In those halcyon days of the early ’90s, in Brooklyn’s hipsterdom of Williamsburg, amid the Doctor Seuss hats and pierced nipples, there once stood a towering figure of a man ever ready for a stiff drink and a chance to see his art take yet undreamt of form. In that era, Millionaire came across as one of those guys with a streak of mad genius who could draw you anything for a little beer money. I knew a guy like that. You did too. But these guys never saw their ships come in. Millionaire did. And, no, he wasn’t just a lucky bastard. He made his ship come in by creating it himself, drawing every intricate detail of that vessel from stem to stern. And it would be populated by the most glorious creatures: Uncle Gabby, a deranged ape patterned after a dear alcoholic genius; the navy of alligators, suggested by a violent friend in New Orleans; and Drinky Crow, standing in for all of humanity, drunkard or otherwise.

“The Art of Tony Millionaire,” published by Dark Horse, is a serious, yet irreverent, mid-career retrospective of one of the best known and beloved cartoonists around. Read his comic strip, “Maakies,” in your local alt weekly and feel the rush of anarchy take hold. Read this book, full of honest recollections from the artist, and feel like you know the man. “Maakies,” by the way, goes back to when Millionaire drew a comic strip called, “Batty,” for a sports zine. The guy who put it together, Spike Vrusho, loved to yell out, “Maakies!” whenever he caught sight of the tugboats with the big M’s on their stacks coming into New York harbor.

Like any good coffee table book, along with a marvelous selection of comics and illustrations, this book is full of wonderful anecdotes you can enjoy flipping to in order or at random. There’s stories, for instance, about bumming around Europe as a young man. In Rome, he created one really good drawing of the Roman Forum, made a hundred prints, and proceeded to sell each of them to tourists who thought they’d just caught him as he was drawing the original. For good measure, full of youthful rage, he pissed in every famous Roman fountain he could find. With security tight for the two Vatican fountains, he had to piss in a cup and discretely pour it in during the day. Then there’s Berlin, where he may have stirred an international incident.

Before any of this, there was Gloucester, Massachusetts. Unsuited for college, and even less for a job as a dishwasher, young Tony hit upon selling drawings of his rich neighbor’s houses. “I always knew it was my bread and butter,” he writes. We can imagine him reassuring himself of this with each sale. “I always knew it was my bread and butter.” He also had his family for moral support. His father was an illustrator and his mother and grandparents were painters. When you learn that, to round out his income, he would go down to the wharves to draw schooners just as beautiful as the ones his grandfather drew, it might bring a tear to your eye.

It is the curse and blessing of the young turk to push and pull against society and hope to live to see another day. That was the Millionaire way of life. By the time he was forty, he decided it was time to cut back a bit on the rage. A bunch of his friends had hailed a cab. There were five of them and the driver would only take four. Tony crawled on the top of the cab, screaming through the windshield. The cab took off with him on top and he was forced to jump. Luckily, there were no broken bones. He could afford to bring things down a notch. He was now a featured artist in the “New York Press” and his life as an artist was tangible. He could probably sense the upswing in his life. “I always knew it was my bread and butter.”

The success that followed would flow from “Maakies” and evolve to full length works of exquisite complexity like “Sock Monkey” and “Billy Hazelnuts.” Like Crumb, he followed his own muse from a bygone era and imbued his art with a timeless grace.

You can’t rush anything worthwhile. That certainly holds true for comics. You can’t rush creating anything of lasting value and you can’t rush reading it either. That’s the tradition comics come from. It is what makes “Maakies” so darn good. The eye is teased to linger on some nautical detail or some arcane turn of phrase or some unusual use of body parts. It is a modern day miracle of comics is what it is.

“The Art Of Tony Millionaire,” 200 pages, hardcover, 9″x12″, $39.95, published by Dark Horse Comics

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, has announced their 21st annual Media Award nominees — and a bunch of solid comics are in close competition for the prize!

