What may be one man’s Sorrow can also be pretty darn lucrative — at least, if you’re Rick Remender and company.

Shock Till You Drop has reported that the Punisher scribe has made a big hit in Hollywood, as the rights to his Image series Sorrow has been optioned by Twisted Pictures, the company behind the Saw films.

The series, written by Remender and Seth Peck with art by Francisco Francavilla, is about a seemingly deserted town that had been the center of government nuclear testing. But when four travelers break down near the town’s border, they find out there’s something hidden in the shadows.

Image Comics has announced that for Spawn #196, it’s going to be an old-school Image team taking on that warrior from Hell.

In addition to series creator Todd McFarlane handling inks and second series artist Greg Capullo handling layouts, Image partner Rob Liefeld will be handling the pencil work for this issue! With the conclusion of ENDGAME, this year’s worth of storylines will tie together Detectives Sam and Twitch, Bill Winston’s suicide, with the mystery of new Hellspawn Jim Downing’s awakening.

“I was looking for good artistic help, and remembered inking over Rob on his New Mutant covers back in the Marvel days, and most recently a little bit of IMAGE UNITED,” McFarlane said in a press statement. “I thought it would be a fun experiment to see what Capullo layouts, Liefeld pencils and my inks looked like together on a handful of pages.”

The book is due out November 25th, and will cost $2.95.

UPDATE: We now have an interview with Kirkman on the mothership, containing a bit more information, so head on over and check it out!

MTV has a nice interview up with Robert Kirkman, discussing the television adaptation of The Walking Dead with AMC and director Frank Darabont.

The question that really caught my attention was why Walking Dead — which has all the gore and swears you’d expect out of a comic with zombies — was on AMC, rather than a no-holds-barred station like HBO or Showtime:

I had no concerns about that whatsoever, because one of the concerns I have about zombie fiction is when they rely too much on the shocking gore aspects. That’s not really the point of “Walking Dead,” so to a certain extant, I think it will work better at AMC—because it forces people not to rely on that stuff. As far as “Walking Dead” not having teeth on AMC, if you’ve ever seen [certain episodes of] “Mad Men” or “Breaking Bad,” they push a lot of boundaries as far as content goes.

In fact, I just had a meeting with a bunch of the executives at AMC, and Darabont, and Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert at Circle of Confusion, and the executives were talking to Darabont about his script and they said, “You can’t use the F-word.” That was the only limitation they gave him. We were all stunned.

Considering Kirkman is an executive producer on the show, I doubt it’ll veer too far off his own creative sensibilities, even as he has said that the show doesn’t have to follow the comic’s trajectory to the letter. And if AMC is really only saying “no F-words,” this zombie show might have some teeth. What do you think?

What comes to mind when you think of Jeff Parker comics? A talking gorilla with a machine gun? Harrison Oogar, The Caveman of Wall Street? The entire roster of the Avengers, transformed into a team of M.O.D.O.K.s?

Well Parker’s latest comics work, five-part Image miniseries Underground, doesn’t have any of those things in it, nor is it much of anything like the vast majority of the Parker-written comics you’ve probably read.

That’s not a bad thing.

While his ability to make me laugh is one of the things I admire most about Parker’s writing, there’s nothing wrong with range, and it’s nice to see Parker taking the opportunity to demonstrate his own. Underground has very little humor in it, aside from an early scene in which park ranger Wesley Fischer stares at herself in the bathroom mirror and tries to figure out the best way to say good morning to the sleeping co-worker in her bed, who is now more than a co-worker.

The mode is more straightforward action drama, and Parker has a perfect collaborator for work in the genre—Whiteout artist Steve Lieber, who’s no doubt having a pretty exciting month in general.

Wesley, the aforementioned park ranger, is also an expert caver, and wants to keep Stillwater Cave off-limits to amateur cavers and tourists, who could damage the delicate system. That places her at odds with much of the rest of the small, economically depressed Kentucky town, the residents of which think opening up the cave could prove an economic boon. Leading the charge is local businessman and entrepreneur Winston Barefoot, who may have something to do with guys going ahead with the dynamiting of the cave on their own.

A great deal of this first issue is spent on introducing the characters and conflict before ultimately complicating it, leaving us with an underground cliffhanger promising more action in the unusual, underground setting in future installments.

