Roadways

When I first got into indy comics and fandom, almost twenty years ago now, I hung out on the CompuServe Comics/Animation forum, where I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Lieber, Ted Slampyak, Jeffrey Lang, and Nat Gertler (among many others). That team is the group behind a comic called Roadways, now reprinted in collected form.

Roadways was first published in 1994 by Cult Press. The four-issue miniseries was written by Lang, drawn by Slampyak (Jazz Age Chronicles, Little Orphan Annie), inked by Lieber (Whiteout, Underground) and later, John Drury. It’s the story of a physics professor whose assistant goes missing. When he tries to find her, he winds up in another world, one where a river called the Road flows through the realities.

It’s a classic science-fiction adventure in the style of Heinlein or Burroughs, where an intelligent man finds out just what he’s capable of by being thrown into a world of tribes and evil rulers, where he’s challenged physically as well as mentally. It’s chock-full of ideas — more so than there’s space for, maybe — and gorgeous, well-realized art. I love the square stone monster in the first chapter!

I won’t part with my signed issues, because they’re a fond memory of a particular time in comics, the black-and-white boom that allowed creators to put out their own works before webcomics became the preferred medium for that. But for those of you who don’t have them, you may want to order the new collection packaged by About Comics (who has posted preview pages) and available only through Amazon.com.

I’m not sure how successful the strategy of avoiding the comic market entirely is these days — I suppose it depends on how effectively you can get the word out to the potential audience through coverage like this — but I know it allows for a lower price point, and on long-lost material like this, any sale is likely considered a bonus. If the book is print-on-demand, which Amazon also offers, then there aren’t even any storage or print costs. My gripe is, as always, that such offerings don’t allow me to get a deal or buy on sale or pick up a discount used copy, but that’s not a detriment in the publisher’s eyes.

It’s due in print in July, or you can pre-order digitally from Top Shelf. I’ve already praised the book’s cover. I think it’s a terrific design that captures the period and appeal of the story in just the right repurposed imagery.

Congratulations to Steve Bryant, who’s been working on his pulp heroine Athena Voltaire for 10 years now. She began as a webcomic in 2002, and in print, the stories went through two publishers before now landing at Dark Horse. (I’ve reviewed a previous collection.)

It’s a co-publishing deal with Sequential Pulp Comics, in which they plan to release

an omnibus edition containing remastered versions of the previously published Athena Voltaire material followed by new adventures, including two graphic novels and an illustrated prose anthology.

I’ve asked when the first book is due out; I’ll report back when I get an answer.

The immensely successful and popular Scott Pilgrim series will be coming back to print in a new deluxe edition in August. The new cover of the first volume, shown here, is by creator Bryan Lee O’Malley.

The books will be larger (6″x9″), full-color hardcovers. (Colors are by Nathan Fairbairn.) Although there are plenty of copies of the original black-and-white paperbacks in print since the series launch eight years ago, this is a great way to offer fans an upgrade… and breathe new life and potential new readers into the property. And just to entice previous customers further, they’re promising “previously unpublished extras and bonus materials”.

The plan is to put out two books a year, until all six books are reprinted. Volume 2 is scheduled for October of this year, and Volume 1 is priced at $24.99, or more than double the $11.99 paperback price. Oni Press has released the following preview pages (click to enlarge), first where Scott’s friends meet his high-school girlfriend Knives:

And these where Scott meets Ramona, where we can finally see her hair instead of imagining it:

A Game of Thrones:
The Graphic Novel

George R.R. Martin provides a Preface that contains a brief history of comics as well as his thoughts on this adaptation of his novels. The “making of” bonus section has commentary by the artist and editor plus character and design sketches.

If you’d like to make your own fantasy comic, How to Draw Your Dragon (Harper Design, $24.99) by Sergio Guinot promises to show you how to create realistic drawings of these amazing bird/lizard creatures.

Moving on from medieval-styled fantasy, there’s Ryan Inzana’s Ichiro (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, $19.99), the story of a Japanese-American boy who voyages to the world of Japanese gods. Based on a brief sampling, it’s a collection of wildly diverse scenes drawn with accomplished, distinctive brushwork. Weird to me that this is being put out by the children’s book division, though.

More obviously for kids is the June-shipping Earthling! (Chronicle Books, $12.99) by Mark Fearing in his graphic novel debut. It’s one of those “boy learns life lessons by winding up in alien environment”, this time literally, as Bud winds up in another galaxy, but it’s got an appealingly rough line, even if the aliens are all different-colored humans. (I like aliens that look really weird, instead of the usual “two arms, two legs, maybe antennae or an extra eye” approach.)

