Pete Woods scored a point.
Guy's in for five minutes. Matthew sets him up with a bit of grumbling about a peer, and BAM!, Pete scores harsh one. Everyone in the room is all "Damn, did he say that?" Parker calls "POINT!" and Pete's just all "hm."The big story around here is no story at all: everyone is just sitting down, getting their work done. Matthew's been in more lately, intimidating everyone with his unbelievably
Chock full.
Someday, I hope to have a pull quote this good from a review of one of my books:"It is absolutely chock full of muff."Leah Moore reviews Colleen Coover's Small Favors.Over at Newsarama, Colleen herself is weighing in on a Christmas gift-giving discussion.Wizard Universe says Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk's Agents of Atlas is a fun, action-packed ride with great character bits that’s a cult classic
News from the Web
Mercury's own David Hahn has been chosen by Marvel Comics to be the new regular artist on Spider-man Loves Mary Jane. Starting with issue #16, he will take over for Takashi Miyazawa. Written by Sean McKeever and colored by Christina Strain, Dave's art will look smashing. Below are some samples from his pages. Congratulations, David! Harry and MJ
Lieber @ Mid-Ohio
Steve Lieber will be a last-minute guest at the Mid-Ohio con in its new location at the Columbus Convention Center. Stop by and give him shit for registering so late, then go meet Marcia Wallace and sing the Bob Newhart theme at her, just like the Reverend Jim Ignatowski did on Taxi.
Happy birthday Ron!
Ron Randall is fifty years old today! You can wish him a happy one by adding his spiffy new site to your links.
Good news abounds.
Rich Ellis cold got him a website.Sean Bieri visted the studio today and informed us that his comic JAPE is going to be appearing regularly at serializer.netRon Chan's "A Dummy's Guide to Danger" got another good review.Stumptown is this Friday:Colleen Coover's assembled a couple of mini-sketchbooks that she'll have for sale. Look for these:She's also gonna be gloving up with the Thing Hands on
Sean Bieri and Aaron Renier at the library.
TOMORROW NIGHT!ZINESTERS TALKINGTuesday, October 24, 6–8 p.m.Central Library, U.S. Bank Room801 S.W. 10th AvenuePortland, OR 97205Sean Bieri [Jape, Cool Jerk and Homo Gal, Business Chimp]Sean Bieri has been called "the King of Minicomix." Fellow minicomics creator Pam Bliss calls Bieri "kind of a Jekyll and Hyde sort of guy: an amazingly skillful illustrator with a profound knowledge of the human
Actually, it's a one word title, not two.
The bit at the end of this article about Hollywood film financing came as a nice surprise. (The UPI link looks like an error, then loads.)Jeff Parker spoke toNewsarama for an interview recently. And here, for those of you who can't get enough Parker-praise, are a few more of the countless great reviews he's been landing lately: Bully's Comics | "> | The ISB | Zombies are People, Too |
COLLEEN COOVER!
For once, let's not bury the lede. We have BIG NEWS: How big? A new member, that's how! Cartoonist and illustrator Colleen Coover has joined Mercury Studio. Her work blew us all away from the first, and she gets even better with every project. Colleen first made a big splash with her Eros Comix title Small Favors, widely regarded as one of the most enjoyable adult comics available anywhere. From
Zippy!
Cat here, letting you all know that Ron Randall's new, improved website is up and running at www.ronrandall.com.Go there and enjoy the clickable, surfable, copiable and pastable goodness!
So what did everyone think of Agents of Atlas #2?
Wizard |The ISB | Really Rather Not Nice Thoughts | Dave's Rants | Hypnoray | Listen to Us, We're Right | The Kamisama | Poptown Comic Geek Speak | Skewed Perspectives | Comic Bloc | Inside Pulse | This Week in Comics | Two Guys Buying Comics |
Not even for free pizza.
Pete Woods has been blogging up a storm. He's put up a three-part tutorial that explains the steps he takes when creating a page of Superman. 1 | 2 | 3 Agents of Atlas #2 is out! Pop Syndicate weighs in with the first review (that I've seen, at least.) New site; established talent: Comic Pants. Agents of Atlas #1, and Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #4.Around Comics brings you reviews of AoA
Further Proof
I don't seem to recall a Shaolin monk live-action Saturday morning tv show.Of course, MAYBE the toughest Shaolin monk that ever lived MIGHT be able to defeat the little girl cave-kid here, after all, this is Saturday morning quality cave-folk. But any other match goes to caveman.David
Even better than egosurfing: Worldcat
WORLDCAT is now available to the public. It's a big search of world library catalogs; you can use it to search for books and publications to find out out how many library systems carry them. It's not an exhaustive seach- plenty of libraries don't participate, books are sometimes double listed, and the results give you library systems, not individual branches. (Though further clicks will take you
More Unauthorized Atlas Chatter
Parker may have a hit on his hands:Comix Experience | Wally Whateley | Newsarama | Lex Luthor | Barbelith | Jack Ketch | Signalbleed | Broken Frontier | Scoop | Big Monkey Comics | Well Red Press | The X-Axis | Actifforum | Dadiceguy | Leave Your Spandex Some photos of friends of the studio, courtesy of Susan:David Hahn and Jonathan CaseRich Ellis and Cat FarrisSusan
Spurgeon does Parker.
