Indian taboos, skullkickers and a lousy superman cop-out to defeat zombies

Here's page 55 of Tomb of the Undead from the scene I don't trust those lazy bastards. I liked this scene, mostly because I really like Darrell Starkwood, and writing for him is a lot of fun. I'm not sure what anyone else thinks of him, as I've never heard (really) any feedback on the graphic novel so far ... but I like Starkwood.

Synopsis:
Dr. Starkwood suspects that Barnum Mantell might not have the museum's best interests in mind in I Don't Trust those Lazy Bastards.

I'm not sure if people can tell, but Starkwood is based on the Buffalo Sabre's head coach Lindy Ruff (in the NHL). I have no idea what Ruff's character is like, but he resembles Starkwood in many ways. I might have mentioned it before, but Barnum Mantell is based on Sidney Poitier, which you may or may not be able to tell. He's named after two very important paleontologists, too, which doesn't make much sense considering he's helping archaeologists, but I'm a super fan of paleontologists, so it makes sense to me.

My wife never thought naming a kid Barnum or Giddeon was a good idea ... so I name my fictional characters after the cool names that I think people should have.

Anyhow - that's WAY more behind the scenes stuff than I usually divulge - ...

Graphic novel news
We've got another update from India as graphic novelists continue to transcend the boundaries of what's acceptable subject matter. It's demonstrating that in a marginalized medium like the graphic novel, the most severe issues can be challenged and discussed. It's fascinating, and it's definitely contrarian, which is exactly what graphic novels should be dealing with.

Followed by a Batman vs. the Undead review, which is a graphic novel about batman fighting zombies from New Orleans after Katrina. Yeah, it sounds awful, and the review says as much. Check it out.

As for stories with really cool names: Skull Kickers is right up there! I love it. The review heralds the idea of a graphic novel that is fun, not too serious, and awesome. Check it out, too.

Great set of stories this time around!

Graphic novelists shake up world of Indian comics
By Atish Patel
www.reuters.com

Characters from centuries-old myths and folktales have adorned the covers of children's comic books in India for decades, but a new wave of graphic novelists has emerged to shake up the art form.

Their quest for ultra-Indian superheroes has created new crossover comics aimed at both children and adults, while others have boldly gone further, tackling issues such as suicide and homosexuality -- taboo topics in much of India.

"We are the new recorders of history. That's how I consider myself," said Sarnath Banerjee, whose graphic novel "Corridor" is set in New Delhi and delves into politics and sex.

"I write, I see through my own eyes and I put it out."

Generations of young Indians have grown up with the Amar Chitra Katha series based on Hindu epics and mythology, and it remains one of India's best-selling comic books series.

But the success of Banerjee and others, such as the pioneering 1994 black-and-white "River of Stories" by Orijit Sen that dealt with the social and environmental impact of a controversial dam, are prompting changes even among such traditional comic publishers.

Click to read more.

Batman vs. The Undead – Graphic Novel Review
By Stephen McCarthy
Primary Ignition

Batman vs The Undead is sequel to the Superman & Batman vs Vampires & Werewolves which was a limited series. However, this sequel was published in the serial Batman Confidential, issues 44-48, which is baffling to say the least. Batman Confidential was supposed to be a series of stories that chronicled the early years of Batman. This is already a problem as this is a sequel that isn’t chronicling first meetings or anything of the sort. This is written as if Bruce Wayne has been Batman for many years and this comes off in the premise as well. The story starts out in New Orleans and Bruce Wayne is donating money to help out with rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. While Hurricane Katrina happen some years back and rebuilding continues to take place, it still seems like this even does not fit in with the spirit of Batman Confidential.

The story itself makes even less sense. It seems like there was something bigger and better to be told, but time is wasted and everything gets rushed to an unsatisfactory ending. Because this is a sequel to Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves, Superman is in the comic for no good reason at all. Superman can’t fight against magic and they are doing nothing but fighting against magic, voodoo, whatever. Superman is just shoehorned into the story and not doing much of anything except for everyone telling him basically not to get involved. The way he eventually does get involved comes off as a huge copout, and it also concludes the story.

