Category: Creators

Inktober spotlight: Victor Santos honors Jack Kirby

The ‘Violent Love’ artist dedicates Inktober to the King of Comics.

In addition to being the spookiest month, October is also Inktober, an art challenge where artists from all over the world create a different ink drawing every day of the month. While the official Inktober site provides a list of “prompts” to help inspire artists, many of them choose their own themes.

With many comic artists are participating this year — you can find a lot of them on Twitter or Tumblr using the #inktober hashtag, and we’ve been posting a bunch on our own Tumblr — we thought we’d spotlight a few of the “can’t miss” ones we’ve seen so far.

Victor Santos is the creator of Polar and the recently launched Guts webcomic, as well as the artist for the recent Violent Love miniseries. For Inktober, Santos chose to honor Jack Kirby, who would have been 100 this year.

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Inktober spotlight: Chris Samnee vacations in Gotham

The artist of ‘Captain America’ turns his pen to Batman for Inktober.

In addition to being the spookiest month, October is also Inktober, an art challenge where artists from all over the world create a different ink drawing every day of the month. While the official Inktober site provides a list of “prompts” to help inspire artists, many of them choose their own themes.

With many comic artists are participating this year — you can find a lot of them on Twitter or Tumblr using the #inktober hashtag, and we’ve been posting a bunch on our own Tumblr — we thought we’d spotlight a few of the “can’t miss” ones we’ve seen so far.

Chris Samnee can usually be found in the Marvel Universe these days, drawing Daredevil, Black Widow and very soon Captain America. But for Inktober the artist has taken a trip to Gotham, as he chose a Batman theme for the month. You can check out some of his artwork below, and be sure to follow him on Twitter to see the rest. He’s also selling them on eBay.

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Inktober spotlight: Dustin Weaver’s Twin Peaks drawings

The creator of ‘Paklis’ heads to the Black Lodge this month for Inktober.

In addition to being the spookiest month, October is also Inktober, an art challenge where artists from all over the world create a different ink drawing every day of the month. While the official Inktober site provides a list of “prompts” to help inspire artists, many of them choose their own themes.

With many comic artists are participating this year — you can find a lot of them on Twitter or Tumblr using the #inktober hashtag, and we’ve been posting a bunch on our own Tumblr — we thought we’d spotlight a few of the “can’t miss” ones we’ve seen so far.

Let’s start with Dustin Weaver, creator of Paklis and artist on books like Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.. I just binged-watched most of Twin Peaks: The Return over the weekend, and delightfully Weaver has chosen a Twin Peaks theme for Inktober. That’s some damn good coffee.

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Writer, editor and Hall of Famer Len Wein passes away

The co-creator of Swamp Thing, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Human Target and so many more characters passes away.

Len Wein, co-creator of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm and Swamp Thing, has passed away at 69, according to multiple comics industry professionals, including Paul Kupperberg.

While no cause of death has been reported, the 69-year-old Hall of Fame member has suffered from poor health over the last few years and has been in and out of the hospital for foot surgery over the last few months, according to posts on his Facebook and Twitter feeds.

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Creator of ‘Pepe’ book admits plagiarism, must donate profits to civil rights group

Publisher: “It’s unfortunate that an educator who has written a book that uplifts the virtues of truth and honesty has received such scrutiny.”

Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie has stopped the publication of an Islamophobic children’s book based on his cartoon, and as part of the settlement, the author, Eric Hauser, must donate all profits to the Muslim-American civil rights advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Pepe the Frog, lest we forget, was not designed to be a children’s character at all; the anthropomorphized amphibian was a character in Furie’s Boy’s Club comic, a laid-back slacker who smoked a lot of weed and pulled his pants all the way down to pee. The frog became an internet meme and either was picked up by the alt-right as a symbol of hate or was used by pranksters to convince a gullible media that it had been picked up by the alt-right as a symbol of hate—look, it’s a rabbit hole, OK?

Furie tried to reclaim his character by killing Pepe off and then crowdfunding a new Pepe book, but in the meantime, Eric Hauser was hard at work, making Pepe the hero of his self-published children’s book, The Adventures of Pepe and Pede.

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Artists #WakeUpAndDraw for Jack Kirby’s birthday

To celebrate the 100th birthday of the King, artists are drawing his creation to benefit the Hero Initiative.

