-looking words on a page to a colorful and exciting final product. Check it out.

Review: ‘Tonoharu: Part One’

In works of fiction, I always appreciate stories that know exactly what they want to be and strive toward that identity. In other words, some books are best served by not aspiring to great pretensions.

In the case of Tonoharu: Part One (Pliant Press, $19.95) I have to eat my words, as it’s a book that perfectly accomplishes what it wants to do and still falls flat.

Creator Lars Martinson gives a fictional account of serving as an English teacher in a small Japanese town, something Martinson actually did. A prologue establishes the central character, Dan Wells, as the man who held Martinson’s post right before him (it never mentions if Dan is a real person).

As the two meet at the book’s start, Martinson describes Dan as having an "ever-present look of defeat on his face." He’s something of a Biff Loman in an international setting.

Dan’s problem is that by coming to Japan, he has cut himself off from the people, culture and language he knows. His job offers no challenges, his social life offers no prospects, so every day becomes a matter of waiting out the clock.

Martinson does a thorough job of creating this cesspool of mundanity through the painfully droll dialogue, the lazing pace of the plot and the two-toned artwork. Martinson inks in an impressive layer of detail, and even that serves to entrench the book more firmly in the boring paraphernalia of everyday life.

There is conflict, but not of man against man or man against himself. It is Dan against the sheer, painful nothingness of his existence. And that leads to a second conflict: this reviewer against Tonoharu‘s gentle urge toward sleep.

Beware the Underworked!

  • News
  • March 24, 2008

 We have a special treat today from Bo Hampton.  It’s his classic story, Underworked, about a cartoonist and his quest to find love, labor, and a way out of his mother’s basement. If you ever read a comic from the 1990s and wondered how that happened, this story has the answer.

Next week: More Demons of Sherwood

Credits:Bo Hampton (Artist), Bo Hampton (Colorist), Bo Hampton (Writer), Mike Gold (Editor-In-Chief), Tracy Munsey (Letterer)

More: Underworked

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On This Day: Joe Barbera

  • News
  • March 24, 2008

Joseph Roland “Joe” Barbera was born on March 24, 1911 in the Little Italy section of New York City. Though he loved drawing from an early age, Barbera put art aside for a more traditional job as a banker.

When the Great Depression hit, his banking job disappeared, however, and Barbera turned back to his first love. In 1932 he joined the Van Beuren Studio as an animator and scriptwriter. When Van Beuren closed down four years later Barbera moved to MGM. In 1938 he first teamed with William Hanna, and their second joint project, the first Tom & Jerry cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, was nominated for an Academy Award.

Hanna and Barbera continued to work together, receiving seven Academy Awards over 17 years for Tom & Jerry. In 1955 they took charge of MGM’s animation division—when it closed two years later they founded their own company, H-B Enterprises, which they soon renamed Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Together they produced the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and many other great American cartoons. Barbera died on December 18, 2006 of natural causes. He was 95 years old.

 

Comics and Politics: Secret Election Invasion?

  • News
  • March 24, 2008

 

As the campaigns continue, ComicMix is determined to ask the questions on everyone’s mind this election year:

Which One is the Skrull?

Are you sure it’s just the one? Why can’t more than one be a Skrull?

If your favorite candidate is really a Skrull infiltrator, are you going to vote for them anyway, or are you going to  be racist? What if one’s a Skrull, and the other two are Kodos and Kang?

Give us your opinion in comments, folks — because the electorate must be informed!

Interview: Scott Allie on Serenity, Buffy and the Joss Whedon Universe

  • Uncategorized
  • March 24, 2008

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Dark Horse Comics editor Scott Allie has an enviable career. As an editor, he’s had the opportunity to work with some of the biggest talents working in comics today. Creators such as Mike Mignola and Joss Whedon are just two of the many superstars he collaborates with on a daily basis.

Over the years,  he’s also found time to write a couple comics himself, including Sick Smiles and The Devil’s Footprints. Most recently, Allie’s been hard at work with Mike Mignola on Hellboy and its spin-offs, editing Buffy: Season Eight and also working on another new miniseries based on a different Joss Whedon creation: Serenity: Better Days.

With issue #1 of Serenity: Better Days hitting comic book stores last Wednesday, ComicMix caught up with Allie to get the latest info on the new comic, what’s happening with Buffy: Season Eight, the fan’s reaction to the recent Season Eight revelation and how he collaborates with creators like Mike Mignola and Joss Whedon

COMICMIX: Scott, thanks for talking with us. How you doing?

SCOTT ALLIE: Good, busy.

CMix: For those who don’t know, tell us a bit about your background? How did you get started in comics and at Dark Horse?

SA: I had a job at a literary magazine that paid really well, and it allowed me to set up a self-publishing project back in 1993 and 1994. I did a horror comic called Sick Smiles, and otherwise jazzed around for a while. 

I was living in Portland, and doing Sick Smiles caused me to run into a lot of the Dark Horse people. I ran out of money right around the time they were looking for a new assistant editor, so I took the job.

CMix: Did you read comics as a kid? If so, what were your favorites?

SA: I didn’t read a lot of comics as a kid. I remember having an issue of Star Wars and an issue of Man-Thing. I came across some horror comics at a young age. 

I loved Spider-man, but purely from the cartoon, the older one with the great theme song. I started writing stories really young, and by fifth grade I’d started drawing stories. 

I’d make little books, 20 pages or so, with one drawing and a couple word balloons per page. That was my first foray into comics, I think. They were monster mashes–a combination of Godzilla and Frankenstein, everything I’d see on the "Creature Double Feature" on Channel 56 out of Boston. 

I wouldn’t start reading comics on a regular basis until I was about thirteen, when a friend gave me a copy of Frank Miller’s Wolverine miniseries.

CMix: When did you realize you wanted to have a career in comics? Or that you could?

SA: I think in college. I was torn between majoring in literature or fine art, and my sort of mentor, this guy named Robert Smart, encouraged me to combine them to create my own major, design my own curriculum, and major in comics. 

That was the first time I started thinking about turning my official focus toward comics. They’d been my passion for a while, but I didn’t see them being remotely practical as far as something to do.

CMix: Once you were working at Dark Horse, what projects did you work on? Was there one in particular that really "made" your career?

SA: Yeah, Hellboy. I got assigned to Hellboy within a couple months of starting, and Mike and I bonded instantly, deeply. 

It remains the most significant relationship in my career. 

CMix: How did your association with Joss Whedon begin?

(more…)

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