If the comic seems like a bit of a departure for Parker, whose writing has dealt with some of the more off-beat corners of Marvel’s superhero universe and a colorful magician character fighting demons for DC/WildStorm, Lieber is well within his comfort zone of drawing real people in real places doing realistic things.

Lieber’s a strong designer, storyteller and actor, and makes every page beautiful (if you stop and really look at it), unassuming (if you don’t) and, most admirably, perfectly natural. He’s one of those rare artists who manages to make great art look effortless, so that his panels and pages simply look as they should, making it easy for the reader to be drawn in.

In that respect, it mirrors the issue as a whole—it’s really quite inviting.

Variety has announced that AMC is signing a development deal to produce a series based on Robert Kirkman’s Image comic book series, The Walking Dead.

Included in the discussions is Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont and Terminator producer Gale Ann Hurd.

“This is not about zombies popping out of closets,” said AMC SVP of programming, Joel Stillerman to Variety. “This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.”

Of course, regular readers of the series know that the characters don’t always survive. In fact, the often shocking “anyone can die” theme of the book is often considered by fans and critics to be a hallmark. Speaking of a particular death from 2008, Newsarama’s Best Shots Team leader Troy Brownfield said Walking Dead held, “the most shocking page in mainstream comics this year. I’d figured for years that one of them would get it, but the other? And in that way? Heartbreaking. And creatively invigorating.”

The book, which began in 2003, dovetailed nicely with Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later to really help cement the zombie zeitgeist in comics. The tales of Rick Grimes and other survivors has led The Walking Dead to be Image’s top-selling series, even recently being used to promote other non-Kirkman written series from Image, including Chew and Viking.
UPDATE: Image Comics has released the following press release, confirming the Variety report and following it up with quotes from Kirkman about his admiration for Darabont. The press release promises more details to come, though, suggesting that maybe there’s a little more than just development limbo in store for The Walking Dead.

PRESS RELEASE – FRANK DARABONT RESURRECTS THE WALKING DEAD AT AMC!

AMC and Frank Darabont bring Robert Kirkman’s epic tale of human survival to the small screen!

12 August 2009 (Berkeley, CA) - As announced in Variety and Hollywood Reporter, AMC has signed on to bring THE WALKING DEAD to television screens. Image Comics’ epic tale of human survival in the face of a zombie apocalypse by writer Robert Kirkman and illustrator Charlie Adlard is being adapted as an ongoing television series by Shawshank Redemption and Stephen King’s The Mist director Frank Darabont.

“I’m a huge fan of Frank Darabont’s body of work and AMC has impressed me to no end with Breaking Bad and Mad Men,” Kirkman said. “I couldn’t be happier with THE WALKING DEAD ending up here.”

THE WALKING DEAD deal will bring Darabont in not only as Executive Producer, but also as writer and director on the adaptation. Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd of Valhalla Motion Pictures and David Alpert from Circle of Confusion will also produce. While further information is under wraps, the plan is to keep the show extremely faithful to the Kirkman and Adlard’s comic book series.

More details on AMC’s adaptation of THE WALKING DEAD will be announced shortly.

Click through for a 5-page preview of Phonogram 2.4. Because Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen, and I all love you.

Happy Monday.

A couple of weekends ago, a friend and I wandered down to the New York City Zine Fest in Brooklyn. Like me, my friend is a journalist and a product of the 90s punk-rock/riot grrl scene in which making zines was, in those dark pre-blog days, what you did with your angst and anger and more importantly, your sheer love of the music that kept you sane.

The zine fest featured a surprising number of comic creators–surprising to me at first, anyway, though when I thought about it, it made sense. Comics still work best in print, despite some good innovation in the digital forum. Zines, meanwhile, seem completely archaic–they were always artfully not-artful, badly photocopied, self-consciously printed in that same retro-obsessed typewriter font (Courier) even though few people made them on typewriters. Meanwhile, the Internet can assure faster distribution of and greater connection through ideas The zines we saw at this fest were no different than the ones we used to read in the 90s, which says something about the death of the medium. They seemed more an attempt to cling to a period in time that is past, an attempt to find a community that no longer exists. The point of the zine was the ideas, the community, not the medium itself.

So whither a zine about a comic?

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The New York Times has a new preview up for Image United, the ambitious crossover that’s scheduled for later this year!

In a brief interview with Robert Kirkman, the NYT discusses how this crossover is not like the rest: not only are company icons Spawn, the Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, and Youngblood appearing in this book, but they will each be drawn by their respective artists!

In short, these pages are going around the country, hitting Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, and more, as each of the Image partners puts their stamp on the project. Kirkman, who is writing the project, was mum about whether or not his character Invincible would appear.

While the above image is an early preview from last year, you can see a new page at the New York Times web site, by clicking here.

Not enough human flesh consumption in your comics? Well, Chew on this!

Image has announced that the well-received new series Chew will be be piggy-backing on the upcoming issue of Walking Dead #63 on July 17th.

The first issue of Chew will be printed in black-and-white as a flipbook in tandem with Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman’s story. According to Image’s post, the entire 48-page book will not experience any price hikes, being released at the going price of $2.99.

Chew, written by John Layman and illustrated by Rob Guillory, follows Tony Chu, a cop with a disgusting manner of finding clues: by getting a psychic impression off anything he eats.

“As a creator, there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing that a lot of people are interested in reading your book. The flip side of this is there’s nothing more frustrating than hearing how people can’t get a hold of your book to read,” Layman said in a press release. “So, Image and Robert Kirkman concocted this great plan to put CHEW in a lot of people hands– and for the unbeatable low, low price of ‘free’.”

Meanwhile, via Twitter, Image partner Robert Kirkman said “Honestly, CHEW is hotter than TWD was when it started. Our sales never climbed as fast as this. Don’t miss out. Get in on the ground floor.”

Blair Butler announced yesterday on Attack of the Show that Top Cow would be revisiting their Pilot Season Competition, where fans will vote on five comics to determine which two will become a miniseries.

But instead of rookies and indie talent, this competition will be different: all five series have been developed by Image partners Robert Kirkman and Marc Silvestri.

I gotta say, with the success of Kirkman properties such as Invincible and the Walking Dead (and Astonishing Wolf-Man isn’t bad, either), I’m pretty excited. There’s no word on interior artists (as Silvestri is only doing the covers), but we’ll report more as we hear about it.

Interview conducted by CB and Tony D, two comic book outlaws in their own right.

1. Michael, congrats on Outlaw Territory Volume 1 out in stores now from Image Comics. We hear reviews are great, particularly for the “Ahiga” short story. What gave you the idea for the book?

Michael Woods: Thank you very much.  With Outlaw, I wanted to do something that was a polar opposite of the previous anthology (Low Orbit) and a western theme seemed to just fall into my lap.

2. How hard was it to handle Christian Beranek as a creator? We’ve heard he can be quite difficult.

Michael Woods: I have booze and pictures he’d rather not get out.

3. At anytime did Christian Beranek go renegade on you? Did he ask you to meet him in that dive bar he likes to frequent in Silverlake? The one where those people were murdered?

Michael Woods: People were murdered there?  I thought we were just going for drinks.

4. What are the plans for future editions of Outlaw Territory? Any creator names you can mention?

Michael Woods: There will be a volume two, which is almost finished.  Creators include Stuart Immonen, Sean Phillips, Greg Pak, Joshua Dysart, Paul Azaceta, Jeff Lemire, Francesco Francavilla, Rafael Albuquerque, Dustin Weaver, Tom Fowler and many more.

Oh, and that Christian Beranek guy is back again.  I mentioned about the pictures and the booze, right?

5. What is your craziest convention experience?

Michael Woods: My lawyers have advised me against telling that story.

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Wow, is it that time already? Sometimes, you have to give a shout-out to the men who have raised us. But in comics, sometimes having a dad isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For every Luke Cage, we get a Magneto — because villainous fathers have always been a time-honored trope in the comics community. So with that in mind, we at Blog@ decided to take a look and create a light-hearted, sometimes tongue-in-cheek (and obviously subjective) look at the top ten best and worst dads in comics!

The Top 10 Best Dads in Comics: With parental fatalities often being the impetus for superheroics, it’s tough to find a good dad in comics. But the good dads are often the best, even if they’re no longer with us. Let’s take some time to tip your hats to these great men in sequential art.

