Tagged: Graphic Novel

Dynamite To Reprint Howard Chaykin’s The Shadow

  • News
  • January 13, 2012

The Shadow: Blood And Judgement by Howard Chaykin was originally published by DC Comics in the eighties around the same time as other gritty takes on characters in comics such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight. This story was last collected in 1991.

Now, twenty-one years later, Dynamite – the current license holders of The Shadow – is bringing Howard Chaykin’s The Shadow: Blood and Judgement back into print.

Dynamite has gathered a bunch of quotes regarding the series from some comic book professionals…

“Not since Walter Gibson has anyone been better suited to The Shadow than Howard Chaykin” – Mark Waid

“This is my all-time favorite Howard Chaykin comic book. This is him at the tip-tip-top of his game and, yeah I’ll say it, the best Shadow story ever published!” – Brian Michael Bendis

“IT’S TIME TO GET OFFENDED AGAIN. Welcome back, Mr. Cranston. Welcome back, Mr. Chaykin… we need you both now more than ever. Who knew that underneath all the cocaine, black marble, and rayon that the Eighties had a heart of pulp? As always, Chaykin — and the Shadow — knows…” -Matt Fraction

“Chaykin at his ballsiest and most dynamic. This is how the Shadow should be done.” – Jason Aaron

“Chaykin’s Shadow is a modern legend at his best.” – Rick Remender

“Sharply written, uber-stylish and dead sexy. Yes, Chaykin made The Shadow sexy!” – John Cassaday

“Howard Chaykin was one of the few who dared to make mainstream comics different back in the eighties; it was guys like him, Alan Moore and Frank Miller who made sure there’d be no going back. Howard’s work on The Shadow is amongst his very best: razor-sharp character work, sizzling dialogue and an unsurpassed sense of layout and design.” – Garth Ennis

“The reintroduction of The Shadow in the 1980s in Howard Chaykin’s mini-series was one of the most striking comics of the era. A bold, violent, and modern vision combined with the original caped hero archetype captivated me as a reader.” – Alex Ross

“A comically insolent and graphically innovative re-invention of the grandfather of the superhero.” -Warren Ellis

“There are many reasons to consider Howard Chaykin a comic visionary. This is one of them.” – Brian Azzarello

“The iconic 80s miniseries is back. Some creators use noir themes and images as though they’re throwing them into a shopping basket. Chaykin makes them look as though they didn’t even exist until he came along.” – Mike Carey

“Who knows how to write and draw great suspense, action, and characters that literally pop off the page? THE CHAYKIN KNOWS — HAHAHAHAHA!!!” – Peter J. Tomasi

“Sex, money, intrigue, betrayal, revenge. This is Chaykin. Try to keep up.” – Andy Diggle

“Bloody, brutal, vital and violent, with a striking sense of energy and a huge amount of style on every kinetic page. Howard Chaykin transference of The Shadow from its pulp roots to the comic book gold rush era of 1987 is a gem. It’s good to see it back in print.” – Rob Williams

“My favorite comic growing up in the eighties was THE SHADOW. Howard Chaykin’s Shadow was a breath of fresh air to me and I gobbled up every frame of that miniseries. Chaykin didn’t go onto the regular series when it launched, leaving me to look around for other comics Chaykin had done.” – Aintitcoolnews.com

You can learn more about Dynamite Entertinament at http://www.dynamite.net/.

Thanks to Bleeding Cool for the scans of the original comics below. Click on images for a larger view.

SEQUENTIAL PULP UNLEASHES THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF!

  • News
  • November 17, 2011
Art: Steven Gordon

Sequential Pulp Comics has released promo art for their 2012 release, CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS by Steven Gordon. The graphic novel is scripted by Mark Ellis and will be available in 2012 from Dark Horse Comics’ Sequential Pulp Comics imprint.

You can learn more about Sequential Pulp Comics at http://www.sequentialpulpcomics.com/.
You can learn more about Dark Horse Comics at http://www.darkhorse.com/.

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National Graphic Novel Writing Month Day 29: It’s NOT A Novel, by Keith R.A. DeCandido

  • News
  • October 29, 2010

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My biggest problem with the term “graphic novel” is that it’s wrong.

Graphic, yes. Novel, not so much.

A novel is generally defined as a work of prose that is 50,000 words or more, and most novels are much more than that.

