Archive for May, 2005
Video Games + Comics = Gamics
What happens when a guy grabs screen caps of video games, arranges them like sequential art, and adds his own captions and word balloons to them?
Death and taxes (and comics)
Rich Johnston’s Lying in the Gutters column is back, but this time as “legitimate” investigative journalism, as opposed to a straight-up rumor colum. This week’s column cover the sticky issue of taxes and freelancers. Included is this interesting annecdote from Neil Gaiman:
“Neil Gaiman had a similar story. “Well, when I moved to the US I found myself paying taxes to both the UK and the US governments (because of the way they stagger payments). And then I got a note from my new accountant in the US letting me know that he’d slightly miscalculated and could I send a cheque for $50,000 to the IRS NOW. THIS MINUTE. Which I couldn’t.“Now, the day before I’d talked to someone from Tekno comics, asking me to come aboard and create some comics for them. I’d asked them to send me something on paper — expecting a draft contract. That afternoon, sunk in ‘where the hell am I going to get $50,000, I’ve given all the money I had to the UK and the US tax authorities already, and spent the rest on moving across the Atlantic’ gloom, a fedex envelope arrived. I opened it. It contained a cheque for $50,000 from Tekno Comics.
“I decided that something was probably trying to tell me something, and went downstairs and made up Mr Hero.”
My webcomic starts this week
Well, tomorrow marks the official debut of my new webcomic project, titled Lifelike. But for you faithful blog readers, here’s an early look at the very first strip, with art by the uber-talented Tom Williams:
Lifelike, every Wednesday on MoviePoopShoot.com
If any of you happen to click my link-
I’ve put up a beta version of my comics site. Some pages are up, some aren’t. Mainly I put it up to trouble shoot some stuff. The reconstruction will probably take me a month. The madlinx page is probably the most finished (along with the front pages) Enjoy.
What makes for a great iconic character?
Couple of interesting posts on the Howling Curmudgeons blog that you writers might be interested in:
Talking about “what makes for a really good character?” with more interesting insights in the comments section, especially this question posed by a reader:
“Have any truly popular, long-lasting, and original comics characters been created since the early 70s?”
To which there are several replies, ranging frm Venom and Spawn to this comment:
“Cerebus and his cast of characters were fairly long-lasting. John Constantine has done fairly well with a variety of writers and artists.
Judge Dredd is a classic character, and he was created in 77. Not huge in the States, true, but he has two magazines over here and at one point was appearing in 2000AD, Judge Dredd The Megazine, Dredd Rules (or something of a similar title, aimed at younger kids) and The Complete Judge Dredd every month, as well as crossovers with other titles (primarily ones Alan Grant wrote like Lobo and Batman) and a film. I think he counts.”
And a follow up to that post, in which the writer discusses his criteria for what makes for a “truly iconic shared universe superhero character.”
“The other sense in which I mean “iconic” makes me uncomfortable because it’s fuzzy (and therefore subjective), but I feel it’s important as well, and that’s…mojo. Somehow the character has a certain conceptual and visual gestalt that simply makes the character cool in a way that most people will feel and even those who don’t will recognize. I suppose one way to look at “mojo” as I present it here is that the character can easily be translated or tweaked to make him or her suddenly appealing to people who otherwise didn’t like or don’t care about the character.”
Alan Moore, blast from the past
Since he’s been in the news lately, I figured this would be a good time to post a link to a lengthy interview he did several years ago with Engine Comics. As always, fascinating stuff from the man himself. Here’s a little snippet, on advice to new writers:
“The first thing is: think about what you are doing, think about every aspect of it. Bryan Eno was somebody whose thinking really influenced me when I was starting out. Now he was a musician and I was moving into comics, but his thinking was generalised enough that it applied to a whole variety of fields. One of the things that he said was that some creative people seem to be governed by a kind of superstitious fear about examining their own creative processes – its almost like riding a bicycle, where if they stop to think about how they’re doing it, they’ll fall off.Whereas my attitude is, if you’re going to be making your living out of this stuff, it’s like if you’re making your living as a driver, you’d at least want to know what happens if the car grinds to a halt, what all that stuff under the hood actually does and is…actually understand your own creative process…think about everything…think about what you’re doing.
If you’re talking about comics writing, then many of the same things apply as with writing in general, but there is a whole couple of other layers to the possibilities because you’ve got an image track as well, and a kind of ‘over grammar’, as I think I once heard it described as, where you’ve got the interaction, neither words nor pictures but the interaction of both of them.”
Verdict of the Sith
I think the best indicator of the quality of “Revenge of the Sith” is the fact that our thread on it has only 16 responses. Half of them aren’t really about the movie. The SeanMcKeever.com thread has about 10 responses. The movie has inspired neither passionate denunciation nor spirited defense.
