Comics Alliance: An AOL Comic Book Community

I wouldn't be surprised if most of you weren't familiar with the work of painter/colorist/computer graphic artist Jose Villarrubia, with the possible exception of his gorgeous work adapting Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire and The Mirror of Love, both published by Top Shelf Productions. Nevertheless, working along the margins of comicdom is just the way Jose likes it, which is why I'm filling this week's space "outing" the wonderful work of my versatile and modest friend.


Behind the scenes, however, Jose is one of the comics industry's go-to professionals when it comes computer coloring, photography and digital illustration. In fact, the list of collaborators this ex-pat from Spain has worked with over the years -- excluding his work with Moore -- reads like a "who's who" list of industry luminaries, including Jae Lee on Fantastic Four1234, Paul Pope on Batman Year 100, J.H. Williams III on Desolation Jones and Richard Corben on Cage.

I feel a strong kinship to Jose (certainly not on the talent side), because his journey as a creative professional has taken him places he never expected, like his second career paralleling his comics work as a full-time professor of art at the Maryland Institute College of Art (one of my fond memories of Jose is his "Pied Piper of Hamlin-like" influence on his students following him around comic book conventions soaking up the creativity in the room).

Besides the links I've embedded along the way to provoke your interest in Jose's career, I suspect you'll feel some of the same warmth, kindness and creative intensity my talented friend projects effortlessly after viewing this video tour of Baltimore, his adopted town.

Once in a while, it's nice and kinda humbling to read/hear catch phrases you thought you came up with all on your own emitting from the oral orifices of others. Case in point is Thursday's piece in the Washington Post about children's author Jon Scieszka, author of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and the Time Warp Trio series, being named the first Ambassador of Reading by the Library of Congress.

Scieszka who runs Guys Read, a web-based nonprofit whose mission is to increase literacy among boys by motivating them to read "by connecting with texts they will want to read." Texts, for example, like comics... Scieszka ought to know what he's talking about: In a former life, he waged war on the front lines of literacy battlefield as an elementary school teacher.

What caught my attention was the latest in a growing number of writers and experts who promote comics as a means to encourage boys and girls to read more. Sciezka believes teachers and parents need to expand their preconceived notions of what constitutes good reading material to include science-fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and whatever it takes...

No doubt, reading the monthly adventures of Thor, the God of Thunder in Journey Into Mystery at the tender age of 8 spurred my interest in mythology (no doubt Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts helped too), as much as watching George Pal's War of the Worlds encouraged me to read the infinitely better H.G. Wells novel.

Perfect storm.

Organic.

Surge.

Back in the day.

Under the bus.

It is what it is.

Graphic novel?

Couldn't help but think about my friend Eddie Campbell -- seems he's taking a sabbatical from his must-read Fate of the Artist blog -- whilst reviewing Lake Superior State College's 33rd annual list of the List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness, harkening back to his tirades, albeit polite ones, regarding the use of the term graphic novel. What follows is the Maestro's very own definition/opinion of the graphic novel ("in some vague hope that those who write nonsense will start to think more clearly").

Graphic Novel: Variously and confusingly used to indicate 1)all comic books, 2)a specific format of comic books, 3)indeed the physical object itself (as opposed to the work it contains), 4) what would in prose be a novel but illustrated as a comic, 5) a new form of pictorial literature. Since it is not much use for the purposes of communication, my feeling is that it's better to ditch the term altogether though of course it's much too late for that. However as an overview, I feel that posterity will come to see it as representative of a certain ambition to make something grand out of the elements of the strip cartoon. Its failure will be due to its inability to escape out of comic book culture.

However, Eddie claims the term comic book is useful, "because everybody knows what it means. American style comic books. They know what it looks like and can point to industry sales statistics. Comic books are clearly objects that exist in time and space. Since the things that happen in comic books follow a set of rules and involve activities that don't happen elsewhere, one can use the term to indicate a genre of popular fiction. Comic books can be formatted in different ways, thus a 200 page comic book is still a comic book."

I can agree with both definitions up to a point. From Hell is a graphic novel, and a transcendent one at that, while a story arc of the average X-Men serial (a pamphlet?) remains a comic book. Still, you could make a good argument the work by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday on Astonishing X-Men or Neil Gaiman on Sandman are powerful works that happened to be published first in a serial format.

Here's my grand challenge: If you can come up with a term that better describes what most of us in comicdom call the graphic novel, take the plunge and submit it to the folks at Lake Superior State College for banning next year. If you want to erase funnybook or fanboy (the latter not exclusive to the comics industry) from the lexicon, however, I won't try to discourage you one little bit...

Enjoy this sneak peek straight from Neil Gaiman.com of the animated adaptation of the Sandman muse's non-quite-a-children's-book Coraline by Laika Entertainment and director Henry Selick who directed Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Great thanks to Neatorama for the link to this Fast Company story about the Portland, Ore., production company that's making Coraline and its direct connection to Nike.