The best comic book nominees are perhaps no surprise, as they all had strong, three-dimensional takes on gay and lesbian characters:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jane Espenson, Steven S. DeKnight, Drew Z. Greenberg, Jim Krueger, Doug Petrie, Joss Whedon (Dark Horse Comics)

Detective Comics by Greg Rucka (DC Comics)

Madame Xanadu by Matt Wagner (Vertigo/DC Comics)

Secret Six by Gail Simone (DC Comics)

X-Factor by Peter David (Marvel Comics

To be honest, it’s hard to pick a particular book — although my personal pick would have to be Detective Comics, after Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III took such a strong stand against the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule. What say you, Rama readers? Which book would you pick to win?

Ready for violence, death, and aliens? Well, you’ll have to wait a little bit on that, as the new teaser trailer for Gantz is just that — a tease, instead examining the book’s titular ebony sphere…

The Shinsuke Sato-directed film is due out sometime in 2011 in Japan — no word yet on when it’ll hit the States.

Kull the Conquerer has been many things over the years: mercenary, pirate, gladiator, king. And now, he might just be… a movie star once more.

Fantasy.fr has posted a link saying that the Robert E. Howard character may get another lease on cinematic life, after the tepid reception of the 1997 Kevin Sorbo adaptation.

Paradox Entertainment’s Frederik Malmberg told the site that a new Kull film was indeed in the works. Ironically, Paradox is also working on Howard’s arguably better known sword-swinger, Conan the Barbarian.

More info to come as it arrives!

[Hat tip to Blair for the link]

For those of you still smarting over the news of Dollhouse’s cancellation, this may be a (slight) silver lining for you.

Sci Fi Wire has posted a casting call for what seems to be an online Buffy the Vampire Slayer Motion Comic, produced by MAXX INITIATIVE, and based on the Season Eight comic by Dark Horse. Here’s just a snippet:

[ FAITH (V.O.) ]
Co-Star / Female / Caucasian / 20 – 25 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of FAITH – female, early 20′s, a slayer, displays a much darker, dangerously, fun-seeking, approach to both slaying and murder, she is the dark side of a slayer’s personality. Voice to match Eliza Dushku. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible). Pay provided. Nonunion.

There’s no sign of Buffy anywhere in this casting call — although that may mean she’s already been cast. Interesting note, however, is there is a call for someone to match the voice of actor Daniel Craig. I don’t know what kind of role he might have, but that’s kinda cool.

Even as his new comic on singing supervillain Dr. Horrible comes out this week, Zack Whedon is showing that he has a lot of range — even up to the horrors of 2029.

Indeed, the brother of Joss Whedon announced on Techland last night that he would be taking on a Terminator comic for Dark Horse.

Read on for the goods:

I am currently working on a six issue Terminator series for Dark Horse. I just turned in the first script and I’m very excited about it. I love Terminator. I think that movie is so good. Holy Toledo is it good. Now I get to play in that universe and make up Terminator stories of my own that people will get to read. I am not a big-time, famous dude and yet now I am choreographing action sequences set in a post-apocalyptic future overrun by evil cybernetic organisms hell bent on destroying the human race. How is that possible?! I’ll answer your question, Made-Up Person. It’s possible because in comics it doesn’t cost 150 million dollars to tell that story. They can put an idiot like me in charge!

No word yet over whether or not it’s set in the future, the present, or the past — or how John Connor, his mother Sarah, and his Resistance will play into this. What do you think, Rama readers?

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned to the mothership for our EXCLUSIVE Interview with Zack on the new series, later today!

Ready to have the Apocalypse Suite in your very own iPhone? Heck yes!

Dark Horse has announced that the first arcs of Umbrella Academy and Hellboy are available on iTunes.

For Hellboy, the first four issues — the “Seed of Destruction” arc — will be available either as individual sets (99 cents each) or for a bundled set ($3.99), while Umbrella Academy will have the first six-issue miniseries ready for download either as 99-cent single issues or a $4.99 packaged set.

Matt Kindt’s 2007 Super Spy, a book that devoted each of its many chapters to the life of a different World War II spy in occasionally crisscrossing stories, featured a very complex narrative, made more complex by Kindt’s relentless, almost delirious shifts in layout and style.

