Also discussed are the Alternative Comics panel at the Chicago Humanities Festival, upcoming comics projects from several Initiative members, recent video game releases, and the new feature "Nerdspace News," discussing news and rumors from around the geek culture world.

The Initiative Show can be found on its website, theinitiativeshow.com and on iTunes in the Podcast section.

New episode of The Initiative Show (11/09) written by Eric Lindberg in: News & Reports

Tags: alternative comics, chipbreak, greg weisman, podcast, the initiative show

Mesmo Delivery features an extended sketchbook section from creator Rafael Grampá and pinups from top comics creators Eduardo Risso, Mike Allred, Craig Thompson, Gabriel Bá and Fabio Moon! Introduction by Brian Azzarello.

Check out the artists' blog at Furrywater

Rafael Granpá Goes Mesmo Delivery (Again) written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Artists

You can check the progress of this image -from pencil layout to painted endresult- on Jusko's Facebook or Deviantart.

The poster will be sold via Vampirella.com exclusively. More info as I receive it.

Vampirella 40th Anniversary Poster written by Richard Boom in: Bad Grrl

Tags: bad grrl, jusko, vampirella

Check out the complete graph on his site!

Aaron Diaz' 42 Essential Story Twists written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Artists

"The mysteries of Aspen Matthews' past will be revealed. The questions
Fathom fans have wondered for years will be answered. Stay tuned."

Sounds cool?

What's Up with Aspen Matthews? written by Richard Boom in: Bad Grrl

Tags: aspen, badgrrl, fathom

At his recent keynote speech at the New York Television Festival, former Star Trek writer and creator of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore revealed the secret formula to writing for Trek.

He described how the writers would just insert "tech" into the scripts whenever they needed to resolve a story or plot line, then they'd have consultants fill in the appropriate words (aka technobabble) later.

"It became the solution to so many plot lines and so many stories," Moore said. "It was so mechanical that we had science consultants who would just come up with the words for us and we'd just write 'tech' in the script. You know, Picard would say 'Commander La Forge, tech the tech to the warp drive.' I'm serious. If you look at those scripts, you'll see that." Moore then went on to describe how a typical script might read before the science consultants did their thing:

    La Forge: "Captain, the tech is overteching."

    Picard: "Well, route the auxiliary tech to the tech, Mr. La Forge."

    La Forge: "No, Captain. Captain, I've tried to tech the tech, and it won't work."

    Picard: "Well, then we're doomed."

    "And then Data pops up and says, 'Captain, there is a theory that if you tech the other tech ... '" Moore said. "It's a rhythm and it's a structure, and the words are meaningless. It's not about anything except just sort of going through this dance of how they tech their way out of it."

As you probably guessed, this is not how I write SF — in fact, it's the antithesis of everything I enjoy in an SF novel.

Read the full Stross' tangent here

Charles Stross On Why He Hates Star Trek written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

Tags: charless stross

I just finished a new graphic novel – the first in a series I’m working on that will dig a reality tunnel through the universe of a video game series. Crazy stuff, but I’m the linear guy on the project (if you can believe that) so it’s not quite as brain-decimating as it could be.

Writing for gamers is harder than writing for regular people because I actually feel more obligated to make it work on many levels at once. Gamers spend thousands of hours in a world, so it really has to be true down to levels of granularity an author could ignore in almost any other medium. But it’s great to know people are going as deep into this material as I am. Way more intimate a sensation, really.

Click here to visit exoriare.com. He also announces a collected edition in a few months.

B2C: Douglas Rushkoff' X Online Comic written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Books 2 Comics

Click here to view the big poster at Wrong Side of the Art

Monday Movies: Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970) written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Monday Movies

As for the new tv series, I'll give it a chance even though I know I'm going to hate it because I'm such a rabid Patrick McGoohan fan :-s

You only think you are free. Check out the official site right here

The Prisoner Online Graphic Novel written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Movies

Tags: the prisoner

Read the full post at Forbidden Planet

Angoulême 2010 in Danger written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

It has a very Twilight Zone feel to it and It sounds maybe not enough of an idea to fill a complete movie but this is Richard Kelly we are talking about. His Donnie Darko was a thing of beauty and Southland Tales is sitting next to my DVD player but I heard good and bad about it but it intriguied me nonetheless.

Check out the official movie site right here

Movies: The Box written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Movies

Tags: richard kelly

A friend in Italy recently uncovered a small cache of these prints from 1997, featuring my then toddler, Hunter, passing the time with some comics... the original art was purchased by the mother of a certain filmmaker with the initials QT, and reportedly was appropriated by him for the walls of his own pad... and can be yours. We have one hanging in the downstairs bathroom...