After reading the latest posts by Dave Gibbons from the past two weeks on the Warner Bros. sponsored Watchmen blog, I'm feeling a strong vibe that director Zach Snyder could be a good choice to helm the movie adaptation of this classic 80s tale after all.

Count me among the many comic folks who were very surprised Snyder's adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 was as enjoyable and interesting as it was. Still, Watchmen is one complex animal, and the track record of movie adaptations based on works written by Alan Moore to date has been poor at best, with V For Vendetta being the best of the lot.

That said, I can't help but think Watchmen would've been better served -- along with V and From Hell -- as a HBO limited run series a la Deadwood or Rome in formats that would have given producers enough flexibility, time and room to better capture and expand on the multi-tiered stories Moore told over the course of 12-issue series. But it's not my money on the line and nobody asked me.

Like the other films that came before it, I'll venture into Watchmen with expectations low and hope to be pleasantly surprised. And wonder when Hollyweird's appetite for superheroes will finally cease...

In a previous comics blogging life not so long ago, you may have read my first look piece about Rich Koslowski's newest project, B.B. Wolf & The L.P.s, in collaboration with writer Johnnie Arnold.

Rich has been a very busy guy lately, completing B.B. Wolf in his gorgeous ink wash style (very similar to his work on the award-winning Three Fingers and The List), starting a new Three Geeks GN (a movie based on the trio is in the works) and staying ahead of schedule on his first assignment for the House of Ideas, scripting a 12-part story arc about the new Guardian for Marvel Comics Presents. And, that list doesn't include his freelance endeavors for other publishers including Archie Comics and Devil's Due (Family Guy).

Watching from the sidelines since the debut of Three Fingers five years ago, I'm glad to see Rich's "star" is finally ascending in the comics industry, and it's about time...

BTW, Rich pens one of the more politically incorrect and funnier creator blogs around, no doubt a product of his awesome storytelling, a gregarious nature (that belies a heart of gold) and a frighteningly acidic sense of humor (especially when I'm within earshot).

A few months ago, I kicked off my almost-weekly Comics Page feature with a look at the treasure trove of art and music that is Doot Doot Garden, the blog home of my pal Craig Thompson, nee of the classic and award-winning Blankets and, in my opinion, his even awesomer memoir, Carnet de Voyage. Seems my pal may have to make room for another award, however, not one of the comics variety, according to a recent news piece in The Oregonian.

Craig was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Recording Package category for his groovy design work on the Portland indy band Menomena's latest album, Friend & Foe. (Listen to Wet and Rusting from the new album.)



By the way, Craig accompanied Menomena on their European tour, creating some truly amazing impromptu sketches during their sets, as you can see in the YouTube video below.


For those of you who haven't been lucky enough to have your copy of Blankets, Goodbye Chunky Rice, Carnet de Voyage or anything else signed and sketched by Craig, you may wince after watching this very short YouTube video about what he does with the art he makes during Menomena's shows.

With the success of Showcase Presents series of 500-page plus reprints chock full of Silver Age material selling, not only in comic books shops but bookstore chains all over, I'm not surprised DC is considering shelving their Archives line of collections, according to Publishers Weekly.

Even geeks like me can do the math. Retailing at $16.95 a pop, the Showcase Presents collections feature 500-plus pages per volume of some of the choicest Silver Age stories on the planet, albeit on cheap paper and in glorious black-and-white. Volumes of the Archives series, while printed in full color and on great paper, were only half as big and sold from $49.95-59.95.

Granted, by next summer, DC will own the honorable distinction of being the only publisher to reprint to entire Spirit series of classic Will Eisner stories from the 40s and 50s in its Archives format. Even for a Spirit fan like me, however, I figured the final investment -- at least $1,250, if not more, for the 25-volume set -- wasn't in my budget.

To their credit, DC is experimenting with other formats, like their Omnibus line reprinting Jack Kirby's Fourth World books and James Robinson's Starman series next year Publishers Weekly says. Again, as good as those stories are -- even with double the page count and all of them in full color -- DC's Omnibus editions start at $49.95, and are no more of a bargain than their Archives.

Perhaps, to the good, DC has started publishing Deluxe Editions of individual stories or arcs in a slightly oversized format, bridging the cheaper Showcase Presents and pricier Omnibus, with its Shazam: Monster Society of Evil "deluxe" edition collecting the three-issue mini by Jeff Smith.

I was pleased to learn the Jonah Hex and House of Mystery volumes were among the best sellers in the Showcase Presents line. Considering both were refreshingly continuity-free and bereft of superheroes, it's no wonder the "off-genre stuff" is selling well...

And, don't get me started about the Absolute line...

