Listing Details
| ID: | 28 |
| Title: | Yet Another Comics Blog |
| URL: | http://yetanothercomicsblog.blogspot.com/ |
| Category: | Entertainment: Comics |
| Description: | Writing about anything and everything related to comic books. |
| Amazon Top 50 - 2012-05-18 06:42:00 |
 Here are the Top 50 Graphic Novels on Amazon this morning. All theprevious caveatsapply.1 (+3). Infinity Gauntlet 2 (N). The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga 3 (-2). Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama 4 (+2). Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls (The New 52) 5 (+5). Darth Vader and Son 6 (-4). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1 7 (-4). Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 6) 8 (-1). The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (revised and expanded ed.) 9 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 7 * 10 (-5). Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (The New 52) 11 (-3). Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise Part 1 12 (N). Interview with the Vampire: Claudia's Story * 13 (+15). Big Nate and Friends (Kindle) 14 (-3). The Walking Dead, Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves 15 (-3). Batman: The Killing Joke 16 (+16). Dork Diaries 3 (Kindle) 17 (-5). Watchmen 18 (-3). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 19 (-6). The Walking Dead, Vol. 16: A Larger World * 20 (-). Big Nate: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? 21 (+8). Dog Days (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 4) 22 (+20). Batman: Knightfall, Vol. 1 23 (+4). Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise, Part 2 * 24 (+6). Dork Diaries 4: Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess (Kindle) * 25 (-8). The Ugly Truth (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 5) 26 (-12). Sailor Moon 5 27 (-11). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic 28 (-9). The Walking Dead, Book 7 29 (+10). Batman: Year One 30 (+10). Dork Diaries 1 (Kindle) 31 (+13). The Walking Dead, Book 3 32 (-10). Marvel Encyclopedia 33 (+2). The Walking Dead, Book 2 34 (+3). A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume One 35 (N). Dork Diaries 4: Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess * 36 (-11). The Walking Dead, Book 6 37 (R). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books (1-5) 38 (-15). The Walking Dead, Book 1 39 (+2). The Walking Dead, Vol. 12: Life Among Them 40 (-19). The Walking Dead, Vol. 14: No Way Out 41 (-7). The Adventures of Tintin 1 42 (-18). The Walking Dead, Book 5 43 (-5). Big Nate Out Loud (Kindle) 44 (-18). Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt (The New 52) 45 (-). The Walking Dead, Vol. 11: Fear the Hunters 46 (-10). Big Nate: From the Top (Kindle) 47 (N). Batman Incorporated, Vol. 1 48 (+2). V for Vendetta 49 (R). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood 50 (-3). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items. N = New listing appearing on list for first time R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks Commentary:
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| Sullivan's Sluggers Interview: Q&A with Mark Andrew Smith - 2012-05-17 11:47:00 |
 Writer Mark Andrew Smith has been active in the comics industry forseveral years now. He is the co-creator and editor of the EisnerAward-winningPopgun Comicsanthology, and the writer of several comics series (published mostly though Image Comics) includingAmazing Joy Buzzards(art by Dan Hipp),The New Brighton Archeological Society(art by Matthew Weldon), andGladstone's School for World Conquerors(art by Armand Villavert).Mark's latest comic isSullivan's Sluggers, a baseball/horrororiginal graphic novel drawn by James Stokoe, the publication of whichwill be funded via Kickstarter. Mark took time out of his busy scheduleto answer my questions over email about his new venture: YACB: Prior toSullivan'syou've written several other comic projects. What attracts you to comics as a medium for telling stories? MAS:I really love the blending of words and images, and the pacing of comicbooks. I’ve loved reading comic books ever since I was a kid, andthey’re something I love to create. For me there is an energy to comicbooks that only comics can capture through the art and words on thepage. YACB: What kind of comics did you read as a kid? Are thereany that you consider 'formative'? How do those comics that you read as akid inform your comics work today? MAS: As a kid I was a huge Spider-Man fan, and I also read the Mirage run ofTMNTthat I was a huge fan of. I thinkTMNTwas very formative for me. After the crash in the 90s I stoppedreading comics but I was still interested in making them. At Universitymy faculty adviser told me aboutUnderstanding Comicsand alight just clicked in my head. I went to the comic shop and caught upwith what I’d missed over the past 10 years. It was great and likeschool for me to read that much material at once. YACB: When you returned to comics after a 10 year absence,what were the comics that grabbed your attention? How did they appeal toyou as an adult reader? MAS: It was the indy comics thatgrabbed my attention and especially the work of Jim Mahfood, ScottMorse, Paul Pope, Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, and Mike Allred that gotme interested again With some books they had such a minimal style butthe stories they told packed a big punch and that was really interestingto me. I kind of discovered that there was the possibility of telling amoving and impactful story likeHamletbut with stick figureart, and if