Yet the average item that is referred to as a “graphic novel” rarely has
a novel’s worth of story. Back in the 1990s, when I reviewed these
things for Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, we tried referring to them with the more accurate term “trade comics.” But it didn’t take for very long, and that fight has long since been given up.

Which is a pity, because the term is really misleading. And that affects the writing, because when you’re writing a so-called “graphic novel”—or just writing an issue of a monthly comic book—your ability to tell the story is somewhat more proscribed than it is in prose.

Indeed, while there are significant and important differences between screenwriting and comic book writing—as expertly outlined by my buddy David Alan Mack earlier this month—one thing they share is that there are limits.

Graphic novels and movies have more flexibility, but ultimately there’s only so far you can go. Each has a range of pages or minutes that it can legitimately run, with very rare exceptions.

With, say, a TV episode or a monthly comic book, that’s a much harder limit. A “one-hour” episode must be 42 minutes, no more, no less. A monthly comic book must be 22 pages, no more, no less. (And yes, I know some shows have more minutes, and some comics have fewer pages, but work with me here.)

That’s probably what you most need to take into account when you’re writing any kind of comic book. You only have a set number of pages (or a range, anyhow), and that means you need to boil your story down to what will fit in that range.

The lack of flexibility is perhaps the hardest adjustment to make when you go from writing a prose novel to a graphic novel. If you need a new subplot in a novel, you can just add the 10,000 words or whatever—with a graphic novel, that option isn’t there.

Keith R.A. DeCandido has written more than 40 novels, including more than a dozen Star Trek novels, as well as half the Supernatural novels that have been published, and tons more. He is currently the scripter of the monthly Farscape comic and wrote the first arc of the Cars: Adventures of Tow Mater comic and the recent Star Trek: Captain’s Log: Jellico one-shot. Look for his Dungeons & Dragons novel in 2011. You can read his inane ramblings at kradical.livejournal.com or cyberstalk him on either Facebook or Twitter under the handle KRADeC.

Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!

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National Graphic Novel Writing Month, Day 10: Can conventions get your graphic novel written, part three

  • News
  • October 11, 2010

nagranowrimo-8349597Day ten, and also day three or four or ninety-seven of the New York Comic Con… and the sad truth of how they can wreck your schedules. So let’s pick up a few quickies:

For those who find they are having a little trouble there are a number of tips online that can be helpful. Below are a few tips that professionals in the industry have posted on blogs and news sites over the last couple of years.

Online at the Clockwork Storybook blog site is a nice in depth look at the writing process by Bill Willingham (writer of Fables). This takes a whole look at scripting keeping in mind that this must also be interpreted by the artist.

On his personal website Warren Ellis (writer of Transmetropolitan) posts an helpful answer to character motivation and action concerning “Want/Get/Do“.

And from our own site archives: two years ago John Ostrander (writer of Suicide Squad) posted an article with writing tips all writers can benefit from, covering the creative process and what being a writer means and does to you as a person.

Also: Dennis O’Neil did a more detailed write up on the differences between the full script method and the Marvel method which is much better than mine, and I should have lifted it directly. Here’s part one, and here’s part two.

Instead, I’ll lift his RECOMMENDED READING and suggest his book, The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, which somehow wasn’t included on our first list of writing books to look at. It’s truly excellent, and the only reason I can think of that it slipped my mind is that it’s constantly out on loan to other people who are using it to become better writers themselves.

Hat tip to Kyle Gnepper for the assist on tracking down articles. Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!

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National Graphic Novel Writing Month, Day 9: Can conventions get your graphic novel written, part two

  • News
  • October 9, 2010

nagranowrimo-2615364Day nine, in the middle of New York Comic Con, and pointing out that comics conventions can be good for your graphic novel.

You can see who else is out there. A quick trip through Artists Alley will find you numerous styles and artists who may inspire you, and if you strike up a chat with them, some may even be willing to collaborate with you.

You can attend various panels on the craft of writing, and hear how some of your idols solved some of their own writing problems.

You can make industry contacts, people you may be able to show your finished graphic novel script.

But the important word back there is finished. You have to have a script ready to drop in the mail the second that an editor or publisher says, “sure, send it to me”. More, you have to have your graphic novel so well put together in your own head that you can verbally deliver what it’s about– one, because carrying around a script is awkward and geeky, and two, because knowing it means you can tell it.

