Month: May 2018

Comics Lowdown: ‘XIII’ creator William Vance passes away

Plus: Police investigate Mangamura, the world’s largest comics collection and more.

Passings: The Belgian artist William Vance, creator of the French-language series XIII, has died at the age of 82 from Parkinson’s disease. Born William van Cutsem in Belgium in 1935, Vance served a year in the military and then studied for four years at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He began working for Tintin magazine (not the eponymous series, as stated in one obituary) in 1962, drawing four-page stories, and then launched the his first series, Howard Flynn (written by Yves Duval). He also was the artist for Bruno Brazil, and then he took over as the artist of Bob Morane, a series that had been started by Dino Attanasio. In 1984, he and Jean van Hamme launched XIII, a complex series partially inspired by Robert Ludlum’s Bourne character. Vance illustrated 18 volumes of XIII, which sold over 14 million volumes and was adapted into a television series. In 2010 he announced his retirement due to Parkinson’s disease.

Continue reading “Comics Lowdown: ‘XIII’ creator William Vance passes away”

Smash Pages Q&A: Ellen Forney on ‘Rock Steady’

The creator of ‘Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me’ discusses her latest project, which is out now from Fantagraphics.

Ellen Forney has made many comics over the years that were collected in the books I Love Led Zeppelin and I Was 7 in ’75. She collaborated on the National Book Award winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Forney curated the traveling exhibition Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived & Well-Drawn. Most readers though know her for her book Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me.

Marbles was a stunning book. Both a personal story of her bipolar diagnosis, Forney also investigated the many myths around art and artists and how she has considered and lived with them in her own life. Her new book Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life, which has just been published by Fantagraphics, is a self help guide designed to help people dealing with anxiety, depression and other disorders. It is beautifully drawn, thoughtfully written, and provides a great deal of insight into these issues. She also created a helpful and hilarious mascot to help readers, Smedmerts!

Forney is on book tour right now. She’ll be at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena with Maria Bamford on Friday night before going to the East coast next week. I spoke with her at home before she left about the book and her work.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Ellen Forney on ‘Rock Steady’”

Sink your teeth into a preview of ‘Sucker’

Jason McNamara and Tony Talbert team up to kickstart a new ‘grind house vampire adventure.’

The Rattler co-creator Jason McNamara has returned to Kickstarter with his longtime collaborator Tony Talbert for a new vampire tale called Sucker.

McNamara and Talbert have worked together on several projects in the past, including Continuity, First Moon and Less Than Hero. This time around they’re creating “a grind house vampire adventure” geared toward mature readers. John Heebink and Paul Little round out the creative team.

And we’ve got a 10-page preview you can check out below.

Continue reading “Sink your teeth into a preview of ‘Sucker’”

‘Voracious’ unleashes an ‘Appetite for Destruction’ on Kickstarter

Markisan Naso and Jason Muhr wrap up their time-travel/foodie mash-up with a new miniseries later this year.

Voracious by Markisan Naso and Jason Muhr was an unexpected surprise back in 2016, as the interesting concept — a chef travels back in time to obtain dinosaur meat for his restaurant — turned into an even more interesting story about family, love, alternate dimensions and talking dinosaurs. The first miniseries, published by Action Lab Entertainment, spawned a sequel, and now the creators are turning to Kickstarter to bring a third one to life.

“With ‘Appetite for Destruction,’ Markisan and I finally get to complete Nate and company’s story,” Muhr said in a press release. “‘Destruction’ is our craziest arc yet. Readers have no idea where it’s all heading, and I’m having a blast working on some truly insane visuals. Fair warning: there will be blood!”

Continue reading “‘Voracious’ unleashes an ‘Appetite for Destruction’ on Kickstarter”

Vertigo reveals artist line-up for Gaiman-curated ‘Sandman Universe”

Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara, Bilquis Evely, Tom Fowler and Dominike “Domo” Stanton will help bring the new line to life later this year.

DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint has revealed the artists for the four “Sandman Universe” titles they announced earlier this year. Curated by Sandman writer Neil Gaiman, the line will kick off with a one-shot that’ll set up the return of three former Vertigo titles and one new one.

The creative teams for the four titles are:

Continue reading “Vertigo reveals artist line-up for Gaiman-curated ‘Sandman Universe””

Smash Pages Q&A: A. David Lewis on ‘Kismet, Man of Fate’

The writer and comics scholar shares more about his webcomic collaboration with Noel Tuazon that brings a 1940s character into the present.

A. David Lewis is a comics scholar who’s written books like American Comics, Literary Theory and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife and co-edited many books including Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam and Representation, and Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels. Lewis is also the founder of CYRIC, Comics for Youth Refugees Incorporated Collective, which makes and distributes comics for children.

Lewis has written comics, but it wasn’t until recently that he wrote a superhero. Kismet, Man of Fate was a character originally created in 1944 as part of the wartime comic boom. An Algerian operative fighting the Nazi occupation in the original stories, Lewis along with artist Noel Tuazon (Elk’s Run, Tumor) has brought the character into the present in a series of new stories. After making some standalone short comics, the two have been serializing a new longer story. Kismet wraps up today and will be collected later this summer. I reached out to Lewis to talk about his many comics and comics-related projects.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: A. David Lewis on ‘Kismet, Man of Fate’”

Koyama Press announces new project for this fall

Coming out of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this past weekend, Koyama Press has announced seven new projects that will see publication in the fall. The line-up includes graphic novels from Michael DeForge, Keiler Roberts, Mickey Zacchilli, Patrick Kyle and Nathan Gelgud, as well as two all-ages titles by Britt Wilson and John Martz.

“Familiar and fresh faces fill out our Fall season, which is chockfull of the diverse selection of artists and stories you’ve come to expect from Koyama Press,” the publisher writes on their blog.

Here’s a rundown of what to expect …

Continue reading “Koyama Press announces new project for this fall”

Doug Wright Awards honor Jesse Jacobs, Jenn Woodhall, Sami Alwani

Editorial cartoonist Duncan Macpherson was inducted into the Giants of the North Canadian cartoonist hall of fame during TCAF weekend.

A trio of first-time winners took home trophies from the Doug Wright Awards, presented yesterday during the Toronto Comics Arts Festival.

The Doug Wright Awards honor “the best work and most promising talent in Canadian comics.” Check out the winners below:

Continue reading “Doug Wright Awards honor Jesse Jacobs, Jenn Woodhall, Sami Alwani”

Check out André Lima Araújo’s unused ‘Old Man Peter Parker’ pitch

The ‘Avengers A.I.’ and ‘Generation Gone’ artist once pitched a series where an older Spider-Man took on King Venom in the ruins of New York.

Here’s a fun “what might have been” item: On Tumblr, Generation Gone and Black Panther: Long Live the King artist André Lima Araújo shares a pitch he once created while working on Avengers A.I. “Old Man Peter Parker” would have been a story in the vein of “Old Man Logan,” showing a future Spider-Man in a setting where the villains won.

Continue reading “Check out André Lima Araújo’s unused ‘Old Man Peter Parker’ pitch”

Smash Pages Q&A: Pan S. on ‘Loving Iran, Loving Me’

The comics creator discusses her contribution to ‘Habibi,’ an anthology featuring Muslim women telling stories about love.

Habibi is a new anthology of comics and prose from Bedside Press. Edited by Hadeel al-Massari and Nyala Ali, the book collects the work of Muslim women telling stories about love.

One of those creators is Sugarpun, or Pan, as she goes by. Her contribution to the anthology “Loving Iran, Loving Me,” a beautifully drawn and beautifully designed comic. She admitted that comics are something she’s only gotten back into doing recently. Primarily an illustrator, she answered a few questions about the anthology and her own work.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Pan S. on ‘Loving Iran, Loving Me’”

IDW to publish graphic novel biography of James Brown

Xavier Fauthoux to write and draw a graphic novel about the Godfather of Soul.

IDW Publishing has announced plans for a graphic novel based on the life of the Godfather of Soul. Written and illustrated by Xavier Fauthoux, James Brown: Black and Proud will be available in stores in October.

“Tracing the life of this cultural juggernaut, Black and Proud, paints a rich portrait of a true larger-than-life American personality,” said Justin Eisinger, Editorial Director of Graphic Novels and Collections at IDW, in a press release. “Even readers more than casually familiar with Mr. Brown’s career and achievements will find plenty of new revelations and details that add a deep complexity to a celebrated cultural icon. And that’s something so powerful about the contemporary non-fiction movement in graphic storytelling.”

Continue reading “IDW to publish graphic novel biography of James Brown”

Smash Pages Q&A: Zack Soto kickstarts ‘The Secret Voice’

‘This is me pouring all my love of adventure and fantasy narratives, artcomics, manga, and eurocomics into one misshapen container.’

Zack Soto has been making and publishing comics for years. People might know him best as the Editor in Chief and Publisher of Study Group Comics, which has published great comics and minicomics from Farel Dalrymple, Aidan Koch, Sam Alden, Jennifer Parks and others. Soto was also one of the co-founders of Linework NW, the comics festival in Portland that ended in 2016.

Soto has also been making his own comics like Power Button, but perhaps his best known work is The Secret Voice. The comic is epic fantasy, but it takes the rough outline of that genre and incorporates elements of superhero and art comics, martial arts, mysticism and psychedelia. The result is both epic fantasy and part of an unclassifiable genre that is familiar to readers of Farel Dalrymple, Michel Fiffe and many other comics creators.

Soto has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish a collection of the first volume of The Secret Voice, and I reached out to ask him about the book and his work.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Zack Soto kickstarts ‘The Secret Voice’”