you expressed it enough through the art it would stillresonate with the reader. I came in finding indy comics and newcharacters that were interesting. I think Madman is my favoritecharacter ever. YACB: While there's a long history of the horror genre incomics, the list of baseball comics is much shorter. What led you tocombine the two inSullivan's Sluggers? MAS: I’vealways been a fan of baseball, and baseball movies growing up. I’vealso been a fan of fun splatter horror films too. I think the two makefor a great combination in seeing a team of baseball players go throughhorrible conditions and using their skills as athletes to survive. YACB: You mentioned baseball films and splatter horror films as inspirations forSullivan's. Do you consider your comics work to be cinematic? How do you feel that movies inform your comics work in general andSullivan's Sluggersin particular? MAS: I think my comic work is cinematic at times for pacing, andletting the images tell the story. The downside of this is that itgets massive in length and projects grow and grow. I think with most ofmy work this was the case and withSullivan’s. With something likeGladstone’s School for World Conquerorsit’s cinematic in that it’s epic with huge world building and action. Iwent to film school at UC Santa Barbara and films and film theorydefinitely help to craft my work.  YACB: What is it about baseball that you feel makes it a good setting for stories in general and forSullivan'sin particular? MAS:What I love about baseball is that it's a great team dynamic with somany different personalities on a team that all want different things. Actually, keeping track of an entire baseball team in the comic was achallenge to do, and I had to check the character roster a lot. Withbaseball there is an epic history to baseball spanning well over ahundred years and also potential for ghosts and monsters. YACB: What attracted you to James Stokoe as an artistic collaborator? What strengths does he bring toSullivan's Sluggers? MAS: I think I was the first person to know about James Stokoe, and we publishedOrc Stainbefore anyone else in thePopgunAnthologies. James Stokoe is in my opinion the Jimmy Hendrix ofcomics, and his art is fantastic. He’s able to convey great settings,great action, and great character personality in his work, in tellingthe story with me through his art. YACB: What is your collaboration process like with James? Doyou give him a full script or a plot to work from? At what point in thedevelopment process of Sullivan's did he come on board? MAS: Igive James a full script but it’s more by action beat by panel and it’sdefinitely not an Alan Moore style script describing everything indetail. It does what I want and gets the results that I want fromJames. I had the first 32 pages written and the characters all pickedout. He just started drawing them and I don’t think he even didconcepts for them but I gave a lot of references and descriptions aboutthe characters.  MAS: Rodrigo Aviles is our colorist and I knew a more colorfulbook would make the project look better and so I picked him. I thinkJames comes from the same coloring school as well and if you see hisother work, the coloring is like bubble gum. YACB: Why did you decide to use Kickstarter as a means of funding the hardcover edition ofSullivan's Sluggers? MAS: ForSullivan’s Sluggers,I wanted a book just for me that I’d be proud of having on mybookshelf. I wanted to do a beautiful edition of the book that made itcollectable. I also wanted to test Kickstarter out withSullivan’sand see if doing something exclusive on Kickstarter would betterconnect me with my audience and rally their support. It’s risky butalso will be very rewarding and I’m glad I’m taking the Kickstarterrisk. YACB: WillSullivan's Sluggersbe available outside of the Kickstarter campaign? In what format(s)? MAS:I’m still debating it right now but I don’t have the answer. I thinkit would do well in single issues at comic shops, so we’ll see if that’san option in the future. WithSullivan’sI’ll probably pace itout over a longer duration of time for the releases if there aredifferent formats because it is important to sell the hardcover andrecouping and making money onSullivan'sis important to me so that I can get material out faster in the future. YACB: What other projects do you currently have in the pipeline? (Plug away!) MAS: Right now I'm working on series 2 ofGladstone's School for World Conquerorsand also theNew Brighton Archeological Societyand they should be out this year. We're coloring away at the moment on those. YACB: Is there anything else that you'd like people to know aboutSullivan's Sluggers? MAS:Sullivan's Sluggersis awesome and be sure buy one (or three)! My thanks again to Mark for taking the time to answer my questions. You can follow Mark on Twitter at@MarkAndrewSmith. The Kickstarter campaign forSullivan's Sluggersis athttp://www.kickstarter.com/ -----This article was syndicated fromYet Another Comics Blog.If you are reading it somewhere other than a feed reader,it has likely been copied without permission.  |
| Monkey Covers - 2012-05-13 14:51:00 |
Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover! Gorilla Man joins the rest of the 1950s Avengers on the variant cover forAvengers Forever#4(1999) by Frank Quitely. (Standard disclaimer about avenging gorilla-men not really being monkeys applies.) Image courtesy ofComic Book Covers. Click on the image for alarger version. -----This article was syndicated fromYet Another Comics Blog.If you are reading it somewhere other than a feed reader,it has likely been copied without permission.  |