Section Zero returns online
I was a fan of the now-defunct Gorilla Comics, which published great titles, including Kurt Busiek’s “Shockrockets” and Mark Waid’s “Empire.” One of the titles from the line, “Section Zero,” by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett, is being revived online at Karl Kesel’s Mad Genius Comics.
The planned six-issue miniseries saw three issues released in 2000. Kesel will post the previously released, but tweaked and re-lettered, pages on his site, with new material to follow, Robot 6 reports.
“Tom and I are working on new SECTION ZERO material now, squeezing it in around our day jobs,” Kesel writes at Mad Genius Comics. “At the same time we’ll be posting all the previously published storyline— starting with today’s 5-Page Prologue, followed by 3 pages every Thursday. By the time all that’s posted, we’ll have a ton of new stuff ready. If you haven’t read these comics before, this is your chance.”
- Matt Price
Alaina Huffman: Nerdage’s #18 actress with geek appeal
Alaina Huffman, who comes in at No. 18 on Nerdage’s actresses with geek appeal, has a long resume of geek-friendly projects.
She guest starred as Black Canary on the series “Smallville,” and had a regular role as Lt. Tamara Johansen in “Stargate Universe.”
In March at the Planet Comicon, we reported here at Nerdage that there was hope of finishing that series with a movie, but she recently reported on twitter that the sets are struck and “it’s over.”
She’s writing her own comic book, “Agent Mom,” which appears on the MTV Geek web site.
Back in 2007, she appeared in the TV series “Painkiller Jane,” based on the comic book by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti.
- Matt Price
Three comic book creators with Oklahoma ties nominated for Harvey Awards
A scene from "High Moon," by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis.
WORD BALLOONS
Three comic-book creators with Oklahoma ties are among the nominees for the Harvey Awards, comic-book awards selected exclusively by comic-book creators.
The awards will be presented as part of the 2010 Baltimore Comic-Con on Aug. 28 in Baltimore, Md.
Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art.
Brian Winkeler of Yukon, and Dave Curd, formerly of Edmond, are part of the anthology “Popgun” Vol. 3, nominated
"Popgun" Vol. 3
in the best anthology category.
“Popgun” Vol. 3 also is nominated in the best anthology category in the Eisner Awards, given out at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
“Dave and I are honored to be a part of a book that’s up for both the Eisner and Harvey, and I’m especially excited that I’ll be attending both SDCC and Baltimore to celebrate,” Winkeler said about the book’s nomination. “Popgun” is published by Image Comics.
Winkeler and Curd’s “Bastard Road,” featured in “Popgun” Vol. 3, is an action/comedy featuring the postapocalyptic wanderings of an amnesiac warrior.
Former Norman resident David Gallaher’s “High Moon” series is nominated as best online comics work. It’s the defending winner in that category. Steve Ellis, the artist of “High Moon,” also is nominated in the best inker category. “High Moon” is part of DC Comics’ Zuda imprint.
David Gallaher, writer
DC Comics led all nominees with 16 nominations. Abrams ComicArts followed with 13, including five for Brian Fies’ “Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?” In that graphic novel, Fies traces the optimism and nostalgia of the 1939-1975 era of science fiction and space exploration.
Image Comics followed with 11 nominations; IDW had eight, and Amulet Books had seven. More than 25 publishers were nominated for Harvey Awards.
The most-nominated single books were “Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow” and “Asterios Polyp.” David Mazzuchelli’s “Asterios Polyp” is a visually innovative graphic novel about an architect forced to change his worldview.
- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
ComiXology launches beta of Web-based comics app
comiXology has announced it is extending its popular mobile comics-reading application, Comics by comiXology, to the web. Fans will be able to view comics bought in the original app online. Using existing comiXology credentials, fans can login to the web-based application at Comics.comiXology.com to explore their personal comic collection from anywhere without downloading additional software, according to the comiXology release.
