The Comics Super Blog!
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.
Continue reading “Quoted: Jeff Lemire on his work process, what makes him happy”
Klein remembers his “creative inspiration as a letterer” and friend, who passed away Aug. 4.
“When I started working at DC in 1977 I was blown away seeing and working with Gaspar’s lettering in person, such as the examples above. I learned a lot from the work of other letterers, but Gaspar was the one who constantly impressed me. At that time, Gaspar would come into the DC offices once a week to turn in work and pick up new assignments. He was doing lots of cover lettering and quite a bit of story page lettering regularly, and logo designs from time to time. Gaspar was always smiling and friendly, with a hearty laugh. Traces of Brooklyn remained in his voice, and he talked and joked with everyone. He was friendly and polite, a gentleman. I got to know him, and liked the person as much as the work. When he would sit down to do corrections or last minute cover lettering in the production room, I would sneak glances to see how he was doing what he did. I never actually asked him to show me how to do anything, but I absorbed what I could from those brief looks and the work itself. Gaspar was testy at times about the fact that so many letterers tried to copy his work, but he needn’t have worried. We could never copy his innate brilliance and talent.”
—Letterer Todd Klein on Gaspar Saladino, his “creative inspiration as a letterer” and friend, who passed away on Aug. 4 at the age of 88. Klein shares a thorough obituary and tribute to his friend on his site that covers a lot of comic history as well.
The award-winning creator shares two comics inspired by the Duffer Brothers’ hit Netflix series.
If you’re a fan of the Duffer Brothers’ hit Netflix series Stranger Things, then you’ll probably appreciate these two fan comics that award-winning comics creator Sonny Liew (Dr. Fate, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye) created.
Continue reading “Check out Sonny Liew’s ‘Stranger Things’ fan comics”
Klein worked with legendary paperback and movie poster artist Robert McGinnis to create a new cover for Neil Gaiman’s book, the first of many from the Gaiman library.
With the American Gods TV show getting a lot of attention right now, demand for Neil Gaiman’s original novel about old gods facing new gods has skyrocketed. Luckily, Gaiman and his publisher were already discussing a new paperback printing of the book — one featuring a cover by Robert McGinnis.
Continue reading “Check out Todd Klein’s process for creating a retro ‘American Gods’ cover”
At Comic-Con International, the former My Chemical Romance singer showed new artwork for “Shade The Changing Girl” and “Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye,” and news of a pretty stellar back-up coming to Carson’s title.
DC Comics and singer/Umbrella Academy write Gerard Way plan to make the DC universe weird again with the Young Animal imprint. Way, along with writers like Cecil Castellucci and Jon Rivera, will put their own unique spin on several DC mainstays, including the Doom Patrol, Shade, Cave Carson and even Gotham in the new line of comics.
Continue reading “DC, Gerard Way share more details on the ‘Young Animal’ line”
New edition collects comics featuring by Inhumans and the first appearance of Franklin Richards, as created by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott.
Legendary comics creator Jack Kirby would have turned 100 next year, and to help celebrate the occasion IDW Publishing will release Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four Artist’s Edition in January.
The art director of “Teen Titans GO!” has two years’ worth of pop culture images he’s selling on his Big Cartel site.
If you’ve followed artist Dan Hipp (“Amazing Joy Buzzards,” Cartoon Network’s “Teen Titans GO!”) on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr over the past couple years, you know he’s an artistic machine, cranking out a seemingly endless numbers of pop culture inspired drawings that make you laugh, cry, think or just smile. And this week he’s finally decided to start selling some of them.
“I’ll post several pieces each day, all week. Yes, that includes the covers, the mashups, the small card size illustrations, and probably the one that made you cry tears of nerd majesty,” Hipp wrote on Facebook.
If you’re interested, you’ll need to act fast; based on the number of likes and retweets his illustrations get, these will be hotter than a Mondo art print or finding Articuno. Visit his Big Cartel page early and often all week; today’s pieces are already almost gone. Here are a few you missed out on:
The “Justice League International” and “Hero Squared” co-writer talks about his co-writer.
It’s the late 80’s. We’re standing in the halls of DC Comics on a Friday afternoon. Keith is telling me his idea for a new story: the secret origin of one of our most ridiculous characters, the brain-dead Green Lantern named G’nort. Keith spends five or ten minutes spinning the entire tale, in detail. You can see he’s excited. He likes this wonderfully goofy story and he wants to do it—just the way he’s envisioned it.
