Comics

Celebrate Artifacts with Top Cow

LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 28, 2010 – Top Cow Productions, Inc. proudly announced today that copies of Artifacts #1, have sold out at the distributor level. A second printing of Artifacts #1 is being sent to Diamond Comics Distributors to meet the demand for the publisher’s 13-issue mega-event series and will be available in upcoming weeks.

Written by Ron Marz (Witchblade, Green Lantern) and featuring the art team of Michael Broussard (The Darkness), Rick Basaldua (The Darkness), Sal Regla (Magdalena) and Sunny Gho of IFS (Velocity), the Artifacts event series promises to be Top Cow’s most ambitious art series to date and will weave together story lines from a number of Top Cow titles. The first issue kicks off with the abduction of Hope, the daughter of Sara Pezzini and Jackie Estacado and quickly spirals into a conspiracy, which threatens to destroy the entire Top Cow Universe.

Days Missing – Cover Artists Announced

Los Angeles, CA (July 27, 2010) – At the Archaia: Black Label panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Archaia Entertainment and Roddenberry Productions proudly announced the all-star lineup of cover artists contributing to the second volume of the critically acclaimed comic book series Days Missing.

A different artist will illustrate each of the five upcoming covers of Days Missing: Kestus, which launches in September. As previously announced, Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Astro City) will be creating the cover for issue #1. Jorge Molina (Marvel Superhero Team-Up, What If? Spiderman: House of M) will design the cover of issue #2, and Ryan Benjamin (Grifter/Midnighter, New Mutants) will lend his talents to the cover of issue #3. David Mack (Daredevil, Atomika) has signed on to draw issue #4’s cover, and Dale Keown (The Darkness, Pitt), who illustrated all of the covers for Days Missing volume 1, will return to illustrate the cover to issue #5.

Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom #1

This appears to be the year of long time writers returning to properties that time has forgot. First it was Larry Hama’s return to G.I. Joe and now we have Jim Shooter returning to Doctor Solar. This revived Valiant title is joined by Magnus, Robot Fighter which is also being published by Dark Horse Comics. It seems that the two decade rule, in which it takes two decades for something old to become new again, has been shortened by ten years. Granted, both Solar and Magnus existed as Gold Key characters in the 60’s, but they came into the height of their popularity in the 90’s. Is this title stuck in the 90’s or does it make a third emergence into relevancy?

The issue (Troublemakers: Part One, Lust and Leviathan) begins with Doctor Solar taking on the hungry, hungry hippo Leviathan in front of a pizzeria. This is actually Solar’s first outing as a “hero” having just figured out his powers and re-creating himself. He’s mostly on the defense as Leviathan attacks him with everything he’s got. Everything is new and strange to Solar, but he can’t help but notice that this seems to be the norm for Leviathan. In this world, this is the first encounter with superheroes. Two dudes, duking it out over stolen pizza! It’s strange, but it works. It’s always refreshing when comics don’t refer to themselves within the world. The most annoying thing a title can do is making a joke about Superman or instantly call someone a superhero even though they never existed in the world before that moment.

Comic Con International – Writing For Comics Panel

When it comes to panels at Comic Con, I find myself either at a very standard panel, the DC Nations, the Mondo Marvel’s or something to do with TV. But when it comes to Saturday I usually find that the day is more enjoyable if I go off the beaten path and skip the infestation of Hollywood movies and TV shows and go with something different. So when Kevin suggested the Writing for Comic’s Panel, I said yes, let’s do it.

To my surprise this ended up being the best panel I saw at the convention. The panel was hosted by Andy Schmidt a former editor for Marvel and Senior Editor for IDW Publishing. Andy also teaches an online school from writing comics at ComicsExperience.com, which has several online courses for people interested. Andy invited several writers that he’s worked/working with to the panel including Brian Michael Bendis, (Scarlett, Avengers, the Siege), Mike Costa (G.I. Joe: Cobra, Transformers) and Marc Guggenheim (Wolverine, Resurrection).

Image Bringing the Best-Selling Daomu to the U.S.

BERKELEY, CA – July 26, 2010 – Image Comics and Concept Art House announced plans to release a series of Daomu comics based on one of China’s best-selling novel series. This will be Daomu’s debut in the U.S., following a successful graphic novel launch in China earlier this year. The upcoming comic book series is the first of several Daomu releases planned to include games, an animated series, and a feature film.

Daomu, which translates to “tomb raider,” explores an underground world that has been active in China for thousands of years. After witnessing his father’s violent murder, Sean Liu discovers that his family belongs to a secret society of tomb raiders. Led by his uncle, Sean joins an elite team of Daomu to go deep underground in search of answers. Who are they? Who—or what—killed Sean’s father? And what horrors await beneath the earth’s surface? With a distinctive digital art style and high-energy adventures steeped in Chinese tradition and superstition, the comic series will follow Sean’s coming of age as a modern-day tomb raider and his quest to uncover the truth behind his father’s death.

Falling Skies Comic Prequel

Dark Horse and TNT team up to for a comic prequel to Falling Skies. The Eagerly anticipated new series starring Noah Wyle, produced by Dreamworks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg will appear in comic form online and in print. 

JULY 22ND, SAN DIEGO, CA–TNT is teaming up with publisher Dark Horse Comics to create a comic book and webcomic prequel toFALLING SKIES, the eagerly anticipated new series starring Noah Wyle(ER, TNT’s The Librarian movies) and produced by DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg. The comic book and webcomic are slated to be unveiled at New York Comic Con in October. FALLING SKIES, which is set to premiere on TNT in summer 2011, is a gripping drama that envisions a world where aliens have invaded, and the fate of humanity lies in the hands of a few survivors

Riff Trax Live Panel

For roughly four years now I’ve had the joy of attending former Mystery Science Theater 3000 veteran’s panel in some form or another. The first year Mike, Kevin and Bill presented The Film Crew in which the three were tasked with making sure every movie had a commentary track. It was a bit like MST3000 but it really didn’t capture the feel and became limited in the product it could produce.

What was limitless was the brainchild of Mike, Riff Trax. For those unfamiliar with Riff Trax, it’s an audio track that is downloaded from the site of the same name. This audio track is a “riffing audio track” in which the team then makes fun of a movie. It ranges from the Matrix to Daredevil and all the way to Footloose. The brilliance of the idea is that they’re not redistributing the movie like they were on MST3000, just an audio track that sync’s up with the movie.