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Here’s a little more from writer Neil Kleid about his Zuda comic “Action, Ohio.”  

Matt Price: How did you decide to submit to Zuda, and what was the process like?

Neil Kleid: Paul (Salvi) and I originally were going to pitch the series to Image and assorted print publishers, but I’d been jonesing to do something for Zuda and this project was in the early stages (at least in our partnership, it was - I’ve been working on this for years!) enough to reformat it for the Zuda proportions. I’ve had several friends and collaborators involved with the Zuda competition in the past, some whom have gone on to great success like David (HIGH MOON) Gallaher, Dean (STREET CODE) Haspiel, Kevin (STRANGLESWITCH) Colden and Jim (SAM AND LILAH) Dougan. With their encouragement and support, Paul and I created eight pages - a prologue of the larger ongoing story - and through the Zuda site, registered, filled out personal information and sent in the art and a short synopsis. It took about two months until we heard we were in the May competition and boy, it’s been promote, promote, get votes ever since!

MP:  What’s been interesting, so far, about being a Zuda creator?

NK: I’m not big on confrontation, so it’s pretty hard to be walking the walk and talking the talk, getting people to vote for me instead of the other guy - especially when the other guy has a great comic that I’D vote for if it wasn’t running against my own! What I love about Zuda, though, is the fiercely dedicated community on and off the comment threads and message boards who aren’t afraid to tell you what they think of the comic and even if they won’t vote for you why they like it. Sure, it gets a bit heated, but it’s the internet, right? I’m sure if my comic wasn’t up against their friend’s comic, they wouldn’t have a problem sitting down to see where Action,

Ohio goes. That being said, I hope they vote for me in the end!

MP: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

NK: Just that Action,

Ohio is a full service comic with a production blog at http://actionohio.blogspot.com where folks can check out original sketches, behind the scenes commentary and promotional banners they can use on their website, blog, email signature and rocking denim jacket. Interested parties can also friend the MySpace page at www.myspace.com/actionohio and check out our Facebook group.And, of course, vote for us by May 30th, add us as your favorite comic and say hello at http://www.zudacomics.com/node/438

From Friday’s The Oklahoman: 

By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor

WORD BALLOONS

Writer Neil Kleid deconstructs superheroes with his Zuda.com submission, “Action,

Ohio.”  Kleid is a Xeric-award winning comic-book creator who has written “

Brownsville,” “Ursa Minors” and “Ninety Candles.” He answered a few questions about the Web comic for The Oklahoman:

Q: How did you come up with Action,

Ohio?

A: When I first wrote Action, Ohio, it was called Marvel,

Ohio. I pitched it around the House of Ideas as a superhero deconstruction set in the real world that focused on the Silver Age Stan Lee-Jack Kirby characters. The basic idea was that Stan and Jack had created these characters to divert attention from their real life counterparts — a small town in

Ohio where power wasn’t always a gift. The veneer Stan and Jack created to hide them from the world was shattered by the rude awakening of a group of rebels, the impetus for the Marvel supervillains. Over the years, themes and motivations changed, the characters went through transformations but there was always the fascination of the Silver Age. What I finally understood was that I needed to use these characters as a door to open the Pandora’s Box of the entire Silver Age of comic books. Paul Salvi, the artist, helped me expand on the story, focusing on the themes of exploration for heroism, courage, sacrifice and truth.

Q: Tell me about the story.

A: In the ’60s, men responsible for Silver Age comic-book heroes discovered a town of proud but ailing citizens, riddled with the fallout of the atomic age. The comic-book men invented fictional characters based on the town’s residents to divert the world from their existence: If

America thought superheroes were fictional, it wouldn’t hunt them down to experiment on them or persecute them. Now, 40 years later, one of these superhumans dies stopping a fire with amazing abilities and suspecting foul play, a homicide detective discovers the town of superheroes while tracking his killer. Supported by an aging group of heroes, she tries to hide Action from the world but her desire to solve her case blinds her as she searches for the killer. As a town founded on policies of noninvolvement begins to crack  —  half for isolation, half for throwing open their doors  —  she weeds out murder suspects, digs into the underbelly of a town that’s imprisoned itself to save the world, and asks: If Action, Ohio, is a town of comic-book heroes, then where are the villains?

Q: Tell me about your collaborator on “Action,

Ohio.”

A: Paul Salvi is the illustrator and my co-creator. We met on the Panel and Pixel message forums, a place devoted to creating comics.