10. Ted Knight: Ted shows that it’s never too late to connect with your kids. Somewhat estranged from his son Jack until his son David is killed, Ted soon establishes a bond with his son through advice and adrenaline. While Jack first was all about himself, now he’s a hero, partially because of circumstance, but mainly because of the interaction he has with his dad.

9. Mr. Fantastic: While Reed Richards is a bit of an absent-minded, albeit good-hearted, space case, it’s clear how much he loves his kids. It’s one of the reasons he’s pushed himself as hard as he can go, to support his children, and while he can sometimes be a little distant, when push comes to shove, you know Franklin and Valeria come first to this super-stretchable polymath.

8. Wally West: When he had to make a work-related trip, he took his kids along for the ride. This might be a glib way of looking at Infinite Crisis, but that’s pretty much what happened — during his battle with Superboy-Prime, Wally was being sucked into another dimension. But he brought Jae, Iris, as well as his wife Linda along with, and raised his kids — despite their superspeed aging — in that parallel world. He has since fought the Speed Force itself — taking a hit on his own limitless speed — to save his children from its shackles. This guy? A great dad.

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Mike Allred’s Madman Atomic Comics is wrapping up in August, and he and Image are already promising more.

From the press release:

“MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS marks the end of an era, but definitely not the end of MADMAN at Image,” Allred said. “MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS was a really fun time for me, Laura, Madman and friends. Working at Image gave us  an unprecedented freedom with the book, allowing us to experiment like never before! I hope fans have enjoyed the trip thus far and will be back with us on the next leg once we get to it!”

MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS #17 wraps a nearly two year run for the series, the longest for Allred and MADMAN in terms of consecutive issues, seeing his beloved superhero series finish off stories in the making since its inception as well as experiment in ways it never has before. Allred’s run produced some of the most acclaimed issues of his career, including his tribute to the entire history of comics wherein each panel featured a different style of a famous creator. The final issue will also tie in his RED ROCKET 7 series in continuity for the very first time, leading in to his second, long-awaited album, THE GEAR: LEFT OF CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.

THE GEAR: LEFT CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE amps up the psychedelic space rock influences hinted at on the first album and features special guest musicians including The Dandy Warhol’s Courtney Taylor-Taylor. Furthermore, August’s release is a limited edition Direct Market exclusive released well in advance of the mainstream edition and will include tracks not available anywhere else, including iTunes. MADMAN will return in a different form at Image Comics to be announced at a later date.

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…)

By Filip Sablik

I think people my age and older have a great fondness for letter columns in comics. Before the Internet it was our one way to communicate with the creators and editors who made the comics we loved. The only other way was conventions and back then there wasn’t one every other weekend all over the country. Something I’ve been pondering recently is the disappearance of printed letter columns in comics.

In the age of instaneous communication and social networking, virtually any motivated fan can interact with their favorite creator, editor, or comic personality in a very direct and immediate fashion. Want to let a Rob Liefeld know that you don’t like his art? Just jump on the comments sections of sites like Newsarama and let him know. Want to share your thoughts on what DC should do with Superman? Write up a clever, insight blog (on Newsarama for example). Want to ask an artist about a commission? Track them down on Facebook or MySpace. Want to know what Joe Quesada has for breakfast? Follow him on Twitter.

But who are the new letter hacks (and I use this term very affectionately)? In times past, it took some writing chops and the ability to construct a cohesive letter in order to get the attention of editors and creators. Prolific letter writers like T.M. Maple or Augie De Blieck were known in comic circles for their letters and became comic personalities in their own right. I remember quite vividly the pride I felt when a letter I wrote was printed in an issue of the short-lived Steven Seagle series “Primal Force”. Or how giddy my childhood friend Jeremy was when his scientific dissertation on the Flash’s powers was printed in an issue of “Flash”.

Somehow a gut reaction posted as a comment, tweet, or on a message board doesn’t seem to carry quite the same weight as the letters of yore. That’s not to say that comments like “You’ll burn in hell for all this T&A” doesn’t evoke some spirited and thoughtful debate…

My fondness for Letter Columns is one of the reasons we brought back official Letters Pages in both Witchblade and The Darkness at Top Cow. I want a fan to experience the same rush of excitement in seeing their name printed in his or her favorite comic series with a thought out response from either Ron Marz or Phil Hester. Sure, it’s a little bit of extra work for us and for the writers, but I think it’s worth it.

