Nothing like some kung fu a la Cowboy Bebop to start the week off right. Enjoy.

Opening the New Year under the very real threat of ultimate vengeance from Alan Moore and his unmerciful snake god, I give you the Watchmen cartoon.

panel88 affiliated artist Miguel Sanchez (AWOL) has been laboring on the love that is Starfish as long as I’ve known him, and I couldn’t be happier to see that he’s put the final touches on the first issue. Miguel handled all the heavy lifting on this one and he’s really brought his inking and coloring skills up to match his solid writing and art.

As for the story, it’s all about a girl and her jet pack. What more do ya need? He’s offering up samples of the finished book over at The Starfish Lighthouse. If you’re a fan of what you see, prove it on facebook.

Came across a press release today from Mike Richardson and Dark Horse stating something that the rest of us (mainstream included) have been through the looking glass on for quite a while. Read the full release here:

Comic Books Are the New Mainstream
— Millions of Americans are fans of comic book
creations, and many might not even know it.

Sure. Why not? After all, isn’t it always that case that when something attains mainstream status, it automatically necessitates a PRESS RELEASE? The PR angle here isn’t wasted on me. Certainly a successful company with quality, rev-generating properties like Dark Horse wants to remind us that, while Iron Man and The Dark Knight alone have taken in enough in theater sales to fund an effective coup against Omar Bashir (look it up), they’ve got the goods, too. (And the thing is they do, damn it!)

Thing is, if you’ve got what the mainstream is so obviously aware of, the point of telling us all falls a bit moot. Not to mention the oxymoron this produces, i.e. that Dark Horse “remains the number one independent voice in the industry because of the embrace of the mainstream consumer.” Still trying to get my head around that one.

I write this with the realization that this post may prompt Dark Horse to never publish anything from panel88. Of course, my cockles couldn’t help but be warmed just a bit in knowing what such a blacklisting would say about who actually reads this blog.

Soulless artist and inkmeister Eric Jimenez has been churning out some sweet sequential goodies at the behest of C.B. Cebulski. You can sample a tasty spread here or just head over to Eric’s main internet home for the whole package. Gotta love the detail and effort Eric drops into each panel. One of the main reasons panel88 wanted to get him on board with a project as soon as possible. Go and see for yourself. Sure to please.

Just received an amazing bit of cover art for the Dissension project we’re working on with artist Jordan Gunderson.

Latest cover art for Dissension

Colors provided by Kieran Oats. Can’t tell you how excited we are to get this book rolling. More to come…

I’ve been flipping through this blog for the past few days and keep coming back for more. I hope everyone takes some time to contribute to the art.

Personal favorite so far:

Hot on the heels of the Disney/Marvel deal comes this little gem helping to muddy the increasingly blurry lines that exist between comics publishers and their corporate overseers: Warner Bros. Reboots DC Comics in bid to rival Marvel on big screen.

Now, let’s look past the posturing. No doubt this little reorg’s been cooking for a while and the Marvel buy forced WB’s hand. The corporations from which you buy everything from your toothpaste to MP3 player to car insurance do this on a nearly monthly basis. It’s nothing new and don’t fret if you see another flip somewhere down in the line in the next few years.

What we need to take note of as creators and comic lovers is where this battle is taking place. The title of the LA Times post pretty much says it all – it ain’t happening with the Wednesday pull, my friends. It’s happening with what’s on the silver screen and how many butts are being put in the seats.

It’s no mystery that comics and their story lines have become THE birthing grounds for the movies that now represent a substantial if not governing chunk of the box office take. Comics have great, notable, recognizable characters that will draw the most critical of fanboys into the theaters while lining the shelves with licensed goodies for all ages. It’s a formula that works…kind of.

Through years of reading and collecting and negotiating excruciating continuity twists, comic lovers can’t deny their beloved characters and the studios know this. As such, the collective eggs go into the cinematic basket and the comics (yeah, it’s a pun) get shelved. The problem here is that studios don’t care about the stories. It’s all the about the Jacksons we’re plunking down each weekend in July. Characters and titles seem to be thought of more as concepts than fully developed stories (and yes, I will use the X-Men Origins: Wolverine argument here if I have to because you know you can’t deny it is a total reinterpretation of the utmost sucktitude), leaving the door open for more of what we’ve been given so far: a couple pearls drowning in a sea of WTF? So, while a film-driven arms race between the Big Two might bring that Justice League movie to bear a lot sooner than later, what does it look like really? And what, if any, original material – the material that kept us reading these stories to begin with – will be preserved.

I do have to concede to those couple of pearls here, though. DC and Marvel have each brought their A games with Batman and Iron Man respectively. Outside of IM2, I’m not certain if Marvel’s coming ventures will transcend the status of a strictly revenue-generating franchise. I can say that, if Warner Bros. does have any truly noteworthy properties on the horizon, this sure as shit ain’t it:

Seems the interwebs are teeming with this story, so I figured I’d follow suit and throw in my two cents.

There are really two ways this could go: the Pixar way or the Disney way. It’s safe to say Marvel fans at large are hoping for the former but preparing to live with the excruciating reality of the latter.

The Pixar way means allowing Marvel to follow the same independent path that began with a hopping desk lamp and has matured into THE chart-topping summer movie powerhouse it is today. The Pixar method means letting Marvel be Marvel. It means keeping those giant, four-fingered, white-gloved hands to yourself and letting Marvel creators (be they comic, cinematic or otherwise) explore and innovate according to the best stories they know how to tell. It means respecting an existing fan base and putting the faith and backing in new material to expand their audience. It also (hopefully) means getting a taste of the sweet financial muscle the Mouse can bring in amping up a character-driven movie franchise machine that – save for Iron Man – has fallen more than flat lately. (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I’m speaking directly to you here. I want my $9 and the tiny shreds of my cherished childhood mutant fantasies you stole back.)

As for the Disney way…I suppose we can look forward to that magical fortnight when an exclusive, digitally remastered edition of Elektra will be made available for a limited time before it’s thrown back into the Disney vault forever. At $29.99 plus tax, no less.

Phenomenal advice for aspiring writers of graphic fictions from personal fave Warren Ellis: