One of the great pleasures of Comic-Con is the chance to see old friends, make new friends, and spend time together talking comics over drinks late into the night. Last night found your intrepid correspondents catching up with our pals from the Top Shelf family, including publishers/staffers Brett Warnock, Chris Staros, Leigh Walton, and star creators Eddie Campbell and Jose Villarrubia.Amidst hours of excellent conversation (talking comics all around, talking Michael Chabon, Raymond Chandler and children's fables with Eddie and Brett...), the biggest scoop of the night came when Chris shared with us the exclusive news that Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill's criminally out-of-print Marshal Law is set to return ... and his new home is Top Shelf. That's right, the times we're living in today cry out for Marshal Law, a politically charged satire of superheroes so caustic that even (much as we love the book) even Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys has nothing on it. Mills and O'Neill have inked a deal with Top Shelf and Chris and Brett are cooking up a sure-to-be-gorgeous omnibus edition to ensure that the title will return in style. There are currently no plans for new Marshal Law adventures in the works, but given this happy announcement, one can certainly hope for that to change.
We missed a chance to see copies of the original pages from Eddie's next book since he'd just handed them off to his editor prior to our arrival (rats!), but look for my in-depth interview with Eddie on his current book, The Black Diamond Detective Agency in this spot soon.
Jose mentioned that he'll be taking a break from the Top Shelf booth this morning for a signing at the Marvel booth (what? you mean you didn't know the uber-talented artist and Alan Moore collaborator has been coloring Peter David's excellent X-Factor series for Marvel? Now you do. Check it out.) Jose also reminded us that tonight boasts the CBLDF party which is, needless to say, a must.
1. Absolutely tremendous news on Marshal Law, the comic that really did the theme first and far better than everyone who's tried it since put together. While I'd love some new material, I will gladly buy the omnibus and hand off my HC of Fear and Loathing to a friend as a gift. Once again, Top Shelf rules.
Thank God Villarrubia is doing normal/flat/2d coloring now. He's fantastic at it, while his Photoshop/"realistic" stuff of some years ago was, I thought, a total waste of his talent.
On another note, I'm waiting to hear about the time you sat around chatting about Filipino (Filipina?) ladyboys over drinks with Mahatma Gandhi and the Batman. Now THAT would be some name-dropping;)
Posted at 2:27PM on Jul 26th 2007 by Christian