It was a good week for kids’ books, with Toon’s Shark King ($12.95) arriving. I’ve been anticipating this one since I found out it was R. Kikuo Johnson‘s return to comics. Looks like a fabulous, funny folktale.

The Shark King

I had no idea what to expect from Knuckle and Potty Destroy Happy World (Henry Holt, $12.99). It’s not a comic, but an illustrated text along the lines of Wimpy Kid, with plenty of images scattered throughout. Unlike those books and their many copycats, this one isn’t about life as a kid, though; instead, it’s pure fantasy. Knuckle and Potty are kids’ book characters who are fed up with being sweet and cute and lovable. They learn to visit the Outer World, where they encounter their ghostwriter and attempt to change his mind about writing them into an upcoming book. It’s an introduction to postmodern meta-fiction aimed at seven- to ten-year-olds, with lots of humor and goofy gags.

Lost Trail: Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness (Down East Books, $14.95) is an adaptation of a true story from 1939, about a Boy Scout who survived being lost on a mountain for the nine days of the title. The art’s got a rough-hewn quality, but the images (especially the bear!) bring the struggle for wilderness survival alive.

I bought some things, too. Warner doesn’t appear to be promoting the recent release of Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season Two, Part Two, but since we enjoyed Season Two, Part One so much, I had to have it. This still doesn’t complete the series, though, with a final set, complete with never-aired-on-US-TV episode, to come later this summer.

Also exciting is Natalie Nourigat’s Between Gears, an autobiographical comic about the last year of college just out from Image Comics. I actually had a chance for a free online review copy of this, but the work is so distinctively lettered (integrated with the art) that it was unreadable onscreen. When I saw that Amazon had it for almost half off, I went ahead and sprung for it. I think I’d previously read the webcomic, so I have no idea why I didn’t know this was coming out. I’m really looking forward to reading big chunks of it at once away from the computer.

Mask of the Sensei

Known properties sure have an advantage when it comes to finding customers. Papercutz sent out a press release promoting how “Mask of the Sensei, the second volume in the top-selling LEGO® NINJAGO graphic novel series from Papercutz, shot to the top of the New York Times Paperback Graphic Book Best Seller list immediately upon release last week”. It beat several Batman and Walking Dead books to do so.

The first volume in this series sold out 190,00 copies in its first printing last fall. Volume 2 sends four ninja friends against their sensei in a story written by Greg Farshtey and illustrated by Paulo Henrique. The slim volume is $6.99 for 64 color pages (or $10.99 in hardcover). Volume 3, Rise of the Serpentine, is due on May 8.

With an online game, the obvious toy line, and an animated series, this Lego brand is the newest kids’ favorite multimedia property, and the cartoony “masters of spinjitzu” are quite cute, even when trying to be fierce.

Everything's better with puppets

Laura Lee Gulledge, author of Page by Paige, one of the best graphic novels of last year, has announced her next book. Will & Whit is due out from Abrams in May 2013. That post also has sample illustrations where she requests feedback on technique, for neat insight into how the artist’s process works.

Heidi posted this amusingly retro cover for the upcoming Wizzywig graphic novel. Created by Ed Piskor, it will be published by Top Shelf in July.

That design really takes me back to the era Piskor is covering. I love the rainbow treatment of the publisher logo and spine; that’s really the finishing touch. Isn’t it cool how great design becomes iconic?

You can find previews of the work at the two links above. I’ve been impressed how much the book has improved as Piskor continues working on it, from self-published comic to webcomic to graphic novel.

Richard Castle’s Storm Season will be written by the same team of Brian Michael Bendis & Kelly Sue DeConnick. It’s due out October 17 with same-day release of print and digital versions. The artist has been changed, however; the first book was drawn by Lan Medina with cover by Carlo Pagulayan. This one will have art by Emanuela Lupacchino (described as a “rising star” who’s previously worked on X-Factor) with cover by Dustin Weaver. The plot description is as follows:

Private Investigator Derrick Storm is hired to bug the hotel suite of an African head of state, but this routine mission quickly spirals out of control when Storm overhears a woman’s terrifying scream on the wire. Plagued by the victim’s helpless cry, Storm — despite an ominous warning — investigates the truth. Soon he’ll discover an international conspiracy reaching further than he ever imagined… and perhaps the truth about Clara Strike, a CIA agent the world thinks is dead.

Here’s the promotional quote by a fictional character:

“As a comic book fan, I couldn’t be more excited about Brian and Kelly Sue bringing Derrick Storm to life once again in Storm Season” said Richard Castle. “Storm is a character near and dear to my heart, so I wouldn’t trust him with many people, but he is in some incredibly capable hands with this team.”

