Comics Alliance: An AOL Comic Book Community

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.

Seeing as today is the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik 2 launch, it seemed to be a good time to check in with Nick Abadzis, creator of the Laika graphic novel. I caught up with him last night, as he was preparing for today's Laika presentation, including a new animation and a toast to the late great Soviet space dog herself, at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in London.

Comics Alliance: Having just come off a month-long promotional tour of the USA, what were some of the high points?

Nick Abadzis: SPX, certainly. I had a ball, meeting people...especially other cartoonists. I always love SPX, but this had to be my best one ever. Also doing three signings at the National Air and Space Museum, and seeing that there is a massive crossover audience for comics, if you get the right book in front of people...let people know that they exist.

CA: I guess being a sci-fi fan, that must have been a treat, doing a signing surrounded by real rockets and other paraphernalia from the space race.

NA: Well, to differentiate, I'm a huge "real space" fan, as well as a lifelong fan of science-fiction. I was always nuts about the space shots, moon shots, Skylab, Soyuz--I watched all that kind of stuff on TV when I was a kid (along with Dr. Who and the Gerry Anderson puppet serials).

CA: So this 50th Anniversary must be a big deal to you then. I mean you've signed at Air and Space, traveled to Russia, spent several years of your life immersed in this material.... How do you feel?

NA: It's kind of incredible to be on the eve of fifty years since the first creature who initiated live exploration of space...since that era came to pass. The fact that it was initiated by a small dog, I think is pretty incredible in itself. I guess right now I'm feeling kind of nervous, because I'm due to do this presentation and talk at the ICA tomorrow. And we're going to raise a glass and toast her [Laika].... In many ways it's a bittersweet feeling.

Naruto Uzumaki, star of the hit anime and manga line from Viz and star of numerous videos games is about to get the next-gen treatment on Xbox 360 with Naruto: Rise of a Ninja. What sets Rise of a Ninja apart from it's predecessors is its' the first title to appear on the Xbox 360, was developed from the ground up as an original title and is looking to take the gamer and drop them into an action adveneture game where the fighting is intense and the world of Naruto more detailed then ever seen before.

Gamers will get to explore the Village Hidden in the Leaves as well a the lands Naruto and his team visit in the anime and manga, but in much more detail as you guide the course of out mischievous ninja. In order to get even more detail, and way more excited about the game, I was fortunate enough to have Sebastien Puel, the Producer on Naruto: Rise of a Ninja answer a slew of questions I threw his way. Puel reveals more detail about the game and even teases at content to come. It's time to learn more about Naruto: Rise of a Ninja from Ubisoft ...

Q: Storyline wise, gamers get to journey with Naruto from the very beginning as he graduates from the Ninja Academy, but just how far will the storyline take us?

The story will take us until episode 80, that's to say the fight against Gaara. We decided to cover this story arch as we wanted to give players a real feeling of progression and achievement. Episode 80 is for Naruto the first time when he realizes his own strength and valor and that he really gets acknowledged by others. He does something of crucial importance for his community – by saving the Leave Village – and we wanted the player to feel this achievement at the end of the game.

Q: So it's safe to assume the story in the sequel to RoaN will pick up right after the originals ending?

First, you are assuming here that there will be a sequel to RoaN – we are not as far right now! But to answer your question, yes, it would make sense to start a sequel from this point.

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Xbox 360 Screens

Nicely sandwiched between Iron Man and The Dark Knight for the summer of 2008 is the return of Mike Mignola's signature horror hero to the silver screen in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

The expectations will be higher for HB2, considering all the critical acclaim director Guillermo del Toro received, particularly from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for last year's award-winning dark fantasy, Pan's Labyrinth.

You can whet your appetite for all things Hellboy with this wonderful Web site chock full of cool production art. By the way, there's talk of a B.R.P.D. spinoff too, according to Dark Horizons.

Speaking of the B.P.R.D., enjoy this video morsel from the set of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army with Silver Surfer avatar Doug Jones.