You now can yourself buy this item as well; here.

Quentin Tarantino's toilet!! written by Richard Boom in: Artists

Tags: brereton

Click here for a large view

OXY Clears Up Tough Teenage Skin written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Advertising

Click here to access the comic book scripts

MyPDF Comic Scripts Ahoy! written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Writers

JQ: Yes, they will be available, U.S. release dates TBD.

And Joe himself said in Newsarama's New Joe Fridays #11 in August 2006:

"ShadowBrat" asks: While we all pray for a speedy recovery for Chris Claremont over his recent health problems and patiently await his imminent return to comics, I was just wondering if His hiatus has affected the plans for his team up with Milo Manara for the X-Women GN. I was most excited when I heard that these two giants were going to work together, and would be saddened if the project fell through.
JQ: Thanks for asking, Shadow, Chris is doing well, as a matter of fact I just saw him yesterday. While I haven't discussed the Manara project recently with him, as far as I know, all is still a green light and Chris will get to it as soon as he's feeling up to it.
And although I find this follow up question in bad taste given the circumstances, Nevertheless, the Million Dollar question remains, Given Manara's "reputation" Would a US version of such a project have to be released under The "Max" label?
JQ: I'm one of Manara's biggest fans but everyone involved understands that any project involving Marvel icons like the X-Men in no way can be an adult oriented comic with nudity and sex, so I don't think that's a concern in any way.

More timelinely comments can be found here:

Week 43 2007: Claremont has written the story and we are currently waiting on Manara as he is finishing up the project he is working on currently.

And in May 2008 this was broadcasted:

Hey Joe,
In Q4 of 2007 you told the watchful fans that you were waiting on Manara to finish his project to get started on that Claremont-written X-Men story. Any news since then?

JQ- Hey, Boomvavavoom, Milo Manara has just begun his X-Men project with Chris Claremont and turned in several pages of art last month. Here's one of the pages just to let ya know what to expect.

And finally C.B Cebulski made a Twitter-comment in September 2009, stating:

Milo Manara's X-Men one-shot will debut in Italy this October and Marvel will release the English version in 2010.

And then Rich Johnston showed the WWWorld the first cover and interior pages on November 8, 2009!

Manara does X-Women written by Richard Boom in: Bad Grrl

Tags: claremont, manara, marvel comics, panini

Otomo himself headed up the anime version of Akira in 1988 which focuses on the first part of the graphic novel, up until right after the rise of Akira himself. The anime itself spawned a whole Akira craze due to its inventive setting and hyperkinetic action scenes. Akira, the movie formed a complete vision of its writer/director/animator own epic and oozes love for storytelling all through. While the ending had to be handled in a sort of esoteric way because the comic itself had not ended yet by that point, I always felt that it was true to the vision of Akira the manga (collected in six volumes by Dark Horse). If you have not seen it yet, run now to the vid store and settle yourself in for a wild ride through Neo-Tokyo and its punk bikers Kaneda and Tetsuo who become involved in a mad power scheme involving mutants, psychic experiments and government black ops organizations.

Click here to watch the big poster, courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art

Monday Movies: Akira written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Monday Movies

Zenescope Entertainment has a big following of fans that just love every twisted fairytale the company comes up with. From the company that brought us dark stories called the Grimm Fairy Tales and Sinbad to the amazing trilogy of Wonderland, now comes the yet-again-twisted story of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and Hook! A seven-issue story in which it is revealed that Pan has learned the secret of immortality; children! And he captures them in Neverland and that way he can live on forever. Only one kid ever escaped, namely Cross (Hook) and Cross comes back to end Pan's evilness.

Be sure to check out this series, since it is going to RAWK!!!!

Zenescope's Tinkerbell written by Richard Boom in: Bad Grrl

Tags: basaldua, neverland, zenescope

Click here to see the complete collection

Outro the Space Age written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

Click here for the full story

Kirby King of Comics vs King of Music Zappa written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

Tags: frank zappa, jack kirby

Also check out this CBR.CC for a great interview on Darkchylde/Darkness/Witchblade and actual interior pages!!! Smoking!!!!

Starfall and Darkchylde Art Preview written by Richard Boom in: Bad Grrl

Tags: darkchylde, randy queen, starfall, top cow

Full disclosure permits me to say that I haven't actually read it yet, there are only so many hours in one day, but the experiment an sich is truely novel and noteworthy, especially with his status as a celebrated writer. It warms my heart to see him putting so much effort in fan participation.