The other big problem that I have is the narration. You can clearly see Batman’s inner monologue. This is perfectly fine and I enjoyed it, but at some point there is another inner dialog that belongs to no one that is basically explaining everything about the new bad guys introduced at the start of the third chapter. This narrator does not seem to be any character involved and it comes off as the voice of the writer trying to fill us in on everything as there would not be enough time/issues left for exposition through the story. Instead we are basically told it in these narration boxes. It fills me in enough but it reeks of bad planning.

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Skullkickers: 1,000 Opas & A Dead Body – Graphic Novel Review
By Rob Siebert
Primary Ignition

From the day I first saw Skullkickers #1 at my local comic shop, I’ve maintained that there’s something incredibly satisfying about saying the title. SKULL KICKERS. It just sounds incredibly cool, which is fitting, because the book is pretty damn cool too.

The first Skullkickers book finds two freelance mercenaries, a dwarf and a big burly bald guy (their names aren’t given for whatever reason) set off to find the corpse of the freshly assassinated chancellor. Little do they know that their quest will lead them directly into the path of a warlock (NOT Charlie Sheen) his army of zombies, and even a soul-sucking giant.

In my First Impression of this series, I said Skullkickers seems like a book that simply isn’t afraid to be what it is. Thankfully, that tone is still present in this book. These characters live in a surreal World of Warcraft-type environment filled with dwarves, warlocks, goblins, fairies, etc. Their dialogue goes back and forth between medieval/old timey and modern English. This richly populated world, mixed with this not-incredibly-serious voice makes for a really fun read that spoofs the fantasy genre.

Click to read more.

Super Dinosaur moves down the Corridor to the Popularity Papers

Here's the next page for Tomb of the Undead. You can check the whole scene out at Trapped on an airplane.

This scene gets cool in a little bit, so check it out.

Graphic Novel news
'Super Dinosaur' ready for a dino-mite debut
By Brian Truitt
USA TODAY

Robert Kirkman likes to think that every kid is enamored with dinosaurs — even the overgrown kids that enjoy his more adult comic books.

"Big giant monsters that looked awesome that actually existed? How do you not love dinosaurs? If anyone out there doesn't like dinosaurs, I would like them to contact me and explain that," says the writer and creator of The Walking Dead.

Kirkman is teaming again with his partner from The Astounding Wolf-Man, artist Jason Howard, for Super Dinosaur, a new all-ages book debuting April 20 on Kirkman's Image Comics imprint, Skybound. The comic will be available in comic shops as well as digitally on the Image Comics app for iPad and iPhone.

In addition, the Super Dinosaur Origin Special debuts on Free Comic Book Day May 7 in comic book stores all across the USA. "That'll tell you exactly how he became a 9-foot-tall talking dinosaur that's as smart as a human and has giant mechanical arms he controls and uses to fight crime," Kirkman says.

Super Dinosaur has all the elements of a cartoon that kids over the years would rush home from school to witness: a relatable hero in boy genius Derek Dynamo; an awesome, well-weaponized character in Super Dinosaur himself; a nefarious baddie in Doctor Max Maximus; and panel-to-panel action.

Click to read more.

Corner: 'Popularity' sequel: Amy Ignatow's inner 5th-graders romp on
KAREN MACPHERSON
Scripps Howard News Service

When author/artist Amy Ignatow's book agent rejected her proposal for an adult graphic novel, he also had a word of advice.

"He told me, 'I don't want to offend you, but I think your work is very childlike,' and he suggested that I write for kids," Ignatow said in a recent talk with members of the Children's Book Guild of Washington, D.C. "The moment he said that, I thought, 'Yes! That's what comes naturally to me.' "

So Ignatow created "The Popularity Papers" (Amulet/Abrams, $15.95, ages 8-12), which was published last spring. Subtitled "Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang," the book is presented as a colorfully illustrated, hand-lettered journal kept by the two fifth-graders as they try to figure out how to become popular.

Funny and realistic, this first volume of "The Popularity Papers" has become a smash hit with girl readers, and garnered rave reviews in School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and The New York Times. Now, Ignatow has just published a sequel, "The Popularity Papers: The Long-Distance Dispatch Between Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang (Amulet/Abrams, $15.95, ages 8-12), in which the friends must cope with a six-month separation when Lydia's family moves to London.

Ignatow, 33, has been pleasantly stunned by her seemingly overnight success.

"I've been very lucky," Ignatow said. "I had a choice of publishers."

Born and raised in Huntington, Long Island, Ignatow has been drawing for as long as she can remember. She's also a lifelong record-keeper and journal-maker, something that helped her decide on the format for "The Popularity Papers."

Ignatow studied illustration at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, graduating in 2002. Over the years, she's been a teacher, farmer, florist, short-order vegan cook, a dancing chicken, a wedding singer and a ghostwriter for Internet personal ads.

But Ignatow also has kept drawing.

Some years ago, she created a web comic called "Ig City" and sent a link to an agent named Dan Lazar, who liked her art and writing. So Ignatow decided to try writing an autobiographical graphic novel for adults. It was at that point that Lazar turned down the adult graphic novel, but helped Ignatow ignite her career by aiming instead for a kid audience.

Interestingly, Ignatow's career arc has parallels to that of Jeff Kinney, who hit it big over the past few years with his hugely popular "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. Like Ignatow, Kinney first targeted his work to an adult audience, but couldn't get published until he switched his focus to young readers.

Click to read more.

Graphic novelists shake up world of Indian comics
Atish Patel Reuters.com

NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - Characters from centuries-old myths and folktales have adorned the covers of children's comic books in India for decades, but a new wave of graphic novelists has emerged to shake up the art form.

Their quest for ultra-Indian superheroes has created new crossover comics aimed at both children and adults, while others have boldly gone further, tackling issues such as suicide and homosexuality -- taboo topics in much of India.

"We are the new recorders of history. That's how I consider myself," said Sarnath Banerjee, whose graphic novel "Corridor" is set in New Delhi and delves into politics and sex.

"I write, I see through my own eyes and I put it out."

Generations of young Indians have grown up with the Amar Chitra Katha series based on Hindu epics and mythology, and it remains one of India's best-selling comic books series.

But the success of Banerjee and others, such as the pioneering 1994 black-and-white "River of Stories" by Orijit Sen that dealt with the social and environmental impact of a controversial dam, are prompting changes even among such traditional comic publishers.

Some are also looking to create brand new superheroes that are quintessentially Indian to see off competition from the likes of Spiderman and Batman, who have gained popularity with the onslaught of American cartoons and movies on Indian TV.

Indian superheroes are not the "cape-flying, spandex-wearing guy who is flying about, but a guy who is practical, who has an Indian outfit, who can connect to an Indian," said Karan Vir Arora, editor-in-chief of Vimanika Comics, a Mumbai start-up.

Vimanika Comics aims to bridge the gap between historical narratives and graphic novels, giving mythological characters a 21st century facelift.

The company's "The Sixth" series shows Karna, a warrior from the ancient Indian epic "Mahabharata," in a modern light. The series starts as a high-flying businessman, suffering from recurrent nightmares, discovers he is the reincarnation of Karna.

Another such publisher is Campfire, based in New Delhi, with "Ravana: Roar of the Demon King," a graphic novel of a story retold over centuries in India but this time seen through the eyes of its primary antagonist -- the demon king Ravana.

"We're trying to mix it. People have always related to these characters," Arora said.

"The characters are being shown in a very contemporary fashion, a stylish fashion."

The new blends sit well with both children and adults alike, meaning higher sales. Demand for "Ravana" is also high, illustrator Sachin Nagar says, although it has yet to be released. The company declined to provide pre-sale data.