Hellboy Volume 12:
The Storm and the Fury

That got me thinking. Although creator-owned, I find that this long-running title has rubbed me the wrong way the same way a corporate-owned superhero franchise does lately. I can’t keep up with the history, especially with spinoff miniseries and another sister title, BPRD. I no longer feel like I know the characters or what they want or are trying to accomplish.

This particular volume falls into another corporate comic trap, that of using death to sell books. Yes, the lead character meets his end in here, although there are always flashback stories (and that way Mignola and his increasing numbers of contributors can use Nazis more easily). That brings up another point: as the book becomes longer-running, it’s rarer to see Mignola’s contributions.

Maybe I’m trying to make more out of this than simply realizing that I’m no longer interested in these characters and their never-ending adventures. I get the feeling that this has become a brand instead of a story — or an excuse to draw cool monster fights. Good for Mignola to have this kind of established property and the success that goes with it. There’s no reason he should be chained to the same character for decades, and if other people want to get paid to play with it, good for them, too.

But I do wonder: is it possible for a comic to keep running for years, regardless of who owns it, and keep the magic it once had for its readers?

Friends With Boys

We like Faith Erin Hicks’ Friends With Boys so much we want to share it with you! Thanks to Ed, who donated his copy to use as a giveaway.

Given how the book deals with finding a role in high school and expectations based on appearance, we’d like to hear about your memories of that time. To enter this contest for your chance to win, post a comment here with a description of either your best or worst high school fashion decision. Were you a goth? Did you wear leg warmers or Madonna-style rubber bracelets? Did you dress up the first day you had your braces off? Winners will be picked randomly from all entries on Monday, March 5.

(U.S. and Canada addresses only. Winners will be emailed to confirm address. If email is not answered within 24 hours or a valid email address is not provided, a replacement winner will be selected. Your email won’t be used for any other purpose.)

Modesty Blaise: Live Bait

This volume contains three stories, each with their own short introduction, all illustrated by Enric Badia Romero:

• “Samantha and the Cherub”, featuring Hell’s Angels and a teen girl martial artist
• “Milord”, about the kidnapping of women by bandits in South America to make snuff films
• “Live Bait”, in which it’s Carnival in Venice

If you’ve ever heard the name Modesty Blaise, you know she’s a very attractive woman who kicks ass, often half-dressed. The strips are very well-drawn, especially when it comes to showing off her figure or legs. This is another fine reprint book from Titan Books. In addition to the comics, the volume contains a piece about O’Donnell’s use of the circus in his stories and a checklist of all the strips and the stories they belong to.

20th Century Boys Book 19

Time for a new batch of manga! I’m eager to dive into book 19 of 20th Century Boys, because I’ve heard it finally satisfies a three-volume cliffhanger.

The next Viz SigIKKI title due out is House of Five Leaves Book 6, continuing the samurai bodyguard story by Natsume Ono. It’s scheduled for March 13.

The week before comes two other volumes I was sent to sample: Oresama Teacher Book 7 is about a delinquent girl sent away to school. This book has a bonus side story as well as a set of four-panel strips as extras. Yuu Watase’s Arata: The Legend Book 9 apparently features cross-dressing, based on the back cover blurb. Ooh, move that higher on the reading stack!

Looking towards April, the cover of Toriko Book 9 makes it look like some weird kind of superhero team book! I should give this series another try as they head out to “Ice Hell” to find Century Soup, which only bubbles out every 100 years.

Ending on a high point, I’m also looking forward to reading Soulless: The Manga from Yen Press. It’s a book adaptation, but since I’d never heard of the Parasol Protectorate novels before now, I won’t have any preconceptions. It sounds like it combines steampunk, Victorian monster hunting, and romance, and it’s getting good reviews, so I’m eager to try it.

Did you know Will Eisner had a week? According to his official website, Will Eisner Week is “an annual celebration promoting graphic novels, literacy, free speech awareness, and the legacy of Will Eisner.” It takes place each year around Eisner’s March 6th birthday.

The information isn’t available on their website yet, but this year, events are planned in Portland, OR; Columbus, OH; Minneapolis, MN; Savannah, GA; Los Angeles, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; San Francisco, CA; and Amherst, MA.

In New York, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art will host a panel event on Thursday, March 1 at 7 PM entitled “Will Eisner: Making the World Safe for Graphic Novels”. Panelists include moderator Paul Levitz, Dennis O’Neil, longtime Eisner agent Judith Hansen, and Columbia University Comics Librarian Karen Green. The group “will discuss Eisner’s creative and business accomplishments and legacy, and his continuing impact on the world of sequential art, from the 1930s to the present.”

Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors

• Superman
• Flash
• Green Lantern
• Aquaman
• Black Canary
• Green Arrow
• Red Tornado — and boy, get this story description: “An astrologer taps into Diana’s mental powers and uses them to disrupt her ability to use her weapons” — plus the Phantom Stranger, in two separate, shorter stories
• Elongated Man — who helps Wonder Woman free a planet of “enslaved women”
• Atom and Hawkman
• Hawkman
• Batman

Covers of all the individual issues can be seen at the “I Am Walter” blog, which broke the news.

It’s a neat idea to get Wonder Woman teamed up with a variety of well-known superheroes, with resonance for her mythological history, but the whole “oh, I’m not sure I’m good enough” approach may rankle with more modern readers. Personally, I’d like to see a collection of the Judgment in Infinity three-issue storyline, #291-293 from 1982, since that features appearances by just about every female DC hero of the era as they face off against the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

by Brooke A. Allen for District Comics

Led by Matt Dembicki, District Comics will be an online comic anthology featuring “stories about the history of Washington, D.C., from its beginnings to contemporary times.” The goal is for readers, schools, and libraries to enjoy tales about the nation’s capital.

They’re currently accepting submissions, although at least one writer or artist on the project must live in the DC area. Also, “stories must be historically based and told through a unique voice.” So no Franklin/Jefferson slash fanfic — unless you have the documents to back it up! Stories are planned to start appearing online on July 4 (how apropos).

Rafer Roberts (Plastic Farm) has revealed that he is illustrating a story about the 1950 assassination attempt on Harry Truman. He also says the project will be coming in book form in the fall from Fulcrum Publishing, which makes sense; they also published Trickster, another anthology edited by Dembicki.

Brooke A. Allen (A Home for Mr.Easter) will also be contributing, and she’s posted some of her gorgeous pages in progress as well.

In this lengthy interview with Jimmy Gownley at PublishersWeekly.com, the author looks back at the history of his series Amelia Rules! From being self-published to being picked up by Simon & Schuster in 2008, his series has been running for over 10 years. It’s a wonderful overview of what used to be possible in the comic market, how much things have changed over the years, and how Gownley has adapted to the changing industry. The most recent Amelia Rules!, The Meaning of Life… and Other Stuff, was one of my Best Graphic Novels of 2011.

However, in the article, he also reveals that “The eighth book, Her Permanent Record, is the last Amelia book that Gownley plans for a while.” He’s instead thinking of putting out a how-to book that focuses more on “why to” create art.

Exciting news! Dark Horse will be releasing another volume of Blacksad on July 11. A Silent Hell, by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, is set in 1950s New Orleans. The feline detective John Blacksad is “hired to discover the fate of a celebrated pianist [and] finds his most dangerous mystery yet in the midst of drugs, voodoo, the rollicking atmosphere of Mardi Gras, and the dark underbelly that it hides!”

The previous volume won the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material, and Dark Horse has sold 20,000 copies in four printings. Blacksad: A Silent Hell will also have “an extensive making-of section, with tons of prelim sketches and watercolor studies, written by artist Juanjo Guarnido [and] two never-before-collected Blacksad short stories!”

If you’re not familiar with Blacksad, I’ve posted some preview pages from the previous book, showing off the gorgeous work. It’s astoundingly realistic anthromorphism with social commentary.

I’m so happy to hear that Walter Simonson’s The Judas Coin graphic novel is done and has finally been scheduled for September release from DC Comics. As somebody who’s known about the project for years, it’s been hard not being able to talk about it. Especially since circumstances had me in the the right place at the wrong time, so that I’ve already had the opportunity to read over half of the 96-page graphic novel. Don’t worry — I’m not going to give anything important away…

A couple of years back, I was visiting the New York area, mostly to see old friends; to visit the “Art of Archie Comics” show at MOCCA; and to see my siblings-in-law’s new house in the area. As always, Walt & Weezie offered me a bed for a day or two at the Hotel Simonson, and I gratefully accepted. I set off to Mt. Simonson. (Yes, they live on a mountain. A small mountain, but a mountain, nonetheless. Occasionally, Walter goes out and throws thunderbolts at his unsuspecting neighbors. And on any given morning, there are probably deer foraging in the Simonson back yard. Now, that’s a place to create comic books!)

