- Dan Hipp mixes cosmic universes:
- JH Williams III previews the cover for Batwoman #10:
- Terry Moore discusses a whole bunch of stuff with Robot 6. Here's a taste:
O’Shea: If you had the opportunity to publish Rachel Rising in color would you do it, or do you feel this series is most potent visually because of the black and white dynamics?
Moore: I would publish all my work in color if I could. It’s just been impossible for me to achieve in terms of time and money. I’ll probably never have more of both, but maybe I will hand the properties over to somebody bigger someday and they will color it for us, like Jeff did with Bone to Scholastic. To me, Bone came alive when it was colored. I was about half way through SiP when I knew I wanted to color it all someday. I began drawing for color, doing less pen and ink cross-hatchey stuff and leaving more open spaces. You can see where I started doing that—it’s obvious. Echo was drawn for color. Rachel is drawn for color. Someday.
O’Shea: You are releasing the entire Echo run on digital as well, do you hope to gains a new audience for the series through this new platform?
Moore: Yes, I do. But I also hope to get Echo to fans who want it on their iBrain. People are using digital memory to build virtual brains for themselves, which includes a media library of everything they like. Even if they’ve already read Echo, they want it for their digital brain so they can have it on-call always. You gotta be there for them.
O’Shea: A Dustn Cabeal/Comic Bastards review offered the following opinion: “He’s frankly at the prime of his career in my opinion and cranking out one of the best creator owned series on the market period. A while back he did a lot of work with Marvel and as much as I tried I couldn’t get into it. It didn’t feel like Moore, it felt like a highly regulated environment that wanted this big name in comics to come over and add his spin to their properties but without actually changing anything. With Rachel Rising, you get the true talent of Moore’s skills and that’s something Marvel will never be able to fully tap into.” Would you agree that your writing is stronger when unhindered by corporate editorial guidance, or do you think your Marvel work is just as strong as your creator-owned projects?
Moore: Well, when I work in cooperation with others, they are part of the final product. When I work alone, it’s all me, good or bad. It’s just simple physics. What you hope for in working with others is that you will hook up with people more talented than you, who will take what you offer and make it better. It’s the great band syndrome. Great bands work like that. Suck-bands have one star backed by others with no say. So you don’t want that. You don’t want to work with DC or Marvel and tell them to leave you alone. You say, give me your best, and then you listen to them. I’m sure that, given time, we would have tightened up the chemistry and done great work. I just couldn’t stay on and keep my own book going at the same time. I was making two series at the same time for a year. It was too much to continue.
- Fabio Moon unleashes his inner matador:
- David Aja teases a project with Fraction:
- Francesco Francavilla draws eggs and skulls:
- Peter David analyses the theoretical physics of bowling:
The moment when I release a bowling ball, with a full rack of pins at the other end, there are many variations as to what could happen. However, particularly in a close game–where simply getting a spare isn’t going to get it done–it really comes down to only two possibilities:
Either the ball will strike. Or the ball will not strike.
But it occurs to me that, at the moment of release, the ball has both struck and not struck. Both possibilities exist simultaneously.
I call it Schrodinger’s Balls.
PAD
- Templesmith continues to draw like a crazy drawing freak:
- Eric Canete draws Arch Monk:
- Bryan Lee O'Malley answers some fan questions. here's a few:
Q. I’ve always had questions about Scott’s brother. Why does Lawrence have a different last name? (or is that his middle name?) Is Lawrence older or younger than Stacey? I know Scott and Lawrence aren’t close, but are Stacey and Lawrenc close? Does she tell him of all Scott’s adventures and then they both shake their heads and thank god they don’t take after the same side of the family as he does?
A. Lots of people have asked about Lawrence West’s name. Lawrence West is his given name. His full name is Lawrence West Pilgrim. He is named after a train station. Ha ha ha.
Originally, Lawrence West was a very different character with a MAJOR ROLE in volume 5. But I felt that I was getting too far away from the Scott/Ramona relationship, adding too many new characters, and I decided to re-focus the book on the core cast.
(That earlier version of volume 5 revolved around the TIBB Battle of the Bands, which ended up going into the movie. I haven’t looked at that old draft in a long time and I can’t really remember what else was in it. It wasn’t very good, but it was an early draft, so whatever.)
Q. why did hollie betray kim all of a sudden? I dunno there was like one scene of jason and hollie smiling together in volume 4, and it seemed really random when it was revealed in volume 5
A. Kim lived with a bunch of people she hated, then moved in with someone she liked, and ended up hating her too. We only see Kim’s side of the story, but maybe I’m suggesting that Kim is part of the problem here. It kind of goes with the “personal hero narrative” theme of the series. Kim is complicated.
- Becky Cloonan is drawing Dracula. Here's a sneak peak at Mina Murray:
- Jim Mahfood pays tribute to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:
- Brian Wood discusses creator owned comics and retailers:
Looking back over 14 years, there have been a few things related to creator-owned comics and the building of a career off of them that stand out. They stand out to the point that I’ve taken to calling them “rule #1, rule 2”, and so on. One day I’ll get them all out there in a formal essay, but right now I want to talk about one of the most important ones, and how it relates to The Massive series launch:
The retailer is the customer.
I forget who first told me that, but it’s a solid bit of common sense. The way the direct market is set up, comic shop retailers have to purchase comics on a non-returnable basis, meaning they can’t return unsold copies. The fact they go on to re-sell them to their customers is, in a way, almost irrelevant. The books have been ordered and paid for.
So when you talk about creator-owned comics, indie comics, self-published comics, the retailer is being asked to make a very real and permanent financial investment in that book, one that he or she cannot make back should the book not perform to expectations. The retailer is the customer. You, meaning the creator and/or the publisher, are pitching and selling to the retailer. Or you should be. It’s often shocking to me how few people forget that. Sometimes I forget it.
You can hype up your readers all you want, but if their shop didn’t order the book, they are out of luck. YOU are out of luck, too.
So this is me telling you to tell your retailer that, if you want to buy a copy of The Massive, to order you a copy. This isn’t SAGA and I’m not BKV or Millar or Bendis who stand a greater chance of being automatically stocked on shelves. Retailers are going to gauge demand and order accordingly. So tell them if you’re interested.
- Phil Noto draws Emma Frost:
- Sean Phillips did Fantastic Four for the Hero initiative:
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