Plugged In: Comics Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry

Plugged In: Comics Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry cover

Review by KC Carlson

Plugged In: Comics Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry is exactly what it says it is. Writer Keith Veronese has interviewed almost two dozen comic book artists and writers about their experiences working on video games. They cover the gamut of video game history, going way back to Elliott S! Maggin freelancing at Atari in the early 80s, as well as Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway working on Atari Force and Swordquest in conjunction with both Atari and DC.

Plugged In: Comics Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry cover

There are some big names interviewed here, including Chris Bachalo, Mike Deodato, Jimmy Palmiotti, Rick Remender, Zander Cannon, Marv Wolfman, and Carl Potts. More surprising to me was Beau Smith’s involvement in the world of video games, proving that you don’t have to be able to play ‘em to work on ‘em. Apparently, comics’ “Real Man” is a fumblebunny with a video controller, as he reveals here.

Another of my other longtime cronies is also represented. Jeff Moy, longtime penciler on Legionnaires, has been working on and off in the video game business. He was first at Raven Software (with his inking partner Cory Carani, who’s still at Raven and now in management there — but unfortunately is not interviewed for this book), and he’s currently at Human Head, where he’s been about a year as a concept artist, working on outsourced work from Trion Worlds on their Defiance MMORPG shooter and helping Human Head develop new exciting projects!

Plugged In: Comics Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry is a profusely illustrated 128-page B&W trade paperback. (The publisher provided a review copy.)



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