Periscope: Portland's storyboard and comics studio.

Overheard in the Kroger's parking lot, near the undisclosed location in Ohio:
Mom and son, loading groceries in their car. He's maybe fourteen, in the middle of his growth spurt.
Mom: Did you finish your Spider-man book?
Son: Nah, there's too many big words.

Labels: sad, Spider-man

Steve here. I'm still in Ohio. There was a bit of excitement today when I sprinted across a lawn to put myself between a reckless toddler and a hot barbeque. As a reward for my heroism, an albino squirrel was revealed unto me.

I'm in Ohio. I'll take what I can get.

Speaking of squirrels, I just made my very first post to Scans Daily, and it's, well, sort of squirrel-centric.

My god, two squirrel-related items in a row. I wonder if this means it's time for Milo to re-assemble the troops. Maybe not, but at the very least it's an excellent excuse to mention that Tom Spurgeon has put up his ungodly huge, impossibly thorough San Diego Comicon guide, and to make the link to it this picture of Tom standing at SDCC with a squirrel for a head.

Labels: Jeff Parker, squirrels, Steve Lieber

That X-men First Class Special continues to get more notice. They've interviewed Colleen Coover about it over at The Pulse. And reviewers and message boards continue to talk about it:
Pop Culture Shock|Fanboy Planet|Toonzone|The other Silver Bullet. We're all really glad to see this. Editor Mark Paniccia took a risk letting an unabashedly funny cartoonist like Colleen work her magic on the X-men. Forunately, the reception looks to be positive. Hell, not just positive; wildly enthusiastic.

The fans are also liking David Hahn's work on Spider-man Loves Mary Jane:Comixtreme|Scans Daily One can only assume this is because David rules.

And hey, this is nice:

"She was always spot-on with the story, and spot-on with the mood. I was extremely pleased when she said yes to the project, and I’m extremely pleased with the finished work."

That was Jim Ottaviani at Newsarama, discussing Dylan Meconis' work on the book.

I'm blogging this from Ohio, which is a big switch from Montreal, as you might imagine. I did manage another celebrity encounter, though. Sara and I were grabbing breakfast at the Portland airport before our flight, when a familiar looking guy sat down next to us. My immediate thought; "Geez, he looks like Ed Begley." Later, when he told the person he was talking to that "I wasn't this busy when I was doing St. Elsewhere" we took that as confirmation. Of course we eavesdropped, and it kind of made me want to go watch Living With Ed.

-Steve Lieber

Labels: Colleen Coover, David Hahn, Dylan Meconis, Jim Ottaviani

For the past couple months, we've been pacing impatiently around the studio waiting for Jeff Parker's X-Men First Class Special to come out. Of course everyone was thrilled to see the Kevin Nowlan pages as they came in, and the Nick Dragoda/ Mike Allred story was a hoot, but what really had us shaking was this: "Will the Colleen Coover pages make the internet's collective head explode?" How can I put this diplomatically? Um...How about this: Not all comics fans are able to handle the idea of their funnybooks containing stuff that's funny. Well, the book came out last week and the reaction, I'm pleased and relieved to say, was better than we'd dreamed.

Bully says it best and notes the existence of a possible department of stealth humor at Marvel. We can neither confirm nor deny, though we were glad to see that he also tipped his hat to Parker's Marvel Adventures:The Avengers and David Hahn's Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. Others who weighed in with praise include:Zodarzone | Blake Petit |Living Between Wednesdays |
The ISB |Phonin' it in | Comic Pants |Comics Should be Good |Silver Bullet |Gad Sir, Comics. |CGSPodcast board (this one's evenly divided between the yeas and the nays.) | and, of course, the good people at Scans Daily have put up one of Colleen's three pages and have taken the most important question to the people: Which is cuter: ducklings or otters?



For what it's worth, I've given the matter some careful thought, and I think that Hank's got it right:


EDIT: I forgot to add, Colleen and Jeff would LOVE to do more stories like these, but it's only going to happen if you let Marvel know you want more. Write and let Marvel know at mondomarvel@marvel.com

Labels: Colleen Coover, Jeff Parker

The set visit went great and I'm not going to share any information, but I'm VERY, VERY happy with everything I saw. The weather in Montreal was foul, but that aside, I spent the visit wearing expressions that alternated between a big goofy grin and awestruck wonder at how cool it all was.