Unfortunately, I was trapped by icy conditions. (I got up the winding, tree-lined driveway but couldn’t get back down, since I didn’t have a 4-wheel drive vehicle.) Since I was going to be stuck there for a couple of days, Walter said, “So… do you want to read it?” I knew exactly what he was talking about. I think my answer was “Duh!” Next thing I knew, three chapters of The Judas Coin were sitting on the sofa next to me.

I never read anything so slowly in my life. It was so gorgeous. I think I read each page three or four times before proceeding to the next. I even found a couple of lettering typos (sorry, John Workman!), so I got to feel like I was editing again for a second or two. Mostly, I was just overwhelmed by what Walter was accomplishing.

I won’t go into details here, because I think the book will be more powerful as a surprise. What’s already known is that The Judas Coin consists of six chapters, each set in a different place in the DC timeline, starring a diverse selection of DC historical characters, some of whom haven’t been seen in decades. One chapter even provides some closure to an unfinished DC series from the 1970s. I won’t mention who all the characters are, but you can obviously figure out some of them from the recently released cover, shown here.

What hasn’t been announced (and maybe DC’s marketing folks aren’t even aware of this — or don’t think it’s important) is that Walter is using a different style of artwork for each different chapter/character. In some instances, he’s drawing in the style of the artist who originally drew the character, while for others, he applied a style of drawing that he admired and wanted to attempt. If nothing else, this makes The Judas Coin a fascinating artistic tour de force for Simonson and his legion of fans. The story is great, also. I still don’t know all the details, but I have been present a couple of times when Walter was discussing plot points with friends and other creators — all of whom reacted with some version of “That’s brilliant!” — including me.

I can’t wait for the post-mortem interviews with Walter, where all of the secrets of The Judas Coin can be revealed. September is a long way away.

By the way, I was stuck on Mt. Simonson for two days (a very pleasant place to get “stuck”), and when I wasn’t drooling on the original art for The Judas Coin, I was watching the weather reports showing that a blizzard was working its way up from the south — exactly the direction I had to drive to get home. Finally, the ice melted enough to give me a chance to get down the Simonsons’ driveway (provided I only went about 2 mph), giving me just a six-hour window to get home (so I missed seeing the new house and the MOCCA show). Of course, I got stuck in traffic in Washington D.C., so I had to drive the last hour or so in the blizzard. But the Simonsons (and NYC) had it worse. This was the storm that dumped about 20 inches of snow on the NYC area, effectively shutting it down for days. The Simonsons lost power several hours after I left and didn’t get it back for several days — making it very difficult to work at a drawing board without light.

Trust me, The Judas Coin will be worth the wait.

The three-week residency, supported by a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, is designed to provide a graphic artist/writer with an opportunity to develop a work-in-progress. The recipient will receive a stipend and housing in the two-bedroom apartment located in the boyhood home of author and New Yorker cartoonist, James Thurber. … In addition to researching and producing new work, he will take part in public events during his stay in Columbus.

It’s neat to see a writer’s organization partner with an art museum to cover both aspects of graphic novel creation. Programs will include an Adult Writing Workshop on the Graphic Novel on March 26 (Thurber House); a Young Writers’ Studio on March 28 (Thurber House); a Big Picture Lecture on March 31 (CMA) in which “Otterbein Professor of Philosophy Andrew Mills will speak about Hornschemeier’s work in a philosophical context. Hornschemeier majored in philosophy at The Ohio State University and often addresses philosophical issues in his books, most notably in his 2007 work The Three Paradoxes.” Also at CMA on April 5 is an Artist’s Talk and Interview conducted by Jared Gardner, a professor of English and Film Studies at OSU.

The image shows Paul Hornschemeier teaching a graphic novel course at the University of Chicago.

On the video side, another gem from the Warner Archive, available on DVD for the first time. Tall Story is a 60s romantic comedy with Jane Fonda. I’ve previously enjoyed her in Sunday in New York and Any Wednesday, so I’m eager to watch this, her debut film. She’s in college and trying to convince basketball star Anthony Perkins to marry her. Sounds slight, but it should be a fun slice of pop culture.

On the book side, Fantagraphics kindly sent The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD Inspired Satirical Comics for KC’s perusal and review. Just at a flip-through, it looks nicely grungy, with packed panels and a good choice for reproduction that makes the work feel authentic. You want a little age visible on something 60+ years old, just to remind you that this is something from a different time, and we’re lucky to have so much available to us through reprint.

The last cool thing I got this week was a gift from my new friend at JetPens.com. I expressed my appreciation at their marketing style in a mailbag post last month, saying I was tempted to steal one of the pens intended for Ed. Lo and behold, now I have my very own — thanks, Brad! These brush pens are impressive, comfortable to hold and a pleasure to use.