Author: Glenn Hauman

'Once and Future' Comic to Bring Arthurian Legend to Modern Day

‘Once & Future’ Comic to Bring Arthurian Legend to Modern Day

Kieron Gillen (Uber, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt) and Dan Mora (Klaus, Buffy The Vampire Slayer) are bringing the six-issue miniseries Once & Future to Boom! this August.

“I’ve been chewing over how the classic explorer adventure serial could operate in the twenty-first century for a while. [Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Gillen’s Marvel series] transplanting the genre to space was one conclusion. Once and Future is another, taking a genre whose core has barely changed since the 19th century, and updating it for the now,” Gillen said in a statement from the publisher. “Adventure, romance, supernatural horror and too much bloody research, as always.”

Originally at www.hollywoodreporter.com

Carnage in Tyrone, PA as local man stole comics

Crime and Carnage does not pay!

Joshua A. Wiser, 33, is accused of walking into The Comic Vault, 1130 12th Avenue, on Feb. 7 with eight comic books he was trying to sell, including a collectible “Amazing Spider-Man” No. 361. According to Altoona police, the owner of the comic books discovered they were missing from his home and called the comic book store to alert the owner about the missing issues.

Amazing Spider-Man #361 is the first appearance of Carnage— is this what Trump was talking about in his inauguration speech?

Originally at www.altoonamirror.com

Nebula Award finalists announced; Black Panther, Spider-Verse nominated

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA, Inc.) has announced the nominees for the 54th Annual Nebula Awards, including the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book, and for the first time, the Nebula Award for Game Writing. The awards will be presented in Woodland Hills, CA at the Warner Center Marriott during a ceremony on the evening of May 18th.

2018 Nebula Award Finalists

Novel

  • The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
  • The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
  • Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)
  • Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan)
  • Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)
  • Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
(more…)
Humble Bundle Releases a Must-Read Collection to Benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Humble Bundle Releases Collection to Benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

If you love comics, you should love the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which fights for your right to read comics without the threat of censorship. And now, the good folks at Humble Bundle have curated a fantastic collection including comics like Lumberjanes, Saga and Attack on Titan, all to support comic creators and businesses in need.

“Humble Comics Bundle: Start Here!” features over 40 comics and graphic novels from publishers including BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Image Comics, Kodansha, Top Shelf and more, spanning America, Europe and Japan. The Humble Bundle: Start Here! kicks off February 13th at 2:00 p.m. and runs through March 1st at 1:00 p.m., Eastern time. For more on the available titles, visit the Humble Bundle website.

Originally at www.pastemagazine.com

To: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment; Re: “The Grinch™”

To: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Re: “The Grinch”

Dear U.P.H.E., we got your press release...
Afraid we can’t run it, thanks to legalese.
For as much as we might want to promote “The Grinch™”
The Seuss folks won’t budge here, not even an inch.
See, Dr. Seuss™ sent us a cease and desist
An action which, you understand, has us… peeved.
They told us, “Use any Seuss IP? No more!”
Not just Seuss/Star Trek mashups; Grinch™ hype too! Then... war.
They proceeded to sue us, making wild claims
of willful infringement, a charge that defames.

We're not sure that we’d want to, in any case,
assist making money they'll shove in our face
as they continue to file legal motions
and otherwise show very hostile emotions.

Our defense costs us thousands, and now you beseech:
“Please use your platform, extend Seuss's reach!
Help them make more moolah, which they’ll utilize
to stifle your speech so you can’t criticize!
Push their retelling! Please help us to coax!"
Their chutzpah is stunning. The nerve of these folks.

We don’t hold it against you, we know that it’s rough—
pushing “Grinch™” weeks after Christmas is tough.
We’d normally help; after all, ’tis the season
but we obviously can’t and now you know our reason.

If you’ve just heard about this suit, and if you think
that you’d like to contribute, please do! Here’s the link.

We’re now in the summary judgement last stages,
the judge has the filings with which she engages.
Our request for judgment should stand on its own,
the facts are all in, there’s no need to postpone.
Our motion is clear for the trained legal reader
although we admit that it’s not done in meter.
We think our case strong, we trust the judge concurs,
and fervently hope that our win she confers.

And to everyone following our long fair use fight:
Thanks for all your support... and to all a good night.

Chris Ryall rejoins IDW

Chris Ryall, former Chief Creative Officer and Editor-In-Chief or IDW Publishing, is returning to the company as President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer. Ryall, recently part of the editorial division at Skybound Entertainment, will be charged with ongoing creative expansion efforts within the company, as well as continuing to work closely with partners and licensors. Greg Goldstein will be stepping down as President and Publisher.

“Chris was a vital and valued member of the IDW team from nearly the beginning, so we are very excited that he is coming home,” said Howard Jonas, Chairman, IDW Media Holdings. “We are thrilled to have him rejoin our senior team to accelerate IDW Publishing’s growth and success. His creative talents and relationships within the industry are unmatched so we are confident that he will thrive in this new, expanded role. We are extremely grateful for the dedication and hard work that Greg put into the company, and I am confident that he will enjoy great success with his future endeavors.”

