Stan Lee saving journalism in Lunch Lady Land

While you don't get much of the feel of racing through Marseilles, I thought my portrayal of the motorcycle was pretty well done, and the car was even close to good. I'm not a strong drawer of vehicles, but I was pretty happy with this.

I imaged a long, drawn out race scene, but figured that not everyone wanted to wait for three weeks, while I drew three pages of the story not progressing. Granted, this might be the type of thing that's more exciting to read, that there doesn't necessarily have to be a lot of talking to progress the story, IF you're moving it forward visually. In any case, here's page 73 from Escape From M__.

Dr. Casey Miller, Dr. Howard Bolam and Evelyn escape from an unknown assailant in Escape from M____.

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 28), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Folks I'm following
Here are a few links from the blogs I'm following these days. A great post from the talented Skottie Young [Snow Day], a series of podcasts from the incredibly useful (and edgy) Your Screenplay Sucks [PODCASTS #10, #11, #12 are reaaaaaady and waiiiiiiting! More Filmmaking Sins!] here's something of a year in review from Script Magazine [WGA News: End of Year 2011] and an amateur project that deserve just as much recognition as mine, Wonder [Newfoundland and Other Things]

Graphic novel news
Read a one-on-one interview with Stan Lee, reflecting on his story in comics. As they put it, Lee's story is really the story OF comics. Pretty cool. Read how Caleb Melby (I think Caleb is a sweet name) is looking to using graphic novels as a new form of story telling (like unique maps) and finding the human element in stories to keep people reading. And one for my wife her passion for Adam Sandler + Chris Farley. A graphic-novel series on the Lunch Lady has GOT to be funny, or else it'd be nothing more than a tragedy.

Check it out!

Stan Lee Reflects on 70 Years in Comics
Joey Esposito
http://comics.ign.com

"Stan's story is really the history of comics and he was inspired by so many real-life events that were happening at the time, so it was covering history, comic book history, and it was covering his personal life which is the part that everyone is responding to," explained Dougas. "His relationship with his business partners, his friends, his wife. The guy's not as tough as he seems to be. He's a sweetheart."

Click to read more.

Why The Graphic Novel Will Save Business Journalism
Aziz Ali
psfk.com

[J]ournalism remains an industry in crisis. Caleb [Melby] believes that focusing on newer ways of storytelling (i.e. interactive maps, unique story ideas) and finding the human element (i.e business leaders, relationships within a particular industry) are the keys to saving journalism. The graphic novel therefore, is one form that can easily be leveraged to achieve this.

Click to read more.

Author of 'Lunch Lady' children's book series visits students at George L. Hess in Hamilton Township
JOEL LANDAU
pressofatlanticcity.com

Children's author Jarrett J. Krosoczka used an active imagination and perseverance to turn stories he wrote in elementary school into a successful career and a popular graphic novel series.

Krosoczka spoke to the fourth- and fifth-grade classes Monday at the George L. Hess Education Complex to encourage children to write and draw using their imagination and creativity. Krosoczka, who writes and illustrates his books, showed students stories, which featured kitchen appliances, that he wrote and drew as an elementary school student.

Click to read more.

The Shadow of a Hero Reborn with Dragon Tattoos

When I was naming scenes, some are cute cultural references to different things, but not this one. It was simply "Escape from M.." but I didn't want to reveal this guy's name just yet. You'd never hear the name in the story, so I couldn't rightly put it in the name of one of the scenes.

Is it more intriguing or mysterious without his name? Maybe not, but I'm OK with the choice. I'm not especially good at drawing motorized vehicles, but I tried my best with the car chase.

Dr. Casey Miller, Dr. Howard Bolam and Evelyn escape from an unknown assailant in Escape from M____.

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Dec. 21), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
It's kind of backwards, what with most graphic novels and comic characters being turned into movies these days, including the awesome Kick Ass, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is going from foreign film, to novel, to Hollywood film and finally to graphic novel. An interesting path.

Also, read about the upcoming "The Shadow"and an engineering student's new graphic novel. An engineer surely can create some fascinating super powers, right?

Garth Ennis to Write New 'The Shadow' Ongoing Series for Dynamite
Andy Khouri
Comics Alliance

Just a few days after we learned that Dynamite Entertainment had done the impossible and secured the rights to reprint Howard Chaykin's legendary The Shadow: Blood and Judgement in a new graphic novel edition, the publisher dropped another pulp bomb on us Monday morning: Garth Ennis will write an all-new The Shadow series for Dynamite. Debuting in April, the book will be drawn by Aaron Campbell (Dynamite's The Complete Dracula, Green Hornet: Year One) and feature cover artwork by the usual suspects: Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Jae Lee and, of course, Howard Chaykin. But unlike Chaykin's radical interpretation of The Shadow, the new Ennis series will be set in the 1930s.

Click to read more.

‘A Hero Reborn’ flies onto bookshelves
Amanda Rossetti
The Temple News Online

Torin Johnson, freshman engineering major, wrote a graphic novel to be released later this month.

Writing a novel is many people’s dream, yet due to the arduous nature of the undertaking, many aspiring writers become too discouraged to ever start. And, once written, getting a novel published is an even more difficult and daunting task. However, freshman civil engineering major Torin Johnson was not intimidated by these tasks and faced the adventure head on.

Click to read more.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo To Become Graphic Novel
Jack Greer
Comic Book.com

‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ seems to find success everywhere, it appears. First with the three novels, and recently with the U.S. film adaptation starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Now, the books are expanding into another genre: graphic novels.

DC Entertainment’s Vertigo division will write multiple graphic novels based on the best selling Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Crime author Denise Mina will write the book, with art by Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti. Lee Bermejo will handle the cover image. “We’re thrilled to be adapting this incredible story into a series of graphic novels,” stated Karen Berger, executive editor, Vertigo. “Denise, Lee, Leonardo and Andrea have such great passion for the material and stylistically they’re a perfect match to bring it to comics life. Their beautifully dark and visceral work will certainly blow us all away.”

Click to read more.

“It’s like a brutal accident; you can't watch but you can't turn away.”

I love this page - nothing really gets said, but it was really fun writing something and showing it again from a different perspective. The different lighting, excitement, etc, I was looking forward to drawing this page for a long time, knowing that the story was leading up to it.

There are a few really exciting scenes that I'm eager to do work on - I'll be eager to show you the rest, too.

Hope you like it. Here's Page 71.

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics (Update Jan. 20)
• Tomb of the Undead, or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Preachers, kids, perversity, blasphemy and Billy Fog's 'trouble vision.' Check 'em all out!

Book Review: Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Clive Maxfield
embedded.com

The story follows an ex-preacher, Jesse, who has become disgusted with God's abandoning of His responsibilities. So Jesse sets off into the wilds of Texas with his “hit-man” girlfriend and his new best friend (a vampire) to find God so that he can give Him a piece of his mind.

Be warned: Preacher is littered with perversity and blasphemy. As the official Amazon review says: “It’s like a brutal accident; you can't watch but you can't turn away.”

Click to read more.

Kids TV and Comics Writer Jorge Aguirre
Brian Glaser
kids.baristanet.com

For kids, their favorite cartoons or comic book characters will come and go, and eventually be replaced by entertainment for teens and adults. But for people like Jorge Aguirre, a Montclair dad who writes for childrens shows like Dora the Explorer, Handy Manny and Go, Diego, Go!, the characters stay in his imagination for years and years.

Click to read more.

Graphic novel 'Billy Fog' stars a boy with 'trouble sight'
Brian Truitt
USA TODAY

Story by French graphic novelist Guillaume Bianco.

('Billy Fog' is about) [a] witty, quirky book that would appeal to those who fancy the works of Lemony Snicket or Tim Burton, Billy Fog follows the title character, who has the gift of "trouble sight" — the little boy naturally sees monsters, ghosts and the most interesting supernatural creatures unless he puts on his glasses, which return his vision to what most people would consider "normal."