“Building a web reader is a significant step toward making comic books universally available to the global comic market,” said David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology, in the release. “The key to uniting the comic community– retailers, readers, publishers and creators—is making discovery easier for everyone. With Comics by comiXology now on the web, we’re opening up the excitement of comics to an even larger audience”.
The site is launching in beta for current comiXology users, and the company is actively seeking feedback. The Comics by comiXology web beta is now available to current users of the app on other devices. To access the web reader, users can login at Comics.comiXology.com. The Comics by comiXology reader will launch publicly this summer. New users can sign up at www.comiXology.com/signup.
- Matt Price
High Moon takes Harvey Award
Congratulations to former Oklahoma resident David Gallaher, whose “High Moon” was named Best Online Comics Work at this weekend’s Harvey Awards in Baltimore.
Check out the comic for yourself at http://www.zudacomics.com/high_moon or in the recent print collection.
The Beat has the full list of winners.
- Matt Price
Related posts:
Oklahoma among inspirations for High Moon series.
Oklahoma among inspirations for High Moon series
Former Oklahoma resident David Gallaher and collaborator Steve Ellis won the online Zuda Comics competition in 2007. Now, his winning submission comes to print this October. “High Moon” is the horror-Western hybrid that was recently nominated for two Harvey Awards.
“High Moon” takes Western tropes and mixes them with supernatural and science fictional elements, said Gallaher, the writer of the series.
“The original story was going to be a retelling and re-imagining of the American Civil War with vampires and werewolves,” Gallaher said. “As I started to dig deeper and deeper into the research, ‘High Moon’ sort of grew from there – with elements of ‘Gunsmoke,’ Jim Bowie, Tom Waits, and Celtic mythology thrown in for good measure.”
The story begins with Matthew MacGregor investigating unusual happenings the Old West town of Blest, Texas. But the detective MacGregor has his own lycanthropic secret to keep.
“The theme of ‘an unchanging man in a changing time’ sort of stuck with me, and the story came out of that,” Gallaher said. “With few exceptions, I hate Westerns … and with this project I was able to write a Western that I enjoyed creating and enjoyed reading.”
“High Moon” is rich in Oklahoma connections, particularly in the comic’s second “season.” Seasons 1-3 will be collected in the print edition. The second season deals with a series of murders in Ragged Rock, OK.
“I spent my quite some time living in Norman, Oklahoma,” Gallaher said. “I was in this wicked class called ‘Monsters, Aliens, and Cyborgs’ that totally stuck with me. I was also enrolled in a Cherokee language course that really made an impression on me.”
These Oklahoma experiences became part of the genesis of High Moon’s second stanza.
“When it came to developing the second season, I wanted to do something that felt authentic to me,” Gallaher said. “The first thing that came to mind were my experiences in Oklahoma. I thought about the geography, the Arbuckle Mountain Range, all-black towns – like Langston – and everything developed from there.”
Creating for the Web first offers many advantages, Gallaher said.
“From a creative standpoint, it’s pretty similar. We have to keep the story fun, fast, engaging, and compelling,” Gallaher said. “But, in terms of distribution, the web offers an incredible place to bring your ideas to market, without the financial burden and liability that comes with print.”
- By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Dark Horse previews “Dr. Horrible”
As Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” nears its launch, fans can check out a preview comic at MySpace Dark Horse Presents. The comic stars Captain Hammer, played by Nathan “Firefly” Fillion in the web-based musical. Zack Whedon talked to CBR about the project.
– Matt Price
Read “The Moth” for free
An e-mail from Rude Dude Productions brings the news that “The Moth” and “Draw Nexus” are now available as free downloads at Wowio.com.
From Rude Dude:
NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE
5 new free books added at WOWIO
If you want to preview full copies of some of our books or would like to help support us, download our books for FREE on WOWIO.com. We’re paid for each download, so every book you download directly support the Rude Dude Crew!
Rude Dude has added 5 new books at WOWIO for FREE download. The new books include Moth 1-4 and Draw Nexus: Tips and Techniques – all 102 pages!