Although I do wish that modern day letter writers would run spell check and consult the occasional grammar manual before hitting the “send” button in their email.

So what do you think? Who are the next generation of letter hacks? Are letter columns dead? Do you miss them? Are comic creators and company representatives too accessible?

Take care,

Filip Sablik

Publisher Guy

Filip Sablik is the Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc. He’s been in the business for eight years and just officially entered his thirties. Occasionally, he does a bit of writing and drawing. He loves comics.

Top Cow Productions, Inc. was founded by Marc Silvestri, co-founder of Image Comics. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades.

From Dave Kopecki via Joe Keatinge at Image Comics, please take a minute to read.

This is a call to action!

As many of you may know already, artist Josh Medors (Frazetta’s Swamp Demon & Sorcerer, Runes of Ragnan, 30 Days of Night) has been fighting a losing battle against a terminal form of cancer for well over a year, and it has recently taken a turn for the worst. The doctors and conventional medicine have all but given up on him and say there isn’t anything else they can do. But he has found an alternative treatment that has the possibility of extending his life a bit and can help improve the quality of his life near the end so he can spend it with his wife and son. There is even a slim chance it can make him somewhat better, so he has to try. But of course the treatment is very expensive and Josh has no medical insurance. (more…)

 

When you’re looking for energy and excitement, go for the best. While many people choose Red Bull for their adrenaline-of-choice, Image Comics is looking for people to get hooked on Tasty Bullet.

Tasty Bullet is the story of Tamar, an adrenaline junkie as well as the spokeswoman for energy drink Tasty Bullet, marketed specifically in mind for the hard-wired ADD action junkie.

Yet when Tamar nearly dies doing a stunt for her corporate masters at Bullet Corp., she begins to learn about her own dark past, setting her up against the Teen Death Squad, “Spiritual Terrorist” Ali Hajjaj, as well as her own addiction to Tasty Bullet.

The book, created by Batman: City of Light artist Arnold Pander and Vertigo editor Jonathan Vankin, will be hitting the stands June 2009. And stay tuned to Blog@ for an interview later!

Just when I think I can’t love this comic any more, Gillen and McKelvie set out to prove me wrong. Rue Britannia was fun to pick apart, and 2.1 was just a cotton-candy bite of pure bliss. but this one made me feel.

Where Phonogram 2.1 was about the magic of dancing–and mostly about dancing by yourself–2.2 is about the magical ability of songs to transport you to a different place and time. It’s about memory, sure, but it’s more than that. Certain memories almost get trapped in a song, and when you play it, they come rushing back out. Sometimes good, sometimes bittersweet, sometimes wretched, but always twice as strong as they would be had you just thought of them without that song playing.

(read on)

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Some cool news from over at Image — the comics company announced that Cory Walker, co-creator of Invincible, would be returning to the title to draw a two-issue arc!

Here’s a brief statement from Image’s web site:

“While Cory has been working behind the scenes in the INVINCIBLE crew, it’s great to have him back for these two very special issues,” INVINCIBLE co-creator and writer Robert Kirkman said. “They’re going to be pretty damn momentous in the grand scheme of INVINCIBLE as we place the spotlight on INVINCIBLE’s dad, Nolan, and his new partner, Allen the Alien, while they seek the only weapons capable of taking down the Viltrumite empire. It’s gonna be awesome!”

Walker was the original artist for the series, as well as co-creator for the character. However, he soon stepped aside as Ryan Ottley assumed art duties beginning with issue #8. Walker will be back starting with issue #66, due out in September.

The series chronicles the increasing turmoil in the life of superhuman Mark Grayson — aka Invincible — as he struggles to make the world safe. Yet with his now-estranged father — the former hero Omni-Man — a member of the deadly Viltrumites, it looks as though an invasion may be brewing…

By Filip Sablik

When I agreed to do this regular blog column for Blog@Newsarama I told myself that I would avoid using it as a platform to shill books I was publishing. That is after all, what press releases are for. And that’s still my intent, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I indulge and occasionally tell you about something we’re doing at Top Cow that I think is worth a second look. Today, I wanted to let you know about a new title we’re launching in June called Berserker.

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