The Thing meets Where Eagles Dare as two of the world's most popular comic book writers - Grant Morrison and Mark Millar - produce a high-octane thriller!

Judge Dredd: Crusade collects a ten part tale by contemporary comics superstars Grant Morrison and Mark Millar penned in 1995 combined with Millar’s scripted The Frankenstein Division. It was the year that Vertigo comics published Morrison’s excellent Kill your Boyfriend with artist Phillip Bond for DC Comics and the rather madcap Skrull Kill Krew with David Yeowell for Marvel Comics. Morrison and Millar had already established a smooth working relationship by then, most notably in the US on several issues of The Flash comic book series featuring an old school Flash fact arc inspired by the heyday of Julius Schwartz entitled Emergency Stop. One year later their Aztek the Ultimate Man would be published through DC Comics featuring a new DC superhero that would explore silver age themes logically thought through in a fictional setting to much lauded critical succes but in the end proved to be a commercial bust. Their tales for the Dredd-verse are largely unknown to the US audience though so Simon & Shuster make a good marketing move bundling the self contained stories in a separate volume for US release with in big bold letters the names of the creators on a rather splendid original Brian Bolland cover.

In Crusade, when a scientist returns from a 15-year deep space mission claiming to have a message from God, judges from all of the world's Mega-Cities race to Antarctica to try and claim the Almighty's secrets for themselves, among them is the toughest future lawman of them all - Judge Dredd. In The Frankenstein Division, the sinister judges of East Meg create the ultimate judge by stitching together pieces of their best - but when it goes on the rampage it heads for Mega-City One and the one man responsible for the death of its many 'donors' - Judge Dredd!

All art previewed courtesy of Mick Austin

Judge Dredd meeting with the Voice of God certainly sounds exciting but it is diluted from the start with the rather fan-boyish idea of a meeting of Judge representatives of several other mega-cities. The ensuing fighting and race to meet the God creature turns out to be so predictable that any esoteric implications of the core idea is totally shoved to aside in favour of a monster movie ending. It’s a shame because there are some cool ideas in Crusade, from the IndoCit’s eastern religion influenced judges to the VaticanCit’s mob Judge enforcer (‘Pax vobiscum, creep!’) to the running gag involving the Egyptian judge and the religious implications for the Dredd-verse of having to deal with an incarnation of God (Grudd?). However, all of it is put aside for action and comedy, only saved by the bold stylings of artist Mick Austin. I really don’t see much of a Morrison influence here, the fancentric gathering of the Judges reeks more of Millar while the God-aspect is more Morrison and since the last is neither explored or followed through, I can reasonably conclude that this is mostly Millar’s yarn.

Though Mick Austin’s art is suitably gritty with rough brushwork coupled with some exciting body dynamics, Judge Dredd comes off a bit too much like a Judge-on-Steroids. Lawbringer Dredd works best as a cold calculated machine in mind and body, visualizing him as a future bodybuilder diminishes the character and his analytical mindset. His brain and body is capable of split second action because it works in unison, both are inseparable and over-enhancing the muscle parts just draws attention to one aspect of his being namely his physique. For Crusade it really doesn’t matter all that much since it is pure action from beginning to end and there is not much need for brains since Dredd largely makes it through on the wave of incompetence the other Judges seem to emanate. But still, it is an important aspect that sets Dredd aside from the usual muscle bound crop of anti-heroes.

Going into a pure physique mindset, it also is illogical that a man like Dredd develops all those muscles in his upper body. It requires a specific set of training techniques that is not a priority for Judges, just watch the excellent1977 Pumping Iron documentary featuring a young Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno being interviewed and followed while preparing themselves to out-compete each other in the Mr Olympia and Mr Universe contests. It is an insightful look into the body building business and the specific rigours of training and developing a choice set of muscles, click here for some outtakes. Carlos Ezquerra however perfectly understands this as his Dredd has always been less of a muscle man but a human being trained to near perfection, as smooth in body as in mind.

The second story in the book, The Frankenstein Division, fares a bit better in the sense that it doesn’t completely feel as exploitation. Written by Millar and drawn by the great Carlos Ezquerra, it is a clean action oriented typical Dredd set of progs centered on the single idea (just not a terribly good one) being a super soviet Judge composed of the best of the dead judges died in The Apocalypse War where Dredd ordered the nuking of five soviet cities in a desperate act of self preservation. After some high octane and rather uninspired violence, Dredd defeats the monster, turns his back towards the camera and delivers the standard soundbite, exit stage left. The art saves the progs and Ezquerra at least makes it a visual feast of violence and mayhem.

