The Lone Ranger: Snake of Iron

In his career in comics, Chuck Dixon has written stories starring Batman to Bart Simpson and everyone in-between. Now, he sets his sights on the masked rider in Dynamite’s The Lone Ranger: Snake of Iron. Westfield’s Roger Ash recently contacted Dixon to learn more about the book.

Westfield: The Lone Ranger seems like a natural for you. Is this a book you’re excited about writing?

Chuck Dixon: You don’t know the half of it! I love westerns and have a special place in my heart for the Ranger and Tonto. I grew up watching Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. The first time I typed “big fella” in the first script I had a smile on my face like when I was ten years old or like the first time I typed the words “Batman and Robin.”

I love the medium and any project has its special challenges and pleasures but every once in a while a pure dream project comes along like this one.

Westfield: What about the characters of the Lone Ranger and Tonto appeal to you?

Dixon: Well, the fearless, indomitable western hero is sure an irresistible concept. Add one of the greatest origins ever, silver bullets, an amazing horse, a mask, and the coolest native American character in pop fiction and there’s just nothing not to like. And the relationship of these two men is unique. This isn’t a hero and sidekick. These guys are partners in a fight for justice. The bond between them, that they owe each other their lives, is powerful stuff.

Westfield: What can you tell us about the story in the series?

Dixon: A band of Kiowa jump the reservation when rumors of a ghostly Spirit Horse spread across the tribes. Their shamans believe that the return of this powerful ghost is a signal to go back to the old ways of raiding and they come down out of Oklahoma with the intent to join the Comanche and raid south into Texas. The Ranger believes their story and goes on a hunt for the Spirit Horse in order to stop the potential bloodshed. At the same time, hundreds of miles away, Tonto is embroiled in a stand-off with Kiowa braves and trying to use his own powers of persuasion to bring peace. The stories of these two old friends converge as the story goes on.

Westfield: You’re working with artist Esteve Polls on the book. What can you say about your collaboration with him?

Dixon: It takes a special set of skills to draw a convincing western and Esteve has them all in spades. He’s comfortable with the settings and costuming and draws an awesome horse. We worked on the Good the Bad and The Ugly for Dynamite and I am very pleased to be working with him again.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Dixon: I’m just as happy as Silver in a field of clover to finally be getting a shot at writing one of my childhood favorites.

Purchase

The Lone Ranger: Snake of Iron #1

Hoax Hunters #1

Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley are the writers behind Hoax Hunters from Image Comics, which originally appeared in Hack/Slash. Those backup stories were recently collected as Hoax Hunters #0. Now, the book launches as an ongoing series from Image Comics and Westfield’s Roger Ash spoke with Moreci and Seeley to learn more about the book.

SPECIAL OFFER! Every copy of Hoax Hunters #1 pre-ordered through Westfield will be signed by Moreci & Seeley!

Westfield: What is Hoax Hunters about and where did the idea come from?

Steve Seeley: The easy and quick pitch for Hoax Hunters is that it’s “MythBusters meets X-Files“.

With that being said, it is about a reality type television show that investigates the strange happenings of the world, whether it be paranormal, cryptozoological, or alien. Like MythBusters, the show “busts” or disproves the events and presents them to the public as hoaxes. In reality though, the group covers up the happenings and attempts to keep society oblivious and to keep the world of the weird hidden.

The idea came from an amalgamation of a few of Mike’s and my ideas. We see Hoax Hunters as a compelling and fun story that plays off of both or our strengths and knowledge and at the same time it’s a way for us to pay homage to the stuff we grew up on.

Westfield: Who are the main characters in the series?

Michael Moreci: The leader of the Hoax Hunters is Jack, a former FBI agent with a mysterious past—one that’s deeply entrenched in the workings of the Hoax Hunters organization. He’s the anchor the Hoax Hunters team needs. Despite his own personal issues, he’s the rock everyone else relies on. Keep in mind, the Hoax Hunters are people whose existences are founded on deceit and isolation; Jack is the glue that holds them all together when times get tough. We’ll learn a lot more about Jack in the first arc—his past is about to erupt into his present in a major way.

Regan is a former child star who literally became possessed by dark spirits. The experience left her with, let’s say, unusual abilities (which will be explained in time!). On the surface, she’s the eye candy of the Hoax Hunters television show, but to the team dynamic, she’s much, much more. I’d call her the heart of the team.

Then there’s Ken Cadaver, a former NASA scientist who was reanimated from the dead. He’s the cerebral member of the team—the calculating, pragmatic scientist. He has a special power of his own, which again we’ll explore in future issues. Just know for now that dying and coming back from the dead doesn’t come without certain advantages.

And then, of course, there’s Murder. An astronaut made of crows who is kind of alive…but kind of dead at the same time. We have a lot of fun, interesting things planned for Murder. He’ll be given more depth than one would anticipate, I think.

Michael Moreci (left) & Steve Seeley (right) at a recent signing at Westfield Comics East.

Westfield: What can readers look forward to in the story?

Seeley: A lot. Mike and I have a pretty large story to tell. We like to say its gonna be equal parts action/adventure, horror, and sci-fi, with hopefully a (very small) touch of comedy.

Before we began writing #0, we knew we wanted to do something grandiose. Something that we could take our time in both flushing-out and solidifying. We are pretty confident we accomplished that.

Westfield: You two are co-writing the book. How do you work that? Who does what?

Moreci: Steve usually tricks me into meeting at our studio, then locks me inside with demands for completed pages in exchange for my release. Funny that I’ve fallen for this ploy dozens of times…

No, we work diligently together in all aspects of the story. It’s great having a combo because, in my mind, it strengthens the work. We get together and talk things out in such detail, which as a solo writer, you’re only doing mentally. Verbalizing ideas and story beats really fleshes them out, at least for us, in a effective way. We’re very intense about getting the story straight—down to many of the fine details—before sitting down to actually write the script. When that time comes, it’s usually me that translates our story into script form. Steve’s more of the idea guy; I’m the nuts and bolts storyteller.

Westfield: What can you say about the artist you’re working with on the book?

Seeley: JM Ringuet did issue #0. It was a pleasure working with him, but when it came time to expand our comic to an ongoing, he had to step down due to other projects. After some searching for the perfect artist we found Axel Medellin , who has brought great life into our story. He’s an extremely talented and dedicated artist and both Mike and I look forward to working with him.