Click to read more.

From moderday LA and Delhi, to cenozoic Portland

You can click on this link to read the "My taxes pay your salary" from Tomb of the Undead.

Darrell Starkwood looks to strike back at Dr. Miller.

I hadn't done anything like the final scene on the page before in the comic - I did some "smudging" and I really like the profile of Starkwood's face as the scene border. I liked drawing the detective, as well - I thought he was neat to draw. I hope you're not too attached to him, because you're unlikely to hear from him again ... ever. On the way home, after that shift, he decided to retire and move to Oklahoma, never to be heard from again. But you don't need to know that.

Graphic novel news
An interesting survey of news this time - we've got graphic novels about life in India, life in Oregon and life in Los Angeles. Check it out.

The Harappa Files | Ode to the commonplace
Graphic commentaries that illustrate the familiar past and present of Indian life
Supriya Nair
livemint.com

Sarnath Banerjee’s third book, after Corridor and The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers, is a series of “loosely bound graphic commentaries”, produced three years after he promised his editor he would never write a graphic novel again. He volunteers this information in an introductory page to The Harappa Files. The book opens with Greater Harappa Rehabilitation, Reclamation and Redevelopment Commission, sketches which explain how a “secret think-tank of elite bureaucrats, historians, ethnographers, social scientists, law enforcers, retired diplomats and policymakers…set up the committee to conduct a gigantic survey of the current ethnography and urban mythologies of a country on the brink of great hormonal changes.”

The “Harappa findings” are made public in subsequent pages, in flashes of illustration and commentary, most two or three pages long. Some of them contain slices of life from a less momentous age. Bureaucrats are represented by gargoyles; “self-taught chemists” selling cures for the eczema caused by terylene shirts are memorialized briefly; we recall a time when “we knew what the capital of Tonga was and how many medals Nadia Comaneci won at the Montreal Olympics”.

Some look forward. File #0491 / 11C / Nano conjures up visions of a Delhi saturated with so many cars that pedestrians “can finally cross the road” when the jam ceases to move.

The Greater Harappa Commission notwithstanding, the “findings” in this book are presented entirely in Banerjee’s trenchant voice and visual vocabulary. The stories here are succinct and often funny; but most also resist the temptation of the anti-climactic sting, or the single payoff line or panel that might make them slapstick.

The most refreshing thing about The Harappa Files is its format, which offers many opportunities for readers to return to it, dipping into a story or two at a time, lingering over favourites. It will feel like holding a commonplace book—certainly in the medieval sense of the term, as a scrapbook of memory, fact and aphorism, but also literally, as a book about the commonplace.

Banerjee has a wicked eye for the ubiquitous visuals of life in Delhi and Kolkata, so often representative of other parts of urban India as well. There is an awkward vibrancy to the way his characters are drawn. Like their surroundings, in schools, government offices and yes, the homes of the bourgeois, their beauty is complex and ungainly; it coexists and melds with their ugliness, their indifference, their sense of semi-permanence.

Banerjee draws these imperfections without caricaturing them, and his colouring expresses their mood near-perfectly. Sometimes in black and white, sometimes in cool, solid colours, each piece of art acquires depth and clarity. In File #6851 / 5M / Jessie, Banerjee depicts the scientist J.C. Bose, who demonstrated a wireless telegraphy experiment in Kolkata years before Marconi, but lost out on a Nobel Prize because bureaucratic delays prevented his discovery from becoming international news in time. He is looking, Banerjee says, “at two fornicating ants, wondering whether to cremate the pair with his magnifying glass or let his good upbringing come in the way”.

There is a poignancy to the tea-stained sepia illustration of the great man, and to the nonchalant absurdity of Banerjee’s text, that no middle-class revolutionary can adequately convey.

Click to read more.

