Tag: music

Comics Lowdown: Alex Ross’ ‘DayGlo’ Fantastic Four pitch

Plus: Bill Jemas, Liza Donnelly and an IKEA comic!

Artist Alex Ross pitched Marvel on taking over the Fantastic Four last year, and you can find his pitch inside Marvelocity, a coffee-table book that highlights the artist’s Marvel work. The 13th Dimension reviews the book and shares several pages from the 2017 pitch. “It just goes to show you that even the biggest talents in comics don’t always get what they want – and what Ross wanted was an eye-popping comic that echoed the DayGlo ’60s while offering something fresh,” reviewer Dan Greenfield writes.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Carol Tyler’s ‘Fab4Mania’

The creator of ‘Soldier’s Heart’ discusses her latest graphic novel from Fantagraphics, which looks back at her own experiences with Beatlemania.

Carol Tyler has for many years been one of our great cartoonists. Her book Soldier’s Heart is quite simply one of the great comics of the 21st Century. After spending a decade tracing her family history and examining postwar culture, mental illness and many other issues, Tyler wanted to make something lighter.

Her new book Fab4Mania began more than 50 years ago, when Tyler became a Beatles fan. She was a fanatic, attended their 1965 concert at Comisky Park in Chicago, and in the months leading up to the anniversary of the concert, she crafted a blog about her life as a 13-year-old and life leading up to the concert. In what should be no surprise, she managed to capture that young voice in a truly striking way. We spoke recently about the book, about how she began to make sculpture and thinking like an engineer.

This weekend Tyler is a special guest at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, and on Friday afternoon she will give a talk about her work at the Library of Congress.

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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.”

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Archie & friends rock out in ‘The Archies’ #1 [Preview]

Archie, Jughead and the rest of the band hit the road to rock your socks off — and meet other bands.

After a series of successful music-oriented one-shots, Alex Segura and Matt Rosenberg have teamed up with Joe Eisma and Matt Herms for The Archies, an ongoing series featuring Archie Andrews and friends as musicians.

The series will show what happens when Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, and Reggie leave Riverdale as they begin their first tour across the country, where they’ll meet other bands along the way — like CHVRCHES, who will appear in the second issue.

Solicitation text, a preview and cover art for the first issue can be found below.

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Comics Lowdown: RIP Alfonso Azpiri

Also: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Gabe Soria, comics for Costa Rican kids, Shigeru Mizuki, ComiXology, Rocket and Groot prints

Passings: Spanish artist Alfonso Azpiri, a frequent contributor to Heavy Metal magazine, died on August 18 at the age of 70. (The headline of the linked article gives an incorrect birth year.) From the obit:

Azpiri’s most famous creation was Lorna, a sexually insatiable space adventurer (often compared to Barbarella), accompanied on her travels around the galaxy by a pair of artoo-threepio-ish robots named ADL and Arnold. Azpiri will also be remembered for Mot, a more family-friendly series about a boy who has adventures with his huge monster companion.

His work was first published in Heavy Metal in 1984, and three issues of the magazine were devoted almost entirely to Lorna stories.

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Alternative rockers Me Like Bees creating soundtrack for Image’s ‘The Realm’

Each issue of the apocalyptic fantasy series by Seth Peck and Jeremy Haun will coincide with a new single by the band.

When The Realm by writer Seth Peck and artist Jeremy Haun kicks off next month, the series will be accompanied by its own soundtrack, courtesy of the band Me Like Bees.

“Musicians are such natural storytellers,” Haun told Alternative Press. “I’ve always had an obsession with concept albums. You’d have Bowie or Nick Cave or Johnny Cash telling these stories across an album. They were brilliant. Always sparked my imagination. I was as inspired by that as any movie, book or comic story.”

Each issue will coincide with the release of a new single from Me Like Bees, eventually resulting in a new EP from the band. The first single, “The River Divides” is already out and serves as a theme song for the entire series. Check out the video below:

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Young Animal books to cross over with DC Universe

Doom Patrol to meet the Justice League in January, courtesy of Gerard Way, Steve Orlando and ACO.

At Comic-Con International today, Gerard Way, curator of the Young Animal line at DC Comics, announced that Doom Patrol, Shade the Changing Girl, Mother Panic and Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye will cross over into the DC Universe, starting with the Doom Patrol meeting Justice League of America.

