Month: June 2017

‘Scales & Scoundrels’ brings all-ages fantasy to Image Comics

Sebastian Girner, Galaad and Jeff Powell team up to tell ‘the adventure of a lifetime.’

Editor and Shirtless Bear-Fighter co-writer Sebastian Girner trades bears for dragons in Scales & Scoundrels, a new all-ages fantasy title he’s working on with artist Galaad and letterer/designer Jeff Powell. The series debuts in September from Image Comics.

“Scales & Scoundrels is a dream project for Galaad, Jeff and myself,” Girner said in a press release. “We are crafting a deep and wondrous world for readers to get lost in, creating heroes, villains and rogues to love and loathe, and spinning tales that will delight and entertain, shock and inspire. A fantasy adventure comic for readers of all ages to escape into, and bring a piece of magic back with them into their lives.”

The series stars a treasure hunter named Luvander who heads into a dungeon crawl called “the Dragon’s Maw.” But, per the release, “what starts out as a road to riches becomes the first step on an epic journey of a much different kind—for Luvander holds a secret in her heart that will shatter the chains of fate and bring light to a world encroached upon by an ancient darkness.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Mark Fertig on ‘Take That, Adolf!’

Alex Dueben talks to Mark Fertig about his latest book from Fantagraphics, World War II, graphic design and more.

In his recent book Take That, Adolf!, Mark Fertig looks at Golden Age comics and how World War II transformed the industry and the content. While for many people, the appeal of the book may be the hundreds of comic book covers that feature Adolf Hitler being punched and Nazis thwarted, the highlight is Fertig’s long essay.

In that piece Fertig examines race and gender; he looks at how the comics industry was changed, the ways that it’s impossible to think about the business and many characters without the influence of the war, and many more issues. Fertig is an Associate Professor at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, where he teaches graphic design, and we spoke about the book, World War II, graphic design and comics in the classroom.

I enjoyed the book – who doesn’t like seeing Hitler get punched repeatedly? When you conceived the book, I’m sure you never imagined that the media would be discussing when it’s acceptable to punch nazis.

Yeah, I did a Twitter search the other day, and the book showed up. I don’t think the book has really worked its way into the public consciousness on any level, and yet it showed up in a political tweet where somebody had linked to the book and said, “This is our book.” I thought that was pretty fascinating. When I wrote it I thought I was writing it for comic book people and World War II people, but if it’s interesting to other people, that’s fine by me.

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Bill Morrison named executive editor of MAD Magazine

The former creative director for Bongo will assume the role as MAD moves to the west coast; current Executive Editor John Ficarra will stay on until the end of the year through the transition.

Just the other day we were wondering about the future of MAD Magazine, and today we know: Bill Morrison has been named incoming executive editor of the long-running humor magazine. Per the press release from DC Comics, longtime and current Executive Editor John Ficarra, along with other key members of the MAD team, will continue to publish the magazine from MAD’s New York offices through the year’s end.

Morrison will report to Hank Kanalz, SVP, Editorial Strategy & Administration and begin to take on the day-to-day operations of the magazine, hire and direct a MAD editorial and creative team for both MAD magazine and MAD books, as well as manage the development and implementation of the annual publishing schedule.

“Joining up with the crew at MAD is thrilling, exciting and an incredible responsibility,” said Morrison. “I don’t know anyone who loves and respects MAD as much as I do. I’ll definitely have my work cut out for me, but I’m dedicated to upholding the high standards of absurd and irreverent humor that the public has come to expect from MAD. I’ve been asked if I will continue to include artist Al Jaffee in the magazine; as soon as I find out who he is, I’ll let everyone know.”

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Quoted: Kate Beaton on the end of ‘Octopus Pie’

As Meredith Gran’s award-winning webcomic ends, ‘Hark! A Vagrant’ creator Kate Beaton reflects on the comic’s run.

Meredith Gran’s long-running webcomic Octopus Pie came to an end earlier this month, and her fellow webcomic creator (and former roommate) Kate Beaton paid tribute to it on Tumblr:

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Bear-ing your heart: Oni announces new graphic novel from Ribon & Farris

Due next April, ‘My Boyfriend is a Bear’ features a woman who falls for a 500-pound American black bear.

Oni Press has announced a romantic comedy of a different breed — My Boyfriend is a Bear, by Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris. Fed up with the dating scene, Nora starts dating a 500-pound American black bear. Comedy ensues.

“The comics market right now has a lot of very dark, serious stories,” Farris said in a press release. “I’m really excited to help put a story out there that is silly and sweet. Something that hopefully makes people smile. It’s not every day you get to sell people a book about a girl dating a literal bear, and I hope folks are as charmed by this story as I have been while working on it.”