I apologize if anyone actually visualizes that headline.Jeff Parker was interviewed today at Tom Spurgeon's site The Comics Reporter. They talk Toth, Interman, Agents of Atlas, and much, much more.Parker's motivational team.Speaking of Atlas, the great reviews and notices keep rolling in: Photon Torpedoes | Every day is like Wednesday | All this and Earth 2 | Chris Roberson | That's my
ATLAS at last.
The reviews are coming in for the first issue of Jeff Parker's AGENTS OF ATLAS, and it's thumbs up all around:Stumblebum Studios, | Dave Van Domelen, | Velocity Comics, | Comics Nexus, | Paperback Reader, | Dewey's Comics.
Drifting back to normal.
The time around San Diego is always weird, and this was no exception. Most of Mercury Studio left town for the show, but we were actually pretty busy here. Portland was hit by a heat wave that weekend, and our building is air conditioned, so a bunch of other local cartoonists came by to use the empty desks: Bill Mudron, Jesse Hamm, Dylan Meconis, Colleen Coover, Root Nibot and Jenn Manley Lee all
Glorious Color Agents
Over at All the Rage/Silver Bullet Comicbooks there looks to be some color previews of those Leonard Kirk AGENTS OF ATLAS pages. She's not mentioned, but the colorist on the book is the unmatched Michelle Madsen, who we were very happy to land. She knows her stuff!
He Flew Too Close...
Yes, this week our Mercury Patient is David "Tony Hawk" Hahn, who was having a great time in Colorado whitewater rafting and making four successful jumps off a ramp with a mountain bike. Number five, not so much. If you have an extra clavicle and four ribs, please forward them to our attention.
Fun Home
I went to see Alison Bechdel at Powell's last Thursday, where she read from her new graphic novel Fun Home. It was a terrific event, with a big, enthusiastic crowd. Bechdel's approach to an author reading was perhaps the first successful one I've ever seen from a cartoonist. Fun Home has a clear verbal narrative in the captions and she read these from a typed script while projecting a slide show
Weekend notes
Tiny Ogre has a review of the Four Letter Worlds anthology. It's a Japanese site so we're not sure what's being said. But thanks to babelfish, here's a rough translation:The man and woman of the deck which talks together with Christmas and the coffee. Respectively the cover ã‚Š which is not relation above the so far good friend with the sweetheart. But, today circumstance had changed.... (Anew) It
Wednesday update
Mercury Cleans up pretty good.Congrats to Jeff Parker! His run on Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four was nominated for a Harvey Award. And for the record- there was no, repeat, NO clever Crossgen lunchroom campaign to make that happen. I honestly don't think anyone in the studio even rememebered to vote in the Harveys this year. Apparently what happened was that enough people who care about these
I have a political doppelganger!
It used to be, if you put "Terri Nelson, Mercury" into The Google, I came up, and you could go see stuff about comics. Now, however, The Google automatically decides you must have spelled my name wrong and you really want to know about some dude named Terry Nelson, who apparently had something to do with why Bush is president.I'd like to rectify this confusion and so I am issuing the following
Matthew Clark's first Thursday? Still on.
Like we said- he's doing a lot better.First Thursday • JUNE 1, 2006Sequential Art is proud to present Matthew Clark’s HEROES?, a selection of his original artwork from the monthly comic series, OUTSIDERS, published by DC Comics. OUTSIDERS chronicles the exploits of costumed superhuman adventurers who break the ‘rules’ of the superhero establishment, thus blurring the line between the ‘good guys’
And a bit more Toth analysis
A decade or so ago, I wrote a Usenet post analyzing and comparing a couple of Toth stories that were from the same series, but used very different storytelling techniques. Through the magic of google news, it's still available, and I'm posting it here in case it might be of some interest to someone who hasn't made a broad study of the man's work and wonders what sort of things to look for. Here's
Too much bad news lately.
Bad news- I'm tired of it. Here are a bunch of photos of friends, family and members of the studio.Jeff Parker, Pete Woods, and Paul Guinan.Susan Tardif.Ron Randall and Matthew Clark. Rich Ellis.Paul Guinan.Rachel Dodson.Pete and Rebecca Woods.Ron Randall and Karl Kesel.Terry Dodson.Our new intern, Eric Schuster.Jesse Hamm.Stephen Reid Parker.Jeff Parker.Celeste Woods.
