July 2010 Archives

Thorgal Book 8: Wolf Cub

Cinebook

Thorgal is homeward bound. After travelling alone during his detour in the previous volume that was The Master of the Mountain, the Viking hero has collected his pregnant wife Aaricia and their son Jolan and they now sail down familiar waters... But not all is as it was!

A man arrived in these parts the previous winter, the chief of a clan from the south it seems. He's not only brought along some of his men, but a dream: to unite the clans into a single nation. Many have flocked to his cause, and since fame is everything to a Viking it is little wonder he is known as Wor the Magnificent.

Wor has need of the ship Thorgal's family are passengers on. He wants it for his latest expedition, or raids as Saxons would more aptly call it. Thorgal's reputation leads Wor to invite him to join him but the hero declines and Aaricia herself reminds Wor that her father was king of the Northern Vikings and so demands the vessel is not taken. Wor mocking the late King Gandalf, and then makes the further mistake of doing the same to Thorgal.

Thorgal knocks him to the ground with a single punch then draws his sword threatening to do far worse unless Wor's followers step back and let his family leave the ship safely. It is spring, home is near and there's child who may yet be born there if Thorgal can get a ride for them, so he leaves his family to go on ahead.

Alas, Wor is the conniving two-faced sort and he not only hates someone getting the better of him, he's also afraid Thorgal's return might cause his kingly dominion to come to nothing. To this end he sends a message to his followers on land to make sure Thorgal and his family doesn't reach home alive. When these would be murderers meet up with Aaricia and Jolan, they find they're not such an easy target and what's more there's something deadly waiting in the woods to be more than afraid of.

Unaware of his loved ones' predicaments Thorgal continues his journey, and in so doing learns that Wor's cause isn't one all the clans have followed with relish for there have been threats, villages burnt, and those who stood in his way ultimately got rid of. Even more revealing is that Wor isn't quite the person he made himself out to be to those clans of the north who have joined him. Before Thorgal can do anything about this he finds himself trapped between Wor's raiding party and the survivors of those who tried to kill Aaricia. Events quicken, several cliff hanger events ensue, the action becomes all the more ferocious... and the thing in the woods returns again!

It's one hell of an emotional rollercoaster this one. Part inspired Viking political thriller, peppered with classic heroic adventurism whenever Thorgal takes centre stage, a dash of horror chiller akin to when Americans Bruce Jones and Bernie Wrightson used to collaborate with regards to thing that's in the woods.

These events interweave or remain defiantly separate as themes of savagery and nobility begin to dominate, culminating in Aaricia giving birth to her second child. Rosinski's brilliantly passionate painted cover practically demands you be present at the delivery.

An excellent read, a visual pleasure!

For more information visit: www.cinebook.com

The Darkness Ultimate Collection

Top Cow Productions/Image Comics

Jacki Estacado is a hit man for a mafia hit family, he's adopted family; his real father had the power of the Darkness, as did all his forefathers dating back an awful long time and now Jackie's got it bad too.

The Darkness allows Jacki to wield magic from some dark eldritch dimension and have its creatures do his bidding.

Jacki finds this out unexpectedly when the power manifests itself to protect him one dark and deadly night. It transpires the Brotherhood of Darkness have been waiting for this moment, only this current batch of priests aren't followers of this umpteenth coming so much as wanting to steal the power from him, especially their head priest Sonatine. And as the Darkness is to the powers of chaos so are the Angelus to law and order so he has to contend with these winged scantily clad warrior women too while all the time trying to find out who shot his uncle Uncle Frank and whther or not there's a traitor in the family.

There's lots of blazing guns, posed babes, and some snazzy eldritch pyrotechnics in the origin story - the most obvious way to describe this might be Marvel's Son of Satan meets The Godfather movie, but I can also see Valiant Comics' Archer & Armstrong and Warren's The Goblin but all given a modern flashy TV edge to it.

Ennis tells a good tale; there's cynicism without it becoming too obvious, dark comedy that for the most part flows naturally from events and conversations and it's slickly paced thanks to Silvestri's art - sure he's one for posed shots but he can also cut to the fast chase sequentially better than even he's probably ever been given credit for.

The second story in this book starts of implying something akin to Orpheus's trip to the underworld come Dante's Inferno is about to take place and as this collection promotes the fact that these stories are the basis for a video game for The Darkness, a visual rollercoaster around Hades to take place.

Only it doesn't.