Also available are Nexus: Greatest Hits, Nexus 100, and the sold out Nexus Origin. Get caught up now! Use the below link to go to all the books available from Rude Dude, or use the book code to go directly to the book!
Link to a series: http://www.wowio.com/users/searchresults.asp?nGroupId=[series ID]
Link to a book: http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=[book ID]
Series and Book IDs
SERIES ID FOR The Moth 412
BOOK IDs
The Moth 01 4453
The Moth 02 4465
The Moth 03 4466
The Moth 04 4467
SERIES ID FOR NEXUS 125
BOOK IDs
NEXUS 99: Space Opera – Act 01 1625
NEXUS’ Greatest Hits 1626
Nexus the Origin 4148
Books not in a seriesbook ID
Draw Nexus: Tips and Techniques 4560
Second “Iron Man” video
The second of the ‘advervideos’ starring Iron Man and Spider-Man has been posted at http://www.marvelkids.com/videos .
The final installment is set to go online Jan. 17. Meanwhile, the ”Marvel Adventures Iron Man Special,” a prequel to the animated shorts, is available in digital form at http://www.marvelkids.com/ironman.
Matt Price’s 10 best graphic novels of the year
From outer-space adventure to destructive romantic relationships, comic books in graphic novel format continued to push the medium forward. The following are the best graphic novels for 2007:
1. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
Scott Pilgrim, the slacker twentysomething musician, must still battle his new girlfriend Ramona’s ex-lovers in this fourth volume of the “Scott Pilgrim” series. This pioneering “arcade logic” series is the perfect hybrid of action and romance in a post-videogame, post-manga world.
2. Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan (Drawn and Quarterly)
Israeli cab driver Koby Franco is drawn into a mystery when his father’s ex-girlfriend Nuni contacts him. She wants to search for Koby’s father, who she says may have been killed in a terrorist attack. Koby’s search for his father becomes a search for himself, as Motan examines modern
Israel in this evocative graphic novel.
3. First in Space by James Vining (Oni Press)
“First in Space” is based on the true story of Ham, a chimpanzee trained by NASA to make the first sub-orbital space flight. Well-researched and compelling, “First in Space” is suitable for all ages.
4. All-Star Superman vol. 1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC Comics)
Morrison and Quitely capture the charm of comics’ Silver Age with their take on Superman, a Man of Steel who creates Superman robots, and whose best pal Jimmy Olsen finds himself gaining strange powers. Several story tropes from the 1960s come full circle, as Morrison boils them down to their essence and represents them with modern flair.
5. The Homeless Channel by Matt Silady (AiT-Planet Lar)
Network exec Darcy Shaw thinks “The Homeless Channel” will both draw attention to the homeless plight, and be a good way to make some money, taking reality television to the next level.
Aaron Sorkin-like dialogue and art reminiscent of an early Brian Michael Bendis make “The Homeless Channel” a noteworthy debut.
6. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (Drawn and Quarterly)
Ben Tanaka is an abrasive
San Francisco theater owner who obsesses over white girls; this doesn’t help his relationship with his Asian-American activist girlfriend Miko. An interesting look at race and sex through the lens of an intimate graphic novel.
7. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill (DC Comics/WildStorm/ABC)
Something of a sourcebook gone mad,
Moore explores the history of his “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” concept, featuring heroes and villains from throughout literature.
8. Shazam: Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith (DC Comics)
Jeff Smith captures the charm and wit of the 1940s Captain Marvel stories, recaptured for modern audiences.
9. Astronaut Dad vol. 1 by David Hopkins and Brent Schoonover (Silent Devil)
David Hopkins looks at the children of astronaut reservists in the 1960s, making the space race more personal.
10. Nothing Better: No Place Like Home by Tyler Page (Dementian)Tyler Page (“Stylish Vittles”) takes his Web comic to graphic novel format in “Nothing Better,” which examines two mismatched roommates at a Lutheran college. “Nothing Better” is reminiscent of “Strangers in Paradise” and “Blankets,” with engaging characters and fresh art.