So make no mistake, the goal is to finish writing. A convention can help you, and can certainly help your career, but you can’t have a career without something to base your career on.

Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!

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National Graphic Novel Writing Month, Day #8: Can conventions get your graphic novel written?

  • News
  • October 8, 2010

nagranowrimo-1432171Day eight, which coincides with the first day of the New York Comic Con. The obvious question for the day: can conventions get your graphic novel written?

HELL NO.

You know what gets your graphic novel done? Butt in chair in front of writing implement of choice, fingers to writing implement of choice, one word after the other, until you have it written.

Time spent wandering the aisles is not spent writing.

Time going to parties is not spent writing.

Time sitting in panels listening to writers does not get a single word of yours down.

And time spent obsessing over your hall costume embroidery is definitely time spent not writing.

Get your tailfeathers down and write. You know how to do it. So do it.

Tomorrow: how conventions can help get your graphic novel written.

Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!

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October is National Graphic Novel Writing Month!

  • News
  • October 1, 2010

nagranowrimo-5704834Every November, thousands of intrepid souls, all around the world,
embark on a great novel-writing adventure. National Novel Writing Month,
or NaNoWriMo, as it’s affectionately called by participants, was begun
by Chris Baty in 1999, with the goal of getting writers to tackle a big project.

But that’s next month. For October, ComicMix is declaring it to be National Graphic Novel Writing Month! Or, yes, NaGraNoWriMo. Or #NaGraNoWriMo on Twitter.

The goal is simple: By October 31st, you write a script for at least a 48 page long graphic novel.

You brush your teeth every day? Feed the dog every day? Complain about Brightest
Day? Good. Now add “write part of my graphic novel script” to that
list. No excuses. If you’ve said “I should do it, but–” this is your time.

For our part, we’re going to have posts every day about what goes into a graphic novel script from a wide variety of comics pros, talking about how to do it and– most importantly– how to keep going.

We should also note for the TRULY hardcore that tomorrow’s the annual 24 Hour Comic Book Day.
Comic creators all around the world participate to create an entire 24
page comic book in just 24 hours… written and drawn! We implore you to
think about that. Think writing a 48 page graphic novel in a month is
too hard? Well, just realize there are some awesome people out there who
can knock out half of that in just one day! And hey, if you participate
at 24 Hour Comic Book Day, you could use that for the first half of your NaGraNoWriMo
project. If you don’t want to crank out a comic in 24 hours, you don’t have to, of course,
although it can be considered training for working for certain
publishers.

So who’s in? Sound off in the comments!

Review: ‘A Home for Mr. Easter’

A Home for Mr. Easter

By Brooke A. Allen
NBM, 197 pages, $13.99

What’s nice about the graphic novel format is that is can take great children’s book ideas and let them breathe rather than truncate them to fit the slimmer requirements of the genre. Brooke A. Allen is a SCAD student making a splash with her fist book and it’s a fast-paced, somewhat madcap but tender-hearted tale.

Tesana is an oversize adolescent, never fitting in with her peers, which has resulted in her moving from school to school. Whatever is the cause of her physical and emotional issues, she’s clearly a Special Ed student with anger management problems. Her loving mother seems somewhat clueless about getting her proper school supervision and is at her wit’s end regarding her only child. We don’t know where Dad is and what their circumstances, and frankly, little of it matters.

Our heroine is special and despite her best intentions, things always seem to be spiraling out control. When her guidance counselor suggests she try an extra curricular activity in order to make friends, she tries to assist the pep rally club. They don’t want her and her good intentions backfire, resulting in live rabbits being accidentally released. The story really takes off when Tesana discovers one bunny has stayed by her side and she becomes determined to return the animal to its home.

Just one thing. The rabbit is magical and may well be the proverbial Easter Rabbit, especially since it appears to be laying brightly colored Easter eggs that contain special gifts. Oh yeah, and it talks to Tesana. As she attempts to find the rabbit’s habitat, she encounters a crooked stage magician, animal rights’ activists and a lab using animals as test subjects. With Tesana missing, her mother and the police are also part of the chase, sort of bookending the comical procession.

The evolving relationship between the girl and the rabbit, dubbed Mr. Easter, forms the emotional core of the story. Allen’s storytelling propels the pair from place to place in a somewhat breathless manner but never forgetting to fill each encounter with detail. Her black and white artwork is unqiue and comical, with enough realistic touches to ground the story in our world, without telling us when or where this story takes place. That in itself makes it both magical and timeless.