Just in case, you've been wondering whatever happened to Gary Spencer Millidge, the MIA creator of, arguably, one of the best indy comics ever published -- the very British mystery series Strangehaven -- you'll be glad to know he's still alive, and intends to finish his masterwork some day...

That's little consolation for friends and fans of this wonderful series, a unique blend of textures that summon up visions of David Lynch's classic soap serial Twin Peaks mixed with a bit of Brigadoon.

The big picture story: A Londoner named Alex running away from a bad marriage, crashes his car in the English Midlands. He's taken to a town called Strangehaven to heal, both body and soul. The residents of this quintessential little town take a shine to Alex, and the feelings are mutual (even more so for one young Janey). Oh, and by the way, the town just a lost a teacher, and guess what Alex does for a living...

Only one problem: Every time Alex tries to leave Strangehaven for any reason, he can never quite get out of town. Throw in the Freemasons, UFOs, adultery, World War II, Shamanism and talking animals who love Tom and Jerry cartoons for good measure and you've got one intriguing mystery.

The first time I ever read anything about Marisa Acocella Marchetto was in the spring of 2006 when USA Today health reporter Liz Szabo wrote a wonderful cover feature about the collision of cancer and comics, "Laughing in the face of cancer."

Szabo spent most of the interview talking to creative types from the late Miriam Engleberg (Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person) to Brian Fies (Mom's Cancer) and Evan Handler (Sex in the City, Californication) about the surprising number of auto-bio works about fighting cancer with jokes. Surprisingly, Marchetto's Cancer Vixen was barely mentioned, save for scant details about a fall release by Alfred A. Knopf.

Of course, Cancer Vixen was the one book out of them all that really caught my attention, probably due to Marchetto's "ink-stained fingers" pedigree as a veteran cartoonist whose work has been featured in The New Yorker, the late Talk and Glamour. Finally, after finding a copy -- it wasn't easy, even in Austin -- I understood why my Spider-Sense was tingling... Cancer Vixen is about so much more than cancer.

It's a pretty funny story about the life of a female cartoonist working in the trenches of the media capital of the world, a place where rejection is so commonplace that a .250 batting average for the week (three out of 12 cartoons accepted by a client like The New Yorker in a given week) is beyond outstanding.

At its core, however, Cancer Vixen is a very warm and entertaining love story, an all-too rare occurrence in the world of graphic novels. As the love story begins to percolate -- marriage is in the air -- our heroine learns she has breast cancer. And that's when this smart 212-page story really takes off!

It's rare when a book so inspires the fan in me that I actually savor the experience of reading it late into the night, next to my warm Mrs. CEO. And laugh...

The first of this two-part interview is devoted to the comics side of our Cancer Vixen, while the second half, appearing on AOL's new breast cancer awareness and support blog, United For Pink, discusses Marisa's post-breast cancer fight, the poor diagnosis for folks without health insurance and self-esteem.

Comics Alliance: It's been about a year since Cancer Vixen was released by Knopf, and I'm a bit disappointed, but not terribly surprised, the comics world hasn't embraced your wonderful book like it should have. Do you feel the same way?

Marisa: A little. But I was nominated for Best Graphic Novel of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society (NCS), which made up for it. Sorta. Why aren't you surprised, Wayne?

Evidently, it's not enough just to manufacture a life of a fictional superhero (remember the recently ended Stan Lee "reality" series). For a few, however, it's a stark, hand-to-mouth reality and their chosen path to fame and fortune.

That's the premise behind Confessions of a Superhero, a documentary by director Matt Ogens about four souls struggling to eke out a living on Hollywood Boulevard, dressed up as superheroes, coming soon in limited theatrical release in November before debuting on DVD (under the "Morgan Spurlock Presents" banner) early next year, according to Variety.

I completely missed an Austin showing of Confessions, but not the smarter filmgoers and critics from the Austin American-Statesman, Film Threat and Wired who screened it at last spring's film festival portion of South by Southwest.