One day, Billy finds the body of his cat Tarzan dead and he becomes obsessed with death, wanting to figure out how to bring Tarzan back to life and running into strange and wonderful characters in his quest, all while tormenting his little sister Jeannie.

Click to read more.

Axe-Job for the best of 2011

I feel awful I haven't posted anything in like two weeks - BUT this weekend there will be progress. You can hold me to that!

Here's page 70 posted up. Another great scene of exposition with Ian Escutcheon. He's sort of a gatekeeper of information, and luckily the protagonists ask questions, so they get answers unless there's a problem of some sort.

You can see that I've had difficultly maintaining consistency in Escutcheon's appearance, he just doesn't quite resemble Gene Wilder like he should, but ... as I may have said before, Wilder was just a reference point.

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
The Comics Alliance has released its best 11 comics of 2011, Axe Body Spray has created a wiki-comic where people can influence the direction of the story, and a graphic novel about Steve Jobs is ready to roll.

Check it out!

ComicsAlliance's Complete 11 Best Comics of 2011
CA Staff
ComicsAlliance.com

Over the last several weeks, ComicsAlliance assembled its annual list of the best comics and graphic novels of the year with the help of our editors, writers, and readers. Like any list, it is naturally subjective, but we've packed it chock full of eleven comics that have awed us, excited us, and entertained us over the last 12 months, and books that we're passionate about recommending. Now that the year has finally come to a close, we've assembled the entire list in one place for easy reading as we take a much-needed day off. Let us know what comics you enjoyed the most in 2011, and what you're looking forward to in 2012!

Click to read more.

Steve Jobs comic book: Local firm Jess3 ventures into 'business folklore'
Andrew Beaujon
tbd.com

Jesse Thomas, the CEO of local creative firm Jess3, was at lunch with Bruce Upbin, an editor at Forbes, last May when he and Jess3's Leslie Bradshaw pitched a graphic account of what Thomas calls the Apple co-founder's "lost years" -- after he got forced out of Apple in 1985. It was "this mysterious time where he went through some kind of change and came back the person we know," Thomas says.

Forbes bought the idea immediately, Thomas says. Caleb Melby, a Forbes reporter, was assigned to write the text; Jess3 handled hiring illustrators and bringing the resulting book, The Zen of Steve Jobs, together.

Click to read more.

Axe Invites Fans To Write Their Graphic Novel
Jonathan Barnard
zenithoptimedia.blogspot.com

“Axe Anarchy” is a crowdsourced graphic novel about two of Axe’s newest fragrances. Axe is reaching out to fans on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for suggestions to help create and develop the storyline. If you’re lucky, you may even be drawn in as a character in the story.

Click to read more.

Perdition, Revelations and Escapin' Nazis

I'm just strippin' to put myself through college.

Here's Page 69. I should load up my guideline artwork that I draw Ian Escutcheon from - they're based on Gene Wilder, and if you look at my guidelines, they definitely look like Gene Wilder - but when I put it in the comic, something gets lost in translation.

It's probably better that Wilder is just the guideline, and Escutcheon takes on an appearance of his own, though. Can you see the Wilder in Escutcheon? It seems the scenes with Escutcheon have a lot of exposition in them, which is important - he's sort of the gatekeeper of information in this story. But he's willing to give information up - which is important. It also means that we get scenes with a whole lot of talkin' in them, too.

My wife thought it was funny that Escutcheon pulls a "ventriloquist act" by speaking while taking a sip of water. ... for the record, that wasn't my intention.

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Dec. 21), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Read about a graphic novel that's inspired by a true story about escaping from Nazis, the Greatest Battle, a war in Heaven based on the book of Revelations, and Max Allan Collins's, the author of "Road to Perdition" latest work. Check it out!