His latest work, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man (Dark Horse Comics), is similar to Super Spy in a lot of ways. It’s impeccably well designed, so that every aspect of the book as an object—covers, title pages, etc.—serves the story. Kindt shifts from standard comics panel-grids to incorporate information in the form of other media, like a newspaper articles and pages from books about his characters. His artwork remains bold and showy. His characters still seem assembled from brushstrokes, like calligraphy people that suggest greater detail and radiate a third dimension.

But where 3 Story differs from Super Spy, it differs for the better. The story is more straightforward, but also a little more serious and sophisticated, Kindt’s use willingness to push the limits of the form in different directions here never coming between the reader and the story as it sometimes did in Super Spy (At times Super Spy seemed like a book that was first and foremost about the way in which it was being told).

The title refers both to the structure of the book, which consists of three stories distinct but continuing stories, and the one-time height of its main character Craig Pressgang, the Giant Man of the title. Each story is told from the point of view of a woman important in Craig’s life—his mother, his wife and his daughter—with his wife’s section making up the bulk of the book, and his mother and daughters’ stories serving as a prologue and epilogue.

Craig reaches the height of nine-feet-tall by the time he starts college, and keeps growing the rest of his life. It’s a fairly normal life too, including college, a girlfriend who becomes his wife, work, family and attendant difficulties with each, although the normalcy of Craig’s real problems are slightly obscured by the fantastical nature of his condition.

None of us are giant people, but most of us face some or all of the emotional problems Craig does, his gigantism functioning simultaneously as an in-plot conflict and a metaphor. In other words, everyone grows apart from their loved ones at some point, but when Craig does so, it’s in large part because he himself is literally growing constantly.

That the emotional content works so well is a credit to Kindt’s ability to write, draw and, most importantly, write with drawings, although the fact that he focuses on a single fantastic element to write as naturally as possible around certainly doesn’t hurt. Other than Craig’s mysterious growth, every element of the story is considered and presented as realistically as possible. Rather than the sort of wish-fulfillment attendant in growing superheroes, like Marvel’s Giant Man, Craig’s growth brings with it as many problems as it does benefits—his nerve reactions are super-slow so he hurts himself easily, he suffers from leg problems, and, in a world without Pym particles, all of his clothes need to be custom-made, until he grows so large the only clothing that will fit him are bolts of cloth stitched together and, finally, he’s too big for clothing at all.

His increasing alienation is manifested physically, as he gets so big that he can communicate with his tiny family, and Kindt keeps the character remote even from the audience, as we aren’t show or told what’s going on inside his head directly, but instead see him from within the heads of the women in his life.

It’s a pretty powerful work from a cartoonist whose skill, like his protagonist’s size, seems to be continuously increasing.

Related: For more info on the book, including a seven-page preview, visit the publisher’s website here. For more on Kindt, check out the artist’s website here (And make sure you visit the portfolio and blog section, if you’re curious as to what a Kindt image of, say, The Thing fighting MODOK might look like).

Exurbia

Written by Scott Allie

Art by Kevin McGovern

Published by Dark Horse

Scott Allie is a busy man. He’s an editor at Dark Horse for such titles as “Hellboy,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “The Umbrella Academy” and “The Goon.” But there’s always time for a pet project, especially one as wacky and thought-provoking as, “Exurbia.” Coming out in October from Dark Horse, Allie teams up with artist Kevin McGovern to serve up a truly ditzy distopian farce.

Judging by the current mini comic version, “Exurbia” is quite a stylish little rant. We all have these sort of venting sessions when we can clearly see the network of lies fed to us. We can put our finger on all the government and corporate corruption and cry foul. That’s why we have comics like “Exurbia” to give voice to our cries.

Happily, all the bitterness is contained primarily in the character of Gage Wallace for our entertainment and edification. He’s a layabout twenty-something who is so glued to his TV that it’s sort of painful to watch. He lives in an apartment building with circular windows that, from outside, looks like every other building in the city, a vast collection of blocks of cheese. No wonder a mysterious rat revolutionary emerges to galvanize protest against the system.