Together, we replotted the story and identified the themes and motivations of the characters. This is Paul’s first high profile strip, I believe, but the man should be consistently working - he’s got a great style, very animated and streamlined like the Bruce Timm-Mike Parobeck style you see on some of the DC Comics animated cartoons. He’s also an excellent co-plotter; working together, passing the story outline back and forth, he helped me see story holes and opportunities I’d missed in the past, making “Action, Ohio” a better comic for it.

“Action,

Ohio” can be seen online at www.zuda.com as part of the May competition.

Top Shelf sent out an e-mail announcing “Top Shelf 2.0,” a new webcomics site and digital anthology.

From the release:

We’ll update with a new story every weekday! Sometimes a standalone
short story, sometimes a new chapter in an ongoing serial, sometimes a
great story from the Top Shelf Webcomics archive… but always something
different! It’s all free and all on TopShelfComix.com!

What kind of material can you expect? Well, just for starters, there’s:

– The haunting avant-garde imagery of Bart Johnson and Ben Constantine,
– The globe-spanning high-kicking funkadelic fury of Kagan McCloud,
serializing his indie classic Infinite Kung-Fu in preparation for the
collected edition to be published by Top Shelf in 2009,
– A really stunning painted fable by John C. Ralston,
– Jed McGowen working his color wizardry with a beautifully limited palette,
– The freewheelin’ mythic imagination of the inimitable Bernie McGovern,
– A couple young artists whose energy and charm practically shines from
every panel of their cartoony adventures, Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos and
Michael DeForge,
– The monumental TENTH 24-hour comic by the master of the form, David
Chelsea (his new book 24×2 is on sale now from Top Shelf),
– An inky poetic parable from young Slovenian prodigy Domen Finzgar,
– A Japan-flavored short from Belgian brush-master Stedho,
– The brilliant wit and charm of notable webcomickers Jessica McLeod and
Edward J Grug III,
– Plus Aaron Navrady, Jeff Zwirek, Steve Lafler, Lizz Luney, Sean T.
Collins, Matt Wiegle, Matt Rota, Nik Daum, Will Dinski, Willow Dawson,
Emily Block, and many more to be revealed as we keep rolling!

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/comix.php

Classic 1980s indy comic “Beanworld” returns in 2009 from Dark Horse. Dark Horse will present Beanworld as a series of affordable graphic novels collecting all existing Beanworld stories, with new material to follow in the same format. 

The first new graphic novel will be titled ”Remember Here When You Are There!”  Dark Horse also plans a Beanworld webcomic for this fall, with a full color Beanworld comic book to follow this winter.

“Beanworld is about the affinity of life.   It’s like ‘A Bugs Life’ meets ‘Mutts,’ as told by Dr. Seuss & Joseph Campbell,” said series creator Larry Marder in a release.  “It’s a weird fantasy dimension that operates under its own rules and laws, but also reflects deep truths about our world in doing so.  All the characters, whether they are friends or adversaries, understand that ultimately they depend on each other for survival. Beanworld isn’t a place, it’s a process, and I can’t wait to share that process with a new generation of readers!

“When Beanworld was first published, many people said it was ahead of its time,” Marder says.  “Looking at today’s world raised on Pixar, Cartoon Network, and manga, I think it’s fair to say that Beanworld’s time has come.  I’m looking forward to working closely with the team at Dark Horse to introduce the Beanworld to this comics-literate world!” 

From Friday’s The Oklahoman:

By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor

It’s the comics version of “American Idol.” And Bartlesville artist Rudy Guara brings his comic, “Children of Bighand,” to the competition this month.

DC Comics, the second-largest publisher of comic books in America, seeks fresh talent via the Web site www.zuda.com. Monthly since December, Zuda has thrown several Web comics into competition with one another, with the winner receiving a contract.

“Getting paid to be on the Zuda Web site is going to be my first professional gig,” Guara said in a telephone interview. Guara is the writer and artist for “Children of Bighand.”Starting this week, “Children of Bighand” is available to read for free at www.zuda.com. The competition runs through May 30. For Guara to win, he must receive more online votes than the other properties. “Children of Bighand” stars BH, Cutie Pie and Cankles, the hybrid children of a giant, intelligent monster ape and a human mother.

“One of them has an extremely large head, another has gigantic arms, and the third has really huge feet – but when they stack up they make one mega-sized ape with unique fighting abilities,” Guara said. This is Guara’s second attempt at submitting to Zuda — his first attempt was rejected, but that just motivated him to try again.To read Guara’s comic, go to zuda.com. To vote for Guara, register at zuda.com and place a vote for “Children of Bighand.”