What started out being an oddity -- college classes and programs devoted to the study and creation of comics -- is quickly becoming a full-fledged trend, according to this interesting Associated Press feature picked up by USA Today.

Apart from places focused on nurturing the industry's next Will Eisner and Marie Severin -- think The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont or the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia -- a number of schools throughout the U.S. are dipping their collective toes in the water, like the University of Cincinnati that hired cartoonist Carol Tyler, nee of the recent Late Bloomer and the 1993 classic The Job Thing (both from Fantagraphics), to teach its first comics-related art class last year.

Why all the interest? Chain bookstores from Borders to Barnes & Noble devoting a growing amount of space to graphic novels -- specifically Manga -- along with libraries, to the chagrin of some who still believe comics are more aberration and obscenity than art.

Just as interesting as the feature is the comments section below it that rather perfectly illustrates the cultural divide among those who perceive comics as either illiterate trash -- another easy major for college athletes -- or treasure -- cultivating creativity or simply a love for reading in a world of pigeonholing and standardized testing.

For most American comics fans, it's pretty safe to say Bryan Talbot isn't a household name in the American comics industry. But he ought to be...

Many of you Neil Gaiman-heads certainly recall Bryan's work throughout the Sandman series, and during that time he produced Mask, one of the more compelling and early Legends of the Dark Knight mini-arcs (continuity and safe movie marketing killed this once-entertaining Batman anthology series). And, earlier this year, Dark Horse published Bryan's dream project, the Quill Award nominee Alice in Sunderland, a hit in the UK, according to the fine folks at Blog@Newsarama.

Published a dozen years ago by Dark Horse, A Tale of One Bad Rat -- the story of a homeless young woman's quest to heal her soul with the help of Beatrix Potter -- remains one of my favorite graphic novels of all time and evidence beyond dispute that comics can entertain and inform in ways prose and movies cannot. Almost forgot, when people try to argue with you that SF and comics don't mix, show 'em a copy of Heart of Empire: The Legacy of Luther Arkwright, a sprawling and wonderful fantasy adventure story.

Before investing your time and money, however, find a copy of The Art of Bryan Talbot, an amazing 96-page art book covering much of the work I've already described, released just this week by NBM.

So, how did it feel NOT to have a new ep of Heroes to watch last Monday (or in my case reading my blogstress-in-crime Carol Orsini's awesome recaps the day after)?

Should you be looking to immerse yourself in all Heroes-related things during the coming holiday season -- maybe hitting the DVR to review Volume 2 or catching up on the first collection of online Heroes stories recently published by DC Comics -- here's an unusual freebie worth considering, straight from the good folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known to the world at large as MIT.

Last month, MIT's Communications Forum sponsored a two-hour seminar/ interview with Heroes executive producer Jesse Alexander (who worked once-upon on-a-time on popular TV serials Lost and Alias) and Mark Warshaw (formerly of Smallville) to discuss the multi-platform approach to marketing this groundbreaking series from online graphic novels, to podcasting to the free availability of previous eps, appropriately titled NBC's Heroes: From Appointment TV to Engagement TV?

There are two ways you can listen to this interesting and free two-hour podcast: Click on the link in the Audiocast section to listen at your computer or download the podcast from iTunes from the CMS Colloquia Podcast page.

Here's a bonus for those who use iTunes: Toward the bottom of the list, lectures 49 and 50 feature 2006 interviews with Scott McCloud (Understanding/Reinventing/Making Comics) and Frank Espinosa (Rocketo), comics luminaries whose work we admire.

I was more than surprised and pleased by the hits and response to my Thanksgiving weekend post about the literary worth of comics and graphic novels or, in the opinion of some thoughtful posters, the lack of it. My take: Whatever it takes to instill a love of reading and learning in children -- a daily newspaper, a Star Wars-themed cereal box, or comics -- is all to the good.

Whilst looking for interesting stuff out of the norm to feed this space, I stumbled across the site for Howtoons, based on a series of two-page stories developed by Joost Bonsen and Saul Griffith with comics artist Nick Dragotta for Make and Craft magazines that show kids how to create cool tools on the cheap and learn about science by experimenting on the world around them. If this sounds like more work and not much fun, you'll be surprised, amused and entertained as I was by this sample story about making a raincoat with a pair of scissors, duct tape and a trash bag, brilliantly told by Dragotta in the film noir style of Frank Miller's Sin City.

An interesting snippet from a recent interview with Griffith in Fortune Small Business explains the origins of Howtoons: When I was in grad school I came across these compelling books published near the turn of the last century with titles like The Boy Mechanic that taught children how to make gliders, and bows and arrows, and all sorts of cool things. But these books are not really transferable to the modern age because their instructions are like, 'Find two eight-foot lengths of straight-grain spruce and four 12-inch strips of leather thong.' Hard to find at Home Depot. So there seemed to be an opportunity for me to find analogous modern materials like soda bottles and bicycle inner tubes and chop sticks and show step-by-step how to build things like the Infamous Marshmallow Gun. The underlying philosophy is that it's critically important in this technological age to teach kids to see the world for what it can be, not for what it is, to have them question why they can't make the world better by experimenting, and to teach them not have a fear of the physical world. That failure is fun, and that the physical world is a really cool computer game if you want it to be.

