What could a girl like that possibly see in a guy like this.

awyeahcomics:

The Mad Hatter by Amy Reeder

…I was there when this was drawn at the last Big Apple con.  Holds up!

Frank Frankenstein got a face only a mother could love… too bad Frankenestein’s Monster never had a mother, I guess!

Here’s a detail of Michael Shelfer’s pencils for our Frankenstein project: he put a split and too-tight scar above the upper right lip.  I love how this plays.  Of course, scars are integral to Frankenstein’s Monster—but this permanent sneer gives a lot of personality.  It also moves well with his all his expressions—adding awkwardness and anger and most of all something mean-spirited, whether the wearer intends it or not.  It’s a little design that brings a lot to the character.

FRANKENSTEIN!Layouts, pencils, & inks by Michael Shelfer.  A project I’m working on.

montclarelab:

I am Science: CHEMISTRY and COMICS

My first love has and always will be chemistry. However shortly thereafter I fell in love with a guy that owned a comic book store. After graduating as a chemistry major in college, we got married and I started my PhD. While in graduate school, I attended comic book conventions helping my husband sell comic books and toys . I had attended more comic book conventions than chemistry /science conventions … The balance has changed now tipping in favor of science.

Subsequently earning my phd in bioorganic chemistry, my husband sold his shop and followed me to CA so I could carry out my postdoc. He took up freelance editing and landed a job as an editor for DC comics in NY..fortunately I was able to secure a faculty position in NY. Now he is a freelance comic book writer and I am leading an awesome group of bright young scientists /engineers.

I am science.

PS. Comic book conventions and scientific conferences are very similar—-the only difference is that you are likely to find yourself standing in line next to someone dressed up as storm trooper!

Jin Montclare

Check it out. I’m interviewed on THINK ABOUT THE INK! The subject: how to break into comics writing.

Comics lost a giant last night in Jerry Robinson—the Golden Age Batman artist most famous for creating The Joker.  Robin, the Boy Wonder was his namesake (Jerry started drawing comics professionally as a teenager).  There are many people sharing memories online—almost all of them will be better informed than mine.  I had only one interaction with him: he was pitching a comic to Bob Schreck and me a few years back.  It was out there: alien Amazons, frozen sperm going bad, and a romance angle with a hapless human abductee.  It was also a proposed stage play (Jerry had a huge career outside of comics as a Playbill illustrator).  Nothing ever came of it at DC—but it would have been a riot.

While we were all talking about that project, I had a chance to visit Jerry’s apartment.  It blew my mind! Room after room opened up, beautiful views of the Hudson—it was the kind of apartment that old people have in old Woody Allen movies.  Highbrow paintings and his own Playbill art on the walls.  Then in a playboy rumpus room, stacked high on a billiards table, there were boxes and boxes and boxes of his original comics art.  Jerry worked on a lot of books, and it looked like he had every page he ever drew—and, frankly, a few more besides.  They way he explained it: he knew the engraver would pulp the pages as soon as he was done making the printing plates.  So he simply headed out there (it was either up in the Bronx or down in Brooklyn—I can’t recall) and picked the stuff up.  He never made a big deal about it, so no one ever cared.  In fact, he said it wasn’t until Neal Adams started making waves 30 years later that the publishers had any idea that the stuff was valuable.  But back then, it was valuable to him—he didn’t want to see it all destroyed.   Of course, it’s well known that when it did come to artist rights, he was one of the biggest supporters (probably second only to, ironically, Adams).  I wanted to be him when I grew up.

It’s sad that he’s gone, but he lived a grand life.  And maybe he’s never really gone, anyway.  Joker is still here.  Batman goes on and on.  And we’ll always here the Dark Knight racing towards Gotham Streets called “Robinson.” 

Early sketches by Joelle Jones for our two page story in the CBLDF Liberty Annual 2011.  Originally this was going to be a straight-up historical piece on 19C. French cartoonist Honore Daumier… but that seemed pretty boring after it got all approved, so we made them frogs!

It started with the coolest, can’t-miss take on Marvel’s Nighthawk.  I still think it’s a cool idea.  Nighthawk is a ripoff—not uncommon in comics, and he’s hardly the worst.  Simply put: Nighthawk was conceived as a Marvel version of Batman.  Furthermore, he’s been reinvented a bunch of times, but he’s always Marvel’s version of Batman.  And speaking of rip-offs, the 25-years-long shadow cast by Frank Miller’s Batman is an influence without equal.  So the lightbulb goes off above my head: wouldn’t it be cool if I did a story where Nighthawk is an over-the-top version of Frank’s Batman?

Mark Paniccia, who edited me on a couple of short projects at Marvel, asked me to pitch some tie-ins for the Fear Itself event.  I sent him four springboards: Dr. Strange, Man-Thing, New Defenders, and this Nighthawk pitch…

So… if you read Fearsome Four(the first three issues are in-stores now!), it’s got almost nothingto do with this pitch.  But here is the seed that germinated.  Marvel balked, and rightly so: it’s a hard story to pull off in just about every way.  And nobody, maybe myself included, knew precisely what it would ultimately be trying to say.  Most of all, as a new writer I was afraid people would see me as yet another in a long line of Frank Miller ripper-offers—and miss my oh-so-clever meta extravaganza.  But while it was (along with the other three) rejected, parts of it survived to become the approved book.