Interesting tidbit 1: Confessions producer Jamie Patricof also produced the Oscar-nominated film Half Nelson.

Interesting tidbit 2: The production company that made Half Nelson was also responsible for the short film, Super Powers, shown during the most recent Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Interesting tidbit 3: "Mr. Excelsior" himself weighs in on the superclad streetwalkers, all of whom would've killed for a chance to be on his Sci-Fi Channel show, and it ain't very complementary...

Chris Dooley and I headed over to our local mall's GameStop to check out the throngs of 'Halo' devotees and perhaps even pick up a copy of so coveted game. (Well, not really perhaps, I've had my copy reserved for some time ...) While there were the usual groups of kids that were 'too cool for school' there also were a lot of really genuine 'Halo' fans, ones that were psyched to chew the fat on Master Chief, the comic, and what they were going to do the second they got the game and went home.

This midnight launch pulled out all the stops. Chick-fil-A was on site, handing out three dollar sandwiches to whoever was feeling hungry. A huge candy stand was there offering delicious refreshments for only one dollar each. And then, of course, the piece d'resistance, Dippin' Dots. Seriously, how can you turn down ice cream at a midnight event?

The first question I posed to the willing gamer masses was, 'How long have you been waiting here?' Our answers had a wide range. One group informed me that they were waiting in anticipation since last night at Best Buy. Apparently they'd been misinformed that Best Buy was holding a midnight release last night. Sadly untrue. So from their perspective, they'd been waiting over 24 hours. The first group of Halo lovers in line had been waiting in anticipation since 6 O'Clock. It was around 11 O'Clock when we interviewed them. Their respective ages ranged from 14-16 and they were all SUPER excited about their soon to be third run in with the Chief.

As for 'Halo: Uprising'? The first group of people we talked to had different, but valid opinions. One fan said that the comic was good, but they needed to put in more Elites since they were such a huge part of the series. We don't disagree. Another fan told me that he loved Marvel so much that they could "hand him a turd" and he'd still read it. You GO, Marvel, that's got to be one heck of a compliment.

The 'Halo 3' Launch

Sounds weird, especially in this broadband world of ours, that anyone would have the desire to reach out to famous folks, not over the Net or in person, but by a letter delivered by the good ol' U.S. Postal Service. But that's what exactly San Franciscan and budding cartoonist Dan Stafford has done. And, it's so appealingly low-tech that it's even worked too...

In fact, a few of the folks who have responded so far -- at least the ones Dan has posted at his Web site -- easily constitute the beginnings of a "who's who" list of today's alt cartoonists, among them Jeffrey Brown, Adrian Tomine, James Kochalka and Joe Matt. In my opinion, however, the crown jewel of the bunch is a breezy six-page handwritten letter from R. Crumb, the grandmaster among all living alt cartoonists.

What 's Dan's payoff, except for a little recognition and generating some major fanboy envy? "Honestly, I'm a fanboy. So I wrote interview questions, things I'm curious about. In some cases, it's brought abut friendship (Jeffrey Brown) and in others some skepticism (Crumb). But, it's always great."

And, Dan's not a bad cartoonist either, so after you hit the links and read the letters, check out his Dirtbag strips, a more classic take on the awesome toon satires of David Rees (Get Your War On). (Thanks to Street for the link...)

Star Wars fans rejoice. Your gaming needs are about to be met with Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. This is not some port or retread of a PS2 or PS3 title. Renegade Squadron is being developed by Rebellion, a UK based game development group responsible for such titles as GUN: Showdown and Rogue Trooper. Rebellion is a unique developer in that they also produce comics under the 2000 AD label with titles like Judge Dredd and Nemesis The Warlock. It's this tie to the world of comics, and the storytelling aspects that both gamers and comic fans should get excited about. Battlefront has been known for it's fun multi-player, a feature Rebellion expands on and enhances with a unique Han Solo storyline.

