Inspiration for the Joker and J. J. Abrams and prequels to the Watchmen

I've plotted out the next six pages for the next scene, which I hope to get some work done on very shortly. I'm really looking forward to putting them up soon. Until then, here's Page 76.

While I was drawing this page it struck me how difficult it is to draw someone putting on or taking off their glasses. Not easy. Usually when I draw the sketches for a scene they're very, very loose but for this page I remember actually going into great detail to design it.

There was a tough combination of vehicles, postures, movements and emotions to put into each cell - more so than in most pages I've put up, so this one's a great example of a lot of things going on in each scene, though it may not look it.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in You son of a bitch, Bolam!

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)

Graphic novel news
In graphic novel news we've got some details on the reworking of the comic The Man Who Laughs, which was the old imspiration for The Joker of Bathman fame, which is pretty cool. Read about J. J. Abram's latest concept borrowing from "Boilerplate" which is being adapted for the silver screen. And see who's writing the prequels for the Watchmen is released, despite the disatifaction of creator Alan Moore's protests to leave his characters alone. Check it out!

David Hine And Mark Stafford Make A Joker Of A Graphic Novel
Rich Johnston
BleedingCool.com

Batman and Azrael writer David Hine who seemed to, well, stop writing for DC with the relaunch, is continuing to write a Batman character in a new graphic novel, The Man Who Laughs, an adaptation the Victor Hugo which inspired the 1928 film starring Conrad Veidt with a “grim carnival freak-like grin” which inspired the appearance of The Joker.

Click to read more.

"Frank Reade" Flies Again with "Boilerplate's" Guinan & Bennett
Shaun Manning
ComicBookResources

Following up 2009's "Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel," which inserted the titular robot into turn-of-the-20th-century America, the husband and wife team of Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett return with another alternate history tale from Abrams Image. "Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention" resurrects the family of heroes first introduced in the pages of boys' magazines in 1868, which rose to even greater fame during the late 1880s and 1890s in the pages of dime novels under the banner "Frank Reade Library."

Click to read more.

DC Comics plans 'Before Watchmen' prequel comics
Curt Holman
Creative Loafing Atlanta

The graphic novel Watchmen has a reputation as the Citizen Kane of graphic novels, so DC Comics' decision to publish a series of prequels sounds as ill-advised as a film called Charles Foster Kane: The College Years. Nevertheless, this summer DC will release 7 titles involving such Watchmen characters as Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan, written and drawn by big name creators in the comics industry:

• RORSCHACH (4 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
• MINUTEMEN (6 issues) — Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
• COMEDIAN (6 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
• DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
• NITE OWL (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
• OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) — Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
• SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) — Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Click to read more.

The Chained Gun, Last Airbender and City Troll speak

You have any idea what an ambulance looks like in Marseilles? I sure didn't, but did my best to figure it out and make it happen for the first page of this scene, You Son of a Bitch, Bolam. I like how this scene worked out, mostly because I was really happy with how the story and the artwork came together. It may not look like much, but I think the expressions matched the expressions I was hoping for, and what the story was calling for. I really liked this scene, I hope you do, too.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in You son of a bitch, Bolam!

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)

Graphic novel news
Chained Gun author Donny Frank Morris is awaiting the publication of his first graphic novel, which should be hitting Amazon soon. In related news, Kickstarter has been helping finance amateur opportunities by lobbying donations en mass from the internet community, which resulted in $2,000 for Aaron Whitaker and his The City Troll. Finally, The Last Airbender continues its story from a three-season cartoon series from the U.S.

Check it out!

Northland artist awaits publication of first graphic novel
Julie Krienke
duluthnewstribune.com

It was during his year in California that [Donny Frank Morris] completed most of the work for the graphic novel, which he says is different from comic books in that graphic novels are typically longer. The story is about a slave who becomes a bounty hunter after the Civil War so he can seek revenge.

Morris said the nearly 150-page book most closely resembles a western theme, which he is familiar with from watching many western films as a child with his mother. Morris now works at the Holiday Inn in downtown Duluth to help him support his passion for art.

Click to read more.

Gene Yang Plots the Next Stage of "Avatar: The Last Airbender"
Shaun Manning
comicbookresources.com

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is set in a world where tribes which can each manipulate one of the four elements -- Air, Water, Earth and Fire -- have been at war for centuries, and are now dominated by the ruthless Fire Nation. The Air Nomads have been hunted seemingly to extinction. But a strange boy found frozen in ice turns out to be a surviving Airbender, and also this generation's Avatar -- one who can tame all four elements.

Click to read more.


An interview with Aaron Whitaker
Ao Meng
dailytexanonline.com

Kickstarter and websites like it allow creators to publicly ask for financial assistance in seeing the completion of a project that the creators themselves would not have the funds to realize. Whitaker, for instance, asked initally for $2000 to finance a print run of The City Troll. The creator then has one month to rally up support for the project— if the project gets enough supporters, all the money offered is pocketed by the creator (and Kickstarter gets a small cut). But if the fundrasing goal isn't met, the creator gets nothing

Click to read more.

Autobiographies, Health Care Reform and the history of superheroes

It's a little tricky when you have to spread pages out over a few weeks, because that's just how long it takes to get updates finished, but hopefully this is a worthy payoff for the "where there's smoke" line from page 67. In any case, onward they go, avoiding the villain.

Drawing people sitting in a car, and climbing out of a car ... what a challenge! Something I'd never done before (which you can probably tell) and obviously something I didn't spend any time practicing in a sketchbook before I published.

Here's page 74!

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)

Graphic novel news
A couple different types of posts this time to share. In particular, we have a post articulating the transformation of graphic novels from the tales of super heroes, when the world needed heroes to route for during fascist regimes, to a different type of medium that tells all kinds of complicated tales, not just those about superheroes. And of course, graphic novels have an accessibility and acceptance that make them excellent media to translate difficult subject matter - as seen in a graphic novel on Health Care Reform (which I've probably mentioned more than once). Then there's the autobiography, which is a classic narrative form, but lending it to the graphic novel medium is a new stylistic choice, which we hear about in our final update.

Check it out!

Graphic Novels Get Bloody Good
derekberry
Word Salad

With the advent of e-readers, graphic novels are better than ever, some even interactive. Books can be cumbersome to carry and only avid comic fans buy every issue of a comic. If it’s sent straight to an e-reader, though, it is much easier to deal with. I’m certainly looking forward to buying some graphic novels for my Nook tablet to see how it might enhance the experience.

Click to read more.


Deciphering Health Care Reform With Jonathan Gruber
Rachel Solomon
http://kuow.org

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed by President Obama last year, and polls still show most Americans are against health care reform — though many don't understand how it works or what's at stake. This worried economics professor Jonathan Gruber, who consulted with both the Obama and Romney administrations on health care reform. Gruber decided to write a graphic novel to break down the massive, 900–page bill that's changing our country's health care system.

Click to read more.


This Alternate World
David Chislett
bookslive.co.za

... I am enjoying retracing my steps back into this place. This after all has been a long journey: One that was born over an idle conversation in a car on the way back from the Oppikoppi festival with journalist Therese Owen and promoter Bill Botes. Those ideas evolved around a graphic novel that fused a definite past with a fictional now to create a metaphorical city of ideals and extremes.

After pursuing those thoughts for a while I realised, graphic version or not, there still had to be a novel to illustrate! So rather than work through that process, here I am, writing up a large book about my home town, its people, my friends, and my ideas about the world.

Click to read more.

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.