Her characters are not terribly deep and we don’t stop to learn much about any of them, even Tesana, but they have specific speech patterns and appearances giving the book a nice variety. We’re given pretty much exactly what we need to see and read before moving towards the inevitable and most satisfying conclusion.

This is a terrific first effort and I look forward to more from Ms. Allen. This book is good for early graphic novel readers right on up. 

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‘Twilight’ graphic novel sets first printing of 350,000

  • News
  • January 21, 2010

Twilight: The Graphic Novel
 will hit stores March 16 with a first printing of 350,000 copies. Yeah, sure, it sounds impressive for comics, and it is, but put it in perspective– over 15 million Twilight books were sold in 2008, with 1.3 million copies of Breaking Dawn selling on the first day of release alone. More interestingly, Deb Aoki notes that the book is already in Amazon’s Top 10 two months before shipping.

Entertainment Weekly‘s Shelf Life blog has a look at the cover and interior art, plus an excerpt from an interview with Twilight
author Stephenie Meyer. (A 10 -page preview plus the full Q&A will
run in the new edition of the magazine, which hits stands on Friday.)

Twilight: The Graphic Novel
is adapted and illustrated by Korean artist Young Kim, with input from
Meyer, whose series of young-adult novels has sold 53 million copies
worldwide. The book is coming out from Yen Press, a division of Hachette, which also produces the Twilight prose books. (more…)

Review: ‘The Surrogates’ on Blu-ray

You have to admire Robert Venditti. He was working for Top Shelf, had an inspiration for a story examining how society could be changed if everyone used an avatar, a surrogate if you will, rather than interact with one another. Management loved the idea, bought the story and in 2005, The Surrogates
arrived.

You have to therefore be disappointed by the Jonathan Mostow-directed film version of the graphic novel, Surrogates, which fails to examine any of the fascinating ideas in detail, favoring a tired plot. The movie came and went fairly quickly in September 2009, garnering poor reviews and meager box office. In case you missed it, Touchstone Home Entertainment releases the home video version next week.

Staring Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Ving Rhames, and James Cromwell, one would have hoped for something deeper than what we were given. In a world we’re told has 98% of the population using surrogates — androids wirelessly connected to their human master – an unregistered surrogate is destroyed, killing its human, who turns out to be the son of the man who perfected the technology. Willis and Mitchell’s surrogates investigate and action ensures.

The graphic novel is set in 2054 while the film merely says fourteen years ago. Still, we know we’re in a near future and as imagined, little has changed except surrogates have filled the streets and subways and offices in lieu of real people. The nature of work and commerce seem unchanged. Leisure time is shown as merely an amped up version of today’s clubbing. In fact, it’s so much like today that one wonders if the surrogate program was a failure. After all, if surrogates are stronger, faster, more agile, and far more indestructible, that would change many things. Also, 98% of the world means the poor from other continents which in turn would change global politics.

Lots of great ideas, none of which are examined. Instead, you get hints of how surrogates are nothing like their hosts or idealized versions while people lie on special chairs, plugged in. We gain no knowledge of how that has changed people’s diet or health (one wonders about muscular atrophy, for example).

Willis’ surrogate is damaged early on and he’s forced to leave his apartment, including his wife who has retreated from reality in the wake of their son’s death years earlier. He’s disoriented at first, but he’s Bruce Willis and quickly adjusts so the investigation continues. His mission takes him the local enclave of those who reject surrogates, forced to live within a fenced portion of the city, where things are considerably less shiny.

In a brisk 89 minutes, Mostow favors action over substance, much as he did in [[[Terminator 3]]]. Everything is nice and shiny, well designed and things blow up real well. Unfortunately, the emotional heart and soul of the graphic novel has been excised.

The Blu-ray disc comes complete with four deleted scenes, including one that shows the surrogates’ prejudice towards a “meat bag” being among them. A great notion that should have been explored not dropped. There’s a 14 minute look at modern day robotics, A More Perfect You, showing how we’re well down the road towards building surrogates. A very brief feature interviews Venditti and Brett Weldele and talks about the graphic novel. A music video rounds things out.

Overall, a wasted cast and concept and a movie that can easily be dismissed.

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