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

Two Oklahomans are working on a weekly webcomic aimed at bibliophiles with a love for classical history. With a strip that aims to mix high and low culture in humorous ways, “Howling at the Gates” introduces a mad scientist, her boyfriend, and their time machine.

Writer Rob Vollmar, nominated for an Eisner award, the comics’ industry’s highest honor, is taking on a more humorous tone for this new strip. He’s working with artist Shayna Pond, a University of Oklahoma graduate with a degree in visual communications. She and Vollmar work at the University of Science and Arts in Chickasha.

“She was born in Texas but has recovered nicely since,” Vollmar said. “As I collaborated with her on university projects, I was blown away by her skills and design sense. Though ‘Howling’ is her first comics project, she’s absorbed the skills of visual storytelling at an amazing rate.”

Pond also trained for three years as an illustrator at Oklahoma State.

“In the past I’ve mostly done stand-alone illustrations for websites, posters, brochures, T-shirts — and I illustrated a children’s book two years ago,” Pond said. “Working on an ongoing project like this keeps me drawing every day. I can see myself dramatically improving and adapting my skills for the comics medium with every strip.”

Vollmar was motivated in part by the immediate gratification of working on a webcomic.

“After a decade of working on graphic novels that took years to bring to market, I wanted the opportunity to work on something with more immediacy to it,” Vollmar said. He started working on the ideas for “Howling” in August, and web publication began in November. The comic is being posted at the official blog for the strip, howlingatthegates.blogspot.com, as well as on LitStack.com.

“LitStack is a place for bookworms and bibliophiles to discuss classics and recent releases, check out cool stuff for readers and get the inside scoop from popular authors,” Vollmar said. “As they also publish original fiction, I approached them early on to see if they might be interested in running the strip. Their enthusiasm for Howling was one of the early factors in nurturing it into existence.”

Vollmar said it’s been noted to him that all of his graphic novels — including “Castaways,” “Bluesman” and “Inanna’s Tears” can be “a bit on the dour side.”

“I got my feet wet doing lighter material on my stint with ‘Tales from the Crypt,’ and this just felt like a good direction to extend on that,” Vollmar said. “There will be unexpected moments of seriousness in Howling, but the goal is mostly to have a good time.”

The cast will build slowly over time but starts out with Hypatia, the scientist, and her slacker boyfriend Grant.

“Despite the fact that he’s in a relationship with someone a thousand times smarter than he is, he serves as the populist voice in the strip, bringing common sense to bear on uncommon, nonsensical situations,” Vollmar said.

- By Matthew Price
WORD BALLOONS
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

Oklahoma native Larry Latham, creator of the Web comic Lovecraft is Missing, talks about his current work, as well as his years working on animated properties from Super Friends to TaleSpin, in this video.

A page from "Lovecraft is Missing."

If you watched cartoons in the 1980s, odds are you were exposed to the work of Tulsa’s Larry Latham. The 1975 University of Oklahoma graduate is an Emmy nominee, working on shows including “DuckTales,” “Smurfs,” “TaleSpin” and “Super Friends.”

Larry Latham

“I worked on a wide diversity of stuff,” Latham said. “When I started at Hanna Barbera, the first show I worked on was the Godzilla Power Hour, with Doug Wildey, one of the greats of comic books, and Dave Stevens of ‘The Rocketeer.’”

Now returned to Oklahoma from Los Angeles, Latham creates the Web comic “Lovecraft is Missing.”

Latham says he’s always been a fan of author H.P. Lovecraft, and was even part of the group helped raise money to provide a grave marker for the author. He’s turning that love into a mystery comic that takes the premise: What if Lovecraft’s stories were real?

New “Lovecraft is Missing” pages go up every Friday at lovecraftismissing.com.

While Lovecraft’s Chthulu tales are horror classics, Lovecraft has a science fictional basis, Latham said.

“One of his key precepts is that this stuff isn’t supernatural, it’s alien,” Latham said. “It’s so advanced it appears to be magic.”

Latham first developed “Lovecraft is Missing” as a CD-ROM game back in 1994. But after the crash of the CD-ROM market, the concept went back on the shelf. It was under development as an animated series in the late 1990s by Film Roman, but after some creative differences, the rights reverted back to Latham.

After first pitching the project as a graphic novel, Latham in 2008 began working to bring his story to the Internet as a Web comic. Eric Lee, co-creator of the web comic Boodachitaville, helped Latham learn some of the tricks of the Web comic trade.

Latham’s comic fandom goes way back, as he was a founding member of the Oklahoma Alliance of Fans, a pioneering comic fan club that began in the late 1960s.

“We moved a lot when I was a kid. About every 18 months, my dad just had to move. And yet we stayed within Oklahoma City, Tulsa, once we moved down to a little town called Wewoka,” Latham said. “But pretty much every year I was going to a new school. And I got real comfortable, made good friends, but I didn’t keep friends because we didn’t stay around. And comic books were, they were my friends. I read a lot, I loved reading, and wanted to be a comic book artist.”

And now, Latham has achieved that childhood dream.

