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Weekend Reading: Joe Casey, Thor, Dr. Spektor and Drew Friedman
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, DC Comics, Dynamic Forces, IDW Publishing, Independent, Marvel Comics,
The War on Christmas is nearly done for another year, and there’s just enough time left for the War on New Year’s. Let's see what you should be reading this week:
Joe: This is simply a great, honest and open interview with Joe Casey, comic book writer/creator and co-creator of Ben 10. Perfect holiday reading from interviewer Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter.
Thor: So there’s some controversy from an all-white group that’s upset that Marvel has cast an actor of color to play a Norse God in Thor. Ricky Sprague at Project Child Murdering Robot has a thought or two.
Polly: Animator Michael Sporn is happy that Dean Mullaney’s new book has arrived (as am I). Polly and Her Pals: the Complete Sunday Comics 1925-1927 comes from Dean’s The Library of American Comics via IDW.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Joe Casey, Thor, Dr. Spektor and Drew Friedman
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The DC Comics jobs are lining up like planes over La Guardia now.
Up at the Time Warner career page is a post noting that DC is looking for a staff Letterer for their Lettering Department.
Lettering is one of those great unsung jobs in comics - most people don’t notice it unless it’s terrible or weird. But those that do notice good lettering have their favorite letterers and can tell who's who by their unique styles. Comic book creators have been known to request specific letterers for certain projects, and who can blame them? You'd do it too.
Some years ago my boss was against repackaging some early work from a property that we’d acquired at Malibu Comics. Something about it was “off” he said, but couldn’t put his finger on it. We thought the art was great but we just wanted it relettered.
When the boss saw the finished pages, he now thought it was wonderful - did we magically have it redrawn somehow? Nope. Just relettered. It made that much of a difference.
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: DC Comics - Letterer
Don McGregor: Locked Up In Paris
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent, Marvel Comics,
"They jeered and shook on the bars, and they reached through the bars, trying to grab Marsha, like Zombies in George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead."
That's Don McGregor, who wrote acclaimed comics for Marvel and spearheaded the creator-owned comics movement, writing about a European trip of his in the late 1970s.
I haven't seen or talked to Don in quite a while, and I doubt he would remember me. He was a friend of several different friends of mine and when I lived on the East Coast, we bumped into each other a lot over a two or three-year period.
He was a ball of energy – and one of the first guys to explain to me how the business of comics actually worked and why owning and controlling the rights to your own creations was essential.
Go ahead and write the Batman fill-in if you want, it is what it is. But if you're going to create Sabre or Detectives, Inc., you're going to want - and deserve - a better deal. I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of several conversations.
Click to continue reading Don McGregor: Locked Up In Paris
Can you really go wrong with an issue of Bart Simpson that features work by Sergio Aragones and Evan Dorkin?
I don't need to know the contents or what the stories are about or any of the pertinent details.
All I know is that those guys are in it, along with some of the usual Bongo creators, and that makes it well worth my $2.99.
It’s on sale this week, and I’ll be rushing to the LCS to get my copy. I suggest you do the same.
[Artwork: Cover to Bart Simpson #57, © Bongo Comics]
If you’re one of the many looking for work via Craigslist, you can bet they have something similar to work posted there.
Let’s take a look!
A micro-budget film that appears to be based on Gilbert Hernandez’s Luba stories from Love & Rockets is looking for their very own Luba. I think there are only a couple of requirements.
In Los Angeles, Planet Bravo is looking for teachers for their UCLA Lab in Westwood. It’s for a kids’ afterschool program and you can create your own course (past courses have included Comic Book Creation). And it’s a paid gig!
In Vancouver, there’s a guy - and you know it’s a guy - looking for an artist who’s willing to draw 17 “hot girls” in comic book style.
Good luck, job seekers!
[Artwork: Luba, © Gilbert Hernandez]
Comic Book Jobs: DC Comics Assistant Editor
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
Here’s yet another comic book job that you often don’t see listed on a formal job site.
DC Comics is looking for an Assistant Editor in DC Editorial for their Archives Group.
This job’s based in DC's New York office where you’ll “copyedit and proofread books to ensure accuracy” and, well duh, “assist Editor in all aspects of the creation of a archival or special projects.”
Prior experience in copyediting and proofreading is required, college smarts are preferred, and here’s my favorite: “must have the ability to communicate effectively and tactfully with managers and other levels of personnel.”
Play nice with others, and don’t keep pitching that Metamorpho relaunch to everyone you meet.
Eddie Berganza started out as an Assistant Editor at DC and look how he's turned out.
And at one time, Marvel Comics even let the Assistant Editors run the show.