Read the whole story online right here

Books2Comics: Neil Gaiman Crowdsourced Fiction written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Books 2 Comics

Click here for a big look at the complete picture

Mark Andrew Smith Goes Stray Dog written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Artists

Sky Television: Fast & Furious written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

Happy Halloween and to celebrate we have two treats for you today! First of all, we have a new feature at The Comics Explorer: Books 2 Comics, exploring the crosscultural pollination of both mediums and second of all, keeping in line with the new feature, we present Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas, released under a Creative Commons License and readable for free online!

What does this have to do with comics and Halloween, you ask? Why dear reader, many comics writers are huge fans of Jack Kerouac and HP Lovecraft. The former for his freeblazing spirit and experimental fiction and the latter for his horrific and detailed descriptions of the Older Gods, a fictional breed of monstrosities, treated like deities, their origins traced back to the beginning of the earth. And now, Nick Manatas has united both forms of fiction into one amazing book:

It's the early sixties, and Jack Kerouac is hiding from his public in Big Sur, enjoying the company of a Hindu deity in the form of a redhead he calls Marie and waiting for word from Neal Cassady, his and many another Beat's charismatic hero. Word he gets, including some babbling on about the Old Ones rising out of the Pacific and sweeping across America. That sets Jack off in search of Neal and, with Neal and eventually Bill Burroughs, on a cross-country jaunt just ahead, or behind, the advancing dark tide of the Old Ones. Destination: Mannahatta, where the since-separated Jack and Neal have a showdown--with each other!

Visit this page to read Move Under Ground online or visit the Amazon page if you want to purchase a copy of this book

Books2Comics: Kerouac Vs The Old Gods written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Books 2 Comics

Nathan Fillow stole the hearts of men and women alike in his brilliant portrayal of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the Serenity space ship in the Joss Whedon created Firefly. Firefly ended over seven years ago but still has a cult following among afficionado's of sci fi tv series (among them yours truely).

Nathan Fillow resurfaced briefly as Captain Mal recently in his current ongoing tv serial Castle from ABC. It's not exactly a Frontier Fright but it is Halloween and it is my blog so show me some respect and watch this hilarious outtake of Castle:

Serenity Captain Mal Returns! written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

The Intense Art of Simon Bisley (over at Facebook) is having a Lobo Halloween competition.

It's Halloween soon so don't forget to get your fancy dress sorted... Simply send a photo of yourself dressed up as Lobo (or anything else really) to tr1gger@hotmail.com Photos need to reach me by 10th November.

Please DON'T post your picture in the fan gallery - we will put all the pictures up on the page once Simon's judged it.

Simon will choose his favourite pictures and the winners get:
First prize - a sketch of Lobo from Simon, a Lobo action figure and a signed Lobo book.
Second prize - a head sketch of Lobo from Simon and a signed Lobo book.
Third prize - a signed Lobo book.

Have fun you crazy bastiches...!

Lobo Halloween competition written by Richard Boom in: Artists

Tags: bisley, halloween, lobo

Those crazy Japanese, you gotta love them! Folklore monsters explained anatomically but the graphics are just so well done and intricate that you can't help yourself marvelling at the art work.

Yōkai Daizukai, an illustrated guide to yōkai authored by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, features a collection of cutaway diagrams showing the anatomy of 85 traditional monsters from Japanese folklore.

Check it out right here and thanks to Journalista for spotting it

Anatomy of Japanese Folk Monsters written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

The artist of the orgininal Marvel Zombies comics and current noir artiste extraordinaire on Brubaker's Criminal has put a selection of his Marvel Zombies headshots! Gruesome and Delicious at the same time! Visit Sean's website right here

Sean Phillips' Avenging Zombies written by Bart Croonenborghs in: News & Reports

Tags: halloween, sean phillips, zombies

30 years in the business and Stephen King never wrote a single comic! He did venture into a relationship with Marvel Entertainment for creating comics based on King's THE STAND and THE DARK TOWER.

But now he is going to be co-writing a Vertigo-series called AMERICAN VAMPIRE.

In March, Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics, will begin publishing a new series, American Vampire—and today it was announced that Stephen King will be co-writing the first five issues.

The Daily Beast has more to share, so check this site here.

Stephen King writing comic American Vampire written by Richard Boom in: News & Reports

Tags: american vampire, scott snyder, stephen king, vertigo

Maruca takes a genre stereotype, ups the ante, sprinkles some extra violence and funky oneliners and bakes a truly delightful mix of old school storytelling with a modern sensibility. It's almost art in that sense that you have to read it, look at Jim Rugg's detailed retro-pencilling and colouring and realise that you have been changed by the experience of reading it. It's so arty that I can't even explain it right ...

There's only one thing left to say and that's BUY IT LOVE IT LEAVE IT but at least TRY IT!

Afrodisiac Ghettoes Down in TPB written by Bart Croonenborghs in: Artists