The return of Saint Germaine
Andy, take note: Desperado Publishing is re-releasing the original Saint Germaine series as a TPB through Image Comics.
“Saint Germaine, the critically acclaimed series originally from Caliber Comics will be released in a 168 page trade paperback, SAINT GERMAINE: SHADOWS FALL. It will collect the first four issues of the series in addition to the one-shot, Restoration.”
I believe the issues that you did the artwork on were later in the series, correct? If so, you may want to contact Joe Pruett, as those may be republished as well.
“In addition to the Shadows Fall collection, Saint Germaine had an additional 6 issues published, many of which were one shot stories dealing with Casanova, The Man in the Iron Mask, and the Sioux Ghost Dance. Reed said that if the Shadows Fall trade is received well, plans are to collect the rest of the Saint Germaine stories.”
And the saintgermaine.net promo site has this under the Online Bonus section:
“COMING SOON! TWO SHORT STORIES (reprinted from various sources) WRITTEN BY GARY REED, ART BY ANDY BENNETT”
Bamf! The Fragrance
Alan Cumming, who played the delightful elf Nightcrawler in the X-Men movies, has his own fragrance line. Here’s what his Web site has to say about Cumming: The Fragrance:
“A new look at the classic world of men’s fragrance: combining three distinct talents to bring you a scent that is all about Sex, Scotch, Cigars and Scotland.
A sexy, fun and mischievous fragrance with top notes of: Bergamot, Black Pepper, Scotch Pine, Whiskey. Core notes of: Cigar, Heather, Douglas Fir, Rubber. Base notes of: Leather, Highland Mud, Peat Fire & White Truffle.”
If that sounds wunderbar to you, click on over to: http://www.cummingthefragrance.com/
LOEG to Top Shelf
Wow, the news about Alan Moore leaving DC and taking the next volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to Top Shelf has even made it to boinbboing:
“This came to a head when Alan Moore was sued as part of a suit against 20th Century Fox for plagiarism of the screenplay “Cast Of Characters” which bore heavy resemblance to the movie version of “The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen” starring Sean Connery…
“They seemed to believe that the head of 20th Century Fox called me up and persuaded me to steal this screenplay, turning it into a comic book which they could then adapt back into a movie, to camouflage petty larceny.” This led to Moore giving a ten-hour deposition – he believes he’d have suffered less if he’d “sodomised and murdered a busload of children after giving them heroin.”
The entertainment value of Rob Liefeld
It’s not his artistic skills, or writing skills, or lack thereof…it’s what other people are inspired to say about him. Read this funny-ass review of his old Supreme #1 comic, over at Chaos Monkey:
“Youngblood takes him in, I guess. One of them says “whoa there, guy, sorry for whuppin’ up on ya, but can we take you in for scans, please?” I mean, at some point the government guys are scanning him and everything is “off the charts” or off the hook” or “in the heezy for sheezy,” or something. And one science lackey says something that may account for Rob’s erratic art, at least as far as Supreme is concerned: “His height, weight, and mass seem to be in a constant state of multi-level fluxuation.” That’s right, ‘fluxuation.’ I hereby proclaim all interpanel changes of character designs and anatomy in the art of Rob Liefeld to be known from this day forward as ‘fluxuation.’”
Small press shout out
Well, it finally happened. I got tired of waiting for Mr. Kish to make good on his promise to write a little something here about his brand spankin’ new website. So instead, I’ll do the honors.
Kids, do yourselves a favor and drop on by www.spudd64.com to check out Matt Kish’s nicely designed website. You’ll find all sorts of mouth watering Kish art, including full color illustrations, as well as other goodies like Holga photography. Oh, and while you’re there, be sure to pick up the first 3 issues of Matt’s awesome comic, Spudd 64.
Local comic creator profiled
Local mini-comics creator Phonzie Davis is interviewed in this week’s Columbus Alive.
“What were some of your influences?All the Marvel comics drawn by Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man. The more modern stuff—I like Dan Clowes, who drew Eightball and Ghost World. I like Frank Miller’s Sin City; the movie’s excellent and he’s a genius. I like R. Crumb. I’ve always been drawn to people’s art that I could identify just by looking at it, or who had their own specific style.”
Bande Dessinee
Over at Ninth Art, “British artist Roger Mason offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of his experiences of trying to break in to the French comic industry.”
“One can’t go skimping on backgrounds either, because they don’t go for Eisner-esque page layouts and fiendishly clever cartoon devices. One editor thought it unnecessary that some of my figures stray outside the panel border. Splash pages are uncommon, and most pages will have upwards of eight panels on each, prompting many BD artists to work on A2.”