Life on the Edge

Hey there gang!

For anyone out there who hasn’t picked up Wizard #198, Dave headed up the super awesome ‘Wizard Edge’ section in the page which presents a dozen pages of news, interviews and reviews of some of our favorite upcoming indie projects.

To spread the word to online folks who haven’t seen the print mag yet, we’ve been posting up some of the Edge features online for folks to read, including…

Dave’s ridiculously cool profile of Jeff Smith and his latest self-published series RASL.

Frequent Wizard contributor Jake Rossen’s feature on Terry Moore’s follow up to Strangers In Paradise, Echo.

And, if insanely beautiful sci-fi comics by some of the greatest creators of the modern era aren’t your thing…well, you suck! But if you already knew about both those books and you’re looking for something new to read, check out our short and sweet story on 5 of the staff’s favorite web comics, including picks from former WU great and web comics guru Brian Warmoth.

Unfortunately for the mag’s readership, there were a few really great things we prepped for Edge that were cut due to space considerations. That’s good news for you interwebs types though, as Dave and I are going to be posting plenty of cool interviews to the blog over the next two weeks. So keep your eyes peeled!

- KP

State of the Whooziwhats?

As often as I make a fool of myself in public places, I’m assuming most of you guys have never actually witnessed such an occurence in person. Well tonight you have your chance!

At 8:00 this evening, I’m going to be on stage for Comic Book Club, a live talk show focusing on all aspects of comic bookery. The other guests include plenty of people who I’m sure will be much more eloquent than I, including The Beat, TJ Dietch’s favorite stuffed cow blogger Bully and The Daily Crosshatch’s Brian Heater. The topic of the night is “The State of the Industry” so I’m assuming the event will at some point involve me complaining about how not enough people read Graham Annable comics.

It’s in NYC at The People’s Improv Theater, which is located 154 West 29th Street. Admission is 5 bones, yo.

Oh, and while I’m mentioning Mr. Heater I should point out that he nabbed a nice interview with Berberian and Dupuy after last week’s event, and you should totally read part 1 here.

- KP

REVIEW: Monsters #1-2

Monsters #1-2
By Ken Dahl
Buy it at www.iknowjoekimpel.com/

This one kind of caught me off guard.
I saw that Microcosm was putting out a collection of cartoonist Ken Dahl’s engrossing work in May and remembered really enjoying a story he did in the indie anthology series Papercutter. I asked Wizard Entertainment Editor/mini comic junkie, Rickey Purdin if he had any of Dahl’s books and he brought me these two fancy-looking numbers. My, what pretty screen-printed covers!

I had no frame of reference for what Monsters was about (which I’m very thankful for), and the slow realization of what was going on was one of the most jarring comic reading experiences I’ve had in a long time.
Spoiler alert? (This book’s about herpes.)
Monsters is told in an auto-bio style, though Dahl vaguely clarifies in issue #2 that it is a work of fiction. In the first two issues the protagonist, unaware of his own condition, gives herpes to his girlfriend and the relationship slowly deteriorates to the point where they both start sleeping with other people.

Dahl brutally drives home the effect having a disease like herpes would have on a person, how they view themselves and their lives moving forward.

Personally I’ve got to say that Monsters is incredibly depressing in an incredibly addictive way. Dahl really has a handle on how to write the interpersonal drama and introspective narration. His use of daydream-y manifestations of the protagonist’s feelings, like when a cluster of microbes tackle him when his girlfriend first tells him she has herpes, also give it that extra bit of unique artistry.

Reviewed by Dave!

Friday Links

Sharknife/PENG creator, Corey Lewis has launched a new art blog. If you’re not familiar, Corey makes fun, video game inspired, hyper-stylized, manga-ish fight comics. Sharknife, from ONI, actually got a shoutout in 2008’s Wizard Edge (on stands now, in Wizard #198!). Add that blog to your feeds and get experienced!

Aaron Turner posted the final version of Tom Neeley’s Hydra Head Records SXSW showcase poster over at his blog. It looks awesome with Aaron’s colors and text, but it mostly makes me depressed that I’m not going to see Torche, Harvey Milk and Clouds. Definitely check out the rest of Aaron’s blog too. He usually posts artwork from whatever album art he’s working on and other cool stuff

Berberian & Dupuy Rock My World

Wednesday night, I had the distinct pleasure of heading downtown in NYC to see Charles Berberian and Philippe Dupuy speak about their work and then wrote about it for the Big WU. “Who are Charles Berberian and Philippe Dupuy?” you may be asking. Well, theoretical reader, let me enlighten you.

Berberian and Dupuy are a pair of highly acclaimed French cartoonists best known for their character Monsieur Jean and for their singular working practice of entirely writing and drawing all of their comics together. I have to admit, I wasn’t super familiar with their work before going to the event (which was moderated by the always cool Matt Madden), but after hearing the pair speak, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if their comics are half as engaging and entertaining as the artists are (and from what I’ve read they are) I’m going to be buying everything they’ve had translated to English.

Aside from learning plenty about Berberian and Dupuy’s work and Euro comics in general (I finally know how to pronounce “Angouleme” correctly), I think the best part of the whole event was finding out how funny both artists were. Dupuy (above on the left) was not quite as fluent in English as his partner, but he continually made jokes at his own expense in regards to the language barrier, particularly when performing a silly female voice while reading from their comics. And Berberian had more than a few good zingers about everything from drawing with a giant pencil to endangering babies in film shoots. My favorite bit that didn’t quite fit into my write up was this segment when the partners explained the story behind their Monsieur Jean short Love And The Concierge:

PD: This is a true story. My own concierge, she came with my mail, and she asked me ‘What kind of job are you doing, Mr Dupuy? I don’t understand because you are always at home.’ And you had the same problem at the same time.

CB: I was living with my girlfriend at the time, and she used to have a steady job. She would leave home at 9:00 in the morning. At five past 9:00 or ten past 9:00 Philippe would arrive…

PD: At work! [Laughter]

CB: I could feel that the concierge, she was trying to ask what the hell we were doing upstairs all day long. We never answered. I think she died not knowing.

For anyone wanting to get another take on the event, check out the Satisfactory Comics blog write up, and to purchase some of Berberian and Dupuy’s translated work, visit the home page of their English publisher Drawn & Quareterly. Like now!

- KP

PANCAKE LOVER: CHAPTER 1

BEHOLD!

Here is the first installment of Dave’s new semi-autobio comic strip series “Pancake Lover”. New episodes will be posted on a weekly basis. Enjoy!

Observed at the Borders on 59th Street in Manhattan

The above is the cleanest camera phone shot I was able to get of where Borders is racking Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story, European cartoonist Frederik Peeters’ memoir about being in a relationship with someone who is HIV positive. Now, I’m not saying I know everything or anything about how to sell books across the nation, but is “Diseases and Conditions” really the section of the store where this comic is going to have the most impact?

I mean, I know that I’m already predisposed to looking for comics everywhere I go, but if graphic novels are the “growing category” we keep hearing they are, I’m going to bet there are more casual readers walking into Borders going “Gee, maybe I’ll see what this graphic novel thing is all about” than there are folks saying “Gee, I wonder if there’s a section with books of various genres that are all about AIDS.” And that’s not even counting folks who may have read a review of Blue Pills and then came looking for it.

I just thought it was odd is all.

NEELY AND HYDRAHEAD, TOGETHER AGAIN

Tom Neely, the award winning creator behind 2007’s The Blot has teamed up yet again with bestlabelever, Hydra Head Records to produce some art for their 2008 SXSW showcase poster.

You might remember Tom previously announced he would be doing a full comic “adaptation” of the Melvins’ latest album, “(A) Senile Animal” to accompnay Hydra Head’s LP release.

Over at his blog Tom gives a glimpse of the art, which Hydra Head founder/ISIS frontman, Aaron Turner will be designing, coloring and text layout for. Tom also shares a sweet story of meeting Turner after listening to a lot of ISIS during the creation of The Blot.

You’re the best…around!

Proving that nothing’s gonna ever keep him down, Bookslut’s Jeff Vandermeer re-teams with his fellow judges from last year’s Eisner Awards to present their picks for the best comics of 2007.

Don’t they seem like a fun bunch?

I find it interesting that last year’s judges are sticking together for two reasons:

1 – When the nominees for the 2008 Eisner’s are announced later this year, it might be fun to look back at the above lists to see how the Class of 2007’s picks match up against the Class of 2008’s picks and whether or not there’s an actual critical consensus for what the best comics of the year are.

2 – I find the idea that a group of judges sticking together over the years leading to an eventual “Jets Vs. Sharks” style showdown at the Hyatt bar at Comic Con very funny. Of course, I may just be weird like that.

While I’m at it, I should also remind folks that this year’s judges are Bookazine Company’s John Davis, writer Paul Di Filippo, retailer Atom! Freeman, Entertainment Weekly writer Jeff Jensen and librarian Eva Volin. Also, you can check out out a rad interview with Vandermeer and crew about their picks for last year’s awards at The Pulse, which is where I nabbed the above photo from.

- KP

Quote/Unquote

A big part of what we’re planning for Indie Jones is creator interviews. One of the best parts about working at a place like Wizard is that on any given day, we staffers can say, “Gee, I’d really like to talk to Artist X on the phone,” and within a few days, that becomes a reality. While Dave and I are currently cooking up a new slew of comic chats to post here, I thought I’d drop a few links to interviews with indie folks that have gone up since out latest site redesign, including:

My good bud Dylan Brucie talking to mini comics favorite Jim Mahfood about his current projects and his feelings on his art for Colt 45:

They’ve been really cool about sponsoring all of my art shows and galleries. Whenever I do an event, they’ll send cases of beer. They’re sponsoring the show in Brooklyn. So there’s going to be free Colt 45 there for everyone. I think it’s funny, because it’s the sh– me and my friends used to drink when we were freshmen in art school because we were poor and we could only afford a 40oz [Laughs]. So it’s really weird to have it come full circle. And the reason I named my studio 40oz. Comics is because back in the day we would sit around and drink 40s while we drew comics and stuff. It’s weird that I eventually got work with a 40oz. company.

My recent interview with New York Times best-selling cartoonist Jeff Kinney on his acclaimed kids series Diary of A Wimpy Kid and his lead character Greg Heffley’s origins:

I had my moments of being a wimpy kid. I think I was a pretty average kid, but my wimpy moments were pretty far off the charts. I did not have a diary, but if I did, one of the stories I might have recorded or might have omitted on purpose was that in swim team when I was a kid I used to hide out in the locker room and for the whole practice I would hide out in the stalls and literally wrap myself in toilet paper to prevent myself from getting hypothermia. That’s kind of where Greg Heffley was born, I think, from those moments that I’m not so proud of.

And finally, a long-gestating interview I did with the extremely patient Neil Kleid on his life as an up-and-coming graphic novelist:

The big question I get outside of the comics industry is “What do you do?” And my first reaction is “I tell stories.” Even though my day job is as an art director and I write novels and draw comics or whatever, my first response is “I write stories.” Whether that’s “I write stories and my ultimate end goal is X, Y, Z,” I just want to tell stories well and for people to read them.

I should probably take this opportunity to note that we’re also doing what we can to resurrect some of the more popular interviews that were taken down when the site redesign hit. If there’s anything you’d like to see, please comment here or jump on the message boards and let us know what you’re thinking.

- KP