Trina Robbins Discovers "Lily Renee"
Alex Dueben
ComicbookResources.com

... (Trina) Robbins' new book from Graphic Universe is "Lily Renee: Escape Artist." The true story of Lily Renee, a girl who grew up in Vienna, escaped to Britain after Nazi Germany annexed Austria on the kindertransport, worked at a hospital during the blitz and was later reunited with her parents in the United States. All before she turned 17. In her teens and twenties, Renee worked as a comic book artist, most notably for Golden Age publisher Fiction House. Being the early '40s, many of the comics this young woman illustrated involved fighting the Nazis she had escaped and on paper was able to tell the stories of strong women fighting the Nazi threat in their own way.

Click to read more.

Author uses graphic visuals to depict battle that changed creation forever
Chidi Emebo
PRNewsChannel.com

In the book of Revelation, the Bible references a great war in heaven. Chidi Emebo paints a picture of what he thinks this battle looked like in “The Greatest Battle: Love & Pride” (ISBN 1463773862). Emebo creates a fictional story based on biblical information, and uses unique visuals to help the reader’s imagination come to life.

Click to read more.

Collins Returns to "Perdition"
Alex Dueben
ComicbookResources.com

Max Allan Collins is a name familiar to most mystery and comics fans. In the world of comics, he worked on a number of Batman projects, co-created and wrote the long running independent comic "Ms. Tree" -- in addition to other projects like "Johnny Dynamite," "Wild Dog" and "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" -- and enjoyed a long run on the "Dick Tracy" comic strip. His best known comics work is the graphic novel "Road to Perdition," which was turned into an award-winning film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman.

Click to read more.

Kid koala space cadets and inspirational hurricanes and gothic architecture

Stripper with a heart of gold.

Here's Page 68 of "What happened in there?." You can see in this page I'm starting to put to good use a "word bubble" technique I picked up from reading "Y: The Last Man" by Brian K. Vaughan (which is awesome, because he was part of the writing team for Lost during Season 4). I was a little more creative in the paneling, though it's still pretty standard - the next development in my cartoon-stripping might be coming up with more dynamic cells and borders for each page.

BUT - I'm not making any promises. I personally can see a huge difference in the layout, shading, lettering and even the expressions on the characters a year after starting. A big difference - I can only hope the improvement continues!

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 6), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news

This time, read about how the devastation of Hurricane Katrina inspired a state lawmaker to co-create a graphic novel, how architecture is just as important in a Batman comic as the heroic dark knight himself, and the energetic multi-media creativity of Kid Koala. Check it out!

Graphic appeal: Former state lawmaker works with local college artists to bring zombie comic novel to print
Adam Goldstein
AuroraSentinel.com

Nearly six years later (after visiting Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans), (Bob) Hagedorn’s mixed sense of hopelessness and horror has found an unlikely expression. Drawing on a long-held passion for fiction, Hagedorn used his initial reaction to the destruction as the spur to write a graphic novel, a comic titled, “An American Apocalypse” that revolves around zombies roving in the cityscape of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Click to read more.

Chip Kidd Presents 'Batman: Death by Design' to Designers
Andy Khouri
ComicsAlliance.com

It turns out we're not the only ones with more than a passing interest in the architecture-based approach to Batman: Death by Design. The book's writer, award-winning graphic designer Chip Kidd, presented the project to a fascinated crowd of fellow graphic artists at PIVOT: AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Design Conference this past October. Expanding on what we already know about the Dave Taylor-illustrated book and offering many new details and artwork besides, Kidd took his audience through the book's first 20 pages.

Kidd began his presentation with childhood photos that demonstrated his lifelong obsession with Batman and detailed how he came to write his first graphic novel, which he came to with the title first.

Click to read more.

DJ Kid Koala keeps spinning an interesting career
Mike Bell
CalgaryHerald.com

.... There’s (Kid Koala's) ongoing work as a member of the hip-hop act Deltron 3030, which he says are putting the finishing touches on a new album. There’s his work in the project The Slew with members of Wolfmother. And there is, of course, his graphic novel work, which saw the recent release of his second graphic novel Space Cadet.

Space Cadet is a 132-page graphic novel drawn entirely on etchboards. It is accompanied by a "still picture score" of music composed and recorded by Kid Koala.

Click to read more.