Steve

"This nonfiction graphic novel retelling psychologist Harry Harlow's famous experiments is as disturbing as it is excellent."

Jim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis' Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love has landed another great review. This one's at Publisher's Weekly.

And hey, Comics Worth Reading likes it, too.

Also, re:the Bookslut review linked below, I'm told that Dylan Meconis is a "she," rather than the "he" the review cites. Please alter your expectations accordingly.

In other news, I'm writing this from an airport in Chicago, waiting for a flight to Montreal, where I'm going to be visiting the Whiteout set. To say I'm excited about this is kind of like saying "Orson put on a few pounds." But I'm going to do my damnedest to present myself as a thoughtful and dignified professional, and not let my nerves turn me into some sputtering Jerry Lewis spaz-dork. I'll let you know how it goes.

-posted by Lieber

Labels: Dylan Meconis, nerdism, Steve Lieber, whiteout movie

The artwork is realistic and compelling -- it’s hard to look at the young monkeys without feeling more than a heavy dose of compassion and pity. Artist Dylan Meconis has hit just the right mark here, and adds to the story while still making it about the real people he depicts and not his interpretation of who they were.

Bookslut reviews Jim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis' Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love.





BOILERPLATE AND THE GEARS OF FATE
The robot's illustrated biography is delayed, but to its benefit.

Publication of the eagerly awaited hardcover book Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel, the saga of a robot invented in 1893, has been postponed until 2008. The delay is due in part to the bankruptcy of distributor Publishers Group West (PGW).

But never fear! The silver lining is that Boilerplate creator Paul Guinan and co-author Anina Bennett will now have time to pour even more creative effort into recounting the robot's amazing adventures with Teddy Roosevelt, Lawrence of Arabia, and other famous historical figures. The manuscript and images for Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel are nearly complete, and the publishing delay will give the husband-and-wife team an opportunity to polish their work to near perfection.

The Boilerplate web site (www.BigRedHair.com/boilerplate) has already been praised by the press, educators, scientists, bloggers, and readers around the world. The New York Times describes it as "deliciously detailed" and the book promises to be even tastier.

For Boilerplate fans, as well as the book's authors, the wait shall be worth it.

Karl Kesel is auctioning another great piece of original art to pay for his corgi's surgery. Dog and art lovers should go take a look.

In this Associated Press article, Colleen Long credits Brad Meltzer's Book of Fate as being the first novel to also include a comic- a section of a Justice League story he'd written.

"Meltzer and his publishers also put excerpts of "Justice League" into the paperback edition of "Book of Fate," the first time a comic book has appeared in a novel, he says."

It's horribly, appallingly nerdy of me to pipe up about this, (or even to know it, I guess) but Laura Esquivel and Miguelanxo Prado beat him by over a decade. Esquivel's novel "The Law of Love" came out in 1995 and contained several comic book sections illustrated by Prado that functioned as part of the narrative.

It's always a little frustrating seeing these "novelists do comics" articles because they only seem interested in novelists dipping their toes into work-for-hire superhero projects or (in the case of the Stephen King item) allowing others to adapt their work. Nothing about Chip Delany and Howard Chaykin's ground-breaking graphic novel Empire thirty years ago. Nothing about Esquivel, no mention of Rucka's dual-media Queen and Country. No mention of Avi's City of Light, City of Dark. And (most aggravating, for obvious reasons) nothing about Eisner-award nominee and Oregon Book Award winner Sara Ryan- the first novelist I know of to write comics stories about characters from her own published novel. (I'll emphasize that "that I know of." If any of you out there know of someone before her, please let me know.)

My big question is this: Why do journalists go with "novelists write comic books about other people's characters" every time? Isn't "novelists explore the possibilities of an emerging medium" a better story?

Labels: novelists, ranting

Overheard at MLK and Broadway:
"So they had the cabernet and the merlot. I didn't try the cabernet because, you know, life's too short."