RIP Alex Toth.
http://www.tothfans.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1028"Alex Toth was one of my favorite artists." It's true, but spectacularly inadequate. For a comic book illustrator, that's a lot like saying "I have a brain and at least one functioning eye." I've learned so much about the craft of storytelling from studying the man's work -- both his art and his writing about art -- words fail me. As an
Doing Well, Thanks For Asking
Matthew Clark thanks everybody who's been writing and calling to check on his health, and wants you to know he's resting and doing pretty good.
Two days in a row. Yow.
Jeff Parker's got a new book coming out from his publishing imprint Octopus Press. DEAR JOHN-The Alex Toth Doodle BookKarl Kesel's in the studio today, working on an issue of Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters. I snuck over and scanned a page while he wasn't looking:I liked this interview with Douglas Wolk over at Graphic Language. Wolk is easily one of the most interesting comics critics
It's been too long.
Matthew Clark writes:You all can mark your calendar JUNE 1st and join me. I'll be showing selected OUTSIDERS pages. Helping me with the show will be SHIFT, KATANA, INDIGO, NIGHTWING, GRACE, and ARSENAL. They'll be handing out flyers there, looking for MALLAH and the BRAIN, hiding somewhere in the galleries. You can help and collect a reward.I'll also be showing off my latest piece with Aimee
Mercuryarama!
It's not all just blood and police tape around here. Why, if you go over to Newsarama, you can read about other things Mercury members are up to. Like say, an interview with Terry Dodson and what all he's doing at DC. And sometimes our members work together on things, like Karl Kesel and David Hahn over at Marvel. It's so much more than stepping over gunshot drug dealers, it really is.
Making lemonade.
True story: we were working in the studio a little after four this afternoon, when we heard three bangs- POWPOWPOW. No mistaking it, that was gunfire.Ron, Paul, Terri, and I ran down the stairs to investigate. There were a couple of young guys in our doorway. One was in a sleeveless t-shirt with his pants half down, prodding at a bullet wound in his thigh. Lots of blood everywhere. We're downtown
Love Bites
David here. Bite Club Vampire Crime Unit #1 is in stores today. Here's a pic of the cool Frank Quitely cover, so drool now and get it done with. Love it. Love it! Love it all you want. Okay, you done loving the cover? Well, love it some more. You done now?! Okay, good, now let's move on because BEHIND that cover is a great story by Chaykin and Tischman, and eye-pleasing storytelling
Go to Powell's this Thursday, April 13, at 7:30 pm.....
And "celebrate the graphic novel" with Steve and studio-friends Colleen Coover and Root Nibot, and Oni Press publisher James Lucas Jones. I think there's going to be cookies and lapdancing. Wait, no, I made some of that up. Colleen and Root will be talking about their wonderful Banana Sunday comics (starring monkeys! Who doesn't love a good little monkey). Steve will be talking about
Eisners Meet Boilerplate!
Congrats to Paul Guinan who was nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best painter/multimedia category for Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate. Yay, Paul! The "mutimedia" in that nomination refers to Paul's unique Paintography technique. Ask him about it sometime.
Matthew Clark at Newsarama
Newsarama talks to Matthew Clark about his work on the Outsiders and how hard it's been for Marvel to get in touch with him.Meanwhile, Paul Guinan is at The Pulse, talking about The Phantom.
We got it.
Isn't it magnificent?Jeff Parker's STAR BRAND story has gotten some enthusiastic feedback. Here's what The Savage Critic, had to say. Also, check Millarworld, and the Bendis Board.There's a great interview at Newsarama with Jim Ottaviani, the writer/publisher behind G.T. Labs' line of science-themed graphic novels.Here's a gallery of sketches and illustrations from Mercury's own Rebecca
Digging for the Truth.
The History Channel has a big promotion coming up. From The New York TimesFor a 12-week promotion that begins today, the History Channel developed a comic book in which readers can join Mr. Bernstein in unraveling a new "Digging" mystery about Shangri-La, the mythical mountain village of long-lived people. The comic books will be given away at 1,850 comic-book stores around the country, at 185
Bite Me
Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit, the 5 issue mini-series sequel is now solicited. It's once again written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman, and drawn by me, David Hahn. I've posted some preview pages, colored by Brian Miller. Hair pullin' catfight.Enjoy
Relief Pitcher
David here- Here's a piece of art I did recently for a pitch for a teen graphic novel. I thought it was about time to put more art up on this blog, but I put this up instead.
Friendblogging
I lost.Mercury Studio recently did some comics for 4orty 2wo entertainment to promote Activision's new game GUN.The comics were part of a "search opera" called Last Call Poker. Here's an interview with the head writer, Sean Stewart.Speaking of Sean, our short comic, Family Reunion is reprinted in The Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga I'm told it's out, but I haven't seen a copy yet. If
Pete and Rebecca Present: ORION!
Just funnin' guys-- here's the real little Scion of Comics, held by his sister Celeste!Congratulations Woods family on another great collaboration!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
