Marc Mason interviews Matt Wagner for Comics Waiting Room, covering everything from his early career to Sandman Mystery Theatre and Zorro, to, of course, Grendel:

MM: Where did GRENDEL come from? Was the concept fully formed in your mind from the start, or did you see the potential to expand it come later?

MW: Well, of course I’d love to say that I’d had the entire centuries-spanning saga planned out from the very beginning, but it just ain’t so. I went to art school, and part of what I learned there was to take the situations, materials and challenges presented to you and make something of them. Hopefully, something beautiful and something resonant, but that tends to come later, after you’ve found your creative feet and voice. So, suffice it to say that, back in the early ‘80s when I was fumbling around for concepts that I’d hoped would set the comic book world on fire, I was aiming to create a significant anti-hero. Throughout my teen years, I’d been drawn to the sort of narratives that turned the readers’ expectations on their collective ear. The ELRIC stories by Michael Moorcock and, obviously, the novel GRENDEL by John Gardner, which was a re-telling of the classic BEOWULF legend, told from the perspective of (and sympathetic to) the monster. These sort of stories caused you a reader to think about their moral implications in a manner that I didn’t find in more traditional fantasy literature. At first, of course, I only had my sights set on Hunter Rose and his character arc. It was only after the success of that story that I found myself with the opportunity to tell more GRENDEL tales. And, like the artist I been taught to be, I took those pieces and kept rearranging them to create new and different versions and variations on my basic central theme; violent aggression and its moral ambiguity.

So, there’s been a wide variety of hubbub regarding one “marvel_b0y” with his clever handle and his rumored inside connection into the House of Ideas. Marvel_b0y has ranted and railed, leaked insider info and … basically acted like a disgruntled low-level employee would. You get off work from a hard day and go rant on a blog about how your boss is a moron and how that project you’re working on is hard and on and on. Then you feel a bit better, some friends come by to comment and you go have an apple pie. It’s the way of the casual internet community.

But this is different! This is supposedly from the inside and has already gotten the attention of… okay, looks like Matt Fraction, but it’s attention nonetheless! Is this viral marketing? Is this real? WHO CAN YOU TRUST!?!?!

Well, I’ll tell you what; from everything I’ve read, from the fan opinion to the archived info on the site and the supposedly new blog that marvel_b0y has put up, I am clearly sure of one thing.

I am marvel_b0y.

And so are you.

(more…)

Valerie D’Orazio is thinking about what “making it” actually means:

Getting angry, feeling entitled, all this shit — it’s pointless. Because I’ve seen too many people driven figuratively or literally insane by this desire to write/draw mainstream comics. It’s as if even if they reach that level, things will mysteriously be “okay” for them.

Getting your first comic gig does not put you on easy street. If you are prone to negativity, you will find a whole new bunch of things to bitch about. And you will still have to prove yourself, issue-by-issue. You don’t just cinch your first fill-in and suddenly become Bendis. Bendis didn’t even suddenly become Bendis.

Given the crap Bendis gets from the internet on a regular basis, both deserved and not, I think you can argue that Bendis isn’t even Bendis more often than not in most people’s eyes.

That sound you just heard was my nerd head exploding after reading Jeff Katz talk about what’s following Booster Gold’s Zero Hour tie-in:

I’m not even sure. We were talking about doing these types of crossover issues very early on, and I can tell you that we have “Booster Gold” #1,000,000 upcoming. I would have loved to get in “Armageddon 2001” somewhere in there too.

I loved DC One Million… *sigh*

The fans are turning on Marvel B0y:

“Wow, this doesn’t read like ‘viral marketing’ *AT ALL*.”

“Really, I respect what you all are doing here, viral marketing is very useful….but I hope you use this as a learning experience. The interwebz are very savvy. You can do better. Oh NOES THERE IS a SKruLL iN MARVELLS OFFICWS!!”

“Oh, Marvel(‘s)_B0Y! i’m starting to wonder about your jen-der constantly, my copy machine using friend… You should stop taking pictures of your bosses office, b0y– and you’ve gone from copy machine to marketing machine in a week’s time.”

