Nice art: Victor Ambrus
That should really be F*&K Yeah! Victor Ambrus -- one of the liveliest and most versatile kids book illustrators of the last 40 years. At age 75 he's appeared on TIME TEAM as the archaeological illustrator who reimagines how people lived in the past.
And draws stegosauruses.
The Ambrus website does not have all the tons of meaty illustrations one might hope for, but it is still worthy of exploration.
Cyanide and Happiness in development at Comedy Central
Among the lists of Twitter-base comedies, roast spin-offs and other hapless men in a hostile world of supermarkets and doorknob comedies,Comedy Central announced one deal based on a webcomic, namely CYANIDE AND HAPPINESS, the generally amusing stick-figure theater comic by Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin and Dave McElfatrick, all of whom will exec produce. The show is described as "a half-hour animated show featuring the twisted humor of a world populated by glorified stick figures."
The CYANIDE crew has already been producing shorts and an iPhone app, so this is just anther step in their world conquest.
Nancy Silberkleit still helping the children with comics
When last we saw Archie Comics co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit, she was being slapped with a restraining order by Archie Comics and accused of some rather odd behavior. The widow of former Archie owner Michael Silberkleit, Nancy was accused of harassing Archie employees by yelling out words for genitalia at meetings and other odd stuff.
Whatever the state of these internal affairs, Silberkleit is still out there using comics to teach children to read, according to a recent story about her visiting various elementary schools:
Casting a Paul: Jenkins replaces Cornell on Stormwatch
Oh that old New 52 gang...the memories. But it's breaking up so fast. Over on Twitter writer Paul Cornell confirmed that he was off STORMWATCH with issue #6, but
I'll be staying on Demon Knights and Saucer Country, but #6 is my last issue of Stormwatch. Thanks, everyone, and good luck to Paul Jenkins.The new STORMWATCH writer is Paul Jenkins, but he's only been confirmed for two issues.
Clowes and Beaton make Time's Top 10 Fiction list
Time is rolling out its top 10 lists and two graphic books made the 'Top 10 Fiction Books list: THE DEATH RAY by Daniel Clowes and HARK! A VAGRANT by Kate Beaton, both published by Drawn & Quarterly. (To see the individual listings you'll need to go through the annoying, hit making slideshow format.) Confirming the nerd-friendly tenor of the list, A DANCE WITH DRAGONS by George R. R. Martin topped the list, although more traditional literary tomes were at other spots.
Comics-mole Lev Grossman penned the entries for the books. It was only a few years ago that Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME topped theTime list, and announced that graphic novels were just books with ideas and themes, too.
Nice art: Ed Piskor's Wally Wood beer label
Toonseum, the Pittsburgh-based comics museum, has teamed with East End Brewing Company to produce Illustration Ale, a pen-and-ink friendly brew that has six different labels by illustrators. Ed Piskor has posted the process for his label which features Wally Wood:
Tom Brevoort on Marvel's distaff dearth
Over on his ever-informative Formspring account, Marvel's Tom Brevoort was recently asked about Marvel's lack of a female-led title. And this is what he said:
Q: Do you feel like you have a social (beyond financial) responsibility to feature more female (or other underrepresented minority) headliners in titles? EX: DC has Batgirl & Woman, Voodoo, Wonder Woman, but Marvel has no book named after&featuring a woman. :
Ashes Gets Funded on Kickstarter – #7 Most Funded Comics Project
Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton proposed a $27K project on Kickstarter. "Ashes" is a sequel to de Campi's and Igor Kordy's 2005 Eisner-nominated mini-series Smoke (published by IDW). This 250 page graphic novel is one of the most ambitious projects in terms of the dollar amount of the goal in the comics category on Kickstarter. Ashes has now reached it's funding goal and is sitting at 101% funded at $27,285 in funding with 11 days to go before the funding period ends.
Bendis Exiting the Avengers; Dark Reign Redux and X-Men Vs. Avengers on the Way...
These days, it seems like three years on a title is a good run. Brian Michael Bendis is calling it a day with eight years on the Avengers titles. In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Bendis says:
Wanna see the Dark Knight Rises prologue?
With rising excitement for next year's THE DARK KNIGHT RISES trilogy-ending Batman adventure, WB has announced that the full six-minute prologue to the film will be shown in 42 IMAX theaters in the US and the UK starting Friday, December 16. The footage is expected to be shown with MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL. Although going to see a Tom Cruise film may sound like an onerous proposition, it's also the first live Action film directed by Brad Bird -- who made THE INCREDIBLES and THE IRON GIANT -- so hey, this may be an enjoyable field trip after all.
In a statement, director Christopher Nolan said, "Our experience on 'The Dark Knight' shooting and projecting IMAX 15 perf 65mm/70mm film was inspiring. The immersive quality of the image goes beyond any other filmmaking tool available, and in revisiting Gotham, we were determined to shoot even more of the movie in this unique format. Giving the fans an early look at an IMAX sequence is a great way to draw attention to what I believe will be an incredible way to experience our story when it comes out next summer."
The prologue is expected to feature the bad guy Bane, played by Tom Hardy. Win, win, win!
Brian Wood on digital vs brick and mortar: "Everyone is bleeding."
Responding to last week's Dark Horse vs the retailers controversy over the price of Dark Horse's simultaneous digital release, writer Brian Wood has summed up the very hard rock and very rocky hard place that we all find ourselves in. While acknowledging that no one wants to see their local comics shop go under, he says for creators, it is a rough time with big question marks everywhere:
Joe Harris Replacing Gail Simone on Firestorm
The season of writer changes continues at DC. It's been rumored for weeks that Gail Simone left her co-writing duties on Firestorm. Today, DC confirms Simone's departure and names Joe Harris her replacement. Issue 7 will be his first.
