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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”
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’”
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”
‘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’”
New designer vinyl figures include Chris Uminga’s Flash, HaiNaNu ‘Nooligan’ Saulque’s Nightwing and Sho Murase’s Batgirl.
DC Collectibles has revealed some new additions to their “DC Artist Alley” line, which debuts in about a month.
“The DC Artists Alley line marks our entry into the designer toy market, and we couldn’t be happier with the fan and retailer reception we’ve received thus far,” stated Jim Fletcher, executive creative director of DC Collectibles. “The first wave has nearly sold out at the retailer level, and the figures haven’t even hit stores yet. We’re doubling down on this excitement by adding three new characters to the 2018 lineup.”
DC Collectibles will offer black and white variant editions of The Flash and Nightwing figures, and a vibrant green holiday variant for Murase’s Batgirl design. These new additions will be released in December. Take a look at them below:
Andersen discusses his collaboration with James Neish, which is about two queer ex-Mormons who are charged by an angel to be the Hand of God on Earth.
When Brian Andersen and James Neish set out to kickstart one issue of their comic Stripling Warrior a few years, they had no idea that not only would it be a success, but that it would strike a nerve. Some of the press and the attention has been about the very idea of a gay Mormon superhero, but Andersen uses Mormon theology and stories similarly to how Catholic teachings have become so familiar to many of us through pop culture.
The series, which has now been collected into a trade collection, is about Sam Shepard and Fe Fernandez, two queer ex-Mormons who are charged by an angel to be the Hand of God on Earth. It sounds heavily religious, but no more so than many other comics that draw from different religious traditions, but it’s a book that also embraces superhero conventions. At its heart, the book is about two conversations. One is between Sam and Fe about how they never stopped believing, the church’s hatred towards them has meant that they refuse to accept this mission as face value, even as they seek to carry out their quest. The other conversation is between their spouses, Jase and Shonda, about identity and how their sexuality is vital to who they have become, but it does not define them because they are so much more than that.
Stripling Warrior is a book unlike anything else on the stands, and I spoke with Brian Andersen about the project, making a sex positive, inclusive story, and what he’s working on now.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Brian Andersen on ‘Stripling Warrior’”
The hardcover is due out Sept. 5.
Image Comics has announced plans to publish an English-language hardcover version of Perdy, by French cartoonist Kickily.
The western graphic novel stars Perdy, a woman who “loves two things: sex and robbing banks—no particular order.” After getting out of prison, she returns to her wild ways to pursue “the biggest score of gold this side of the border. And if anyone gets in her way, they’ll be pushing up petunias.” Dargaud BD will publish the French edition of the book.
Continue reading “Image brings Kickliy’s ‘Perdy’ to America”
The webcomics creator discusses her upcoming three-issue miniseries from Titan Comics, her work process, Johnny Cash and more.
Bridgit Connell started Brother Nash as a webcomic about a trucker forced to detour through the Southwestern United States. Connell had drawn comics and covers and cards, but Brother Nash was her debut as a writer and artist. The book attracted the attention of Titan Comics, and is now a three-issue miniseries launching in June. Connell was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Bridgit Connell on ‘Brother Nash’”
Hannah Blumenreich and Nicoletta Baldari bring the Disney characters back to comics.
IDW Publishing has announced the creative team and release date for Big Hero 6, the comic based a TV show based on a movie based on a Marvel comic that they announced at New York Comic-Con last year.
Hannah Blumenreich, creator of some pretty awesome “Spidey” fan comics as well as some that were published by Marvel, will write Big Hero 6. Nicoletta Baldari, who has worked for IDW on Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, will join her on art. (Baldari is also working on another Disney property, The Incredibles, over at Dark Horse). The first issue will feature covers by Gurihiru (Gwenpool) and Sophie Campbell (Jem and the Holograms, TMNT, Wet Moon).
Continue reading “IDW announces their ‘Big Hero 6’ creative team”
‘Monstress’ and ‘My Favorite Thing Is Monsters’ receive multiple nominations.
Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for the 2018 Eisner Awards, presented annually in San Diego at the convention.
Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda and My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris each received five nominations across various categories; other comics with multiple nominations included Mister Miracle, Black Hammer, The Flintstones, Grass Kings, Eartha and Hawkeye.
Check out the complete list of nominees below.
Continue reading “Nominees for the 2018 Eisner Awards announced”
The cartoonist and animator discusses the first collection of her webcomic ‘Up and Out.’
Julia Kaye had been making comics for years – and making the webcomic Up and Out for years – before she transitioned. What had been a humor strip made in full color then became something else as Kaye used the strip to document her own life and trying to adjust to life as a woman. Her first book is Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition. The book collects six months of strips from 2016. They range from funny to absurd to heartbreaking as Kaye captures her changing life three panels at a time.
Kaye is currently working at Disney Animation and continues to draw Up and Out. With Super Late Bloomer out this week, we sat down to talk about the book, her work and how it’s changed over the years.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Julia Kaye on ‘Super Late Bloomer’”
The duo discuss the collected edition of ‘The Pervert,’ which is out this week from Image Comics.
The short-lived anthology Island featured great artists producing great work, but one of the stand outs had to be the series of stories by Remy Boydell and Michelle Perez around a young trans sex worker. Beautifully painted, powerfully raw, the stories from Island have been collected along with a number of other stories that have never been published in the new book The Pervert, which is out this week from Image Comics.
The Pervert utilizes a structure and approach that might be more familiar to prose readers accustomed to short story collections following a single character. The book isn’t interested in tackling stories and themes that are common in trans narratives. It is a story about sex work that refuses to glamorize or demonize sex workers and their work. The artistic choices and the way the book is drawn, using mostly anthropomorphized animals, forces the reader to rethink their assumptions of the characters’ gender. It also lends the story, which can be dark and ugly, a certain dreamy quality.
The book can be laugh out loud funny, but also tough to read. It is beautifully drawn, and tackles ugly topics. It is in the end heartbreaking and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since finishing it. I spoke with Remy and Michelle about the book and how they worked.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Remy Boydell and Michelle Perez”