The problem is, I don’t like it. And I tell him that I don’t.
Does Keith get angry? Does he tell me I’m a talentless jackass who has no right passing judgment on his incandescent genius? No. He just looks at me for a second, takes a breath, shrugs—and then launches into an entirely new origin of G’nort, which he’s creating on the spot. And it’s perfect. I can’t think of many people who could switch creative gears like that, but Keith has more raw creativity than just about anyone I’ve ever known: a tsunami of stories and characters and odd, brilliant notions.
—Writer J.M. DeMatteis on his frequent collaborator Keith Giffen.
Vertigo editor Jamie S. Rich and artist Benjamin Dewey interview Joelle Jones, Jeff Parker and more in the returning interview series.
Vertigo Editor and comics writer Jamie S. Rich is heading back to the studio for another round of in-depth interviews with comic industry folks. “Back to the Gutters,” a follow-up to the original “From the Gutters” series, will feature both Rich and Autumnlands artist Benjamin Dewey, interviewing creators like Jeff Parker, Joelle Jones and more. The series is produced by Ryan McCluskey.
“Our intent with ‘Back the Gutters’ is to peel back the page a bit and show you the creators behind your favorite comics — both as artists and as people,” Rich said in a press release. “We’re going to dig down to uncover the motivations behind choosing comics as a profession, and the personalities that bring these stories to life, so that we can start to see the art and the artist as a singular unit.”
Rich’s hire mid-shoot as an editor at Vertigo required the team to recruit a new host mid-stream. “We started out interviewing Ben, who is just a terrific talent,” McCluskey said, “and the last three shows are hosted by Ben — because we lost Jamie to Vertigo in the middle of shooting.”
Here’s a list of who you can expect to see:
• Joelle Jones
• Sierra Hahn
• Jeff Parker
• Ibrahim Moustafa
• Robbi Rodriguez
• Randy Bowen (Bowen Designs)
• Emi Lennox
• Steve Lieber
• and Jamie S Rich … interviewed by his frequent collaborator Joelle Jones.
Watch the trailer below.
Get a print of the cover to ‘Incomplete Works,’ his next collection due out in April.
Following quickly on the heels of the January release of Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen, Hicksville creator Dylan Horrocks’ next work will be Incomplete Works. In conjunction, Horrocks is offering a print of the cover for $70 over on his website. Here’s the volume’s cover:
It’s due out in April from Alternative Press. In addition, Horrocks is offering original art from both Magic Pen and his classic graphic novel Hicksville on his website.
The award-winning letterer celebrates his birthday by discussing how he got his first job at DC Comics.
In grade school, a vocational test decided I should become a forest ranger. I thought that sounded okay, I loved the outdoors. In grade school I did well in math and science, but less well in high school with more competition. I didn’t head in the Art direction until senior year when I finally realized art class was my favorite, and had been all four years. I went to art school for two years, then ran out of money and had to get a mundane job to support myself. I worked at several paperwork jobs, and at one was able to use some of my art training to design air conditioner user manuals.
–Letterer Todd Klein, who turned 65 last week, explains on his blog how he broke into comics when DC Comics offered him a two-week stint filling in for a vacationing production artist. He says Vince Colletta “must have seen something in those air conditioner manual paste-ups.” Also, happy belated birthday to Todd Klein!
The Sandman and Batwoman artist says if he had never discovered Micronauts, “I seriously doubt I’d be working in comics at all.”
I’ve cited in many interviews and general conversations just how this series impacted my childhood, I grew up a bit with those comics, and read them for as long as they were published. But ultimately what hooked my loyalty was the very beginning of their adventures, created by masters Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden. They were so very smart. If I had never come across their work on Micronauts I seriously doubt I’d be working in comics at all. Their brilliance on the title forever changed my direction, much to the dismay of many of the adults in my young life. However, along the way, I proved I was right. That deep down, from that very long ago discovery of the work on the series, I knew then that I was meant to do what I do now. And so when IDW announced they had garnered publishing rights for a new Micronauts series, and Rom as well (another very influential series), I had to reach out to them to see how I could be involved, even if only a little. To make an inner child’s dream come true.
–Artist J.H. Williams III, paying tribute to the creators of Marvel’s long-running Micronauts series from the late 1970s/early 1980s. Williams will do “a run of covers” for the new Micronauts series by Cullen Bunn and David Baldeón that kicks off in April from IDW Publishing.