Missed this, somehow: a great review of Colleen Coover's Banana Sunday.

Just to my right, Ron Randall is sighing, unhappy because I reminded him of the song "Hooked on a Feeling." He's leaning over towards his itunes and I suspect he's going to put on some Bob Dylan. I'm going to guess "Positively 4th Street."

I'm wrong: Van Morrison. "Jackie Wilson Says."

SL

None of us remembered to bring a camera to FCBD. Fortunately, Aaron Albert of About.com has put up a cool gallery of photos of the day. Here's one:


Two Reviews of the FCBD edition of WHITEOUT. Douglas Wolk surveyed the entire slate of titles for Salon. And this one is easily my most favoritest review ever, EVER: Blogger Laura Hudson's mom

And don't miss this interview with Parker, or more importantly, the alarming photo mash-up thing they did.

Labels: Colleen Coover, free comic book day, Jeff Parker, whiteout

He took the stuff he was comfortable with, the scientific process, and turned it like a firehose onto the subject of love. The results are fittingly powerful and contradictory -- a set of horrendously chilling experiments which incontrovertibly demonstrated one of the most tender principles of human life.

Tom Spurgeon talks with Jim Ottaviani, Dylan Meconis and Janine Johnston.

Free Comic Book Day was a blast. I wrote about it briefly at the CBIA forum:

From my limited vantage point behind the signing table, I can say that FCBD at Cosmic Monkey Comics' new location in Portland was a big success. Jeff Parker, David hahn, Colleen Coover and I were constantly busy talking about comics, signing and doing sketches. I couldn't see how the other guests were doing, as they were out of my eyeline, but the cash register was right in front of me, and there was always a big line of people there. On the sketch front, Hahn's Firestar and Spider-Man were in big demand, and everyone was shocked when Jeff Parker drew in their Agents of Atlas hardcovers. The guy was an artist for over ten years, people! Don't be shocked that he can still bust out a Gorilla Man.

There was a giant Star Wars crew out front taking pictures with kids, who seemed to be having a great time, though a couple clearly thought the wookie was sort of alarming.

This was the first time I ever had FCBD content to sign, and it was ridiculously enjoyable to watch that huge stack of Whiteouts dwindle down to one or two copies. It seemed like the only breaks in signing came when I had to explain to younger readers that they couldn't have a copy, but that I'd draw a picture of Batman for them. Lots of questions about the movie, most of which I could only answer second or third hand. I get to visit to the set in Montreal next week, so at least I'll have some answers at my next signing.

Biggest surprise: a car crash right outside the store. * BOOM! * No one was hurt, and some kids sitting in a stroller on the sidewalk were maybe ten feet away from the point of impact and they didn't even cry. Andy Johnson and some customers quickly organized a clean-up crew and they swept the glass out of the street. One shopper rolled up a poster she'd just bought and used it as a wand to direct traffic, waving cars into the next lane. It was really nice seeing actual community spirit in action.

As you'd expect, the big smash-up took some of the fun energy out of the room, but things quickly lightened up again and things went on as before. Soon everyone was talking comics and posing next to stormtroopers again. I'm glad to say that I had a great, great time.

Free Comic Book Day: Cosmic Monkey

If you’re around the Portland, Oregon area, visit us at the new Cosmic Monkey Comics on Sandy Blvd. in East Hollywood from 12 to 3, today!

Matt Wagner - Grendel, Mage, Batman & The Monster Men
David Hahn - Private Beach, Bite Club, Spider-man Loves Mary Jane
Jeff Parker - The Interman, Agents of Atlas, X-Men First Class
Steve Lieber - Civil War:Frontline, Gotham Central, Whiteout
Farel Dalrymple - Pop Gun War, Meathaus, Omega The Unknown (upcoming)
Graham Annable - Hickee, Grickle
Colleen Coover - Banana Sunday, Small Favors
Paul Tobin - Banana Sunday, Spider-man Family

One of my books will actually be one of the official freebies - Oni's publishing a new edition of Whiteout thanks to all the attention we're getting from the movie, and they've republished the first issue as a FCBD give-away.

Steve