Apparently, that’s what happens when you write posts that say things like:

Brand New Day – say what you will about how they got there, the stuff coming up is even better than these past few months.  Two words:  Kraven.  Venom.

The Los Angeles Times finally takes notice of the “genre-bending” promotional campaign for Batman: The Dark Knight, which began last May with billboards for Harvey Dent’s fictional political campaign and has grown to include scavenger hunts, rallies and a cross-country tour of the “Dentmobile.”

Related: Pink Kryptonite reports on the Dentmobile’s stop in Seattle

Ben Templesmith posts a wonderful illustration of He-Man villains Skeletor, Evil-Lyn and Trap-Jaw he created for a card insert for a Masters of the Universe DVD.

Ian Brill talks with the writer for the Virgin Comics series Stranded, which should soon be a series on the Sci-Fi Channel:

PWCW: Since this is also a book about people with special powers “walking among us,” do you see it in relationship to your work on X-Men?

MC: There are similarities, yeah—some of which will only show themselves in the longer term. We’ve usually tended to meet the X-Men at the point where they come in out of the cold; where they realize that there is a home for them, a tribe to which they belong. One of the reasons why the X-Men franchise has been so durable is because of the emotional appeal of that situation. The world hates you, fears you; even your family, the people who used to be your loved ones, hate you, but now you’ve got a new family and here they are.

The Stranded takes one step back from that, initially. What kick-starts our drama is the moment of alienation: of bereavement, almost, because our characters are having their lives taken away from them and what’s being offered to fill that void is frightening and alien. Comfort is still a long way away.

Laura Hudson talks to Kochalka about his latest book for kids from Top Shelf, Johnny Boo:

PW Comics Week: Why did you choose a ghost as the main character for a children’s book?

James Kochalka: I always liked Casper the Friendly Ghost, but I could never figure out how to draw him. [Now] Casper is kind of a goody two-shoes, and Johnny Boo is kind of self-centered and egotistical. He thinks everything he does is special and wonderful. It’s probably a comment on the artist in me and my own ego. No matter how crappy a thing I do, I think it’s special.

PWCW: Did you vet Johnny Boo with your two kids?

JK: I finished the two Johnny Boo books before Oliver was born, but Eli is four and a half, and I did test out the Johnny Boo stories on him. I’d do a rough draft of the chapter during the day while he was at preschool, and for a bedtime story I’d read it to him. And then based on his reaction—if he didn’t laugh at a page, I’d go back and rewrite it.

On his blog, Eddie Campbell talks about discovering his first American comic book:

A fine chap named Tim Stark wrote his thesis on my stuff and pointed out something I never noticed while drawing the piece (though it looks so obvious I feel stupid saying so), namely that wee Eddie, probably eight years old, is having an artistic epiphany while in hospital wearing a bandage on his head after being hit by a car, and the big moment of his enlightenment is focused upon a comic book whose title is: OPERATION BRAIN BLAST. This wasn’t literally the first American comic book I fastened my eyes upon, but out of the bunch of contenders this one had the right resonance, so presumably my brain was still making important decisions at some subconscious level, blasted or not. In the anecdote I had been given a kiddie’s comic while the guy in the next bed was given this wondrously exotic and adult looking object (I’ve even managed to catch a snippet of the back cover ad, something about boys vis-a-vis men and physical fitness.)

So in the middle of the night I sneaked over to the other kid’s bedside table and secretly read his comic. For a moment I thought of stealing it, but then in that special logic of childhood I figured that anything as wondrous as the drawings of Jack Kirby would be missed and the hospital would send somebody out after me to get them back.

I can’t remember what my first comic book was, but I recall the first one that really made the whole “fan” thing stick … Uncanny X-Men #115.

What was your first, or at least the first you remember?

Okay, maybe not. But DC doesn’t have to tell the story because Caleb Mozzocco’s already done it for them. And just wait to you see Batman get poor Jonah confused with someone else.

Sometimes there’s awesome stuff outside the world of comics. Here’s where I talk about it.

Star Wars mash-up toys

Endor Express has an exclusive look at the Muppets and Disney characters as Star Wars and Indiana Jones figures. My favorite is definitely Mickey as Indiana (complete with golden mouse idol), but a close second is Stitch as Yoda.