“I am incredibly proud of all that we’ve accomplished during my decade at IDW,” said Greg Goldstein. “I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to work with the entire IDW team and our creative and business partners. It’s been a great ride. Now I’m now looking forward to the next chapter of my career. It’s very exciting.”

Ryall originally joined IDW Publishing in 2004 as the company’s Editor-in-Chief. In 2010, he was named as the company’s first Chief Creative Officer. During his initial stint with the company, Ryall oversaw the acquisition of licensed titles such as Transformers, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and dozens of others. He also served as editor on hundreds of titles and, alongside creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, helped develop the acclaimed, Eisner Award-winning Locke & Key, currently in development as a Netflix television series.

“IDW is where I’ve spent the majority of my career, and I consider the company and its employees like family so I am grateful for this amazing opportunity to return,” said Ryall. “I believe that IDW has very significant opportunities to become even more valuable and important and I am excited to further expand on what I started with the company nearly 15 years ago. I am also eager to help the company celebrate its 20th year anniversary in 2019 in varied and creatively invigorating new ways.”

Ryall will assume his new duties on December 10, bringing more than 14 years of proven success to IDW Publishing. As a writer, Ryall was nominated for an Eisner Award alongside artist Ashley Wood. Together, they co-created the property Zombies vs Robots, purchased by Sony Pictures. He is also the co-creator of Onyx (with Gabriel Rodriguez); The Hollows (with Sam Kieth); The Colonized (with Drew Moss); and Groom Lake (with Ben Templesmith); the co-author of Comic Books 101 (with Scott Tipton); and writer of licensed properties such as Stephen King and Joe Hill’s Throttle; Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show; Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, The Transformers; Mars Attacks, Rom, Kiss; and many other titles.

ComicMix has previously packeaged and published many books with IDW, including GrimJack, Jon Sable Freelance, EZ Street, Demons Of Sherwood, Hammer Of The Gods, White Viper, and The Pilgrim.

We congratulate Chris on returning to the fold, and salute Greg for his many years of service.

 

Watch the new “Captain Marvel” trailer!

Straight from Monday Night Football, it’s the newest trailer for Captain Marvel!

Set in the 1990s, Marvel Studios’ “Captain Marvel” is an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that follows the journey of Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes. While a galactic war between two alien races reaches Earth, Danvers finds herself and a small cadre of allies at the center of the maelstrom.

Insight Lands On Mars– 35 Years Later

NASA’s latest Mars lander, InSight, successfully touched down on the surface of the Red Planet this afternoon, surviving an intense plunge through the Martian atmosphere.

What you may not know is that Insight Studios, run by Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel, got to Mars back in 1983 with First Comics, edited by Mike Gold. The entire series was collected in a trade paperback by IDW in 2005.

Real life imitates comics again! And congratulations to everyone at NASA!

Stan Lee: 1922-2018

Stan “The Man” Lee has died at the age of 95, according to news reports.

If you need biographical information about his life and his achievements, we strongly recommend his autobiographies Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee and Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir, because no one could tell Stan’s story better than he could himself. (We presume if you read ComicMix, you already know how important he was to comics. ‘Nuff said.)

Our condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

 

 

National Graphic Novel Writing Month 2018

National Graphic Novel Writing Month Day 7: Sorry, There’s Math

National Graphic Novel Writing Month 2018

Writing a comic script is an extremely regimented process. You’re often working within an extremely tight format that leaves little room for error.

John Ostrander explained it for us a while back:

First number: the number of pages. Right now, your monthly comic book is 22 pages long. Let’s say you’ve been asked to do a fill-in story or a complete in one story for a given book. There are certain space limitations you need to take into account.

How many panels are in a page? Well, your first page is usually the splash page which means one big panel. This page also usually has the title of the story and the credits box for the creators. Here’s some rules of thumb for the other pages: when there’s a lot of action, you use fewer panels per page. If it’s a talk scene, you can have more. I generally figure that it will average out to five panels a page. The splash page is one panel so you have 21 pages times five panels. We do the match and the whole thing totals 106 panels in which to tell your story.

That’s not a lot of room to work. And as we said earlier, every panel must convey an action. You have to be able to tell your entire chunk of story under those constraints, which means you’re going to have to make every shot count. Mark Waid explains:

In a 22-page comic, figuring an average of four to five panels a page and a couple of full-page shots, a writer has maybe a hundred panels at most to tell a story, so every panel he wastes conveying (a) something I already know, (b) something that’s a cute gag but does nothing to reveal plot or character, or (c) something I don’t need to know is a demonstration of lousy craft. Comics are expensive. Don’t make me resent the money I spend buying yours. Every single moment in your script must either move the story along or demonstrate something important about the characters—preferably both—and every panel that does neither is a sloppy waste of space.

The good news is that if you’re doing your own graphic novel, you can write to any length you need– but you still can’t waste any panels. So you have to figure out what actions tell your story, and that means that you need to make an outline… and that’s the next part.