Graphic novel set in Portland sends young readers back to the Ice Age to learn about the Missoula Floods
Anne Saker
The Oregonian

On family car trips back and forth from Portland to Montana, David Shapiro told his little boys stories of a great wall of water that crashed through the Northwest a long time ago.

A naturalist by inclination and education, Shapiro figured that his children could not be the only ones fascinated by the Ice Age tale of the Missoula Floods.

But Shapiro wanted to put the story in a genre where kids could "see" the floods that carved the Columbia River gorge. He blended Portland's DIY culture and its natural surroundings and hired two artists to write, illustrate and self-publish a graphic novel – a format "to make the material more fun and engaging" for a generation more familiar and even more comfortable with computer-driven creations than the eons-long story of natural history.

"Terra Tempo: Ice Age Cataclysm!" does just that. In its 140 pages, three young Portland friends discover a mysterious gateway for time travel on Council Crest. Jenna, her twin brother Caleb and their buddy Ari zip back 15,000 years to confront short-faced bears, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths. Ultimately, they witness a booming crack at glacial Lake Missoula that triggers the massive flood.

For a touch of magic realism, the authors bring in a Thunderbird, a mythological creature of the Northwest's Native people. The gigantic bird allows the three time travelers to hitch rides over the vast landscape to witness the changing earth. Jenna, whose flowing red scarf is almost a character on its own, names the bird Yakima.

The authors say, "Yes," the next "Terra Tempo" story will have dinosaurs.

Click to read more.

Vankin Tours the LA Nightlife with "Poseurs"
Kevin Mahadeo
Comicbookresources.com

Celebrities, extravagant parties, high-end clubs -- the Los Angeles nightlife definitely serves as an exciting, glamorous and sometimes downright seedy backdrop for countless tales across all sorts of mediums. And while "Poseurs" also employs the LA lifestyle as its setting, the Image Comics published graphic novel provides a whole new perspective on it all since writer Deborah Vankin spent years of her life immersed in that world as a reporter for countless news publications.

Written by Vankin with art by comic veteran Rick Mays, "Poseurs" follows three different youths who looking for their own sense of identity and place while caught up in the Los Angeles party scene. Currently a staff writer for the "Los Angeles Times," Vankin has acted as an arts and culture reporter for the past 10 years. Her background and experience in the area gave her a unique viewpoint for the "party-noir" graphic novel, which hits stores this week.

We caught up with Vankin while she took her dose of after work coffee to talk about how she got into comics, reality versus fiction and her enjoyment in breaking the fourth wall.

Click to read more.

Yeti enforcement, Sin CIty PD and the ease of writing over drawing

First page of the scene "My name is scam" which is a pun on a Sean Penn film, in name only. I haven't seen "My name is Sam," and don't know anything about it. Or Sean Penn. [My wife says it's about a mentally handicapped man who has a daughter ... and the plot thickens.]



Graphic novel news

Ceredo resident releases latest graphic novel
PAUL SEBERT
For The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- An agent of the U.S. Marshall's Black Badge Division, Wynonna Earp investigates cases where organized crime meets the supernatural.

In previous adventures she's dealt with a mummy hitman, werewolf bikers and even had a shoot-out with zombie post office workers in the middle of Ceredo. First appearing in comics in 1997, Wynonna Earp is the brainchild of Ceredo native Beau Smith. Smith has been writing comic books since 1985. Earp's newest adventure is a graphic novel titled "Wynonna Earp: The Yeti Wars."

The book, which retails for $17.99, is written by Smith and illustrated by Enrique Villangran with colors by Kris Carter. It is published by IDW Publishing, the third largest comic company in the United States.

"I wanted to go a little deeper into the world of paranormal organized crime in the new book," Smith said. "Just as in our world you have hierarchy of Yakuza, Mafia, etc., you have one in Wynonna Earp's world. You have the Immortals, who are at the top of the food chain, followed by Vampires, Werewolves, etc., until you get down to the zombies, who are the lowest form. The story opens up with her going up against a southern fried mad scientist named Dr. Billy Joe Rubidoux. Rubidoux likes to mesh the DNA of animals with people to create enforcers for the players in the organized crime world. She ends up stumbling onto a range war between the Vampire Nation and the Consortium of the Immortals."

