Culture

by Jimmy Aquino, Comic News Insider, Special to The Beat

I sat down with old pal and amazing artist Francesco Francavilla on Sunday at HeroesCon. Always a great interview, Francesco and I talked about his recent work on Batman,  upcoming Captain America/Black Widow mini-series, The Black Beetle, cover work, Comic Twart, What Not, and his genuine love for cartooning. You can check out other great interviews I got at HeroesCon over at the Comic News Insider (my podcast) site! 

In just a few short weeks, SDCC-goers can enter to win a trip to New Zealand to live up a true Hobbit experience.

Whoosh! HeroesCon just raced on by! We arrived late on Thursday, hit BarCon and the rest was just WHOOSH! So much fun, we barely had time to type about it at all. That isn't to say there weren't some snafus—all on our own part—but they came and went so quickly.

Disclosure: Author Sean Howe interviewed me for this; and he interviewed everyone else. Coming from Harper in October:

Archer & Armstrong will be the latest Valiant book getting the revival treatment. The original A&A was a Barry Windsor-Smith book. It was also a book with a sense of humor about itself. An immortal of slovenly bent and an uptight martial artist. Yes, this was the comics version of a buddy movie.

Last weekend, the UK's first East London Comics Festival embarked on a one day extravaganza of some of the best art and comics east of the Atlantic Ocean. Illustrator, comic artist, and exhibitor Kyle Platts shares his experience behind the scenes.

In a wide-ranging interview over at The Comics Reporter, Ed Brubaker has confirmed he's exiting Captain America -- by his own choice -- and will be moving more of his attention to creator-owned projects, along with film/TV opportunities. This interview hits a lot of the topics that have been getting bandied about on The Beat this week.

Phil Jimenez saw something cool today. So he took a photo of it, as Phil Jimenez is wont to do.

Some tidbits for the weekend ahead, including Yahoo Screen's new motion comics offering, Liquid Comics, Amazing Spiderman and The Dark Knight Rises clip round ups, and why animation showrunners like Seth Macfarlane are mad at the Emmys...

I'll make it short and sweet: creators have to create. Marvel and DC no longer allow them to do that, except within rigidly proscribed guidelines. And the Paolo Riveras of the world are going to have to move on. It might not be too long before the Big Two are just steppingstones to get your name out there for even bigger things.

Tim Hanley (he of Gender Crunching) has a great guest post up at DC Women Kicking Ass looking at The Women Behind Wonder Woman. Of course we all know about the men like William Marston and HG Peter, but there were several women involved in the early years as well, including Marston's two wives Elizabeth and Olive (above—yes the three of them lived together and it was a little odd), but also women who worked directly on the series, including the great editor Dorothy Roubicek Woolfolk and even a scripter:

This weekend the ALA (American Library Association) meeting takes place in Anaheim, and there's a big graphic novel presence. Graphic Novel Reporter has the complete rundown of four days of activity on the Graphic Novel Stage, the GN/Gaming pavilion, and even an artist's alley with creators such as Faith Erin Hicks, Tom Kaczynski & Gabrielle Bell, and the ubiquitous Dave Roman/Raina Telgemeier duo.