Gage has a girlfriend, Brenda, who regularly comes in and cleans up after him. She is beginning to wonder why. On the heels of a lovers’ quarrel, Gage must try to take stock of himself. His only saving grace appears to be his youth and he sort of realizes he’s been pissing that away. Maybe the TV can provide some answers.

The art is a wonderful match for the zany humor. Gage Wallace reminds you of that obnoxious housemate who, despite himself, always had something clever to say. Kevin McGovern is in tune with how to bring that sort of angst to life. His art style is very sharp and animated. The characters have the perfect proportions of big heads and little bodies. It’s like The Flintstones if Fred dabbled heavily in conspiracy theories.

The trade paperback is 6″ x 9″, 112 pages, $9.95 and available for pre-order.

It should be a surprise to absolutely no one that I am a huge fan of Jill Thompson’s art. I had somehow missed out on the previous incarnations of Beasts of Burden, but was happy to pick up a new number one issue on little more recommendation than Thompson’s name on the cover.

Beasts of Burden looks like it could be a kids’ comic from the cover–talking dogs and cats? It could be too cute for words, especially with such bright and luscious painted art. Except the same amount of loving detail goes into some truly creepy gore and disturbing moments. A horror comic disguised as cute stuff? I’m in.

The dogs have unique and compelling enough personalities that when one is chained up in a backyard it’s oddly disturbing, like seeing a person on the end of a chain. The hints at underlying mythology–”Witch cats” and “wise dogs”–are tempting, and the humor works without breaking the tension of the story. This issue works as a one-shot, but it also sucks you in and leaves you waiting for more.

So here’s to more comics that sneak up on you, right?

As a comics critic, I hate Chris Onstad’s Achewood. As a comics reader, I love it—it’s by far my favorite web comic, and one of my favorite comic strips or comics of any kind…hell, maybe one of my favorite pieces of current fiction of any medium.

The reason part of me hates it and part of me loves it is the same. It’s such a unique strip, there’s nothing really even remotely like it, which, obviously, can make it really hard to explain to others, or talk about at all.

There are a lot of conceptual hurdles that can make entry into the world of Achewood kind of hard, hurdles I struggled with the first few times I tried reading it, until someone eventually advised to just pick a story arc from the archives and start reading—within a dozen or so strips, you should start to not only get it, but dig it. And Onstad is so accomplished at world building that the longer the strip goes on, the more you read of it, the more you get to know the surprisingly dynamic and versatile characters, the better it gets.

Those hurdles? Who are all these crazy anthropomorphic animals, and what species are they exactly? Are they anthropomorphic animals living in an animal-scaled world, or a human-scaled world? Why don’t squirrels have pupils? How is it that four such divergent characters as Mr. Cornelius Bear, Lyle, Teodor and Phillipe are roommates?

Achewood Vol. 2: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar (Dark Horse Comics) is the book that the Caleb who once struggled with such things could have used to answer such questions.

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I usually try to review a comic or two here on the weekends, but my review stack has gotten pretty out of control, so I figured instead of shaving a little off the top, I’d try to make a more sizable dent in it. So below you’ll find reviews of five comics and graphic novels from the last few months.

Empowered Vol. 5 (Dark Horse Comics) Adam Warren’s one-man graphic novel series has reached the point where reviewing each new volume seems a little beside the point. You’re either reading or your not, and if you’re not, you should be. Or at least, you should be if you like, love or maybe even loathe superheroes.

Empowered remains not only the funniest superhero comic on the stands, but also the most mature and sophisticated, which itself seems like a joke given the series’ start in superhero parody, shameless cheesecakery and bondage gags that would make William Moulton Marston blush.

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Superpouvoir has posted some concept images from You Have Killed Me’s Joelle Jones, for the upcoming Dark Horse one-shot of Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible:

The book will be written by Zach Whedon, Joss’ brother, and according to Superpouvoir, is due out in November. You can check out some other concepts of Penny and Captain Hammer by clicking here.

Would the sequel to Frank Miller’s 300 be called 301? 302? 600? 300 II? 3,000? 300: Three Harder?

Either which way, the Hollywood Reporter has stated that Frank Miller has recently polished off the first draft of his comic book sequel to 300, which smashed through audience expectations in a live-action film adaptation directed by Zack Snyder.