In the final equation, Judge Dredd: Crusade can best be described as a no brainer action fest but not the best of entries for a newby in the Dredd-verse since it reducess Judge Dredd to a pure one-dimensional anti-hero. The big blocky lettering on the cover featuring Morrison and Millar is a bit misleading since Morrison is not exactly present while Millar rather phones it in here. The art of Mick Austin and Carlos Ezquerra largely save the book, both are accomplished artists and showcase the best of their abilities.

Judge Dredd: Crusade by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Mick Austin and Carlos Ezquerra is published by 2000 AD / Simon & Shuster. It is a full colour trade paperback counting 96 pages and retails for €16,99.

Coming off of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel The Homeland Directive in 2011 and having made a name for himself with two excellent The Surrogates volumes before that, Robert Venditti is traveling where he hasn’t gone before: into ongoing series territory on X-O Manowar.

A revamp of the popular early Nineties flagship character of Valiant Entertainment, Venditti is upgrading X-O for the 21st Century together with artist Cary Nord of Conan fame. The first issue of the series arrives in stores this May and effectively marks the rebirth of Valiant as a comics publisher. No pressure, right?

BROKEN FRONTIER: This book is a departure from your previous projects in the sense that a) it’s an ongoing series, and b) the sci-fi element is much more hardcore than what you did on The Surrogates. What are the challenges treading all of this new ground?

ROBERT VENDITTI: As far as this being an ongoing series, the challenge is planning the story far in advance—not just in regards to what happens within the pages of X-O Manowar, but also taking into account how this book will impact the rest of the Valiant line (and, in turn, how the rest of the Valiant line will impact X-O Manowar). That’s the fun of it, though. We’re helping to shape a universe. And I can tell you as someone who’s watching the process from the inside, there’s an enormous amount of strategizing taking place.

In terms of sci-fi, it’s true X-O Manowar is different from The Surrogates, but all of my projects have been different from each other, so I’m used to that. In fact, it’s something I look for when I’m deciding to take on a project. I want things to be new. It keeps me engaged as a writer.   

BF: Since X-O Manowar also marks the start of a new era for Valiant, how much of your story will be built on the old Valiant/Acclaim material?

VENDITTI: In the original Valiant run, Aric of Dacia is a 5th Century Visigoth who’s captured by aliens, comes into possession of the universe’s most powerful weapon, and returns to Earth in the modern day.

We’re definitely building on that original foundation—it’s such a rich core concept—but we’ll be expanding on it and taking the story in plenty of new directions as well. Early in the series, we’ll be introducing readers to the alien race known as The Vine, delving into their motivations and exploring what their existence means to the universe.

We’ve come up with some new abilities for the Manowar armor, too, including one that will be the key to the entire first year of the series.      

BF: As you reread the previous X-O volumes, were there any specific things that jumped out to you that Jim Shooter, Mark Waid, Bob Layton, etc. put on paper?

VENDITTI: There are so many great moments, but the one that stands out to me the most is in Volume 1, issue 9. Having lost hope and been betrayed by his fellow Visigoths in the 5th Century, Aric uses the Manowar armor to bury himself deep in the ground. Then, as issue 10 opens, he’s unearthed in the present day. I think that’s a pretty ingenious way to make a character travel through time.  

BF: What can we expect from Cary Nord? I’m sure Valiant picked Cary because of his experience drawing warriors on Conan for Dark Horse. Is the style he’ll use on X-O comparable to what he did on that series?

VENDITTI: While Cary’s work on Conan with Kurt Busiek and Dave Stewart helped introduce that classic character to a new generation of readers, I don’t think he was chosen because of his association with one project in particular. He’s a first-rate draftsman and storyteller, and you can be sure he’ll put his unique stamp on any character he takes on.

BF: Cary’s experience drawing lush, historic landscapes and settings seems to open the door for flashbacks to Aric’s past in the Roman Empire. Is that something we can look forward to, or will the series focus very much on alien/outer space action?

VENDITTI: The series will be set primarily in the present day, both on Earth and among the stars with The Vine. We wanted to provide more context for Aric’s character, though, so the first issue will open with Aric and the Visigoths battling the army of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century. Cary has done an amazing job rendering all of those disparate times and places.

