Barbiere and Santos aim for the heart with “Violent Love”

The creators of “Five Ghosts” and “Polar” team up for the tale of two notorious bank robbers who fall in love.

I named an island in my D&D campaign after Frank J. Barbiere. I was creating it around the time that his Five Ghosts series, with artist Chris Mooneyham, hit the high seas for a storyline, and since the island had pirates on it, “Barbiere” made a fun name and actually fit really well. Now I’m thinking I need to add a town on it called “Santos” run by two thieves who fell for each other.

Why, you ask? (Or even if you didn’t, because you aren’t one of the three other people in the universe who cares about my D&D adventures …) Because Frank J. Barbiere and Victor Santos (Polar) are teaming up for a brand-new comic, Violent Love. The main characters, Daisy Jane and Rock Bradley, are two of the most notorious bank robbers in the American Southwest — and then they fell in love.

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Interview | 5 Minutes with Emi Gennis

The creator talks about her SPX debut from last year, “Baseline Boulevard,” and more in an interview from last year’s show.

Emi Gennis does short comics on fascinating topics, usually quirky stories from history. I first discovered her work when I picked up her minicomic on trepanation (warning: includes graphic images of people drilling holes in their skulls) at TCAF last year. Her other work includes The Radium Girls, about women who were exposed to radium while working in a watch factory in the 1930s; and Franz Reichelt: The Flying Tailor, the story of a man who invented a parachute suit and died testing it on himself. The latter is one of Gennis’s comic adaptations of stories from Wikipedia’s list of unusual deaths.

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Artists #WakeUpAndDraw for Jack Kirby’s birthday

To celebrate the 99th birthday of the King, artists are drawing his creation to benefit the Hero Initiative.

Today would have been comic book legend Jack Kirby’s 99th birthday, and to celebrate artists from all over the world are waking up to draw various Kirby creations — everyone from the Thing to OMAC to Fin Fang Foom. Many of the drawings are also being auctioned off to benefit the Hero Initiative.

Here are a few of them … you can find more by following the #WakeUpAndDraw hashtag on Twitter and other social media, or check out our Tumblr, where I’ll be posting others I see throughout the day.

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Remember that time when Stephen King wrote a Batman story?

“Batman and Robin Have an Altercation” offers a different take on the Dark Knight.

NPR’s new Too Hot for Radio podcast does, and they enlisted Avatar actor Stephen Lang to read it in their first episode.

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‘The Sandman: Overture’ wins the Hugo for best graphic story

Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III’s “Sandman” prequel takes home another award.

Neil Gaiman’s return to the world of Sandman brought the author another Hugo Award, as The Sandman: Overture, his collaboration with artist J.H. Williams III, won in the “Best Graphic Story” category.

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Ignatz Awards nominees announced

Daniel Clowes, Kevin Huizenga, Jason Shiga, Kate Beaton and many others vie for this year’s awards.

The nominees for the 2016 Ignatz Awards have been announced by the Small Press Expo. Named after the brick-throwing mouse from Krazy Kat, the awards are selected by a jury of five creators and voted on by attendees of the show.

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‘C’ is for ‘chokeslam’

Botched Spot creator James Hornsby introduces a line of illustrations on the ABCs of finishing moves.

If you’re a fan of pro wrestling, you may already be aware of James Hornsby‘s wonderful Botched Spot webcomic (and if not, go check it out!). When he isn’t commenting on the current state of professional wrestling, he’s pursuing the noble cause of teaching the ABCs of reading … by tying each letter to a signature finishing move.

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Quoted: Jeff Lemire on his work process, what makes him happy

The writer of Black Hammer, Bloodshot, Thanos and many other titles provides a look into how he gets all his work done — and why he loves it.

Jeff Lemire, writer of Black Hammer, Old Man Logan, Bloodshot, Descender and many, many, MANY other projects, in a long process post where he talks about how he balances his time. It’s impressive and a bit humbling to hear how far ahead he is with all the titles he writes.

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Interview | Sophia Foster-Dimino

Multiple Ignatz Award winner Sophia Foster-Dimino says Small Press Expo is “like a summer camp for cartoonists.”

With Small Press Expo just over a month away, I thought it would be a good time to post this interview, which was done at last year’s SPX.

Sophia Foster-Dimino

Sophia Foster-Dimino was one-third of the reason that women creators swept the 2015 Ignatz Awards: She won three out of the nine awards, taking the Outstanding Series award for Sex Fantasy, Outstanding Minicomic for Sex Fantasy #4, and the Promising New Talent Award. I spoke to her on the exhibit floor the day after the Harveys.

Can you tell us a bit about Sex Fantasy?

Sex Fantasy is a series that I have been doing for about two years now. They are small format zines, 4 x 4 inches. The first three were kind of like a stream of consciousness explanation of different ideas, and then the next three, 4 through 6, have been more structured narratives. I’m trying to explore things in this series that I wouldn’t want to tackle in a larger book. Like kind of a safer space to play around with new ideas in a small format.

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Check out this preview of Paul Buhle and Noah Van Sciver’s ‘Johnny Appleseed’

Paul Buhle and Noah Van Sciver explore the historical John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, in a new graphic novel due out this fall.

The popular image of Johnny Appleseed is a sort of crazy guy who promoted healthy eating by planting apple trees and went around with a pot on his head. But there’s a lot more to him than that, and this fall (just in time for apple season!), Alternative Press will be publishing Paul Buhle and Noah Van Sciver’s Johnny Appleseed.

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The kids aren’t all right in Roberts and Robertson’s ‘Harbinger Renegades’

I’m a big fan of Valiant’s Faith and Archer & Armstrong titles at the moment, so I’m pretty excited to see that November brings the return of Harbinger in Harbinger Renegades by A&A writer Rafer Roberts and artist Darick Robertson.

Roberts (with artist David Lafuente) has told some really fun A&A stories thus far, and now he’s teaming up with the artist of such classics as Transmetropolitan and The Boys. I’ve missed seeing his art on a regular basis, so November can’t get here soon enough. It’s part of the bigger “Future of Valiant” wave of titles, which also included last month’s launch of a Faith ongoing series, plus the upcoming Generation Zero, Britannia, Bloodshot U.S.A. and Savage.

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Believe the hype: These Public Enemy figures are awesome

Based on designs by Ed Piskor, the set includes Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff and Terminator X.

One of the coolest pieces of merch I saw coming out of San Diego this year (besides that Flex Mentallo towel) was this box set of Public Enemy action figures based on designs by Hip Hop Family Tree creator Ed Piskor. I was afraid they might be an SDCC exclusive, but they are available to the rest of the world as well.

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