The Yeti in this book are enforcers for an evil consortium of immortals, according to Smith. Earp calls in a tribe of Bigfoot to fight on the side of good.

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Sin City: That Yellow Bastard, Volume 4 – Graphic Novel Review
Reviewer: Eden Zacarias
Comicrevolution.wordpress.com

By now you probably already know that in this office we are devoted fans of Frank Miller’s impressive body of work when it comes to comics and the Sin City collection is among some of his very best seeing as he offered numerous stories true to the crime genre of the days when pulp comics were as dark as black coffee. In its fourth volume, That Yellow Bastard is another brilliant offering in the Sin City books and one hell of a story that you won’t forget anytime soon.

It’s a cold night in Sin City as John Hartigan of the Sin City Police Department, just an hour before his forced retirement thanks to a bad heart condition, gets a call from a reliable source that the son of the powerfully corrupt Senator Roark – who just so happens to be a very sick and twisted serial rapist/killer – has abducted an eleven-year old girl named Nancy Callahan and holding her in a warehouse pier. A cop to the very end, Hartigan will stop at nothing to save little Nancy even with his partner trying hard to stop him. Unfortunately, it had to take a punch in the jaw to keep his partner from following.

Just as he is making his way into the warehouse, Hartigan comes close to having a heart attack but manages to push through and catch up to Junior who has taken the cute girl hostage. Without blinking or even thinking of the consequences, Hartigan blows off both Junior’s “weapons” and before he can do any more damage it is Hartigan’s own partner that shoots him in the back.

While he managed to save a very grateful Nancy, Hartigan is rushed to a hospital only to awaken to a shocking reality. You see, instead of being hailed as a hero, Senator Roark has pulled all the strings and used all his dirty money to make Hartigan the villain and his comatose son a victim. Roark, clearly a man too powerful to mess with in anyway, makes it clear that he wants Hartigan to suffer and beg for mercy. He threatens to kill anyone Hartigan tells. So in order to protect those around him, Hartigan has no choice but to take the fall, alienating everyone from his fellow cops to his own wife.

Click to read more.

Writing far easier than drawing: graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee
Sify.com

Jaipur, Jan 25 (IANS) He describes the writers' block as creative constipation, has grown up reading Tintin comics and, with his third graphic novel, 'The Harappa Files', Sarnath Banerjee feels he has 'opened new forms' in this genre.

'My third book is more like an illustrated text. It opens up the form of graphic novels using design in an imaginative way. I am imploding the form, I am working with it all the time, constantly playing with it,' a spirited Banerjee told IANS.

Clad in maroon pants, brown half-sleeve shirt and black coat with intentionally mismatched green socks, which he proudly shows off at the drop of a hat, Banerjee makes sure he turns many heads at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

His enviable socialising skills were on display as he enthusiastically shook hands every 30 seconds and broke into an embrace every 50.

'I love people. I have an enormous capacity for people. I love socialising and picking up gossip. I am not those silent writer types, I write in a very social sort of way,' said a very pleased with himself Banerjee.

'Just put two people together and the stories will come out. They might be looking all nice and happy and smiling, but deep inside they might be waiting to just stab each other. Just a tiny bit of imagination and you've got a story.'

His first novel 'Corridor' (2004), an awfully clever and enjoyable read, established him as an intelligent writer. His work is most definitely adult, bordering on the lines of porn, plus the humour and minus the explicit details.

The 38-year-old says he takes inspiration from people around him.

'Most of the characters in my book are people I know. It's a combination of different bobs, bits and pieces of people I have known, or I imagine I have known. It's like vaguely remembered phantom memories of a person which comes out very clearly etched sometime,' he said, tousling his already dishevelled curly hair.

Click to read more.