BF: How much of the book have you mapped out at this point? Are there any more details you can spare about the opening arc?

VENDITTI: The first five issues are already written, and I have a firm idea of what the next two arcs will be after that. Long term, the opening arc plants a ton of seeds (hint!) that will grow and spread throughout the series and maybe even into the rest of the Valiant Universe.

There’s so much you can do with a character like Aric; I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. It seems every other day a new plotline occurs to me and I can’t wait to write them all.

X-O Manowar #1 goes on sale May 2 from Valiant Entertainment.

Have you been reading Memorial?  You should be!  Series writer Chris Roberson sits down to talk about his new project, his lead character Em, and drops a few hints about where Memorial is going next.

Chris Roberson is no stranger to the comics world.  With several titles under his belt, including two Fables mini-series featuring the always elegant Cinderella, Superman: Grounded, and the Eisner Award nominated iZombie, would there be any room left in such a busy schedule to publish a creator-owned epic?  The short answer is… of course!  Memorial is a fantastic tale of magic and wonders, of doors to anywhere and talking cats, and at the heart of it all, the beautiful and mysterious Em.

Roberson took a few minutes to talk to Broken Frontier about Memorial, its genesis, and what’s in store for our lovely heroine. 

BROKEN FRONTIER: After only two issues Memorial reads like a grand and fully conceived universe.  How long has the project been in the works, and what was your inspiration for Em’s tale?

CHRIS ROBERSON: In its current form, Memorial actually combines a bunch of different ideas I’ve had, synthesized together into one. The central image (the young woman travelling from place to place in a curiosity shop that appears and disappears magically) came from an idea I had for a Doctor Who spinoff novel about eight years ago, that I was considering pitching to BBC Books. But the more I worked on the idea, the less and less it made sense in the world of Doctor Who.

Along the way, I had been working on another idea that played around with some of the central themes from classic children’s fantasy stories, and yet another idea that was all about what memory means and how it works. It took me the better part of eight years, but I eventually figured out that all of these ideas slotted together.

BF:  In issue #2 Em’s magical world exploded, as the Everlands were expanded upon and the Lands of “Maybe” and “Was” were introduced.  Are there more regions of this world to explore? 

ROBERSON: Yes, there’s quite a bit more to this world than we’ve seen yet, and aspects of the parts that we have already seen that haven’t yet been revealed. To say more would be to give too much away!

BF:  Em’s greatest threat so far has been Hook, the Metal Man.  Little has been revealed about Hook, but it’s quite obvious by his appearance alone that he has a colorful history.  Do you plan to tell Hook’s story in upcoming issues?

ROBERSON:  Probably, at some point. Many readers likely think that they know his story already, from the little bits and pieces that have been revealed so far, but they don’t!

BF:  Rich Ellis’ art is not only gorgeous, but helps to reveal the scope of Memorial.  When it comes to your scripts, how many details are preplanned and how much does Ellis create?

ROBERSON:  It’s a nice mix of both, actually. My scripts typically focus on the foreground action and dialogue, leaving a lot of the scene setting to the artist wherever possible. For Memorial I’ve drawn up maps and diagrams and things, not so much to tell Rich what to do but to try to communicate to him how I see this world working. But then Rich takes those little bits and pieces and runs with them, making my clunky visual ideas work beautifully on the page!

BF:  Memorial has been solicited as a six issue mini-series, but already it’s clear the world could be the home of countless more stories.  Is a return to Memorial in your future?

ROBERSON: Oh, definitely. The model that we’re following is that of an “ongoing series of miniseries,” a la Hellboy and Locke & Key. So long as reader interest is there and IDW wants to continue publishing, I’m happy to keep writing them!

BF:  Thanks for your time Chris, Memorial truly is a fantastic read. Care to give our readers any hints as to how Em’s story will unfold next issue?

ROBERSON:  You’re very welcome. And no hints! I’ve said too much already!

Memorial #3 will be released February 8, 2012.  Make sure to pick it up at your local comic store!

Having been active in the industry for over 18 years, Simon Davis is always working on something for the comic industry. Though also published by DC Comics, he is perhaps better known for illustrating many of 2000 AD’s covers and finest comic strips like Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter and Stone Island. Besides doing comics, his activities as a fine art portrait painter has led him to win numerous art prizes.

