The third issue of iZombie is in stores next week, but if you can’t wait that long the Vertigo blog Graphic Content has a preview of the first few pages to whet your appetite.
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Dean Trippe’s “Spacetime’s Finest”
I would totally buy this comic in a heartbeat.Bless Dean Trippe for imagining the awesomeness.
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Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated
I have vague memories of hearing about this forthcoming show, but this is the first time I’ve actually gotten excited about it. I’ve raved about the work of animator and character designer Derrick Wyatt before, but today I’ve got him to thank for posting a preview of the upcoming Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated series on his blog.
Here’s how Wyatt describes the series:
“Meet Dale and Angie Dinkley! Barty and Nan Blake! Colton and Paula Rogers! And Mayor Fred Jones, Sr. Join the gang and their extremely disappointed parents for Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, coming this July!”
And here’s the preview:
Check out more about the upcoming Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated at Cartoon Network.com, and watch for the series to start in July.
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The Manly Art of Jason Chalker
I’ve raved about the work of artist Jason Chalker on the Ramble before, but two new gems have popped up on Jason’s blog in the last few days that merit special mention.
Working backwards, I feel compelled to point out this fantastic mash-up between Big Daddy Roth and Big Trouble in Little China, the “Lo Pan Express.”
The image is avalable as a print, and would make a fine addition to the art collection of any discriminating home.
Next is an image that Jason posted a couple of days ago, promoting his forthcoming exhibit at the Amy’s Ice Cream on 6th Street in Austin.
Now, if you know Austin, you know that Amy’s Ice Cream offers some of the best ice cream on the planet, and starting July 1st the 6th Street location is also going to be putting on display the manliest of manly art I know, from the manly Jason Chalker himself. What do you have to lose?
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iZombie interviews
I’ve been lax about pointing out interviews here lately, since I started posting regular updates on Twitter. But just to cover the bases, here are a few interviews that have appeared recently that might be of interest.
Over on Time.com’s “Techland” blog, Douglas Wolk interviewed me about my “secret origins” as a comic book fanatic, which includes a bit about Dust to Dust and iZombie, as well as the revelation of the debt I owe to Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew.
My spectacular collaborator Mike Allred and I listed our personal soundtracks for the first issue of iZombie for Largehearted Boy’s “Book Notes” last month.
Christian Lipski has done a three part interview with Allred for Examiner.com, the first part of which is all about iZombie (but be sure to check out the other two parts, too, which are just as good!).
I’ve done a couple more interviews recently, but I don’t think they’ve appeared online yet. I’ll update the blog as they become available.
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iZombie #5 cover
The solicitations for DC Comics titles shipping in September have been released, and it includes one item in particular that’s near and dear to me.
iZOMBIE #5
Written by CHRIS ROBERSON
Art and cover by MICHAEL ALLRED
In the search for Dead Fred’s killer, Gwen Dylan has learned more than she bargained for and discovers that she’s been wrong about a great many things. Now she finds herself faced with a choice: risk losing all that she is, or become a real monster. As if that weren’t enough, a confrontation with one of the fearless monster hunters leads in unexpected directions. And what about Spot the were-terrier, Ellie the ghost-girl, and Claire the vampire? All this and more in the conclusion of iZOMBIE’s debut arc.
On sale SEPTEMBER 1 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US MATURE READERS -
Music Monday
Chris Cannon is my oldest friend on the planet. Not in that he himself is the oldest, but in that he’s been my friend the longest. Sometime around 1981 we were both in the sixth grade, and we somehow became aware that we were both comics readers. He was a Marvel guy, and I was a DC guy, and we each hipped the other to what we were missing. We’ve been friends ever since.
We made comics together in the 8th grade, which will thankfully never see the light of day. Then in high school, as I continued scribbling away, Chris gradually lost interest in comics as he became more and more convinced that he was destined to be a musician. In college and after, I kept on writing stories and novels that no one would ever see, and Chris played with a succession of bands and solo gigs, and kept on recording fantastic music.
Now, nearly three decades after we met, we still keep in touch. Chris is living in Salt Lake City, somehow having bought the house across the street from the house where he spent his earliest years. He’s married with three kids, with a respectable job as a data base administrator, and yet he’s still churning out fantastic music on the side. His latest project, Vine Street, is now available for free download on his website.
Go check it out, won’t you?
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HeroesCon
HeroesCon may well be my new favorite comic convention of all time. Allison and I went this year for the first time, and had an absolute BLAST. We finally got back home late yesterday afternoon, and I’m slowly, slowly, slowly starting to wake up again.
The convention itself was fantastic, with a big ole dealer’s room and artist alley (a comic convention that’s all about people who sell comics and people who make comics? That’s crazy talk!), but I think my favorite thing about the show was the fact that just about everybody from pros to retailers to fans was staying in the same hotel, the Westin just across the street from the convention center. You could hang out in that lobby before the convention center opened or after the dealer’s room closed and see literally everybody walk by. I don’t think Allison and I got to bed before 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning every day, and it was due to the fact that after dinner every night we’d run into a raft of fascinating and friendly people to talk with into the small hours of the night.
Some of those friendly people were artists, who agreed to do sketches for us. Isn’t it nice to know people with actual talent?
The first sketch we got was of Gwen Dylan by the unsinkable Dean Trippe. How gorgeous is this?
Next up was the unflappable Colleen Coover, who did a sketch of Gwen in her “normal” mode, and then another of Gwen gone totally Romero after missing too many meals. Makes for a nice before-and-after, don’t you think?
And my pal Francesco Francavilla did this dandy sketch for me in the back of his Chiaroscuro .1 sketchbook.
And just when I thought I had gotten as much awesome as I could handle, Fables fan extraordinaire Cindy McShane swung by and dropped off three little gems of fan art, depicting the iZombie gang.
Fantastic art aside, the con was worth every penny, if only for the chance to meet so many creators I’ve admired for years, and to put faces to names that previously were only Facebook profiles or Twitter handles. And I’ll be buoyed up for weeks on all the nice things that readers who swung by the table said about Cinderella and iZombie. Thanks, everybody!
I will definitely be returning to HeroesCon next year!
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iZOMBIE #2 preview
The good folks over at Techland have a preview of the first few pages of iZOMBIE #2 up, if anyone’s interested to see them. And for this issue’s “Fix it in the trade” moment, pretend like the dates after the 21 on the calendar aren’t crossed out.
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HeroesCon
Hey, are you going to HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend? Well, I am!
If you’re coming to the show, swing by and find me. I’ll be signing for a bit each day at the BOOM! Studios booth, and the rest of the time will be at table AA-625, right next to the unflappable Bill Willingham (and cover artist on Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love, Chrissie Zullo, will be on Bill’s other side). Come on by and say howdy, why don’t you?