He also currently does the art on Elephant Men for Image. Beautiful stuff.

Westfield: Are there any other projects you’re working on that you’d like to mention?

Moreci: We have a lot of projects on our plates, in various forms of production. We just released a short comic with Double Feature called “The Omega Family.” It’s a throwback story—kind of Space Family Robinson by way of Jack Kirby. Tom Scioli handled the art duties, and his work is absolutely incredible. I cannot praise him enough.

Individually, I’m currently operating a Kickstarter drive for my graphic novel, Reincar(Nate). It’s a crime noir book in the vein of Chew with the visual look of Drive. It’s being released digitally with Viper, but the Kickstarter drive is an effort for the artist, Keith Burns (a tremendous talent), and I to print it on our own.

Steve is always working on his painting  in one form or other—he regularly has shows all across the country, and his work keeps getting better and better.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Moreci:: All I can is that Steve and I really believe in Hoax Hunters; we’ve worked incredibly hard to craft a well-told story, and I think readers will respond to what’s there. There’s a lot of craziness in the pages to come, but a strong human story is in there as well. Give the series a chance, you’ll be glad you did!

Purchase

Hoax Hunters #1

Prophecy #1

Ron Marz is the popular writer of such books as Shinku, Artifacts, and Witchblade. His latest project is Dynamite Entertainment’s major crossover comic, Prophecy, which is listed for pre-order this month. Westfield’s Roger Ash contacted Marz to learn more about the book.

Westfield: What attracted you to this project?

Ron Marz: A big part of the attraction is the opportunity to bring together characters who have never met before. So much of comics is cyclical — the same characters meeting again and again. The chance to do something that hasn’t been done before is pretty rare.

Westfield: What can you tell us about the story in Prophecy?

Marz: The Mayan prophecy says the world is going to end in 2012. Through the machinations of the story, our group of characters comes together to try to stop it. And saving the world makes for some strange bedfellows, like Dracula and Red Sonja ending up on the same side. To a certain extent, this is a bit of a throwback story, very much a comic-book story in the best sense of the term.

Westfield: There is a rather disparate group of characters in the book. Was it challenging or fun to craft a story that would work with these characters?

Marz: A healthy dose of both. The challenge is figuring out how the characters fit together. The fun is turning those characters loose once you have everything figured out.

Westfield: Is there a character in the story you’re particularly enjoying writing?

Marz: I’ve always been a Red Sonja fan, way back to the first time I saw one of the Frank Thorne issues as a kid. So Sonja is playing a very central role in the story.

Westfield: You’re working with artist Walter Geovani on Prophecy. What can you say about his contribution to the book?

Marz: It’s my first time working with Walter. I think he’s been doing some really nice work on the Red Sonja monthly, so our job here is to turn it up another notch or two for Prophecy, and really make the audience sit up and take notice. I always feel like part of the writer’s job is to give the artist something interesting and exciting to draw on every page, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Marz: We’re embracing the inherent “comic-booky-ness” of the story. This is going to be a fun series. Or, you know, as much fun as a series about the end of the world can be.

Purchase

Prophecy #1

Harbinger #1

Joshua Dysart has written such comics as Unknown Soldier, Swamp Thing, and B.P.R.D.: 1946 (with Mike Mignola). He’s been tapped to write the return of Harbinger from Valiant. Westfield’s Roger Ash recently got the low down on what readers can look forward to in the book.

Westfield: For those unfamiliar with Harbinger, what should they know going into this series?

Joshua Dysart: Well, we’re starting from scratch so there’s not a lot you need to know going in. All that’s important is that the reader who’s right for this series picks it up. So if you’re looking for a cool new and strange take on superheroes or something that’s grounded in the real world and speaks to the moment, but also pushes towards the fantastic and the surreal, then this is the book for you. Harbinger is a youth revolt narrative for our modern age and if that sounds cool then you’re ready to roll. But as far as actually knowing something that will somehow clue you into the narrative more, well, the truth is this book is being tailor-made to appeal to old Valiant fans and new readers alike, so you’re all good.

Harbinger #1 Pullbox Variant Cover

Westfield: What can you tell readers about the story and the characters involved?

Dysart: 18-year-old Peter Stanchek is a hyper-telekinetic kid with nothing to his name. He’s homeless, adrift and on the run from the law. He uses mind control to get what he needs, but he keeps himself in check. It’s not easy keeping your head down and staying out of trouble with all of this power. In our first issue Peter’s approached by billionaire Toyo Harada. Toyo runs a major international conglomerate that has a profound effect on world affairs. Unknown to the world, Toyo Harada also possesses extraordinary telekinetic abilities. And the two enter into an alliance. But let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time before the boy with nothing will have to stand against the man who has everything. Our story is, ultimately, about that stand and how it will end up affecting the whole world.

Harbinger #1 preview page 1

Westfield: What about the book appealed to you?

Dysart: It’s just time for it, you know? We live in a culture obsessed with portents right now. Doomsday narratives saturate us. As I write this the shrinking middle-class culture is living an existential nightmare built from class unease, generational jockeying, corporate mistrust, systemic financial failure, global food shortages, rapid environmental shifts and international security issues. And the generation that’s on the verge of inheriting this mess, they’re pissed off about it. It’s the age of occupy everything. All of that is built right into the bones of the idea of the original Harbinger. Being young, pissed off and rattling the world with powers you don’t really understand. That’s what appeals to me most about the book.

Harbinger #1 preview page 2

Westfield: You’re working with artist Khari Evans on the book. What can you say about your collaboration?

Dysart: Khari is killer (ha!). We’re just getting started, but he’s showing up something fierce for this book. His environments are amazing, and I love that. I love an artist who thinks it’s important to world build. I also really dig his panel-to-panel storytelling. I think the whole package is coming together beautifully.

Harbinger #1 preview page 3

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Dysart: Just that I hope my excitement for this shows. One of the elements we didn’t talk about in this interview is the fact that Valiant is going to be a shared universe. I’m really into that. Being a part of a small group of creators who are all working together to create a continuous narrative sounds really cool and fun. I’ve never had a chance to work in a shared universe before, so I’m stoked to be a part of the collaborative cooperative. There are big plans for Valiant in the near future and I’m just fortunate to have a part to play in it all.