Jenkins' tale is more a variation on The Sopranos as it mixes psychological emotions, mafia backstabbing , shootouts and hellfire magic. Keown's art is taken from his pencilled art, the colourists tend to over model in their digital enchancing and make some pages too dark. The story tends to go on too long, but it still has some high points.

CLICK ON Episode 27 of Shang Ri La La La below and it will expand to fill your screen.
For more information on the creators visit:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Gary Crutchley: www.gcrutchley.blogspot.com

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten

For John Robbins: www.mylifeinshorts.blogspot.com

For Andrew Dodd: www.timebombcomics.com

THE GOON is currently in development as an animated movie.

The Goon is creator Eric Powell's tale of ghosts, ghouls, mad scientists, adventuring dare-do and an unnatural hunger for pie

Since 1995 Powell has also worked on such comics as Bufffy the Vampire Slayer, The Incredible Hulk, MAD Magazine, Swamp Thing, The Simpsons and Action Comics for various US publishers.

The Goon was first published at Avatar Comics, then self-published by Powell himself before being handled by Dark Horse Comics in America and has become a dark comedy modern cult classic.

It is through Dark Horse Entertainment that Powell has been working in collaboration with acclaimed director David Fincher and Blur Animation to bring The Goon to life as an animated feature film.

Below is a YouTube trailer for The Goon, there is one on MySpace that is longer.

ONE COPY in five of the forthcoming Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave will now feature a special variant front cover by John Cassady.

John Cassaday is one of the most popular American comic book artists in recent times, being responsible for the art on the WildStorm/DC series Planetary and having received an Eisner Award for Best Pencil Artist for his work on Marvel's The Astonishing X-Men. Cassady has recently been ventured into the film medium, having directed an episode of the noted US science fiction/action TV series, Dollhouse.

Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave goes on sale during the Halloween season. The comic will be a double-sized 48-page colour with painted cover by Basil Gogos on main issues.

The first issue contains stories and art by such notables as Kerry Gammill, (Spider-Man and Superman) James Farr (whose Xombie online animated and comic book series is being brought to theatre screens by Dreamworks in a live-action production by top writer/producers Orchi and Kurtzman), Chris Moreno (World War Hulk), John Cassaday, Rob Brown (named last year's horror artist of the year in an online vote), Derek McCaw, Rafael Navarro (creator of the Xeric Award winning series Sonambulo), Martin Powell and Eisner Award- winning artist Terry Beatty (The Batman Strikes), Brian Denham (Iron Man, Angel) and Bruce Timm (designer for Warner Bros animated Batman series) plus others. The book also features an article by leading Lugosi researcher and author Gary D. Rhodes.

Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave will be on sale four times a year and future issues will feature work by top names in movies and comic books. Directors John Landis and Joe Dante, make-up genius Rick Baker and others are bringing their talent for horror from movies to the illustrated page for the first time. Other contributors will include Steve Niles, Benton Jew, Neil Vokes, Jack Herman, Mike Hoffman, Brian Denham, Hank Mayo, James Groman, and Joe and John Lansdale.

The Monsterverse editorial staff is currently attending San Diego Comic-Con 2010, the biggest comic book convention in the USA and come October, when the series debuts there will be many launch events including a Monsterverse/Lugosi Night at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood at the Egyptian Theater.

For more information visit: www.monsterverse.com

GAREN EWING'S hit graphic novel series, The Rainbow Orchid, is to be published in Holland by Silvester Strips.

The all-age adventure saga will be serialised over three volumes, in the manner Egmont has released The Rainbow Orchid in the UK.

Volume 1 of the Dutch version will go on sale at the end of September 2010, Volume 2 in January 2011, and Volume 3 is scheduled to appear around the same time as the final UK edition in May 2011.

The Rainbow Orchid's Creator Garen Ewing, said:

"I'm delighted to be working with Silvio Van Der Loo and his team at Silvester Strips, and I understand that I'm lucky enough to have one of their best translators, Mat Schifferstein, working on the books. A huge thanks to Oliver Munson, my agent at Blake Friedmann, for making this deal happen."

Garen is currently busy promoting the books. On the morning of 10th August Garen will be hosting an Adventure Comics Workshop at East Grinstead Library, followed by one for the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 23rd August.

The following month he will be appearing at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature with Dave McKean and Robin Etherington, then heading to Holland for the second day of De Stripdagen in Houten, on 26th September, to launch the Dutch version of the book. Speech Balloons will endeavour to interview him for an exclusive prior to that!

For more information visit: www.rainboworchid.co.uk, www.egmont.co.uk & www.silvesterstrips.nl

THE COMIC book convention season just keeps getting longer and longer!