The popularity of the how-to series inspired the first of what may become a series of Howtoons books, published by HarperCollins this fall. Kids of all ages will find 15 projects that describe "how to set up a workshop, create a marshmallow shooting gun, make ice cream without a freezer, play songs on a turkey baster flute, explore a homemade terrarium, launch a pressure–powered rocket, and more."

As you explore the Howtoons site throughly, you'll smile as I did when you reach the Legends page, featuring cloud like links to Wikipedia listings of geniuses the likes of Tesla, Jack Kirby, Newton, Alex Toth, Edison, Chuck Jones and Jane Goodall.

Here we are again with another look at Star Wars comics from Dark Horse. This edition is a little bulkier with more books being looked at. Check out what we've got below, it's time for Dark Side of the Horse III.

Star Wars: 30th Anniversary Collection Volume 8--Splinter of the Mind's Eye
Based on the novel by Alan Dean Foster as a sequel to Star Wars, Splinter of the Mind's Eye tells the tale of Luke and Leia as they crash land on planet Mimban. Turns out there is an Imperial mining facility on the planet, one that our duo must infiltrate in order to get either a ship to leave or radio for help. While sitting in a dive eating food that matches the setting Luke meets another force user, an old lady who knows he has use of the force and gives him a force enhancing crystal. Things take a turn for the worse as Luke and Leia get captured and guess who is on the way to visit them, dear old daddy himself Darth Vader. Doing what heroes do they escape and go in search of the crystal, the entire crystal. Traveling with an old lady, couple of Wookie-ish allies. Long story short, they travel underground, encounter from cave dwellers, fight, encounter Vader and Storm Troopers, fight, then make their way to the crystal for a showdown with the Dark Lord. This fight makes the entire volume worth the purchase as Vader and Luke face-off. One loses an arm, the other his life. The crystal is destroyed after granting new life and onto Empire Strikes Back we go.

The art is passable and the story is not bad considering it was really the first side-story in the Star Wars universe. It's interesting to see how Vader and Luke first battle one-on-one. I was happy to see they don't have Luke winning per-say, but rather just surviving. It's fitting given the power of the Sith. When it comes to the novel or the comic adaptation I'd go with the comic, it is Star Wars after all.

You know how much I admire Frank Espinosa, the talented cartoonist behind the wonderful adventure series Rocketo -- unfortunately on hiatus until next year -- and his recent work on the awesome Image mini-series Killing Girl. From time to time, I drop in on Espinosa's Image forum to see if he's posted any juicy art tidbits for the next Rocketo mini, Journey to the New World, but have found precious little worth posting lately, except for this link to some cool images posted in mid-September.

Visit FrankEspinosa.com, however, and you'll find some remnants of beautiful promotional poster art from Rocketo's pre-Image days at Speakeasy, but even that's not the main attraction here. The real finds here, however, are a trio of concise and interesting Quick Time videos allowing Espinosa to show and explain the creative backbone behind Rocketo from the perspective of an artist -- specifically the relatively quick transition from rough pencils to a finished inked panel -- and a gifted storyteller weaving myth and history to great effect.

With the holidays fast approaching what do you get for the comic, anime, manga, gaming fan on your wish list that they may not be expecting ... a book. Below is a quick list of some book buys non-fans may not know about or really think about getting but are sure to be enjoyed when opened under the tree this holiday season. Remember there are tons of great comic collections out there, like the Dark Horse Hard Cover Star Wars 30th Anniversary books, but what I'm looking at below are those lesser know, off the wall books not falling into the graphic novel section. Agree, disagree, that's what we're here for so chime in.

Warcraft The Sunwell Trilogy Ultimate Edition – Tokyopop
What is It? All three volumes of Tokyopop's Warcraft manga collected and enlarged with a slew of extras. With art by Jae-Hwan Kim (King of Hell) and story by Richard A. Knaak (Dragonlance, Diablo) this is one nice collection. The story is in manga format and tells the tale of the Sunwell taking place in the World of Warcraft setting with familiar locations and characters making appearances.
What's So Special? Besides getting the hard cover and enlargement treatment readers are treated to an afterwards by Chris Metzen, VP Creative Development at Blizzard, a full color new intro to the manga, 8 pages of WoW history, Bios for Knaak and Kim along with unseen sketchers, nice little poster and for WoW trading card fans a special, limited edition card.
Who Will Like It? Video Gamers who like Warcraft or Fantasy games and Manga fans also into fantasy.