This follow-up will be published by Dark Horse, who printed the initial book. THR also asks some interesting questions regarding casting: Miller and company would be doubly hard-pressed to recruit original star Gerard Butler, considering (A) this role made him really famous, and (B) well, if you’ve read the book (or know anything about how the Battle of Thermopylae ended) he’s not in a position to do sequels.

Either which way, while the comics portion of the project is chugging along, the Hollywood Reporter has also stated that neither director Zack Snyder or writer Kurt Johnstad have been hired yet for work on the film.

Between this and Peter Bagge, Seattle is getting hit fast and furious with comics talent this weekend!

Scott Allie, Dark Horse editor and writer of Solomon Kane, will be hitting DreamStands Comics in Seattle from 4 to 6 pm TODAY!

Not only will you have the opportunity to get signed copies of his work, but you’ll be able to take a look at his upcoming project, Exurbia.

Mez-itz 6″ rotocast vinyl collectibles that are cool by design.

seriesOne of Mezco’s designer vinyl line presents Hellboy & Abe Sapian. These figures, based on the character designs from the film Hellboy 2:The Golden Army unleash the potential of the Mez-itz designer figures. Applying the essence of these dynamic heroes onto the canvas like Mezitz vinyl Mezco produces something exciting and original.

These two figures are exclusive to Toys R Us and ToysRus.com.
They can be purchased at

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3684540

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3684541

or at your local Toys R Us retail location.

Abe Sapien, the psychic humanoid amphibious paranormal investigator of Hellboy fame, gets the deluxe treatment with this super-sized figure. Standing a towering eighteen inches tall, this Abe Sapien is faithful to the design of Abe as seen in Hellboy 2:The Golden Army. Abe features fifteen points of articulation, removable goggles, and removable breathing apparatus.

Abe will be available at San Diego Comic Con in July 2009 or through Mezco Direct at
http://www.mezcotoyz.com/store/detail.aspx?ID=728

Abe Sapien photos by Jason Jerde.

Here is a quick run-down on the latest about the new Pop Gun War. Emily is somewhere on tour with her rock band and is staying at some seedy Motel in the middle of nowhere. She slams the door on a nosy mailman and that seems to set off a chain of events. Like Alice in Wonderland, she gets propelled down a portal to another world full of dark mysterious figures. (more…)

Farel Dalrymple’s art is art you can love. It takes you to a good place where artist rankings and hipster factors don’t matter. This is just plain good stuff. I had a chance to chat with Farel at the Stumptown Comics Festival and this interview resulted. The man sure gets around and despite any modesty on his part, he is a drawing machine. Check out his LiveJournal. It says it all.

Farel Dalrymple is well known for his on-going comics series, Pop Gun War, published by Dark Horse Comics. He is the founder of the influential Meathaus collective and the winner of a Xeric Grant and Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. This year he is nominated for a couple of Eisner Awards for his collaboration with writer Johnathan Lethem on the Marvel Comics 10-issue series, Omega the Unknown. Currently, he is at work on The Wrenchies. This 250-page, full-color comic is a postapocalyptic fantasy that takes place 3,500 years in the future, featuring a group of street children called “The Bolts.” It is due out in 2010 by First Second. (more…)

Mothers. Everybody’s got one (unless you’re Superboy, who has two dads).

But in comics, motherhood has always been a major part of a hero’s psyche, for better or for worse. Which is why we wracked our brains to bring you a Special Mother’s Day Treat — a light-hearted compilation of the Top 20 Best and Worst Mothers in Comics!

Top 10 Best Mothers in Comics: Finding decent mothers in comics is no easy task, with many of them vying for space in the back of Kyle Rayner’s refrigerator. (What, too soon?) But the best of heroes always have a better mother behind them, and the best of the best have made the list:

10. Animal Man’s wife, Ellen Baker: She kept her family in one piece while her husband was considered MIA for a year, following the events of Infinite Crisis. And yet she still stayed strong, and kept her two kids hopeful during all that time. That automatically puts her on the list. (more…)