Good luck, job seekers!
[Artwork: DC Comics Rarities, © DC Comics]
Comic Book Jobs: DC Comics Creative Director
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
Out in Burbank, DC Comics’ new west coast division is looking for a Creative Director for the DCE Entertainment department. (Just an observation: doesn't the E in DCE stand for Entertainment?]
What does that kind of job entail? Only the coolest stuff on the planet, fanboy! Check this out:
1-Review scripts for designated live-action features and television programs.
2-Brainstorm on overall DCE creative plans and strategies across all platforms including theatrical, television, animation, video games and publishing.
3-Review treatments and scripts submitted in project development phase. Makes notes regarding character usage and story lines in order to recommend whether the project should proceed.
4-Review archives for under-utilized assets and/or in order to capitalize on market trends and popularity.
And that’s just the big four at the top of their list. It's like finding out the girl you're dating likes to dress up as Catwoman.
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: DC Comics Creative Director
You don’t often find a job listed for comic book editor. They rarely pop up and often are handled via inside search as opposed to an actual job listing.
Now DC’s posted one: they want an Editor for the DC Editorial department to “manage a line of editorial product within the DC Universe imprint.”
It’s for a minimum of 5 monthly titles (and please hope that one of them is not yet another relaunch of Metamorpho).
You’ll be handling the creative process “from conception through publication.” That means not just the talent stuff, but also schedules, budgets, quality and goodies like that.
As always, you’ll be required to seek “ways to keep ongoing series fresh and exciting” and “identify and develop new editorial products for the DC Universe.”
Lots of job requirements as you might expect, including experience doing this kind of thing before. Domestic travel is 5% of the job, which probably means a trip to San Diego for CCI in 2011.
Good luck, job seekers!
[And if you need a writer for that new Metamorpho relaunch, you can reach me here!]
For more about what a comic book editor does, you would do well to read this post by Mark Waid.
[Artwork: Metamorpho © DC Comics]
Wynonna Earp: The Yeti Wars OGN
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, IDW Publishing,
Wynonna Earp is back and up to her ear muffs in Yetis, Bigfoot, mad science, vampires and Russians. IDW has just released Wynonna Earp: The Yeti Wars in glorious full-color hardcover.
Written by creator (and friend of the blog) Beau Smith and illustrated by Enrique Villagran, this original graphic novel marks a return to comics of one of the best characters to emerge from the independent comics scene in the 1990s.
Wynonna - a descendant of the famed gunfighter Wyatt Earp, though probably better with a gun - is a U.S. Covert Marshal. She specializes solving paranormal crimes - and fightin' and shootin' paranormal criminals. Think female Tommy Lee Jones working for the X-Files.
Beau wastes no time getting right to the story. Wynonna is tracking mad scientist Dr. Robidoux who’s busy splicing human and animal DNA Dr. Moreau-style and winds up in the middle of a paranormal range war between The Consortium of Immortals (”the top of the Freak Food Chain”) and The Vampire Nation.
Beau has called WE:TYW “a light-hearted stake through the heart of depressing, boring comics,” and it is, but it’s much more than that. It’s fun, it’s thrilling in an edge-of-the-seat way and there are twists and turns by a writer fully in command of his story.
Click to continue reading Wynonna Earp: The Yeti Wars OGN
Mighty Samson: Jim Shooter & Patrick Olliffe
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Dark Horse Comics,
Here's a comic that might be flying under your personal radar that I think merits a look. Mighty Samson is part of Jim Shooter's Gold Key revival at Dark Horse (which also includes Magnus, Turok and Dr. Solar) but it's the only one of the bunch that was never part of Valiant.
This relaunch of the classic character is spearheaded by Shooter and his co-writer J.C. Vaughn, and illustrated by Patrick Olliffe (who does pencils and inks).
Set 500 hundred years after the end of the world in a now-primitive city known as N'Yark, Mighty Samson is filled with "mutated monsters, marauders, and savage subhuman predators." From the ashes of those ruins rises a super-strong champion, Samson, who will defend and protect his piece of the apocalypse from all comers, including the barbarian hordes from across the bridge in Jerz.
It's N'Yark vs. Jerz – a battle as old as time itself! I'm biased because I've met Shooter a couple of times, I'm friends with J.C. Vaughn and I used to work on projects with Patrick Olliffe. That's one heckuva bias, but I also know they can bring the goods, so I'm in.
Here's an interview with Dark Horse editor Chris Warner talking about the series.
And here's a preview of the interiors of the first issue that's on sale now.
Now go and get yours and let me know what you think.
[Artwork: Patrick Olliffe's cover Mighty Samson #1]
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