Sit back and get ready to learn about comics, games and geekdom from Rebellions creators themselves, Mike Burnham: Head of Production, Tim Jones: Head of Design and Mike Rosser: Lead Designer.

Q: How were you approached to develop Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron?

[Mike Burnham] Our business development team sat down next to a representative from LucasArts at a games conference a couple of years go. LucasArts just happened to be looking for a top quality developer for the next PSP Battlefront game. We had just successfully finished a number of high-profile PSP titles and are obviously huge Star Wars fans, so it seemed like a match made in heaven... and with a name like Rebellion, it was obviously meant to be!

Q: Were there aspects of the first Battlefront PSP title you've tried to keep in your game?

[Mike Rosser] The first title was very successful, so we tried to retain all that was good about it, and improve wherever we could, adding new content and features. On a general level, we tried to keep the fast and furious action that fans of the franchise expect. Being more specific, the game defaults to an improved control scheme that's new to Battlefront PSP, but we've also kept the 'Default' control scheme from Battlefront II PSP for returning fans.

I think it's pretty safe for me to assume many of you who read my near-daily musings in this space have seen Judd Apatow's nerdtastic The 40-Year-Old Virgin either on cable (it's been playing as of late on Cinemax) or DVD.

If so, you remember the almost-breakup of the virgin (Steve Carell) and his all-too patient and hot grandma/girlfriend (Catherine Keener) after a passionate kiss that knocked a set of hermetically sealed-forever action figures off Trish's bed near the end of the film, leading, no doubt, to an amazing rant from Andy that's been repeated in homes and bedrooms by fans all over the world about damaging the value of their prized possessions. Like a pristine action figure of The Six Million Dollar Man's boss, Oscar Goldman...

Evidently, there's some substance behind that aforementioned movie title, if you pay attention to the details in Wikipedia pages like I do. Douglas Wolk, filling the hole in funnybook journalism/activism left behind by former Time scribe Andrew Arnold, reminds us about the "long standing" FYOV anagram used to describe who buy comics based solely on their monetary value.

This alone probably explains the existence of Florida-based Certified Guaranty Co., profiled last week by the LA Times Geoff Boucher, and the low art, in my opinion, of appraising and slabbing comic collectibles "that make them both unreadable and instanly more valuable."

Simon Oliver, best known for his work on Exterminators, is expanding his horizons--taking on a 6-issue arc of Wildstorm's Gen-13 (as revealed in San Diego), and just announced--writing a Hellblazer spinoff mini-series featuring Chas, John Constantine's long-suffering cab-driver friend...with art by Goran Sudzuka (Y: the Last Man, Lady Constantine) and covers by Glenn Fabry (Hellblazer, Preacher).

So for those of you who don't read Exterminators (your loss--great comic!), and probably even those who do, you probably don't know much about Simon Oliver. Neither did I. As far as I knew, his first comic work was Exterminators #1, but I thought it was possible he had done some work for 2000 A.D. or something. So I called him up to get the lowdown.

In a nutshell.... After leaving South London to pursue his fortune as a scuba instructor, Simon Oliver met his wife in Honduras. She convinced him to move back to Los Angeles with her. There he worked as a camera assistant, and "started writing 4 years ago--movie and TV scripts--just kind of for the hell of it."

"I was not a 'comic reader'", he said. "I had read Watchmen and some Frank Miller stuff. But when I read 100 Bullets, I said to myself, 'Wow! You can do this kind of stuff in comics?'" So he took the Exterminators ("a TV pitch that I knew was never going to get made"), and flogged it to Vertigo. And after 10 drafts of the script, they went for it.

Eddie Campbell is not only comics royalty, with Bacchus, Alec, and a little ditty called From Hell which he co-created with Alan Moore to his credit, he's also a true gentleman, a raconteur par excellence, and (full disclosure) I'm honored to call him my friend. I first met Eddie through mutual friends at Comic-Con some ten years ago, and though it had been five years since we last saw each other, we were able to reconnect in person at this year's Con.

