Free Comic Book Day 2012

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Independent,

Hey kids, free comics!

One of my favorite things is Free Comic Book Day, because, you know, “free” and “comics” are the peanut butter and chocolate of the Direct Market. It's the first Saturday of May, and this year that means May 5. Out of all the ones that are being released, I’ve put together a shortlist of the ones I want most.

Kaboom! is the kid-friendly imprint of Boom! Studios and their Peanuts/Adventure Time Flipbook looks like fun. The Peanuts comics are clearly crafted with care and affection for the original material, and Adventure Time is just as nutty as the animated series.

Atomic Robo from Red 5 is one of my favorite comics and why it’s not talked about in the same group as Hellboy and The Walking Dead is beyond me. It’s one of the best comics around - terrific characters, excellent writing and art, beautiful coloring. I grab the latest ones each year at San Diego, and whatever pops up on FCBD. If you see a copy, grab it. Highly recommended.

Click to continue reading Free Comic Book Day 2012

Read More | Free Comic Book Day

R.I.P. Wizard Magazine

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Image Comics, Wizard Entertainment,

Okay, who had Comics Buyer’s Guide in the Last Comics News Magazine Standing pool?

CBG is now the longest-running continuously published comic book magazine and they’ve survived all comers. Overstreet’s Fan, Hero Illustrated, The Comic Reader, The Mirkwood Times, The Comics Journal, and now Wizard.

In case you haven’t heard the news, Wizard Magazine officially shut down last week, sending its staff packing.

Wizard was lucky - they caught the wave of the 1990s comic book bubble and the launch of Valiant and Image and then helped increase that bubble (Gareb was at the first official meeting of the Image Comics founders at Marc Silvestri’s Malibu beach house way back in the early 1990s).

Once the gravy train of million-selling comics derailed, and the internet took away the need for a news magazine, Wizard’s been struggling to remain a viable publication. Watching them flail around for the past decade has not been pretty. I knew a couple of good people who worked for the magazine in those early years and they've long since gone onto other things.

Click to continue reading R.I.P. Wizard Magazine

Wildstorm: Gen 13 #1 @ 299,000 Copies (1995)

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Image Comics, Independent,

Wildstorm – the once-formidable imprint of DC Comics - is officially shutting down this month and that makes me sad.

I have friends who work there (many of whom I'm happy to say are staying on to work for the corporate parent), but I was also present at its fairly official formation.

I was sitting in Marc Silvestri's beachfront apartment in Malibu, attending a meeting of the Image founders while they were putting together what would become Image Comics. I was there as a representative of Malibu Comics along with Malibu Publisher Dave Olbrich and Editor-In-Chief Chris Ulm.

Image was represented by Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio. Hank Kanalz was also there. He was Rob's co-writer on the soon-to-be published Youngblood #1, and years later eventually became the head of Wildstorm. (I have a photo of Hank videotaping the meeting so there's archival footage lurking somewhere.)

Dave and Rob had known each other for years, and if you corner Dave at a convention, he can tell you the story of how Malibu nearly published a version of Youngblood #1 years before the formation of Image, and before Rob started working for Marvel.

Image had scheduled several meetings at the beach that day and Malibu Comics was the first one. The publisher of Wizard, Gareb Shamus, would later drop by, as would Harold Anderson from Anderson News, the newsstand distributor.

Click to continue reading Wildstorm: Gen 13 #1 @ 299,000 Copies (1995)

Russ Heath and Ralph Reese: Help ‘Em Out

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: DC Comics,

To a generation or so of comic book fans, Russ Heath is a name most-associated with DC Comics’ war titles, specifically Sgt. Rock, but he’s had a long and varied career that didn’t always include drawing tank battles and G.I.‘s blasting Nazis. Ralph Reese started out working with Wally Wood, worked with Neal Adams’ Continuity Associates, and later at Valiant, all in an impressive freelance career. Now they both could use a little help.

Tom Spurgeon has talked about this on more than one occasion (here’s a link to one of the latest) and so has Valerie D’Orazio.

Click to continue reading Russ Heath and Ralph Reese: Help ‘Em Out

WEEKEND READING: Chris Ryall, Twilight, Robert Maguire, Trevor Von Eeden and Jim Shooter

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Lots of great stuff all over the internets this past week. Chris Ryall at IDW gives a chat, Jim Shooter plays 20 questions with the fans, young women try to dress as sexy super-heroines, and Trevor Von Eeden is just a really great artist whose work is fun to look at. Let’s roll it out:

CHRIS RYALL’S BAT BOY: Over at Bookgasm, one of my regular stops, Joshua Jabcuga sits down with Chris Ryall at IDW to chat about Donald Westlake, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight and the upcoming Weekly World News Universe of Bat Boy and Ed Anger. Even better, Chris has love for the Twilight fans who ravaged Comic Con International that other industry types should embrace: “I love anything that brings in a wider audience, and ideally, at a show like this, that audience who might only be drawn there by Twilight will then see something else that catches their eye and gets them into comics. I don’t know if that happened this year to any big degree, but the exposure can’t hurt. I certainly see it as a good thing.” More at the link; it’s worth reading the whole thing.

OF COSTUMES AND COSPLAYERS: You know you love it when too many women dress up as Slave Leia from Return of the Jedi. The boys – oh so obviously the boys – at Cinematical have a fun slideshow of some of the costumed women from this year’s Comic Con International. I’d write more, but I know you’ve already clicked the link.

Click to continue reading WEEKEND READING: Chris Ryall, Twilight, Robert Maguire, Trevor Von Eeden and Jim Shooter