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Titan Comics, Bethesda announce three video game adaptations

Titan will create new ‘in-canon’ stories based on ‘The Evil Within 2,’ ‘Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus’ and ‘Dishonored 2.’

Bethesda Software announced several new projects at the big E3 video game show this past month, including The Evil Within 2, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and new downloadable content for Dishonored 2. And all three of those games will have comic book tie-ins, thanks to publisher Titan Comics. All three comics arrive in September.

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Comics Lowdown: Bookscan charts, female readers and the Big Two

Comics gets a wake-up call, Wonder Woman gets a long-lost brother and Ted Rall gets SLAPPed.

It’s like comics is going through its half-year review, and manga and kids’ graphic novels get high marks but Marvel and DC get a low “needs improvement.” Heidi MacDonald has a long but very readable article at The Beat summarizing what’s going on: Comics are thriving, but not monthly comics and not in comic shops:

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Kickstarter ‘Gold’ brings back 7 comic projects

‘Black,’ ‘Plume,’ ‘The Secret Loves of Geek Girls” and more get remixed as they return to the crowdfunding site for another go.

Kickstarter is giving new life to several of their past campaigns, including seven of them from the comics category.

“Kickstarter Gold” brings back projects by creators who were “specially selected for their creativity, ingenuity and past success on Kickstarter,” the site reads. “We’re spotlighting them because they do excellent work — and because creators who repeatedly use Kickstarter to support and sustain creative ventures are an integral part of our community’s ecosystem.”

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Comics Lowdown: Trolling the trolls

A cartoonist gets his career back, manga and kids’ comics are booming, and a con veteran offers advice for first-timers

Trolling the Trolls: Your bizarre read for the day is Emma Grey Ellis’s account of the strange career of Ben Garrison, a libertarian political cartoonist who became a sort of real-life Pepe the Frog after alt-right trolls started altering his cartoons to include Nazi imagery and seeded the internet with fake stories:

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Peck, Haun team for post-apocalyptic fantasy series ‘The Realm’

New series from Image Comics launches in September.

Former “X-Men” writer Seth Peck is teaming with “The Beauty” artist Jeremy Haun on “The Realm,” a story about a post-apocalyptic Earth invaded by orcs, dragons and other Dungeons and Dragons monsters.

“Creator-owned comics are the only place you can tell stories like ‘The Realm’ exactly as you want them to be told,” Peck said in a statement. “You can have an F-14 take on a dragon in the skies over Chicago, or have a horde of orcs lay siege to the White House without worrying about special effects or budgets. At the same time, you can tell very intimate, emotional, and human stories and develop complicated, meaningful characters over the course of time. With ‘The Realm,’ Jeremy and I wanted to blend all the genres we enjoy, mix in plenty of action, and give readers something unique and exciting to look forward to each month.”

The duo will work with colorist Nick Filardi and letterer Thomas Mauer on the project, which launches in September.

“’The Realm’ is the book I’ve wanted to do my entire life,” said Haun. “It’s the perfect mash of everything I love to draw. Post-apocalyptic landscapes, dark magical citadels, machine gun-toting barbarians, unnamable horrors, DRAGONS—it doesn’t get more fun than this.”

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Samurai Jack returns to comics

Genndy Tartakovsky’s popular animated samurai returns in a new comic by Fabian Rangel Jr. and Warwick Johnson Cadwell.

Samurai Jack returns to comics this fall for a new series by Fabian Rangel Jr. and Warwick Johnson Cadwell, the team behind IDW’s recent “Helena Crash” series.

Titled “Quantum Jack,” the new series will send Jack to alternate realities with “his memories erased, but his spirit intact,” as he becomes the leader of a biker gang and more. It sounds kind of like “Quantum Leap,” only with Genndy Tartakovsky’s popular animated character doing the leaping.

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‘Rocket Girl’ returns in August

Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder’s time-traveling teen returns this summer.

Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder’s Kickstarter-turned-Image Comics series “Rocket Girl” returns in August with issue #8.

“I don’t mean to sound alarmist, but everything we’ve done so far with ‘Rocket Girl’ has been leading up to these next few, completed issues,” said Reeder in a press release. “Major things are about to happen! And I for one wouldn’t want to hear the gossip second-hand at the water cooler.”

“Rocket Girl” debuted back in 2013, following a successful Kickstarter for the first issue. The book stars DaYoung Johansson, a teenaged cop from the future who goes back to 1986 to investigate “crimes against time.” The project followed the duo’s work on “Halloween Eve” and preceded their all-ages Marvel title, “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.”

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