Just when I thought I’d seen all the creative tricks Melinda Gebbie could do in her masterwork, Lost Girls, I stumbled onto — with the gentle help of Eddie Campbell’s Fate of the Artist — the Weblog of artist/designer John Coulthart who posted the gorgeous wedding invitation Melinda painted for her wedding with her Big Hairy Collaborator, Alan Moore, last weekend.

American Born Chinese
By Gene Luen Yang
First Second Books
$16.95

One of my favorite, modern mystery series is S.J. Rozan’s about a pair of detectives named Lydia Chin and Bill Smith. The hook to the series is that the books alternate being narrated by the two sleuths. If Lydia is the initial detective on a case, she narrates the story. Same with Bill.

One thing I love about the series is watching Rozan, a middle-aged, white woman, write so convincingly from the perspectives of both a grizzled, hard-boiled male and a young, Chinese woman. But what I really love about the series are the Lydia Chin books, because of the insight they give to Chinese culture in New York City. And particularly to the attitudes of Chinese people who were born in America. ABCs, they call themselves. American Born Chinese.

(more…)

Creator Chip Mosher will be in L.A. Wednesday for the release of his new book, Left On Mission:

What: LEFT ON MISSION Release Party at Meltdown Comics & Collectibles
When: 7 p.m. May 16th
Where: 7522 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90046
Cost: Free
Information: 323.851.7223 www.meltcomics.com

Creator/Writer Chip Mosher (That’s me folks!) will be in attendance and signing copies of issue #1

Alcohol to be served (AKA FREE BOOZE…for the 21 and over crowd!)

Look forward to seeing you there,

Chip

You can also check out a seven-page preview of the book over on MySpace Comics.

The television networks are announcing their fall schedules all this week. The first one out of the gate is fourth-place NBC, which announced a spin-off for their popular show Heroes:

To stretch the normal 22-episode season of “Heroes,” which faltered after its long hiatus this year, NBC will add “Heroes: Origins.” The spin-off will introduce a new character each week, and viewers will select which one stays for the following season. The two series will have 30 new episodes combined.

They will also add three “supernatural” shows to their line-up:

–Bionic Woman, a remake of the 1970s spin-off of the Six Million Dollar Man, with Michelle Ryan in the title role.
–Journeyman, which is about “a San Francisco newspaper reporter who travels through time to alter people’s lives.”
–Chuck. “a thriller about a computer geek who becomes a government agent after spy secrets are embedded in his brain.”

Crossing Jordan and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, not surprisingly, were both given the axe, while Friday Night Lights will move to Friday nights, so it can get the axe early next fall.

For more information, check out TV Squad’s coverage. ABC will unveil their schedule tomorrow, followed by CBS on Wednesday. Fox and The CW will announce their line-ups on Thursday.

Found this on Table of Malcontents … the Picture of Everything:

Ok, so that’s not exactly everything … you’ll have to check out the website to see the progress on the piece so far. Howard Hallis talks about the genesis of the project, which is his attempt to draw, literally, everything and everyone in one picture:

It all started in 1997 when I began doing a drawing of Spider-Man. This led to a drawing of other super heroes from Marvel and DC around him in the picture. Soon I had Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Spawn and The Hulk and was quickly thinking of more. Inspired by some of the works of Alex Ross and other comic book artists, I decided to try and draw as many super heroes as I could in one picture.

Soon I began to think of super heroes that were cartoon characters, such as Blue Falcon and Dynomutt and Hong Kong Phooey. If I started drawing cartoon characters, why not add all the cartoons I could think of as well? And aren’t The Beatles cartoons? Then why not all the rock stars?! And movie stars! And space ships, fantasy buildings, historical figures and places! And why not all the religious figures and iconography? Think about all the famous vehicles from movies and TV, you have to put those in… And video game characters!

Soon I had all the modern and ancient wonders of the world, 157 Pokemon, reproductions of Alex Grey, MC Escher and other famous artists works (not easy to draw, let me tell you!), and as many space ships, religious figures, cartoon characters, historical figures and places, imaginary buildings, super heroes, famous vehicles, movie stars, rock stars, corporate logos, flags of the world, and robots that I could think of in one giant picture. I even included my friends and family in there for good measure. You can’t leave them out, now can you?

The Washington Post’s Express talks briefly with cartoonist James Vining, creator of First in Space, the Xeric Award-winning graphic novel from Oni Press about a chimpanzee trained by the American space program for the first sub-orbital flight.

Although this article from Sunday’s Houston Chronicle doesn’t cover as much creative ground as did last week’s Newsarama piece on the end of Strangers in Paradise, I thought the interview with Robyn and Terry Moore was definitely worth reading because it discusses the economics of self-publishing comics as well.

Wizard editor Brian Cunningham gets its right, crediting the success of Moore’s Paradise not only to good timing — it debuted smack in the middle of a mid 90s supernova-like surge of comics publishing — but sticking to it after the not-unexpected and much-sooner-than-later bust without a break for nearly 15 years.

And it’s paid off with an average print run of some 12,000 per issue for Strangers and the Moore’s Abstract Studios grossing more than $500,000 last year alone.

Neil Gaiman was at the wedding of the year, and he wants to tell you about it:

[Alan Moore] was resplendent in his Edwardian finery, and should he now abandon his writing career and begin fighting crime as The Peacock — he’s a dangerous dandy! — I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

Mel was gorgeous too. But she didn’t look like a potential crimefighter.

He also has some photos.

Congratulations, Alan and Melinda. Not that you’re reading this, but somehow I’m sure you’ll know.

Mark Waid continues his interview with Robert Taylor and makes me feel the need for a public announcement when he says the following:

“Fun, fun, fun” being [The Brave and The Bold's] rap makes me worried. Sales were strong on the first issue, but the second issue drop-off was a little steeper than we’d predicted. And I honestly think that was because every reviewer said it was “fun.”

“Fun” automatically kills off a lot of your sales. Don’t get me wrong; the book’s still a success in the current market, and no one at DC has expressed anything but enthusiasm. We certainly seem to have a hit on our hands, George and I. I just hope that the “fun” label doesn’t hit us too hard. If so, it’s just another sign that current readers don’t want “fun” comics.

People? The Brave and The Bold? Not fun in the slightest. Really incredibly well-done superheroes that don’t rely on shock tactics but instead feels free to use more genres than just action and/or depression (Yes, I know that’s not a genre. Go with me here) to make its point, sure. But fun? No no no no no. Of course not.

Now go and buy it.

As Dynamite prepares to relaunch Ennis and Robertson’s The Boys, Wizard talks to the creators about their end at DC and their beginning at Dynamite:

It was a Friday night. That much Garth Ennis distinctly remembers. ’Twas the night he learned about the cancellation of his comic series The Boys.

After hearing that DC Comics, which published the book through its WildStorm imprint, would no longer carry the ultra-violent, ultra-raunchy epic about a team of renegades keeping the world’s superhero population in check, the writer behind similarly graphic hits such as Preacher and The Punisher had only one place to go.

“I was on my way to the pub,” says Ennis, who co-created the series with artist Darick Robertson. “And I started laughing. ‘Here you are again, right at the heart of the sh–storm,’ I thought. ‘Exactly where you knew you were going to be… At first there was no immediate sense that we’d be cut loose; I was more worried about having to carry on at DC with the book in some neutered form,” says Ennis. “Once they told us they’d give the rights back, I knew we’d be okay. The publicity alone would have a dozen publishers knocking at the door.”

Some YouTube distractions to get you over the soul-crushing return of another work week:

* The classic Gene Dietch, Jules Feiffer cartoon, “Munro.” (via Comics Comics)

* A trip through the offices of Mad magazine, courtesy of Dick DeBartolo. (via Tom)

* A classic Spidey Super-Stories episode.

* An amusing little anime titled “Kung-Fu Love,” plus the trailer for the highly anticipated “Genius Party” (via Jog)

Over on his blog, Skottie Young apologizes for not posting much lately by posting the complete, dialogue-less art from a recent Frankenstein comic he did for a back-up in one of Marvel’s Legion of Monsters specials.

Over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon talks to Jordan Crane about the French release of his great all-ages book, “Above the Clouds,” among other things:

SPURGEON: Didn’t you reformat the book in general?

CRANE: Completely, yeah. Completely. They gave me two options when we talked about doing the book. They said, “We can just republish the book exactly how it is.” Or, and they would prefer the second one, “We can reformat it into the European format.” Initially I thought I just wanted it the way it was. That’s great how it is. It’s already been done, why change it? But then I thought, you know, maybe I can change it. Then I thought I could do giant splash panels, and that would be fun. That kind of clinched it. Great. I’ll reformat the whole thing and do giant splash panels. In theory, it will go pretty fast. I thought I could do it in a couple of months, and it ended up taking half a year.

Then, over at the LA Times, he offers his thoughts on the upcoming slate of Marvel movies:

The contrasts between the big names and the others can be stark. “Spider-Man” was a youth-oriented comic book bestseller featuring an appealing teenage hero and an important life lesson: “With great power comes great responsibility.” “Iron Man” has been a mostly second-tier comic starring a 40-something munitions dealer and featuring an alcoholism subplot that suggests a less teen-friendly message: “Our lives have become unmanageable.”

Yet while it seems ridiculous to suggest that potential headliners like Sub-Mariner, Cloak and Dagger and Luke Cage will enjoy as much success as established Marvel characters like Spider-Man or the Incredible Hulk, Marvel has a better chance of success than its critics suggest.

You did watch the debut of “The Drinky Crow Show” last night didn’t you? Because we’d hate to have come over there with the ruler again. It’s OK if you did miss it, since you can see the whole thing online here. Just be sure to vote for the show in the poll on the bottom right corner of this page.

Never one to miss a beat, Charles McGrath at the New York Times took the opportunity yesterday to talk to Mr. Millionaire about his new show its origins:

This troubled, bibulous little bird is in many ways Mr. Millionaire’s alter ego and also his savior. He came up with the character in the winter of 1993, during an extremely low period in his life. He was living in New York then, and barely scraping by, as he had been since getting out of art school, by making architectural drawings of houses. But that winter his business had dwindled, and as he recalled recently: “My girlfriend said, ‘You’re not going to be able to pay the rent, are you?’ She said it would be better if I moved out, and so I was broke, sleeping on couches, begging food from friends. One night I went to this bar in Brooklyn, Six Twelve in Williamsburg, and on a napkin I started drawing a cartoon about a crow who got drunk and blew his brains out. The bartender said, ‘Every time you draw one of those, I’ll give you a beer,’ so I just kept drawing. He photocopied them, and pretty soon they became a kind of trademark for the bar. The bartender even made a Styrofoam model of Drinky Crow.”

iF Magazine talks with artist Arthur Suydam about Marvel Zombies, and illustrating the cover for the Touch the Dead video game:

iF: So did you think this whole Marvel Zombie craze would be as big as it is?

Suydam: I was the only who thought that the project was going to be huge. I don’t think anyone else gave it a chance and when I heard they were going to break some rules when it came to characters and make some cutting edge things. I thought this has the potential to be huge and if we do a half decent job it would be huge. No one else was giving it a chance and comics reviewers were pooh-poohing the thing and not giving it a chance. It wasn’t until after the third issue that people started thinking this was a good series and that has to be a little bit about the stores and excitement coming from them to find out that the buzz on the series was huge.

Suydam also mentions more zombies projects for Marvel, and Skin Deep, his own project set to come out through Dynamic Forces.

Jackie Chan asks Brett Ratner for a role in the next X-Men movie in this sample spoof from the MTV Movie Awards Spoof Contest:

Via Marvel.com.

BBC News examines recent comic adaptations of classic works, such as Self Made Hero’s Manga Shakespeare line and Classical Comics‘ Macbeth, with an eye to alterations to the original texts:

Self Made Hero’s Emma Hayley said Shakespeare’s language had been cut where the comic format could carry the story visually.

In addition, each work had had to be made to fit their standard 208-page paperback book format.

“Obviously you are going to lose some of the poetry of Shakespeare, that’s inevitable, but we are trying to get youngsters interested.

“I can totally understand some people aren’t going to like the cuts we made but those were just editorial decisions.

“We are trying to make it accessible and through a medium that’s increasingly popular with kids.”

The accompanying image gallery provides examples of the comics, and text-change comparisons.

Thanks to your interest as well as others, viewing of those hilarious “I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC” parodies made by Michael Agrusso is surging. Since I posted my interview with Michael, views for his first “I’m a Marvel” short have surged to almost 2 MILLION!

Just for your amusement, Michael is back with two more shorts, about dead superhero parents and a very ticked-off Wolverine squaring off against a very neurotic Kal-El…

Tokyopop.com has an interview with Anike Hage, creator of the publisher’s global manga Gothic Sports.

Warren Ellis led the 2007 Eagle Awards, presented Saturday at Bristol Comics Expo, winning in five categories: Favorite Writer, Favorite New Comic (Nextwave), Favorite Comics Story published during 2006 (Nextwave), Favorite Comics Villain (Dirk Anger) and Roll of Honor.

Mike Mignola was named Favorite Comics Writer/Artist, while John Cassaday was voted Favorite Comics Artist: Pencils. Newsarama was chosen Favorite Comics-Related Website.

The full list of winners are after the jump.

(more…)