Inside “Bone & Beyond”

Hey, children!

I don’t know how many of you are spending your Wednesday afternoon’s hanging out at the Big WU, but for those of you that have other priorities in life, you should totally check out the intrepid Robert Taylor’s comprehensive coverage of Jeff Smith’s “Bone & Beyond” art exhibit at The Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts. Included are:

- A newsy report from the show’s opening weekend letting you know what all the fuss is about.

- A transcript of the live interview of Smith conducted by Scott McCloud.

- A fact-filled review of the show itself.

If that ain’t quite enough, the whole shebang comes with Robert’s photos (one of which is above), and later this week, I’ll be following up by talking to Smith about the opening and what else is going on with the show later this summer.

- KP

Two Rob Schrab Interviews

This past Wednesday, Middle School Kiel’s favorite comic book finally came to an end when Image Comics published Scud: The Disposable Assassin #24. With a completely subjective mindset, I have to say that it was awesome, and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever loved the series when creator Rob Schrab originally self-published it in the mid ’90s (if you’re unfamiliar, wait a few more weeks until the giant trade of the whole series hits on June 25th).

I don’t know if I could sum up in words how much I love this damn comic, and I don’t think anyone would care to read that anyway. But I thought maybe someone might want to read the two interviews I did with Schrab during the production of the final four issues (one was for the old site, the other for the mag’s Edge section), so here they are. The first interview took place just after the relaunch of Scud was announced in March of last year, and the second happened early this year in advance of the book’s February return. Enjoy.

Continue reading Two Rob Schrab Interviews…

Please go read: Kiel talks to the Bone curators

In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a very in depth showcase of Bone creator Jeff Smith’s comics work opening up this weekend at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio on the campus of The Ohio State University. I can’t make it down for the opening, but luckily I got the chance to talk to the curators behind the exhibit Lucy Caswell & David Filipi. The pair were extremely nice and got me really excited for the show (fingers crossed I’ll make it before they close up shop in August), and you can read the interview the big WU.

For anyone in the Ohio area, I highly recommend heading down and seeing the exhibit. All the info for the show can be found here. If you can’t head there just yet, worry not. We’re having the intrepid Robert Taylor stop in to review the show, talk to all involved and snap as many photos as he can, so check back to the blog next week for all the details!

ALSO: Vaneta Rogers talks to Smith about the show over at Newsarama.

Not to miss: Dave interviews Todd Depastino

With all the New York Con news hitting the Big WU, I’m awful afraid some of you might miss Dave’s very in depth interview with Todd Depastino, editor of Willie & Joe: The World War Two Years a collection of Bill Mauldin’s WWII strips and biographer of Mauldin himself.

So, please go look at that before you read about the new Secret Invasion tie-ins or whatever.

The cartoons are really quite good, and they make you think:

See & Read: Comic Book Comics!

I know that the phrases “Indie Jones” and “Exclusive Content” go together about as well as “Balanced Diet” and “Processed Cheese,” but the very cool Fred Van Lente was kind enough to let us debut the cover to the second issue of he and artist Ryan Dunlevy’s Comic Book Comics. If you haven’t heard of the book yet, it’s a humorous telling of the history of the comics medium done in the same style as Van Lente and Dunlevy’s Action Philosophers!, and you can read all about it in my interview with Van Lente at the Big WU. My favorite part is this, where he talks about why the comic is both funny and informative:

VAN LENTE: Some of it—and I’m being totally up front about this—is to not get sued. One of the ways to refer to this stuff, because we’re using trademarked characters—one of the things people said when I told them this idea years ago was, “How are you gonna be able to do that and not be sued? Because you’re talking about Superman, you’re talking about Blue Beetle, you’re talking about all these trademarked characters, aren’t people going to come after you?” And the way you protect yourself from that is—there’s an educational component to this that’s covered under copyright law as fair use, but there’s ways to make fun of them. It’s parody, and it’s protected. Sometimes it becomes, I gotta tell some jokes here, or I’m gonna get sued! You’ll see when you get the comic, the entire inside front cover is taken up by legalese. Humorous legalese, of course, but all accurate nonetheless.

There’s plenty more cool stuff in the link, and you can read plenty of free pages from Comic Book Comics #1 at the Evil Twin website, so check it out!

- KP

Q+A: Vasilis Lolos

Greek native Vasilis Lolos broke into American comics working with Rick Spears (Teenagers From Mars) on Pirates Of Coney Island at Image. Along with various mini comics like his own Hats and 2007’s 5 with Becky Cloonan, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon and Rafael Grampa, Vasilis has started his own graphic novel series at Oni Press called The Last Call.

How did you get into comics and illustration?

I got to a late start when it came to drawing. I was reading a lot of comics as a kid but other then Mighty Mouse and K.I.T.T. I didn’t draw much until I was 16 or something when I was preparing for architecture school (I ended up in graphic design). I drew a lot of short stories in that time and went into self-publishing with groups of friends. I got my first publishing deal in a weekly magazine called “9″ and since then I’ve been drawing comics full-time.

How has your style of drawing evolved since you first started? Were there any comic artists that inspired you?

I started off with a very European style, but after taking some heat from a friend I dove headfirst into the depths of “manga,” that was around 1998. Since then I’ve been looking at more alternative artists including Taiyo Matsumoto, Max Anderson, Guy Davis, Mike Mignola and Frank Miller. Of course my style has changed a lot over the years, switching mediums and techniques, but that’s all a part of growing up. Katsuhiro Otomo is an everlasting influence to me, as well as Moebius, however the last few years I’ve been drawing inspiration more from outside of comics.

What kind of inspiration do you draw from outside of comics?

I really like the Art Deco period, and I’ve been into Dore’s engravings. I also draw a lot of inspiration from the German exspressionist film movement. I buy a lot of magazines that are related to Space exploration and mechanical design. Really I pick up things from here and there, trying to make sense of it in a sort of mental-to-visual Tetris fashion. Of course there are themes and visual styles that I’ve always liked, but sometimes something unexpected will capture my attention and I throw it into the mix.

What was it like going from the Greek/Euro comics scene/industry to the American? How would you say they differ?

I was working in Greece as a professional for five years, I published a graphic novel and was getting consistent work in various magazines and newspapers, and my friends and I had self published several anthologies, mini comics and cd-rom comic zines. Not to pat myself on the back but I thought my work was well recieved, so leaving that industry and starting work in the US was like going from Hero to Zero. Nobody knew who I was and it felt like the five years I’d already been working didn’t count for anything. But I’m working hard to regain my Hero status, and I’ve learned a lot and met so many great people in the US who have been nothing but encouraging. I mean, if you had told me five years ago that Geoff Darrow and I would trade comics at Comic Con I would never have believed it.

There is no real way to compare the Greek and American comic scene, there are a lot of comics that are translated into Greek but there aren’t many professional venues who publish Greek creators. The majority of Greek comic artists are independently published or political cartoonists, but the number of creators are on the rise and in the past few years the industry has grown a lot. There are a lot of cool people in the comic scene here, but I gotta be honest, there are a lot of haters too. But what can you do? Hate the game, not the playa.

Tell me about your latest book, The Last Call. How did you come up with the concept?

I’ve always wanted to do a coming-of-age story about friendship and what it means to grow up, and I’ve always wanted to draw a murder mystery (keeping in mind that I’m a fan of the paranormal), so when the opportunity arose to do a short graphic novel series with Oni Press The Last Call was born fairly painlessly. It’s an adventure story of two boys, Sam and Alec, who get caught up in a murder case on a ghost train. I’m working on the second book right now, I hope to have it out for New York Comic Con in April 08. The story is really inspired by the feeling I get from Miyazaki movies and Agatha Christie books.

What else in on the horizon in your immediate future - Last Call and Pirates of Coney Island?

When Pirates of Coney Island wraps up I’d like to tackle another monthly mini series in between Last Call GN’s. I have a few stories in mind that I’ve been toying with, we’ll see which one is the lucky winner. I’m also working on a comic with Becky Cloonan that she’ll be writing and I’ll be drawing, but I can’t say much about it yet. I’ve been keeping myself busy.

I love telling stories and making art, and comics combines both of these perfectly. I also love going to comic conventions, meeting other artists and creators. Actually, I love the whole comic industry: from the pencil to the page to the printer to the shelf.

-DP

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

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

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