Harbinger #1 preview page 4

Purchase

Harbinger #1

X-O Manowar #1 cover by Esad Ribic

Robert Venditti is the author of The Homeland Directive, The Surrogates, and co-adapter of The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel. He is also the writer of Valiant’s upcoming X-O Manowar. Westfield’s Roger Ash contacted Venditti to learn more about X-O.

Westfield: What appeals to you about X-O Manowar?

Robert Venditti: So many things. The series has this unique blend of historical and science fiction, which are two of my favorite genres. This is also my first time writing a book as part of a larger universe, so I’m enjoying that aspect of the work. More than anything, though, Aric of Dacia as a character really appeals to me. He’s a 5th Century Visigoth living in the modern day, but he also wields the Manowar armor, the most powerful weapon in the universe. So he’s at the same time the world’s most primitive and most technologically advanced person. What’s not to like about that?

X-O Manowar #1 pullbox cover by Cary Nord

Westfield: Are you starting from scratch on the book or are you incorporating elements of the previous X-O Manowar series?

Venditti: We’re building on the foundation laid by the original Valiant run, so there’s a lot about the book that longtime fans will recognize. There’s so much good pre-existing material, we’d be crazy not to use it. We’re definitely modernizing things, though, and we’ll be introducing a ton of new elements, too. That includes new abilities for the Manowar armor, one of which will be the key to the first year of the series.

X-O Manowar #1 David Aja Variant Cover

Westfield: What can people look forward to in the story?

Venditti: The concept driving X-O Manowar is tailor-made for epic, sci-fi action, and there will be plenty of that. But there’s also an opportunity to tell stories infused with complex themes and subtext, which is one of the things that drew me to the project. Aric’s journey will be violent, but it’ll also be deeply personal. He’s a character ripe with storytelling possibilities.

Westfield: You’re working with artist Cary Nord on X-O Manowar. What can you say about his contribution to the book?

Venditti: Cary is such a tremendous talent. Whenever I see one of his pages, I can’t wait to sit down and start writing again. His storytelling sensibilities are dead-on, and the way he’s concepting the book’s disparate settings and technologies is really fun to watch. This isn’t an easy project to draw, but he’s nailing it.

X-O Manowar #1 Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic QR Voice Variant Cover

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Venditti: Just that I hope people enjoy reading the book as much as I’m enjoying writing it. If you want to see Roman legions, alien spaceship armadas, bizarre flora, sword fights, prison breaks, and a Mayan warrior swinging an alien rifle like a club, then this is the book for you.

Purchase

X-O Manowar #1

Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #1 J.K. Woodward cover

Scott & David Tipton have written many Star Trek series at IDW including Star Trek: The Next Generation: Intelligence Gathering and Star Trek: Spock – Reflections. Tony Lee is the author of many issues of IDW’s Doctor Who series. Together with artist J.K Woodward and editor Denton Tipton, they are crafting a series sure to please fans of Star Trek and Doctor Who; Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation². Westfield’s Roger Ash recently contacted Scott, David, Tony, and Denton to learn more about the series.

Westfield: How did this project come about?

Denton Tipton: The origin story of this book began during a meeting with BBC Worldwide at Comic Con International last year. We were exploring new opportunities for Doctor Who, and one of the options was a crossover. BBC Worldwide was very excited about that possibility, and we had a nice list of good matches. The one that stood out was Star Trek, since we already had that license and it’s probably the best fit imaginable. CBS couldn’t have agreed more and suggested The Next Generation because of the 25th anniversary in 2012 and it was a natural fit with the current Who series.

Scott Tipton: When we were approached to work on this by IDW’s EIC Chris Ryall and editor Denton Tipton (no relation, by the way – we get asked that a lot!), I mean, what can you say? It’s a dream come true. To get to tackle the two longest-running science-fiction franchises of all time? That’s the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come along very often. We got right to work on a story that would hopefully make everyone both at CBS and the BBC Worldwide happy, as well as the millions of Trekkers and Whovians out there, and we were off and running.

Tony Lee: I’d been writing the ongoing DOCTOR WHO stories for a while, and had been discussing a break when Denton pulled me into a darkened room, threatened me with death if I mentioned this to anyone and the laid out the idea that Scott and David had been working on. I know that following the Star Trek / Legion story everyone had been wondering how IDW could top that, and as a massive fan of both WHO and TREK, it was definitely something I wanted to see.

Westfield: What can you say about the story in the series?

Scott Tipton: Obviously, we don’t want to give away what we’ve got in store. But what we will say is that we’re working really hard to create something big and epic, worthy of both legacies, that works as both a STAR TREK story and a DOCTOR WHO story. It’s a tricky balancing act, and we’re having the time of our lives doing it.

Tony Lee: It’s exciting, it’s new, as it’s something that’s never happened before, and with luck it won’t explode too many fanboy (and girl) heads. I mean, here we have two massive franchises, two long standing universes that merge together – or do they? Maybe the Doctor’s been Guinan’s barman for the last three years and we just never realized…

But seriously, it’s a chance to really let go with some massive explode action and great characterization – think of every ‘what would the Doctor do if he landed on the ENTERPRISE’ conversation you ever had and times it by ten.

Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #1 cover by Joe Corroney

Westfield: How do the three of you work together as writers?

Scott Tipton: David and I have been writing STAR TREK together for many years now, and it’s a very smooth process. We both have very specific notions about what makes for a good TREK story, and as a result any disagreements tend to be very minor issues about structure or character that get resolved quite easily. As for Tony, his experience with the world of the Doctor has been invaluable, as well as in making sure certain things sound properly British! David and I are both huge DOCTOR WHO fans and have been for years, but having an authority like Tony on the team is a huge asset.

Tony Lee: It’s very much Scott and David’s story – they pitched it, they write it, and I, as consulting editor work with them on this rather than write with them on this. Luckily, we’re all on the same page with a lot of the discussions we have with the book. I might have a suggestion for a scene that works differently than theirs, they might have an idea for a TREK/WHO interaction that I hadn’t considered, and vice versa. They did nix my Borg/Cybermen musical number though, and so I’m not happy right now.

Westfield: What are the challenges and fun of having the Enterprise crew and the Doctor and his companions interact?

Scott Tipton: Of course, it’s tremendously fun to be able to match up these two casts and see how they play off one another. Some of the relationships have been a pleasant surprise to write – Riker, for example, is probably the most identifiably American of the Next Gen crew, and writing him against the Doctor and Amy is an unexpected treat. What’s been the challenge is that STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and DOCTOR WHO are two slightly different varieties of genre. NEXT GENERATION is science-fiction, while DOCTOR WHO leans more toward the science-fantasy. We’ve been trying to embrace that in how the two worlds interact, since the Doctor would easily be able to adjust to a slightly more serious world, while some of the more whimsical and less logical goings on in the Doctor’s experience would confound and terrify Captain Picard.

David Tipton: The idea of time travel is a good example of that. Star Trek is traditionally very careful about the use of time travel. A running theme throughout Star Trek is the idea that one small change can significantly change history. In Star Trek, there tends to be an established favored timeline, and if that gets altered, it is quite typical that efforts must be made to restore the timeline to its original form. Time in Doctor Who is much more fluid. The Doctor, as a Time Lord, sees time in a dynamic way and is willing to do things that alter the past or future in ways that would make the Department of Temporal Investigations from the episode TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS of DEEP SPACE NINE quite uncomfortable.

Tony Lee: It’s very much what David and Scott say, these two franchises are two incredibly massive beasts, and it’s very interesting to see how the Doctor reacts when he finds himself in the TREK world, and how the ENTERPRISE crew react to these interlopers. There are obvious connections, characters from both sides who would get on better with each other, and we’ve worked through these to find the best moments to put into the story.

I think the best part of this is having a union of teams that were never meant to meet, that were never expected to meet… well, meet.

Westfield: The Borg and the Cybermen seem like a natural pairing. Is it enjoyable writing this team as the villains?

Scott Tipton: There was never any other choice for us. With a story this big, you have to use the biggest threats on the table, and the teaming of the two just naturally fell into place. Even with the many TREK books David and I have written, the one major enemy we’ve never gotten to utilize is the Borg. And I’ve always thought the Cybermen were one of the more terrifying DOCTOR WHO antagonists. Pairing them up was irresistible.

David Titpon: The Borg and the Cybermen have some interesting similarities and differences that make them a very interesting point of crossover. The Borg and the Cybermen as villains highlight compelling questions about free will, individuality, and what it means to be human that are key recurring elements in both STAR TREK and DOCTOR WHO.

Tony Lee: The Borg stole the original Cybermen line ‘resistance is useless’ and turned it into ‘resistance is futile’. They’re two sides of the same coin, with similar yet disparate reasons for what they do. It’s like teaming with a cybernetic viper – you’ll never know when or even if they’ll strike you.

Westfield: You’re working with artist J.K. Woodward. What can you say about his contribution to the book?

Scott Tipton: Man, I love J.K.’s work. He was one of the few artists who’s worked on IDW’s TREK books that we hadn’t gotten to work with yet, so this was perfect for us. His big, epic style is a perfect match for the kind of all-the-marbles story we’re telling, and the fact that he comes to the table knowing his TREK like he does his just the icing on the cake. I’ve always said that getting pages back from the artist is the best part of this job, and that’s never been more true than here.

David Titpon: I absolutely agree about J.K. Woodward. We are very pleased that this project has an artist so well suited to the story.

Tony Lee: I’d like to apologize to J.K right now for all the insane stuff he’s going to have to draw this year. Blame Scott and David…. Not me! Honest!

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Scott Tipton: Just that we’re working our tails off to make this The Crossover Event of the Year. If you’re a Doctor Who fan who’s never watched NEXT GEN, don’t worry, we’ll get you up to speed. If you’re a Trekker who’s never gotten into the Doctor, we’ve got you covered, too. And if, like us, you’re a lifelong fan of both? You’re in for a treat. Don’t miss it.

Tony Lee: There will be fans that love it, and there will be fans that hate it. It’s always going to be that way. We’re doing the best that we can in each of our areas to ensure that you are more the former opinion than the latter.

Purchase

Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation² #1

The Bionic Woman

Paul Tobin is the writer of such books as Marvel’s Spider-Girl, Models, Inc., and The Age of Sentry. This month he comes to Dynamite with The Bionic Woman. Westfield’s Roger Ash contacted Tobin to learn more about the book.

Westfield: What attracted you to the project?

Paul Tobin: First off, I love Dynamite Comics. I’m a huge fan of pulp characters, and Dynamite has a wealth of them under their mighty control, so it was inevitable that we would begin to team up in some capacity. The first opening was this Bionic Woman project, which isn’t pulp-related, but I LOVE the character. I used to watch reruns of the old show, and I even had one of those Bionic Man dolls (ahem… action figures) where you could look through the back of his head and “see” with his bionic eye. So… yeah… when Nick Barrucci asked if I wanted to work on the character, it was a no-brainer. Plus, I don’t think it’s any secret throughout my career that I love working with strong female characters. I love bringing them to life, exploring character, etc. All in all, it was a natural fit.

Westfield: Is this connected with Dynamite’s Bionic Man title?

Tobin: Loosely. It’s inevitable that paths will cross, but at the same time we didn’t want to get caught up in some huge crossover, because that can have the effect of diluting the strength of the individual stories. Good ol’ Steve Austin certainly makes an appearance… but we’re focused on Jaime, here.

Westfield: What can readers look forward to in the series? Any story tidbits you can share?

Tobin: At heart it’s a mystery tale, where Jaime needs to uncover a group of DECIDEDLY illegal organ transplant doctors, ones who have begun to look at Jaime, and other “bionics” as THE best organ donors, whether these “donors” like it or not. Along the way, there are quite a few explosions, some new friends, some betrayals, a man with amazing hunting skills and no morals at all, a pretty French girl, a boat that sinks, some afternoon tea, a romantic hopeful, exactly 12,456 bullets (barring script revisions) and a partridge in a pear tree. Said partridge may or may not explode. Have I mentioned the explosions?

Westfield: You’re working with artist Leno Carvalho on The Bionic Woman. What can you say about his work?