War Eagles

Robert Hood looks at a movie that almost was, and now might be again: Merian C. Cooper’s War Eagles. Had it been made it would’ve included “giant eagles, dinosaurs, vikings, Nazi-types and zeppelins over NY.” According to IMDB (for what that’s worth), someone’s trying to do something with the concept. And outside of movies, someone definitely is. Hood reminds us that BlueWater Production has got a comic version planned.

Scott Mills has poked his head up from working on Space Devil to share some art. Space Devil was originally a webcomic on ModernTales, but Scott’s been reworking it into a 3-issue mini-series.

Hey, as long as it’s got Frank in it, I’m there.

Looks like Hunt Emerson went and got hisself a new Web site.

Via Forbidden Planet

Entertainment Weekly has the first look at Marvel’s Secret Invasion #1, and talks with writer Brian Michael Bendis about what the event holds for the publisher’s superhero universe:

So how does Secret Invasion end?
The Marvel universe will not be the same.

That’s what everyone says about an event comic!
Well, we’ve proven over time that House of M, Civil War, Secret War — none of these did leave the universe the way it was. The criticism going into Civil War is that it’s going to be a draw: Captain America’s dead and Tony Stark is running the world. That wasn’t the way it was when we started. These are big things for the characters. So on that note, we can only stand by our track record. But that’s why you buy the book. The Avengers teams will be dramatically shifted. There will be a huge upset of power in the Marvel universe. Huge.

Secret Invasion #1 goes on sale April 2.

I found it here. More info on the artist, Ron English, can be found here.

National Public Radio’s Morning Edition looks at the move into comic books by rapper Percy Carey, novelist Jodi Picoult and TV and movie producer Joss Whedon:

… As Picoult learned, writing in the sequential art form required a different set of skills from the ones she had honed as a novelist.

“I almost have to [write] more like I imagine a director would than a novelist,” says Picoult. “That visualization of how the words are going to play out on the page and where … the camera angle would swoop in to the scene. That was really foreign to me.”

Despite the differences in the writing process, Picoult sees a direct parallel between the graphic novel and other forms of literature:

“In all the years that I’ve been writing — 15 years now — there’s only one genre that’s really debuted in The New York Times Book Review, and that’s the graphic novel,” says Picoult. “And that tells me that someone’s taking them really seriously as a form of literature.”

The website includes John Ridley’s audio story, and excerpts from Buffy the Vampire Slayer #11 and Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm.

Drawn talks to artist Jillian Tamaki about her debut graphic novel, Skim and what she listens to while in the studio:

I listen to public radio. Lots and lots of public radio. Enough radio to hear the programming loop once or even twice in a day. Sam bought me a satellite radio for Christmas two years ago and it only fueled my addiction: I’ve gone through two radios in two years. How do you WEAR OUT a radio?! Virtually all my work is created to a soundtrack of streamed National Public Radio (NPR) and The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) programming.

At Horror Yearbook, Mike Fish talks with Buffy the Vampire Slayer artist Georges Jeanty about collaboration, the surprise in Issue 12, and trying to capture the actors’ likenesses:

Horror Yearbook: There’s been some criticism to you that when you draw The Scooby Gang, you don’t meet the likeness of the actors. What do you say to that?

Georges Jeanty: What?! I hadn’t heard that! I thought I was so well insulated as to not hear the criticisms … okay, now I’m depressed! I’ll be the first one to say I don’t get it right all the time, but I can say with absolute honesty that I do make an effort to draw the in question. I never just fake it. As bad as some of the likenesses might look, I never skimp. So please, bear with me if a stray drawing doesn’t meet up to standards.

I will say Joss said something to me early on that put me in the right frame of mind when drawing these characters, he told me he wasn’t as interested in it looking like Sarah Michelle Gellar as he was in having the drawing looking like Buffy. That did it for me.

Issue 13 of Buffy Season 8 hits stores next week.

Paramount sent out a link to this Indiana Jones widget, which you can put on your blog, Facebook or MySpace page (I always forget we have a MySpace page):

If you add it to your site, you’re entered into a contest to win a trip to the premiere … so go add it to your social network page of choice.