From Tuesday’s The Oklahoman
By Matthew Price

Prior to this weekend’s “Punisher War Zone” and the upcoming new “Punisher” series, get caught up on the Punisher’s history with “Punisher Saga,” online for free at Marvel Comics’ Digital Comics Unlimited.

– Matt Price

Most have heard the story of the Carthaginian general Hannibal leading elephants across the Alps to face the Romans. Writer Brendan McGinley wants you to see it.

“There’s already plenty of good prose about Hannibal, (but) no good visual medium for a story that crackles with so many unforgettable images, like elephants on the Alps or Mago Barca spilling dead Romans’ rings on the Senate floor,” McGinley said. “Maybe Vin Diesel’s long-stalled film will change that; Victor Mature’s sure didn’t.”

McGinley and artist Mauro Vargas, along with colorist Andres Carranza, bring the Hannibal story to life – with some humorous asides – on the Shadowline Web comics page, www.shadowlinecomics.com/webcomics. “Hannibal Goes to Rome” re-enacts the second Punic War in comic-book style.

Vargas “really defines and expresses his characters; you need that where history meets comedy,” McGinley said.

McGinley said the trickiest part of creating “Hannibal Goes to Rome” is sorting which Carthaginian did what.

“There are so many Hannos, Hannibals, Hasdrubals and Giscos!” he said.

McGinley is meshing historical accounts to create the tale, which he then passes on to Vargas to draw.

“The historians and artist make it easy for me; all I have to do is throw a little observational humor into the mouths of the poor schlubs caught up in events,” he said.

“Hannibal Goes to Rome” was first a candidate on DC Comics’ Zuda site (www.zudacomics.com). Zuda is a site created by DC Comics to seek fresh talent via an online Web comics competition each month. After competing on Zuda, McGinley hooked up with Shadowline’s Jim Valentino, who was looking to launch a Web comics component for Shadowline.

While he’s not altering the linear history, McGinley does look for story threads that connect points in the campaign. As the third chapter begins, Hannibal’s elephants are refusing to ford a river.

Meanwhile, Scipio the elder is coming for Hannibal. But rather than rest up and wait to take on the Romans with a fresh army, he decides instead to continue on through the Alpine passes. McGinley said the story asks, “Why don’t you want to do what’s good for you here?”

“The elephants dug in their heels; Hannibal picked up his,” McGinley said. “Both denied somebody who was trying to force them to do something they were apprehensive of doing. So in a sense, we end with an unstoppable force ready to cross a natural boundary, inverting our immovable objects who refused to. There’s my pretentious trick, and hopefully I can keep up the ruse till 201 B.C.”

– Matthew Price

From Friday’s The Oklahoman 

Nerdage readers got a bit of a sneak peek at this, as Neil Kleid of “Action, Ohio” mentioned it in his recent “Ursa Minors” interview — Shadowline is launching a Web comics line of a bunch of stuff that seems pretty good, actually.  “Finder,” probably the best science-fiction comic you haven’t read, finds a home, along with “Chicago: 1968″ and “Brat-Halla.”  Here at Nerdage, we’re looking forward to checking out “Hannibal Goes to Rome,” and hope to bring you guys an interview with creator Brendan McGinley shortly.  Give them a read at http://www.shadowlinecomics.com/webcomics/. You can read the press release after the cut.

– Matt Price

Press release:

The digital comics revolution continues as Image Comics’ Shadowline expands their web comics division with a number of titles from fan favorites and the newest generation of creators!

“While my first love comes in the traditional comics format, there’s no denying the massive amount of new ideas and talent coming from the online world,” said Shadowline Publisher Jim Valentino. “It’s become a way for creators like PLATINUM GRIT’s Trudy Cooper to gain recognition or established names like FINDER’s Carla Speed McNeil to get their work to a wider audience. We’re thrilled to bring these creators together in one collective.”

Shadowline’s continued diversity will be reflected in the web comics, as the line will vary from the science fiction of FINDER to the political intrigue of Len Kody & Jenny Frison’s CHICAGO: 1968 and even the oft-kilter superheroics of ACTION, OHIO by Neil Kleid and Paul Salvi. The lineup also currently includes newer titles like HANNIBAL GOES TO ROME, and the long-running YENNY and BRAT-HALLA. Future contributions include the web comic hit, PLATINUM GRIT by Trudy Cooper and Danny Murphy, and the upcoming LI’L DEPRESSED BOY featuring art by Jim Mahfood, Sam Kieth and more to come!

More information can be found at www.shadowlinecomics.com/webcomics.

If you haven’t been following the Zuda comic-book series “High Moon,” here’s two good local-interest reasons:

1. ”Season Two” of “High Moon” is set in Ragged Rock, Oklahoma

2. Writer David Gallaher is something of a Sooner himself, having attended college at the University of Oklahoma.

“High Moon” is a supernatural/werewolf Western, which was one of Zuda’s initial launches in 2007.  

– Matt Price

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,

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

NK: Just that Action,

From Friday’s The Oklahoman: 

By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor

WORD BALLOONS

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

Q: How did you come up with Action,

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

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

Q: Tell me about your collaborator on “Action,

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,

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.”