It has just been announced that the Dublin City Comic Con will be taking place at the end of this year, between 3rd - 5th December.

The organisers promise to put on a "festival style" show with events taking place in Dublin between Andrews Lane Theatre, The Mercantile and The Village over the three main days, plus a series of pre-events leading up in the week before.

Guests announced so far include Liam Sharp and Rufus Dayglo.

For more information visit: www.myspace.com/dublincitycomiccon

My colleague Lorne Jackson spoke to Jason Wilson about his Day of the Deal book

MOST books have rave reviews printed on the back cover.

They are usually words of praise from fellow authors, academics and literary scribes.

Jason Wilson's comic book, Day Of The Deal, also has a long list of 'buy this book' blurbs on the back page.

But the satisfied readers recommending the book aren't your traditional reviewers.

They are hardened CRIMINALS, currently serving time at Winson Green prison.

It's little wonder that the lags from the Brummie lock-up are so enthusiastic about the comic.

GUMBY'S GANG Starring Pokey is on sale at America's San Diego Comic-Con this week!

The Gumby's Gang series has been overlong in production but for all the best reasons: sourcing suitable artists and ensuring the management team is on the same page; to this end, Wildcard Ink has undergone a name change to Gumby Comics.

Written by Michael Aushenker with a different artist featured for each of its four issues, Pokey is the first issue and is illustrated by Rafael Navarro.

Aushenker is more than pleased with the results calling Navarro's work "sublime art" and saying of the series in general: "We've taken great care with the Gumby's Gang series to go back to the source material - the original Gumby series from the 1950s and '60s that sealed Art Clokey's legend -- to give this series some street cred with Gumby fans.

"Publisher Mel Smith and Editor Paul Birch have been very involved in overseeing the series, and Pokey will be a spectacular launch of this new full-colour, all-ages series."

Birch himself commented: "It has been a long time coming, but I'm glad the series is finally coming out. I co-edited the first issue with Mel Smith, thereafter he ran interference and attended to business matters, trusting me to edit the rest of the series and help develop the storylines with Michael.

"Michael put an awful lot of work into the series, and the result is a fun, coherent group of books, each focussing on Pokey, the Blockheads, Prickle and Goo, but with the character of Gumby himself putting in appearances throughout, alongside some other familiar characters... plus a few new ones! I think kids are going to enjoy it, but adult fans who've grown-up on Gumby too.

Aushenker described the Pokey story as follows: "It's a time-travel yarn (like, duh! It's all over the cover!) and Gumby has a good amount of screen time, as does some of the supporting cast members, including a certain befuddled professor you'll recall from the original Gumby shorts."

Birch then added: "Each book can be enjoyed on its own, but there are tenuous links and themes throughout for those who want to get that extra kick out of the series.

"However, I do want to stress that what I wanted to do was both allow Michael to refocus on what made Gumby so popular in the first place and use that as a basis to make Gumby a comic book character that could increase its international appeal too - that stated, the fact that Prickle comes to England in his issue, was coincidental and entirely Mike's idea."

"I signed off on Mike's scripts about a year back - they still hold up and will do when they eventually see print, and will continue to do so when they're collected in an album - or graphic novel if you will - as there's international interest in collecting all the Gumby series."

Speech Balloons is pleased to feature exclusive black and white line art from Gumby's Gang Starring Pokey - if you click on the images they will expand to a larger size. The printed comic itself will be in colour and make its debut at San Diego.

"Look for me and publisher Mel Smith causing mayhem and bedlam signing up Pokey at the Gumby Comics table" said Aushenker, adding: " Raf Navarro will be at the convention as well and he'll no doubt show up to push the Pokey as well.

In other Gumby related matters, Birch confirmed that there are more scripts in-house at Gumby Comics, some waiting to be drawn, some to be published, and his own Gumby Halloween Special to be drawn by Shane Oakley is still on the cards, and there have been talks about turning that story into a short children's book too.

But for now, after a long delay, readers can look forward to the Pokey book that will also be available directly from Gumby Comics, and via Diamond's US distribution system soon, as Aushenker proudly declared:

"It's a real gem. You're gonna love it!"

For more information visit: www.myspace.com/gumbycomics.

You can also become a Gumby Comics fan on Facebook.

CLICK ON Episode 26 of Shang Ri La La La below and it will expand to fill your screen.
For more information on the creators visit:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Gary Crutchley: www.gcrutchley.blogspot.com

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten

For John Robbins: www.mylifeinshorts.blogspot.com

For Andrew Dodd: www.timebombcomics.com