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Happy Birthday: Charles Vess

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1951, Charles Dana Vess fell in love with comic books and art while still a child—he drew his first full-length comic when he was ten years old.

He attended Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated with a BFA in 1974, then went to work as a commercial animator for Candy Apple Productions in Richmond. In 1976, Vess moved to New York City to try his hand as a freelance illustrator. In 1980, he joined Parsons School of Design as an art instructor.

He was getting regular comic book work, and drew books for Dark Horse, Marvel, Epic, and DC, but it was in 1989 that Vess became truly well-known in the field. He collaborated with Neil Gaiman on one of the issues of the original Books of Magic mini-series and also drew three issues of Gaiman’s Sandman series for Vertigo. One of those issues, #19 (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) won the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.

In 1994, Vess moved back to Virginia and organized The Dreamweavers, a traveling exhibition of 15 fantasy artists. Since then he has had many other showings and worked on many other comic books.

Another Vess-Gaiman collaboration, Stardust, won an Alex Award from the American Library Association, a Mythopoeic Award, and a World Fantasy Award for Best Artist. Vess has won a Will Eisner Comics Industry Award three times. He has also won a Comic Creators’ Guild award, a Silver Award, and an Ink Pot. He has won numerous children’s book awards as well, primarily for his collaborations with Charles de Lint.

ComicMix Radio: Todd McFarlane and Spawn, Together Again!

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

Todd McFarlane recently announced that he’s returning to Spawn, the comic that helped build his empire. In a few months he, along with Image co-founder Whilce Portacio, return to the series and we’ve got the details, plus:

— Viper brings back The Killer Tomatoes

— Patsy Walker gets her soot in the Marvel Universe

— This week’s stellar list of new comics and DVDs

Just press the button and cool off!

 

 

 And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-3245277 or RSS!

Iron Man, Hurley and a Gay Dalek

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

Michael Pinto at Fanboy.com recently directed me to this Flickr set posted by artist Daryl Cunningham. There’s some great use of color in Cunningham’s work, and I can’t help but love the pop culture inspiration. Heck, there’s a bit of DC, a bit of Doctor Who and even some Lost mixed in there.

Here’s one example, with a few more after the jump:

Iron Man: War Zone

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Battlestar Galactica Interview: Jane Espenson on Episode #9, ‘The Hub’

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

Welcome to the latest installment of Battlestar Galactica Weekly, our recurring Q&A with Mark Verheiden, co-executive producer of the hit Sci-Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica. Each week, we’ll interview Verheiden about the events of the week’s episode, what those events might mean for both the season and the series, and hopefully unearth some clues about what to expect as the final season of Battlestar Galactica nears its conclusion.

Along with posing our own questions to Verheiden, we’re also taking questions from fans — so be sure to send your questions to me, your official BSG Weekly interviewer, after each episode airs at chris [at] comicmix dot com. New episodes of Battlestar Galactica can be seen every Friday at 10 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel. You can read previous interviews via our BSG Weekly Archive or the links at the end of this article.

This week we have a special treat for fans of BSG, as well as those of you who love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Answering our questions this time around is the writer of this week’s episode, co-executive producer Jane Espenson.

She’s answering questions about Episode #9 of Season Four, “The Hub,” which aired June 6, 2008. Note: These answers may contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

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COMICMIX (from reader Shannon): Was there a kiss between Adama and Roslin in the last scene? If so, why was it edited out? Or, if not, why not? That seemed like a moment when they would kiss.

JANE ESPENSON: It is scripted as a “fierce hug,” but with moments like that, the script doesn’t really matter.  If you’re lucky enough to have amazing actors like Eddy and Mary, you don’t even want them to rely on the script in a moment like that.

You want them to just do.  And personally, I love the choice they made.  It played perfectly for me.  I want to see their faces on screen — easier in a hug than a kiss.

CMix (from reader Solonia): Do you consider Elosha to be Laura’s subconscious in this episode?

You mean, as opposed to being a Head Being like Baltar’s Six?  Yes.  I thought of her much more as Laura’s subconscious.

CMix (From reader Tommy): What was the purpose of the scene between Baltar and the Centurion? It seemed it was mostly there to put Baltar in a place where he could become injured so Roslin could save him? Or perhaps the scene is there to serve a larger purpose? Maybe Baltar is planting the seeds of another Cylon revolt?

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Interview: John Arcudi Talks ‘B.P.R.D.’ Summer Series

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

bprdwofcover-5628985This summer is a big one for Hellboy fans, and not just because Hellboy II: The Golden Army hits theaters on July 11. Dark Horse is releasing several comics from Mike Mignola’s Hellboy world.

The co-author on several Hellboy and B.P.R.D. books, John Arcudi recently chatted with me and gave some sneak peaks at B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs, B.P.R.D.: The Warning and the B.P.R.D.: Ectoplasmic Man one shot.

Dire times are coming to the B.P.R.D. crew, Arcudi warned, and no one is safe.

COMICMIX: What can you tell me about these new series, War on Frogs and The Warning? They take place before and after Killing Ground, respectively, right?

JOHN ARCUDI: WoF takes place in the past, back in 2005 during the era of the Black Flame, while The Warning picks up about a week after the end of Killing Ground and will kick off the large three-part arc that brings the Memnan Saa storyline to its conclusion.

CMix: The Warning sounds like it’ll be focusing on Liz quite a lot. What can we expect for her? What are the big issues she’s facing?

JA: Well, she thinks she’s finally free of Memnan Saa’s control and so she’s in a hurry to kick some butt. His butt. Liz is interesting in that she seems to always be looking for an authority figure, for someone to point out the direction in life she should follow – due, undoubtedly to the premature deaths of her parents (at her hands, no less). If you go back to Hollow Earth, you see Liz leaving the B.P.R.D. to find herself in some temple at the top of the world. She doesn’t go and ride a motorcycle across the country, she goes and asks somebody else for help. This may be what made her susceptible to Saa’s thrall in the first place. And that is the personal story nugget at the core of this very far-reaching, cataclysmic epic tale.

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Getting Reality Right, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • June 10, 2008

Vinnie Bartilucci said it better than I did. Commenting on a couple of columns that asked, sort of, if the science in comics should be real, Vinnie wrote, “… once a writer chooses to mention actual, proper science, he should get it right.”

Yes. Exactly. Well put.

But I wonder if we shouldn’t extend the idea to other real life areas. Social problems, for example.  Or such knotty personal problems as addiction. One of the difficulties is, there isn’t the kind of consensus on personal and societal quandaries that there is on the basics of, say, physics. All but the most skeptical – or reactionary – can agree that Newton’s three laws are on the money and Einstein was right about relativity, both general and special, and even Heisenberg’s principle doesn’t seem terribly uncertain these days.

But, to pluck just one example from the ether…addiction? What, exactly, is it? My imperfect understanding is that many, if not most, addictions are caused by environment acting on genetics. In other words, nature and nurture combine to rot out somebody’s life. But, with patience, determination, and rigorous self-honesty, the addict can put his demons in the coal bin, and if he’s able to continue being patient, determined, and honest, they’ll stay there until he dies and they die with him. Addiction is not exactly a disease, in the conventional sense, but it’s more that than character defect.

That was, more or less, the version of addiction I posited in an extended comic book continuity some years ago, and most people who saw the stories seemed to agree with me. But not everyone. A source I trust told me that a person much higher on the corporate food chain than either my editor or me thought that the fictional addict should have just…I don’t know – snap out of it? (In fairness to all concerned, the executive in question never confronted me personally, so I am taking a trusted somebody’s word for what happened.) On another occasion, an excellent artist, a man I respect, refused, politely, to draw a one-page shot of a hero dreaming he was drunk – just dreaming, mind you – because, in the artist’s opinion, heroes don’t behave like louts, even when snoozing.

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MoCCA Recap: Day Two – Fire! Smoke! Sellouts and Links!

Day Two at the MoCCA Art Festival was… an experience.

Except for the few moments when the possibility of dying via fiery inferno was an issue, much of the day felt as if I was slogging through a sweaty, soupy mess thanks to the outdoor conditions and the exhaustion from the previous day (which I detailed in my MoCCA: Day One Recap).

As ComicMix‘s Elayne Riggs pointed out earlier today, the forced evacuation of the Puck Building generated quite a buzz as attendees, guests and staff were asked to leave the building (and its air conditioners) while emergency personnel did their thing. (On a side note, for a comprehensive look at exactly what "doing their thing" meant for the emergency crews, check out Fleen’s MoCCA Emergency ’08 report.)

Okay, confession time: When the fire alarm first started ringing, I honestly thought somebody in the room had won something… and according to a few reliable sources, I started clapping.

Apparently, all the bells, whistles and sirens I’ve been exposed to over the last few years at larger conventions have succeeded in reversing decades of training regarding what to do when I hear an alarm. Nevertheless, it looks like I won’t die alone. (more…)

Review: ‘Water Baby’ by Ross Campbell

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of reviews of the five books coming out from DC’s Minx imprint this year. Previously, Van Jensen reviewed Rebecca Donner’s Burnout, Cecil Castellucci’s Janes in Love and Brian Wood‘s The New York Four. -RM]

Ah, ambiguity. It can be the driving force of great fiction, powering along mysteries, character dramas and horror stories.

And, when wielded irresponsibly, ambiguity can sink a promising book straight into the murky depths of… somewhere or other.

Take Water Baby ($9.99), a new Minx book written and drawn by Ross Campbell. At the book’s start, surfer girl Brody loses a leg to a hungry shark. She sorta tries to get over it with the help of her sorta friend Louisa, but then things kinda get crazy when Brody’s old flame Jake shows up (he’s somewhat cool but a bit of a jerk).

The girls (who have a relationship that meanders toward lesbianism, but never conclusively) decide to drive Jake back home to get rid of him, and things kinda sorta get even crazier when they pick up Chrissie, a girl who’s either cool or a slut or just crazy. Maybe.

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Happy Birthday: Johnny Cloud

Flying “Johnny” Cloud was a member of the Navajo tribe but little is known about his early life. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at the start of World War II and overcame racial prejudices with his superior skill as a pilot, quickly becoming known as “the Navajo Ace.”

When the commander of his unit died in battle against a squadron of Nazi bombers, Cloud became his successor and the unit was dubbed "The Happy Braves."

Cloud led the Happy Braves for several years, but during one failed mission his plane was shot down. He was rescued by the Haunted Tank, which picked up several other stray soldiers on the same run, and the strays banded together to form the misfit military unit the Losers.

They fought together until their final, fatal mission near the end of the war.

News Roundup: Comic Theft Solved, Aimee Mann Goes Graphic, ‘Middleman’ Debuts

Here’s what’s been going on in the world of comics over the past few days to give you some Monday afternoon I-don’t-feel-like-doing-any-real-work reading.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, Shooting War illustrator Dan Goldman talks about why he doesn’t draw Spider-Man:

"I could be doing that kind of stuff, but … I feel like you’ve got a microphone; if you’re going to step up, you really should have something to say."

Goldman is concerned with what he sees as the degradation of the United States. "I have my days when it’s tough to look over at my desk and see my little American passport and I feel ashamed."

You may have heard about the sad news out of Seattle, where a man’s collection of about 6,000 comics was stolen from a friend’s house. The case is now closed. The original owner tracked down the thief, got back his books, and no one was arrested. Priceless quote from the police spokesman: "We didn’t want to spend any more time on it,"

Buried deep in this CNN story about singer/songwriter Aimee Mann (you probably know her from the Magnolia soundtrack) is the news that she’s slowly become a graphic novelist: "I take a sketchbook and I bring it out at dinner … and I’ve got this one friend who always says something ridiculous, so I’ll try to write it down and put it in [graphic] form, and it kind of amuses everyone at the dinner table," she says, while saying it’s "kind of a long-term project."

Lastly, Lost writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach reveals to Comics2Film that Paul Dini is responsible for Grillo-Marxuach’s The Middleman going from proposed TV series to comic (and now it’s set to be a TV series again): "Of course, I was a huge comic book fan already, but something about talking to Paul and realizing here’s a guy who’s doing it sort of inspired me to say, ‘Here I have a property that, in a comic book, without the constraints of budget, would be spectacular.  So why not go in that direction and try to fulfill this creative need that I have to see this thing made?’"

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