Today would have been comic book legend Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday, and to celebrate artists from all over the world are drawing his creations — everyone from the Inhumans to Captain America to the New Gods.

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, following Kirby4Heroes, or check out our Tumblr, where I’ll be posting others I see throughout the day.

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David Petersen opens his vault in ‘The Plotmasters Project’ podcast

Petersen and his high school friends revisit the comics they made back in the day, starting with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles homage called “Cats Trio.”

Here’s something fun — Mouse Guard creator David Petersen shares a “just for fun” project he developed with two friends in high school, Jesse Glenn and Mike Davis, called “Cats Trio,” Petersen and Glenn revisit the project on their podcast “The Plotmasters Project.”

“…it was a TMNT homage where three mutated/anthropomorphic cats befriend a similar raccoon as the group discover their shared origins, survive in abandoned places away from human eyes, and avoid being hunted by another of their kind,” Petersen wrote on his blog, adding, “I also want to state, that Jesse and I have no current plans to develop Cats Trio (or any of the subjects for our series) beyond these exercises.”

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Dwayne McDuffie’s widow files lawsuit over Milestone Media

Charlotte McDuffie files a lawsuit against Reginald Hudlin, Derek Dingle and Denys Cowan, claiming they’ve cut McDuffie’s estate out of the planned Milestone revival.

Charlotte McDuffie, widow of Dwayne McDuffie, has filed a lawsuit against Reginald Hudlin, Derek Dingle and Denys Cowan, claiming McDuffie’s estate has been excluded from plans for a planned Milestone Media revival.

The suit, filed in L.A. Superior Court on Monday, claims that after Dwayne McDuffie passed away in 2011, “two of his former business partners thereafter conspired with a third person to obstruct McDuffie’s widow from accessing financial information about the business, and then cut out McDuffie’s estate from Milestone Media’s revival.” You can read the complaint in full here or find it embedded below.

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Ferrier & Langridge’s ‘Criminy’ doesn’t have a publisher (yet)

The ‘D4VE’ writer shares pages of “a dream project” that still needs a home.

Ryan Ferrier, writer of D4VE and Kennel Block Blues, shares on social media that he’s been working with Roger Langridge (Iron Duchess, The Muppets) on something new — something so new, in fact, that it doesn’t have a publisher yet.

“Criminy! Roger Langridge & I have been working on a dream project (still needs a home),” Ferrier said on Tumblr. “Can’t help show off his stunning pages. I love this book, and working with Roger has been an absolute ‘pinch me’ experience.”

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Indy comics icon, Marvel Comics legend “Fabulous” Flo Steinberg passed away

Best known as one of Marvel’s original bullpen members and an independent comics pioneer, Flo Steinberg has passed away Sunday morning. According to Larry Hama, who reported her death on his Facebook page.

I am grieved to report that ‘Fabulous’ Flo Steinberg passed away this morning after complications from a brain aneurism and metastatic lung cancer. She will be interred at the Jewish cemetery in Kerhonkson NY. We are making plans for a memorial in September or October. I will update on this page.

“Fabulous” Flo Steinberg, art by Jack Kirby

Steinberg’s career in comics began in the 1960s as Marvel’s only employee besides Stan Lee. She was the company’s first receptionist, answered letters, managed the Merry Marvel Merry Marvel Marching Society, and making sure the company ran smoothly. She is considered one of the key people in growing Marvel into one of “the big two” in comic book publishing. And many times, she has been featured in comics along with the Marvel Bullpen as herself.

She eventually left Marvel. After a short break from the comics industry, she returned to New York City to help run Captain Company, the mail-order division of the horror-comics magazine firm, Warren Publishing.

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Ed Piskor to compile Uncanny X-Men #1-280 into one ‘Grand’ story

‘X-Men: Grand Design’ will retell the classic comics into retro-stylized six-issue miniseries.

During the “Marvel: The Next Big Thing” panel at San Diego Comic Con, the publishing giant announced a unique way to present classic comic stories to modern audiences. X-Men: Grand Design will retell the first 280 issues of The Uncanny X-Men into a stunningly compact six 40-page issue miniseries.

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Jeff Smith’s ‘Smiley’s Dream Book’ picture book coming next summer [Updated]

New project with Scholastic/Graphix features Fone Bone’s buddy.

Earlier this week Bone creator Jeff Smith teased on social media that his next project would be announced at Comic-Con this week, and lo and behold, here it is:

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