Tobin: Leno’s fantastic, because he has the skills to bring everything I needed to the page. First… he’s good with drawing women, real women, as opposed to vacant-eyed pinups. That’s an ENORMOUS help to me in establishing Jaime’s personality and character. And Leno’s good with backgrounds and locales, which change quite a bit, and are part of the story’s character.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Tobin: I’ve really appreciated how supportive Joe and Nick have been on this project. This is one of the clearest “story I want to tell” experiences I’ve ever had, and it’s fantastic to have editors who trust the creators. I think THAT is what can lead to some really great comics, not only on my own projects, but across the industry as a whole.

Purchase

The Bionic Woman

Ragemoor #1

The team of writer Jan Strnad and artist Richard Corben have collaborated on many popular stories including Mutant World, New Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Jeremy Brood, just to name a few. Now, they are back together on Ragemoor, a new horror miniseries from Dark Horse. Strnad and Corben spoke with Westfield’s Roger Ash about their new project.

Westfield: You’ve done some memorable stories with each other. What is there about your collaboration that you think makes it work so well and that you enjoy?

Jan Strnad: We go way back to the early 1970s and my fanzine Anomaly. He kindly contributed and we hit it off. We’re generally of the same era and share a lot of influences, such as the heroic fiction of the time (ERB, Robert E. Howard), the classic Universal horror movies, Poe and Lovecraft, and so forth. It helps that Richard has a great sense of humor that often doesn’t get to come out in his other collaborations. I can’t help putting a dark, wryly humorous twist on most of the stories I write, and Richard is able to capture that sick sense of humor admirably.

Richard really excels at drawing human expressions, and that means a lot to me. Working with Richard’s characters is like working with the greatest assembly of character actors you can imagine. Richard hires models, makes maquettes, renders characters in 3D modeling programs… he does whatever it takes to get the faces and lighting and such right. He’s a true original.

For my part, I try to write stuff he’ll enjoy illustrating. Of course, I can’t guarantee that every panel is going to be exciting to him, but I definitely try to keep his preferences in mind when I plot a story. He likes to draw full-figured women, for instance, so I’m not going to write him a story about a ballerina. She’d blacken her eyes with the first jump! I’m not going to require a Roy Krenkel-like cityscape or a fleet of a thousand spaceships. Some artists relish mechanical or architectural subjects, but with Richard, it’s about the people. I try to give him intriguing characters with strong emotions, knowing that the characters he draws will rise to the occasion.

In short, Richard makes me look good.

Richard Corben: Jan and I go back quite a while. I think our first collaboration was Encounter At War for Jan’s fanzine Anomaly back in the 60s. I was impressed that he was so dedicated to the possibility of comics that he published his own. Plus he could spell and knew grammar. All I could do is draw. With our series Mutant World I had done the first chapter on my own, and when I had trouble developing a coherent storyline, I went to Jan. Luckily he felt sympathetic to what I had done and it was consistent with his own goals, so he wrote the series. It went on to be syndicated in several European magazines as well as Warren’s 1984. What I like about his stories is the originality, although his characters sometimes don’t make it through all the troubles he sets up for them. Our collaborations usually go something like this: I have a great idea for a character or a set up and I pitch it to Jan. Then he sends me his story ideas that have virtually nothing to do with my original idea. But they are much better than mine and I can’t pass them up. Ragemoor worked out true to form. I wanted him to help me write a series of short Poe-esque horror stories. And as usual his counter offer was a longer horror story that had a very tenuous link with Poe. The master of the house of Usher believed in the sentience of the stones of the house. But Jan took the concept in a completely original direction, so of course I couldn’t pass it up.

Westfield: Where did the idea for Ragemoor come from?

Strnad: I don’t know. Edgar Allan Poe, certainly. H. P. Lovecraft, absolutely. Throw in some 1950s science fiction movies, a dash of 1960s Marvel monster comics, the Hammer horror films, Roger Corman, and a little Woody Allen (a man’s obsession with an unattainable woman), and you’ve got Ragemoor.

Some months before, Joey Cavalieri at DC had asked Richard to do a Spirit feature, and Richard had suggested me as a writer. Now, it had been awhile since I’d written a comic book story. I’d moved from Kansas to Los Angeles and gotten into writing TV animation, but that career imploded after fifteen years thanks to the Canadian government’s successful efforts to woo production from L.A. to Vancouver. I’d written a horror novel (Risen) that was published briefly and that I’d re-released on Kindle once the rights reverted to me, and I’d started working in theater operations for the Santa Monica-Malibu school district. I was definitely up for a fun writing project and dang, it was The Spirit! I don’t know any comics writer who wouldn’t jump at the chance to do a Spirit story. So we did it, and I had a great time, and then I wrote a Ray Bradbury-esque Weird War story for Joey called Private Parker Sees Thunder Lizards that was supposed to be illustrated by Richard. In a rare lapse of judgment, Richard passed on my story and it went to Gabriel Hardeman, who did such a fantastic job that now I’m glad… glad do you hear me, Richard, GLAD… that Richard passed on it. (Well, I’d still like to have seen Richard’s rendition of dinosaurs munching Nazis, but you can’t have everything.)

Anyway, now I had the comics-writing bug again. Writing comics is like being addicted to a drug. There really isn’t anything quite like it because it’s both visual and verbal and there’s literally nothing you can’t do in comics. So Richard asked if I’d like to write a gothic, Poe-esque, Lovecraftian story for him and I said sure. But I had one requirement: It had to be book-length. The problem with writing 7- and 8-page stories is, you have to think up the story, and then you have to cram it into a very few pages. I wanted to have some space for the story and art to breathe. So Richard agreed to a one-shot comic book, Ragemoor, and I wrote it and he illustrated it and he sent it to Scott Allie at Dark Horse as a one-shot.

Then Scott said, “I love it, but I want four issues!” Because Scott knows that if you do a one-shot comic book, it comes and goes in a week, but if you do a four-issue series, you can collect it later into a graphic album and sell it forever. This is why Scott gets the big bucks.