Somewhat ironically, however, knowing what Con schedules are like, this interview was mostly conducted via email prior to arrival in San Diego. Thanks to an overzealous spam filter (mine, not Eddie's) though, plans to publish the piece prior to Comic-Con were scotched, but I hope you'll find that, like a fine wine, the extra aging has only improved its bouquet... or something.

Eddie's latest book, and his first western, is The Black Diamond Detective Agency, which First Second Books released a little over a month ago. If you haven't done so already, check out the nifty promotional trailer that the publisher put together for the book (I love it that publishers are increasingly creating trailers to promote their comics and graphic novels these days), then kick back and enjoy spending some time in the (virtual) company of Eddie Campbell.

CA: Though you've adapted other writers' work into comics form in the past --most notably your alchemical transmutations of Alan Moore's stage performances-- The Black Diamond Detective Agency strikes me as a rather unexpected move even for such as unpredictable artist such as yourself. How did you come to adapt C. Gaby Mitchell's unproduced screenplay into a graphic novel? Who approached you with the project?

EC: The great songwriter Sammy Cahn used to say: "What comes first, the words or the music? I'll tell you: Always, always, the telephone call." First Second phoned and presented me with the proposal. Simple as that. But how often in this business does somebody phone you for a job that doesn't involve superheroes? I guess that for me was the attraction. It's a grand old fashioned adventure yarn that stays within the bounds of believability.

For the growing number of you who "wait for the trades" rather than collect single issues -- one Comic-Con San Diego panelist argued buying the latter was cheaper than the former -- and you're a fan of Hellboy, you may be surprised, or not, to learn Duncan Fegredo -- the awesome cartoonist of a pair of my fav classic DC/Vertigo books Enigma and Kid Eternity -- will be pinch-hitting on the art chores, not only on the current Darkness Calls mini, but the two that follow.

No wonder, considering Mignola is a bit busy right now working on Hellboy 2: The Golden Army over in Romania with Guillermo del Toro, according to this interesting interview via Playback: STL.

"With Hellboy it was much trickier, because I did need somebody who could draw Hellboy... I mean, Hellboy is such a product of my style, I needed a guy who worked in at least a similar kind of style, so that Hellboy would still look like Hellboy," says Mignola. "And Duncan is just great at it. I want a guy who can draw, and in the case of Hellboy at least, uses blacks and when he does buildings, that they're done with a certain kind of authority. Duncan's just great. I wish there [were] five more of him out there."

There is no reason you would know this, but I am a big 'Terminator' fan. I loved the first movie, went completely crazy over the second and, well, have mostly learned to like the third. To me, this is one of the greatest series of action movies ever made and they will always hold a special place on my DVD shelf. Like the rest of the world, when I heard that there was going to be a Terminator series I had one real question. WHY! This is a great series of movies, why ruin it with a TV show that we all know can't be as good. You don't have the necessary budget for TV and you don't have time to get the action scenes just right. So why bother trying?

As details were released I found that it didn't sound as bad as I thought it might. Then I heard the casting and started to change my mind. I only knew a few of the cast members, but the fact that they cast Summer Glau into the series helped change my opinion. I have been a HUGE fan of hers since the very first episode of 'Firefly' and was happy to see her have a regular guest spot on 'The 4400.' To me her casting said that the producers might actually be able to pull this off.

This weekend at Comic-Con International a room full of lucky people were able to see the first episode and sit in on a panel with some of the stars, writers and producers. Unfortunately for me, I had other commitments at the time so I had to miss the screening but I was able to get a few minutes with most of the stars before they went on stage. I would have loved to have more time, but with the time constraints that were on everyone we only had about 6 minutes with each set of people.

First up we were introduced to Lena Headey (Sarah Connor) and Thomas Dekker (John Connor). Maybe it was the lack of caffeine, but I didn't pick up on who Thomas was. If I had I would have probably geeked out on 'Heroes' for a while. Since time was so short we jumped right into the questions.

WARNING: The following article may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.