The first of the four-part crossover, Doom Patrol Special arrives in January after the line takes a brief hiatus that starts in October. This issue will be co-written by Way and Steve Orlando, with art by ACO and cover art by Frank Quitely. It’ll also feature Milkman Man:

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Heavy Metal to turn Nikki Sixx’s ‘The Heroin Diaries’ into a graphic novel

Rantz Hoseley, Danijel Zezelj, Andy Kuhn and Kieron Dwyer will adapt the Motley Crue bassist’s memoir into comic form.

Nikki Sixx and Ian Gittins’s The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star is set to become a graphic novel, courtesy of Heavy Metal.

Blabbermouth reports that The Heroin Diaries graphic novel “will be the first release under Heavy Metal’s new 12 X 12 imprint, a new line of music-themed art books and graphic novels that will explore the songs and experiences of the most exciting musical artists.”

“I’ve been the biggest fan of MÖTLEY CRÜE since the release of ‘Too Fast for Love’, and have nothing but the greatest respect for Nikki and his songwriting, so for us to be able to collaborate with him on bringing this tragedy-to-triumph to a new audience in a powerful way is a dream come true,” said Jeff Krelitz, CEO of Heavy Metal.

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Valiant’s Shadowman meets Rae Sremmurd in new crossover

Eliot Rahal and Renato Guedes reveal what happens when the hip-hop artists meet the supernatural guardian.

Remember way back in 1993 when Aerosmith guest-starred in an issue of Shadowman? I think he helped prevent Steve Tyler’s soul from being stolen or something. In that tradition, Valiant has announced another comic/music crossover, as Shadowman prepares to meet the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd.

“Comic books are a form of entertainment. I get to make all the sounds and effects in my head. It’s just like you use your imagination – you go through the pictures and the pictures are always awesome. It’s like an escape from reality,” said Rae Sremmurd’s Slim Jxmmi. “Valiant – they have really good storylines. The art is always on point. I never know what to expect. X-O Manowar is one of my favorites. The Delinquents is cool. Bloodshot is fucking awesome. I love Valiant.”

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Extended engagement: Archie launches ongoing ‘The Archies’ series

Alex Segura, Matt Rosenberg and Joe Eisma send The Archies on tour, where they’ll meet more real-life bands.

After meeting Kiss and the Ramones, not to mention getting their own one-shot, The Archies will hit the road in a new ongoing series by Alex Segura, Matt Rosenberg and Joe Eisma.

The series will show what happens when Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, and Reggie leave Riverdale as they begin their first tour across the country, where they’ll meet other bands along the way.

“When we jammed on The Archies One-Shot, it was always in the hopes of having the book become an ongoing, so it was great to see the positive response that made it possible,” Segura, who also serves as Senior Vice President of Publicity and Marketing for Archie Comics, said in a press release. “Adding real bands in the mix gives the series a must-read twist and opens the door for Matt, Joe and I to get our favorite bands into Riverdale.”

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Live Through This: ‘Royal City’ homages ’90s alternative album covers

Jeff Lemire recruits Jeffrey Brown, Emi Lenox, Nate Powell and more to pay tribute to album covers by Weezer, Hole and more.

The second story arc for Jeff Lemire’s excellent Royal City will take the Pike family back to the early 1990s, and to help set the mood, Lemire has enlisted a bunch of great artists to draw music album tribute covers.

“This new arc takes a major shift as the story jumps back to the year 1993 and we follow the last week in the life of Tommy Pike!” Lemire wrote on his blog. “Meet the Pike siblings when they were all just teenagers in the 90’s and the tragedy that will come to haunt their family is still in the future.”

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Valiant hits the road with the Vans Warped Tour

The comics publisher will set up a booth at select stops, where attendees can buy merchandise and get a free comic.

This summer Valiant Entertainment is joining American Authors, Goldfinger, The Ataris, The Dickies, Bowling for Soup, Gwar, Eternal Boy and a host of other bands for the Vans Warped Tour, which kicks off June 16 in Seattle. In addition to using Valiant’s characters in its promotional pieces and merchandise (and its website) as part of its “super hero” theme, the Warped Tour will also include a Valiant Entertainment booth at several of its stops. And with the booth come merchandise and free comics.

Via press release, Valiant shared a look at the merch they’ll have at the show, including T-shirts, bandanas and stickers featuring their characters. In addition, they’ll offer an as-yet-unrevealed free comic for attendees, which will debut at the tour stops.

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