A writer does a lot of “writing” that never makes it to the final page. You write back story for the characters, and come up with a lot of ideas (most of which you throw out), and in this case, I came up with a whole cosmology for Ragemoor that might or might not actually appear in the final book. With all of this material in mind, which was pages and pages of scribbling on a legal pad, I knew that I could come up with four issues, so the mini-series idea was fine with me. Richard agreed and we were off and running.

Westfield: How much design work did you do on the settings and characters in Ragemoor?

Corben: Jan sent me some links to castles on the internet, particularly one that had a remote lookout station that he wanted to use. I designed Ragemoor the castle as a model in a 3d program and included the lookout station. I also assembled the dining room, and the girls bedroom similarly. I used these for visual reference of different angles and lighting set ups. The characters heads were also built in 3d, but these were less successful than the sets. Occasionally, I’ll hire models to act the parts of the characters while I make photographic reference. Because of scheduling difficulties, I was only able to get a few poses for this series.

Westfield: What can readers look forward to in the series?

Strnad: A very strange, very twisted, very black Poe-esque, Lovecraftian story, illustrated by a master of the genre. Some laughs. Some gross-outs. Some sex. Obsession, brooding, revenge, madness. Monsters. Baboons.

Westfield: Aside from Ragemoor itself, who are some of the other characters readers will meet in the book?

Strnad: Herbert Ragemoor is the “Master” of Ragemoor. His father, Machlan Ragemoor, is totally insane, runs around naked with the baboons. Herbert is ably served by his manservant, Bodrick, and they are visited by Herbert’s industrialist uncle, J. P. Ragemoor and his alleged daughter, Anoria. Later in the story a poacher named Tristano enters the picture.

Westfield: Why did you decide to do the book in black and white?

Corben: When I was conceiving this project as a whole, I wasn’t sure about its reception at Dark Horse or other publishers. I thought I might have to pitch it to some smaller publishers who couldn’t afford a color book. Also, since I would be doing all the production work myself, I didn’t want to overload myself with coloring on a book done on speculation. Probably more important to me is that I feel a black and white (and gray tones) book has a beauty and mood that seems well suited to horror stories.

Westfield: What challenges did having a living castle as a central character present to you?

Strnad: The castle can’t speak, only act, so its emotional range is limited. It can’t articulate its desires or its history or its goals, so the story revolves around the human characters’ attempts to understand it and survive within it. Ragemoor seems to lack a soul, which makes its actions amoral at best, evil at worst, but by the end of the series, understandable.

Everything we learn about Ragemoor has to come through the human characters. Ultimately, of course, it’s about Herbert and Bodrick and Anoria, etc. finding their true roles in the Ragemoor universe.

Corben: Actually I faced this challenge with some trepidation. I wanted to stay clear of any anthropomorphic personification of the Ragemoor entity because I was afraid it would make the concept silly and childish. But when it was proposed to use just such a humanized rendition on the first cover, I had to do it. Fortunately, Jan and Scott liked the finished art, so I guess my fears were groundless.

Westfield: After Ragemoor what other projects can readers look forward to from you?

Corben: At my age, it’s about time I learned what I’m good at and what I want to do. There are two Corben projects that will be coming out in due time. The first is Murky World, a sword adventure done in gray tones. The protagonist is not the average pathological brute found in this type of story. I tried to make him more friendly and human than, say Conan. He’s not so hung up on his own manhood that he feels he has to kill any potential competitor. And he has a sense of humor about it.

I still want to do Poe. So I will be adapting some of Poe’s stories and poems to comics. Poe’s stories have been done a zillion times in various media, some good, most horrible. I hope to make my version true to the spirit of his work, if not the word. The intent is to use the original stories as a springboard to my version. For instance, what if Berenice survived her ordeal at the hands of Egaeus, and she wants to have it out with him, and she’s mad as hell? Actually Poe hinted at such a possibility but he ended the story at the revelation of the teeth.

Strnad: Actually, I need to concentrate on the novel I started about ten years ago. Risen has been doing well on Kindle and I want to get more novels out there.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Strnad: It’s a great pleasure to have the chance to write something as twisted as Ragemoor and especially to work with Richard again!

Corben: I’ve had a long career in comics, doing it the way I wanted, mostly. I’m grateful for what success I’ve had. I still love the possibility of comics, as a medium to tell the stories I want to, not just the ones that sell big. I still have some goals to achieve and skills to develop so I don’t intend to retire ever. I’m going to continue doing comics until I drop.

Purchase

Ragemoor #1

Cartoon Monarch: Otto Soglow and The Little King

Cartoon Monarch: Otto Soglow and the Little King is the latest volume from The Library of American Comics and IDW and is available for pre-order now. The Library of American Comics’ Creative Director and the book’s editor Dean Mullaney and Ohio State University Professor and Contributing Editor Jared Gardner, who provides the book’s introduction, recently spoke about the book with Westfield’s Roger Ash.

Westfield: For those who aren’t familiar with him, who was Otto Soglow?

Jared Gardner: Whenever I tell folks I am working on Otto Soglow, nine times out of ten I get a blank look in response. But when I follow up by mentioning The Little King or the hundreds of drawings that continue to illustrate every Talk of the Town article in The New Yorker decades after his death, there is always that look of recognition — one that extends beyond the specifics even of the King himself or any one of those drawings to the unique style of cartooning that Soglow perfected and passed on to countless descendants within the world of comics and illustration.

The Little King on parade.

I think Soglow would not be unhappy with being infinitely less recognizable than his most famous creation. Throughout his career, after The Little King became a sensation and eventually the official logo of the most powerful comics syndicate in the world, Soglow enjoyed dressing up as his cartoon monarch for press junkets, charity events, and even parties with his friends. Like the Little King, Soglow was short, plump, and always up for a good party or a good joke. But the most important similarity between character and creator lay in their shared sense of wonder (at times bordering on horror) as to how on earth they found themselves in their respective roles. Even as Soglow would spend the rest of his life making the Little King perhaps the most immediately recognizable comic strip in America, he would retain the ambivalence about his remarkable career — an ambivalence that lay at the heart of his work’s power.

The Little King shows his flair for decorating.

Westfield: From the subtitle of the book, Otto Soglow and The Little King, it sounds like Cartoon Monarch is part biography and part comic strip collection. Is that correct?

Dean Mullaney: The book is primarily a strip collection because The Little King is undoubtedly Soglow’s main life’s work and we want to show as many examples as possible by such a master cartoonist. In order for us to fully appreciate the strip’s overall motif and the specific sub-themes Soglow keeps coming back to, however, it’s useful to understand his social, political, and artistic background. His earliest work was in the radical and socialist magazines that were published in the years following the Russian Revolution. What’s interesting is that a decade after being on the artistic barricades, as it were, he was drawing for the biggest capitalist of them all — William Randolph Hearst, who owned King Features, and drawing ads for Standard Oil. But it’s not as if he sold out…

Gardner: Not at all. Like his most famous creation, Soglow was a man whose origins and political sensibilities were always with the working man on the street — and even the angry mob. He began his career as a young, idealistic student of John Sloan at the Arts Student League in New York City. As Dean said, much of his art was for magazines like the Liberator and New Masses, committed, like Sloan himself, to the idea that art should always be put in the service of political change. Over time, internal fights within the Marxist community at the New Masses would lead Soglow to The New Yorker, which became a somewhat surprising refuge for many exiles from New Masses. And it was here the Little King — that reluctant monarch who, like Soglow himself, would rather be partying or rioting with the people than sitting stiffly upon his throne — first appeared.

The Little King is born out of the tension between Soglow’s political idealism and his professional ambitions.

It's the Law ran in The American Magazine.

Mullaney: And those ambitions served him well — The Little King ran for forty-plus years. But Soglow’s place in the cartoonist firmament runs deeper than a Sunday strip, no matter how popular it was. He was also instrumental in defining the “New Yorker-style” of modern, streamlined cartooning. He became one of the magazine’s regular cartoonists during in its formative years, and may be the only cartoonist still being published weekly more than thirty-five years after his death. His influence can also be seen among such avant garde cartoonists as Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Ivan Brunetti, and others.

A King Features model sheet used for licensing.

Westfield: What can you tell us about the comic strip, The Little King? Are there other recurring characters aside from the King?

Gardner: There are very few recurring characters in The Little King, aside from our cartoon monarch himself. The queen appears fairly often, and there are some recurring rivals from neighboring states alternately looking to invade or to play poker. But aside from one regular, Ookle the Dictator, in the early 1940s, this is a strip without a defined supporting cast. Everyone here is interchangeable (Ookle himself will show up later in minor roles as far from Dictator as can be imagined). And even the King himself seems to have stumbled into his post somewhat by accident, as we discover at the end of The Ambassador.

Westfield: Cartoon Monarch also collects all of Soglow’s The Ambassador comic. What can you tell us about that?

Gardner: When Hearst swiped The Little King from The New Yorker, there were still some months left on Soglow’s contract to produce the strip for the magazine. So while waiting for the King’s release, Soglow created another strip for Hearst called The Ambassador. With the exception of a couple of minor details (title, clothes), the Ambassador was in every way identical to the King, and on the last day of The Ambassador before beginning The Little King in the papers Soglow had a giant windstorm blow up during a public event that resulted in the King’s crown finding its way onto the Ambassador’s head. Since we had already seen the Ambassador mooning over the Queen, is there any reason why we might not believe that he simply kept the crown in place and moved into the palace (and the Queen’s bed)? If so, no one seems to have noticed or cared — after all, he is a king even Americans could embrace: fat, feckless, and big-hearted beyond measure. Long may he reign!

The Little King keeps up appearances.

Westfield: If this book does well, would you like to do more Little King books?

Mullaney: In researching Cartoon Monarch, we read around 2,000 Sunday pages. Let’s be honest, over forty years there’s going to be a certain amount of repetition, so we chose what we felt are the best strips from all periods of his career, and that cover each of his major themes. I’m particularly partial to his ’50s and ’60s Sundays. You’d think that by then he would have been bored and perhaps phoned it in, but his gags are fantastic, and he had so perfected that confident, simple linework… I like them better than his earlier pages!

Cartoon Monarch is designed to be a definitive, single volume compendium of Soglow’s best work. By devoting 432 pages to Soglow’s career, I believe readers will get a well-rounded, extensive look at his cartoons and will learn a great deal from Jared’s biographical introduction.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Mullaney: I’m convinced that when younger cartoonists see the hundreds of examples of Soglow’s brilliant cartooning in this book, we’re going to see an entirely new round of Soglow influence. I’m looking forward to it!

Purchase

Cartoon Monarch: Otto Soglow and the Little King

Steve Canyon Vol. 1

Bruce Canwell is the Associate Editor of The Library of American Comics that publishes collections of such classic comic strips as Bloom County, Little Orphan Annie, Li’l Abner, and more through IDW. Available for pre-order now is the first volume of Milton Caniff’s classic strip, Steve Canyon. Westfield’s Roger Ash contacted Canwell to learn more about this collection.

The second week of Steve Canyon begins, featuring Steve, Feeta-Feeta, "Copper" Calhoun, and Mr. Dayzee.

Westfield: For people who aren’t familiar with Steve Canyon, what can you tell us about the strip?

Bruce Canwell: This is sort of a two-fer, Roger – let’s talk about Steve Canyon, the strip, and Steve Canyon, the title character.

Steve Canyon, the comic strip, launched in January, 1947 and ended in 1988, shortly after the death of its creator and guiding light, Milton Caniff. Caniff’s name was and continues to be spoken with respect that sometimes borders on awe – he was known as “The Rembrandt of the Comic Strips,” and no one ever contested his right to that title!

Canyon‘s creation came about because, in a way, Caniff was the prototype for Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, and the other original Image creators. He had been phenomenally successful as a “well-paid slave” for one newspaper syndicate while producing the fabulous Terry And The Pirates comic strip, but he jumped ship, the way the Image guys abandoned Marvel, after getting an opportunity to create something new over which he had full ownership and complete creative control. The slam-bang action (and sexy women) of Steve Canyon are the result.

Steve Canyon week 2, strip 2

When we first meet Steve Canyon, the character, he’s a post-war pilot operating his own charter air service. Steve is rangy and smart, as quick with a quip as he is with his fists. He’s a solid patriot and lives life by the Golden Rule, but when he’s pushed he doesn’t hesitate to shove back. Steve returns to military service when the Korean War gets hot, which means there are combat missions and espionage work in his future, but in this first volume he’s strictly a small businessman with an exotic job, trying to do the right thing and make ends meet.

Caniff is justly praised for the fabulous first week of Canyon strips that introduce his rangy, hard-hitting hero – would-be comics artists and writers should study this sequence to learn valuable lessons in storytelling and suspense-building!

Steve Canyon week 2, day 3

Westfield: Aside from Steve, who are some of the other characters readers will encounter in the strips?

Canwell: Manoman, that’s a loooooong list! Caniff was at the top of his game when he launched Canyon, and he was determined to present a broad cast that would seem “Caniffesque,” but wouldn’t closely duplicate the beloved Terry And The Pirates characters he had recently left behind.

Steve starts out with a five-man flight crew in his charter business, but eventually they’re replaced by a single sidekick: first Steve partners with eccentric old-timer Happy Easter, then with youthful Reed Kimberly. In my introductory text feature I have a really interesting quote from Caniff discussing how his thinking evolved regarding the supporting cast, and how Happy and Reed fulfill different but complementary needs.

Terry And The Pirates fans are well aware that Caniff was known for his villains and for his women — he brings to bear all his formidable talents in both those areas in Steve Canyon. Steve matches wits and trades punches with conniving plantation owners – heavy-handed oil wildcatters – Communist espionage agents – fugitive Nazis – and lots more! Every villain has a look, personality, and speech pattern that’s all his (or her) own.

Steve Canyon week 2, day 4

Caniff makes his women as varied and distinctive as his baddies. Steve’s business manager is a Samoan sweetie nicknamed Feeta-Feeta, and the first client we see him doing business with is that slinky business tycoon, “Copper” Calhoun. Madame Lynx and Captain Akoola are blonde-haired vixens; Fancy is the classic attractive thirty-something who hasn’t recovered from the curve-balls life has thrown her; Convoy and Cheetah are both young and cute, but their completely different outlooks on life produce polar opposites.

Sometimes creators who are good with plot allow their characterization to suffer, and sometimes a person who finds it easy to whip up memorable characters doesn’t give them interesting things to do. Caniff has both sides of the equation in near-perfect balance – his stories are a joy to read, and his artwork is often a visual delight.

Steve Canyon week 2, day 5

Westfield: Why did you decide that Steve Canyon should get The Library of American Comics treatment?

Canwell: As if you couldn’t tell, everyone at The Library of American Comics is a major Milton Caniff fan. In fact, this summer we released Caniff, a big, beautiful artbook that serves as a “visual biography” and an overview of this remarkable career. We’ve always wanted to do Steve Canyon, but until recently another publisher had the reprint rights. Circumstances changed, we were eager to pick up the rights to the strip, and Harry Guyton – Caniff’s nephew and the executor of his estate – agreed LOAC was the right place for his uncle’s masterwork.

It’s a tremendous pleasure to be reprinting Steve Canyon, because in terms of size and shape, we’ll do this in the same format as our strong-selling, Eisner Award-winning Terry And The Pirates books. We’re essentially creating a uniform Milton Caniff Bookshelf within The Library of American Comics.

Steve Canyon week 2, day 6

More than that, Roger, we’re able to offer readers Canyon like they’ve never seen it before, because we’re reprinting the strips from Caniff’s own personal set of printer’s proofs. That means we can give the series the best-quality reproduction it’s ever enjoyed, but in addition, for the first time Canyon will be reprinted with full-color Sunday pages – and Caniff’s color work often has to be seen to be believed! – plus full-size, uncropped dailies! I’ve been a Canyon fan since the series was reprinted by the now-defunct Kitchen Sink Press back in the early 1980s, but I’ll gladly replace those old KSP magazines with our shiny new hardcovers.

A Steve Canyon color Sunday featuring Steve, Happy, and the slinky Madame Lynx, here posing as "Madame Jones."

Westfield: How many volumes will this run?

Canwell: I expect we’ll do about twenty volumes – Steve Canyon essentially ran forty years and as with our Terry volumes, we’re collecting two years in each book. Given that our Dick Tracy series is up to Volume 12 and the phenomenal response to Rip Kirby convinced us to continue that series into its John Prentice years, I like to think readers will support Canyon and allow us to reprint the entire series.

Westfield: What other projects are on the way from The Library of American Comics that you can tell us about?

Canwell: There’s no shortage of nifty LOAC books in the pipeline! Our first jumbo-sized Alex Raymond Flash Gordon/Jungle Jim volume is available just in time for the holidays, with the third Secret Agent Corrigan and the second Blondie hot on its heels.

February will see the release of Cartoon Monarch: Otto Soglow & The Little King, which we’re VERY excited about. Soglow is one of those fantastic talents who has unfortunately been allowed to slide off too many radar screens, and we’re delighted to bring him front-and-center once again. Cartoon Monarch will not only reprint hundreds of pages of The Little King, it will also include the complete run of The Ambassador, the strip Soglow produced prior to launching King. And just how good is The Little King? He was so popular the Fleischer Studios once licensed him to guest-star in a Betty Boop cartoon – it doesn’t get much cooler than that!

In the months following Cartoon Monarch we’ll have Genius, Illustrated, the second volume in our comprehensive Alex Toth biography. A lot of loving care is going into that book, believe me. I’m also mighty pleased to announce that we’ve decided to do another Bringing Up Father volume! Our first BUF release snagged an Eisner nomination, and sales were so strong we had to go to a second printing. So if you liked BUF: From Sea To Shining Sea, you’ll want to see what happens when Jiggs loses all his money in our follow-up, Bringing Up Father: Of Cabbages And Kings. And here’s an exclusive for you — a sneak-peek at the second Bringing Up Father cover!

Bringing Up Father: Of Cabbages and Kings

We have lots of other stuff percolating, as well. Folks are always welcome to visit us at www.libraryofamericancomics.com for the latest and greatest!

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Canwell: I got two of ‘em for you. First, a sincere thank-you from all of us at LOAC to everyone who buys and supports our books. Second, here’s my wish for a great 2012 in which publishers big and small produce comics we all have fun reading, and your Cubs and my Red Sox both go deep into the playoffs!

Purchase

Steve Canyon Vol. 1