The road from the idea of Fear Itself: Nighthawk to the reality of Fear Itself: Fearsome Four is a rollercoaster.  It was incredibly fun to ride—but complicated to map.  At one point, Fearsome Fourwas going to be four separate tales: each focusing on a different character with a different artist.  We’d pulled way back on the winks at the Distinguished Competition.  But there were still Batman and Miller directly influencing Nighthawk.  British artist Henry Flint was lined up to draw Nighthawk—fitting because there’s some Frank in his work…

Changes to the story necessitated shuffling artists.  Fearsome Fourbecame a traditional superhero team book—but each issue would have a spotlight on a different character.  Michael Wm Kaluta was now lined up to draw Nighthawk in the first issue.  Henry got bumped to She-Hulk in #3.  That worked for me—Henry and Michael can draw anything and I’ll be happy.  But Michael on Nighthawk is a natural fit…except the beats that related to the Miller influence.  It all worked out, however.  We’d already at this pointed pulled back even further on the Batman-isms and Miller-isms; instead, I suggested Michael bring his love for The Shadow to the forefront.  After all, Bob Kane and Bill Finger ripped off The Shadow when creating Batman, so it was full circle.

Although we wound up going with (one of) Nighthawk’s preexisting costumes, Michael also played with the design…

And here’s the first page of script for Michael’s Nighthawk scene in issue one…

And Michael’s original inks to that page…

You can check out how the page all comes together in Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #1.  And as for what ultimately happens to this “new” Nighthawk:  the fourth and final issue is out in September!

The fourth—and for now final—Madame Xanadu trade paperback from Vertigo hits stores tomorrow.  To mark the occasion I pulled out my copies of the whole run for a read-through.  This was, actually, the first time doing it.  While I left DC on very good terms, there was some inexplicable aversion I had toward keeping up with a few of my series.  These were titles I felt close to as an editor.  It was definitely resentment-free, but nonetheless a coldness.  I think I just missed the work.  Interestingly, in re-reading them now I get a little of that same chill reading the books I worked on—memories lingering on the early stuff; the later run is now for me compelling and quickly consumed… until I reached the end, and quite frankly didn’t want it to end.

But through and through, what a great book!

Matt’s confident savoir-faire could almost be considered obnoxious if it wasn’t buried in cool.  Amy’s immersive beauty will break your heart when you dare to close the book on her.  There were many others very important to the success of Madame Xanadu—most credited and some not… but this story stars Matt and Amy.  They meshed so well that even when they clashed the ultimate result was harmony—due probably to the one’s mastery of the medium and the other’s dedication to one day master it as well.  It was sweet and powerful to see Amy close off the series alongside Matt—leaving the character both full circle and grown up.

My two-page story in the CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL.

The book has an amazing roster of talent… plus me!  Moreover, I’m incredibly fortunate to be teamed with the awesome Joelle Jones.  It’s $4.99—with all money going to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  In stores October 12.

Stories by: MATT WAGNER, J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI, KAZIM ALI, DARA NARAGHI, J.H. WILLIAMS III, MARK WAID, CARLA SPEED MCNEIL, AJ LIEBERMAN, MICHAEL BRAMLEY, STEVE NILES, BRANDON MONTCLARE, JUDD WINICK, RICHARD STARKINGS

Art by: MATT WAGNER, KEVIN SACCO, CRAIG THOMPSON, CHRIS MITTEN, J.H. WILLIAMS III, JEFF LEMIRE, CARLA SPEED MCNEIL, RILEY ROSSMO, FRANK QUITELY, SHANE DAVIS, FRED HEMBECK, MICHAEL MONTENAT & JACK PURCELL, JOËLLE JONES, GREG LAND, GREG HORN, THIAGO MICALOPULOS & RODNEY RAMOS, DUSTIN NGUYEN, DAVE COOPER, IVAN REIS, SHAKY KANE

Stand Up For Your Rights! Censorship is the ultimate form of bullying. Censors want to take away the power people have to think, speak, or create freely. In CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL 2011, Legendary Editor BOB SCHRECK gathers an all-star line-up of comics creators to stand up to those censoring bullies with 48 powerful pages of ALL NEW story and art about standing up for your rights! All proceeds from this book benefit the important First Amendment work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, who’ve been fighting censorship in comics for 25 years!

This year’s Liberty Annual includes incredible contributions, including all-new original stories by superstars J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI, FRANK QUITELY, J.H. WILLIAMS III, STEVE NILES, JUDD WINICK, MARK WAID, and CARLA SPEED MCNEIL. Plus, new tales featuring GRENDEL by MATT WAGNER, COWBOY NINJA VIKING by AJ LIEBERMAN & RILEY ROSSMO, and ELEPHANTMEN by RICHARD STARKINGS & SHAKY KANE. Plus a massive, and first ever color story from indy comics master CRAIG THOMPSON! Even Marvel and DC have stepped up to show their support all-new pin-ups including BATMAN by DUSTIN NGUYEN, X-MEN by GREG LAND, GREEN LANTERN by IVAN REIS, and THE AVENGERS by GREG HORN!

All proceeds from CBLDF Liberty Annual 2011 will benefit the important First Amendment legal work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians and readers.

Click for a nice write-up for Fearsome Four!

Ryan Bodenheim pencils and inks for FEARSOME FOUR #1.  This is the first time the “team” is all seen in one panel.  And you can see it’s not the most heroic start… as a group of misfits, we wanted their first moment to be utter chaos and the antithesis of good teamwork. 

Fearsome Four #1 (of 4) is in stores right now!  $2.99 from Marvel.

Kaluta original black and white line art for Fearsome Four #3

“Four great tastes that taste weird together.”