The blog I Love Rob Liefeld reports on the Small Press Expo this past weekend in Bethesda, Md. I went to this every year for a while, and I love digging up small-press gems. I don’t know when my next trip out will be, so I’ll have to just quietly be jealous that other people have the Becky Cloonan minicomic “5″ (pictured) and I do not.
– Matt Price
Proving that it always pays to comment on my blog, I checked out Deleted: The Game over the weekend. It’s a web series that’s also part interactive game — users can decipher clues left in the episode and online. Here’s the info from the site:
DELETED: THE GAME is a web TV show that promises to blur the lines between fantasy and reality by drawing viewers into an interactive game. The show revolves around Tyler who is struggling to piece together her life after a traumatic incident left her with a memory failure condition. During the show’s first season, she finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy. Finding herself overwhelmed, Tyler seeks help from her online friends. The producers have hidden a trail of clues in each episode, all over the internet and selected real locations, setting up a massive search for clues. For their participation, viewers earn points towards prizes including an all-expenses paid trip to meet the cast at the end of the season.
Four episodes have been released so far. While I don’t have time to keep up with the gameplay aspects of it, it seems pretty innovative, and I could see something like this happening more in the future. The show’s pretty good, as well.
– Matt Price
SAN DIEGO — Alex Robinson, Josh Howard, Dave Dwonch, Ryan Dunlavey, Fred Van Lente and Bobby Crosby talked to NewsOK.com at Comic-Con International.
George Lang and I discuss “Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files” No. 1, “X-Men: Divided We Stand” No. 1 and “Captain America” No. 37 on this week’s comics podcast.
This week is the one-year anniversary of the comics podcast at NewsOK.com kicking off, and George was part of the first one, so it was nice to have him back to wrap up the first year. I’d like to thank George and my other most frequent podcast collaborators, Greg Elwell and Kyle Roberts, as well as the other guests and guest hosts we’ve had on the comics podcast over the last year.
– Matt Price
Oni Press has announced its solicitations for June, 2008.
In addition to new issues of “Love the Way You Love,” “Wasteland” and “Resurrection,” Judd Winick’s “Barry Ween” gets collected. All 12 issues are put together in a $19.95 softcover. Barry Ween is a super-genius, foul-mouthed kid who conducts experiments, travels through time, and battles strange creatures in this hilarious mature-readers comic.
Also, the long-awaited “Tek Jansen” No. 2 is scheduled for a June 25 release, with a re-release of issue No. 1 planned for June 18. Based on the adventures of a fictional character created by Stephen Colbert, “Tek Jansen” is clever space-fantasy parody. Oni says, about issue No. 2: “Galaxy-hero-super-awesome-spectacular-ultra-spy Tek jansen takes it back to school in his second cosmic comic book adventure!
When a misunderstanding ends with a demotion for Tek, the spaceman is busted down and forced to return to the academy that shaped him into the man he is today! Don’t miss out on the comic book that’ll have you exclaiming, ‘Apollo Creed!’”
– Matt Price
Virgin Comics reports that Hugh Jackman, “Wolverine” from the X-Men films and the upcoming “Wolverine,” will team up with “Wolverine” comic-book writer Marc Guggenheim to create the comic-book series “Nowhere Man.”
The story is reported to be a science fiction odyssey in a future in which mankind has traded privacy for safety.
“I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the X-MEN franchise that I wanted to get even more involved,” said Jackman in a release. “I am so excited to work with Virgin and Marc and create a compelling character and story that hopefully will also make it to the big screen.”
Virgin will team with Seed Productions, Jackman’s production company with producer John Palermo, to create the comic series and then take it into film and other areas, according to the release.
– Matt Price
LAS VEGAS — Writer/artist Jeff Smith spoke at the annual ComicsPRO membership meeting about the publishing plans for his all-ages classic “Bone” and his new, mature readers project “RASL.” Smith also said plans are in the works to continue exploring Bone’s world.
“Bone,” originally printed in black and white, is being remastered into color for Scholastic. Seven of the nine graphic novels have been remastered into color, and according to Smith, Scholastic has sold 2,481,500 of those graphic novels in the last three years. The No. 1 place these books sell is as part of the book fairs held in schools.
Smith said he wants to continue the adventures in the valley where the “Bone” adventures took place, with possible appearances by supporting characters. These would be chapter books set in the valley, written by Tom Sniegowski and illustrated by Smith. The book would be aimed at tweens.
“Treasure Hunters” and “Crown of Horns,” the final two of the “Bone” graphic novels, are being reworked by Scholastic. “Treasure Hunters” is near being printed, now, and “Crown of Horns” is planned for an early 2009 release. Smith said he’d like to follow that up with a boxed set of the color editions.
The “Bone One Volume Edition,” published by Smith’s Cartoon Books, has sold 105,000 to date, despite being out of print for a year. Originally, the “One Volume Edition” went out of print as part of the publishing deal with Scholastic, but Cartoon Books renegotiated the deal because Smith said he felt like the comic book stores still needed that edition.
In May, “Stupid Stupid Rat Tales” and “Rose” will come back into print from Cartoon Books. At some point, a color version including some of the Rat Tales with a new framing sequence will come from Scholastic.
Smith’s latest series, “RASL,” sold about 24,000, Smith said. After surveying the audience, Smith said he planned on reprinting “RASL” No. 1. Each three-issue arc will be collected in oversized trade paperbacks of about 110 pages. Another new product from Cartoon Books is a 2-foot plush of Fone Bone, the hero of “Bone,” which will sell for about $40.
– Matt Price
Greg Elwell and I talk to Rafer Roberts of “Plastic Farm” in this week’s comic book podcast. As a bonus, Greg didn’t have the ]ability to hear anything Rafer was saying. Check it out!
– Matt Price
In what is potentially the coolest news of this decade (I may be overselling a bit), Michael Cera is in final negotiations to play Scott Pilgrim. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Juno” actor and Edgar Wright, the director of “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life,” have admired one another’s work. Wright also was involved in viral marketing for “Superbad,” appearing in an online promo.
“Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life” is based on the graphic novel by Bryan Lee O’Malley, in which a twentysomething slacker must battle his new girlfriend’s seven evil ex-boyfriends to win her hand.
– Matt Price
Happy 9th anniversary to publisher AiT-Planet Lar, who have brought us such fine comic books and graphic novels over the years as “Astronauts in Trouble,” “Hench,” “The Homeless Channel,” and many, many more.
From AiT’s Larry Young at the AiT-Planet Lar Web site:
Today is the ninth anniversary of the date you could first walk into a comic store and buy a copy of Astronauts in Trouble: Live From the Moon #1, which is the date we count as the start of the company, even if we were working on the project for a year before that. And, you know, it was published by those titans of industry, Rob and Steve Snell, the powerful third stage of the Saturn V rocket that got us into orbit. Me, I’m spending the day lettering Dugout, Adam Beechen and Manny Bello’s creative follow-up to their last team-up on Hench.
In other words, just another day of Making Comics Better…
In honor of the 9th anniversary, here are my nine favorite books that came out from AiT-Planet Lar:
1. Demo
2. The Annotated Mantooth
3. The Last of the Independents
4. Astronauts in Trouble
5. Electric Girl
6. Seven Sons
7. Channel Zero
8. Couscous Express
9. Scurvy Dogs
Thanks for all the comics, Larry, and best of luck in the next nine years!
– Matt Price