Broken Frontier: Your style of illustration is quite different than the norm, even for Europe and the likes of British Magazine 2000 AD; how did you arrive at that art style?

Simon Davis: When I first started around the late eighties you had people like Simon Bisley and Glen Fabry that were doing fully painted work and I started off my career as an illustrator and wanted to do comics. Getting to see those guys in the 2000 AD magazine made want to do comics, either as an illustrator or painter. It’s quite brilliant though and quite rare that you get to do weekly comics fully painted. I’ve been doing this now for all these years and even now there’s only a couple that do fully painted comics. Most of the stuff is coloured on the computer now.

Simon's cover painting for 2000 AD Prog 1707 featuring Judge Dredd.
Click on the image for the complete version.

BF: Your starting point is still a pencil sketch though, am I right?

SD: Yes, I usually get commissioned to do a whole story, for example, for 10 progs (episodes) and when I have finished it, only then will they start running it in the comic. I work on about 10 fully painted pages a month which is okay. I’ve been doing it for so long that the process has been fully worked out, pencils to inks to paints. I also ink them quite thoroughly before I paint them because it’s easier for the painting part. Sometimes you get a structure underneath and you can paint through the smudge. It’s probably quite excessive to do it this way but it just helps me to have a good structure underneath for me to follow. Just making a lot of work for myself. [laughs]

BF: I suppose this is a completely different mode of working as opposed to your fine art portraits?

SD: The biggest difference with the comics and the portrait painting would be the materials; portrait is oils while the comics are gouaches. It dries quick and reproduces really well which is one of the reasons why I use it. The process is also different. For comics I spent a week doing the roughs, a week doing inking and then a good week for painting. I can paint two pages a day which is relatively quick. With portraits, oils take ages to dry but relatively the same principle is used there.

Detail from the cover of 2000 AD Prog 1705 featuring Nikolai Dante, the only character to best Judge Dredd as Britain's favourite comic character. Click on the image for the full version.

BF: While doing the comic pages, do you sometimes find yourself hankering for the fine art pieces?

SD: Yeah, it happens. When you have to do a long story, it can be quite relentless. It can be like a chain almost and then it is nice to have a break and do some portrait stuff. I think that in how I construct a comic panel there is a similarity in how I lay out a painting sometimes in terms of composition. They both feed each other and that can be quite useful.

BF: I also noticed a difference in style. In your comic pages, the lighting is handled much heavier and more dramatic.

SD: The thing with some of the comics I illustrate, like Stone Island and Ampney Crucis, is that I use a limited pallet to keep some continuity between each episode. With painting it takes longer to do and there’s more subtlety and the image is presented more thoroughly. For comics you want to have it clear, detailed and nicely painted but you don’t want to hold the story up. If you insert a brilliantly rendered image, it holds the story up. You got to read the story because that’s the point of it. If something is action you got to be able to read it quick.

BF: Was the transition to comics from your illustration and graphic design work easy?

SD: Well there’s a difference between US comics and the UK and especially the type of storytelling 2000 AD excels in, which is a bit more sympathetic to European comics. I personally stay clear of superhero comics, I don’t think I’m suited for that, the dynamics and punch ups. I don’t consider myself a dynamic painter. With 2000 AD, although there is action, it’s more talky and they use more idiosyncratic humour and that is quite sympathetic to my work.

I find myself more interested in European artists than American. I realise that what I’m saying is a bit limiting because I’m sure there are massive amounts of comics in America that can prove me wrong but in the general sense I adhere more to the British sensibility.

Click on the image to experience the full impact of Simon Davis' portrait work.

BF: It is true that the style in European comics is more static. US comics are more about movement.

SD: American comics are for a younger crowd. The key principal in European comics is the story whether it is an action story or a romance story. That is what seems to matter there, superhero comics are very brash and violent. And again, that is fine but that is not for me. I grew up with Astérix which I still absolutely adore. Most of it is talking though, I like conversational comics.

BF: Have you ever been approached by a European publisher to do an album?

SD: No not really, I have never been proactive in that regard. I have been working for 2000 AD for 18 years now and pretty constant as well. To be able to do fully painted comics for 18 years is quite unheard of really; most painters sort of struggle through it. I have been quite happy to do it. I also have a good pair-off with various writers like Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett. