It’s the week after San Diego, which generally means a big headache and comedown for the comic industry in general - or, if you work for Wizard, time to start prepping for Wizard World Chicago in two weeks’ time. Me, I thought that this year’s SDCC was fun if relatively missing the kind of news that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stick up in shock and/or excitement. You may disagree - go and check the headlines from the con to make up your own mind, or check out the floor buzz courtesy of Vaneta Rogers (Alternatively, listen to John Siuntres’ Word Balloon podcast from the show).

The most interesting news from the show for me - Sorry, Warren Ellis on Astonishing X-Men doesn’t measure up - was that Mark Waid had become the Editor-in-Chief of Boom! Studios… This week, he talked about the move:

I’ve already attracted a lot of existing talent, which I’m very flattered by. My inbox was filled with congratulatory messages when the announcement was made. And connections have been made with guys whom I’ve always wanted to work with, or guys whom I’ve worked with in the past and wanted to continue to work with. We’re not in the position at this moment to name any names, but believe me, I’ve got a really big Rolodex.

For fans of more potentially litigious stories, Valiant’s comic characters may be returning twice, from two different companies. Which I couldn’t even begin to explain, so just go and read that story for yourself.

Also returning is Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood, which is about to find itself published again by Image Comics. Liefeld explained just how that came about:

Honestly, without [Robert] Kirkman this deal never goes forward. Once he proposed it I felt that there was no better place for these characters to be. Eric Stephenson [Image’s current Executive Director] used to run all my Extreme titles back in the heyday, I was more than comfortable with him and Kirkman is someone I trust so it seemed a natural if not a somewhat implausible idea.

Kirkman came back a day later and said it was a done deal. Turns out he had been priming the pump behind the scenes for this for months. He really is the son of Image comics, our greatest ambassador and an incredible success story in his own right. So once he cleared the hurdles, we were down to business. Like you said I’m not an owner, partner, nothing but another client at Image. Admittedly, I have a little more history with the company than most but I’m definitely benefiting from services that others receive and that I helped establish almost 16 years ago.

Joe Casey, who’s going to be writing the brand new Youngblood book, also threw praise in the direction of Kirkman:

Robert Kirkman is the unsung hero of this entire thing, he initially called me about possibly writing this book, and the reason he was willing to play intermediary in getting Rob and some of his properties back at Image was the simplest one of all: Kirkman’s a fan. He spent his wayward teenage years reading the first wave of Image Comics and, for him, they hold a special place in his heart the way that Michelinie’s Avengers holds a place in mine. Now that he’s just a cheerleader, he’s just as excited by what I’m coming up with. I think a lot of people feel the same way.

So, everyone who hates Rob Liefeld and all he stands for - Now you know who to blame.

Youngblood isn’t the only series coming back from beyond the grave these days; Mike Baron, having recently revived Nexus, is about to do the same for his mentally-impared superhero Badger. This week, he explained to the mothership just why:

It’s the right time because my skills have caught up with my imagination. The world needs Badger to unravel mysteries and to ravel new mysteries. IDW has been interested in Badger for several years. IDW understands Badger… Timing is everything. Are we timed right? Who knows? This just happens to be the time when the cosmic convergence has conspired to bring forth these titles. We won’t know until years from now if this was the right time.

Also waiting for cosmic convergences to prove whether wisdom was found is Austin Grossman, who appeared this week to talk about his novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible:

It’s easy to push superhero doctrine into shtick, to deflate it and make fun of it. And that’s not at all what I wanted to do. I wanted it to be exactly like you said – if you drew the panels, it could look a lot like a straight superhero action piece.

But by hearing their thoughts, by getting that view on them that a detailed prose portrait gives, it kind of adds to it. I wanted to do a really good superhero comic, then add in a little bit of my own stuff, which I hope comic book fans will get that. If you put superheroes into the real world, then it’s funny, it’s naturally funny. But I didn’t want to handle it in a mocking way.

Elsewhere, Tokyopop moved further than ever from being mocked when they signed up with the William Morris Agency to further dreams of world domination. TPop CEO and CCO Stu Levy from the press release:

We are excited to join forces with WMA as we further develop the TOKYOPOP brand worldwide… This partnership takes us one step closer to realizing our dream of merging the leading edge of manga entertainment with Hollywood.

Wait, that’s their dream?

Someone who was realizing a dream this week was our own Matt Brady, who finally got to begin the definitive Matt Wagner interview as it related to Wagner’s Grendel. How definitive is it, you ask? Well, we only managed to get the first three parts of it so far, and they’ve barely made it into the series. It’s good stuff, though, with Wagner talking about where the character came from as best he can remember:

I was portraying a fantastical version of the way I myself saw the world in so many ways. I grew up in a pretty rural setting. I was smart and culturally intrigued in a world that didn’t really support those qualities or interests. Luckily for me, my parents were very encouraging of my developing creative persona and so I was able to grow and advance in an environment that, otherwise, probably would’ve killed any such ambitions. Plus, I was an only child so I’m sure I felt quite a “me-against-the-world” sort of vibe through most of my youth. Not that I was such an utter loner. I always had friends and was pretty social.
But, let’s face it, who doesn’t feel like the rest of the world just doesn’t understand you during those painful adolescent years? By my late teens/early twenties, it just seemed like so many of the people I encountered in my day-to-day life were dronish and defeated by their very existence. I felt like life held soooo many exciting possibilities and couldn’t understand why simply everyone didn’t share this same “carpe-fucking-diem, baby!” attitude. And, isn’t that really the same sort of juvenile mentality? “I get it, why doesn’t anyone else?” Trouble was, I didn’t realize that wasn’t really a very unique outlook on the world. Its how many, many young people feel but I suppose that’s also why I was able to communicate it so effectively-albeit in a grossly exaggerated fashion– through the character of Hunter Rose.

Matt getting to do his dream interview is oddly heartwarming, really. It’s one of those “all ambitions are possible” things, which means that one day I may finally get to do that seventeen-part series where I confront Chris Claremont about the way in which his fetishes ruined my hormonal teenagerdom…

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 5th, 2007 at 9:37 am and is filed under 'Rama Rampage, Comic Books, Conventions, Creators, Events, Fandom, Image, Independent, Industry, Interviews, Manga, Movies, News & Views, Pop Culture, Tokyopop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.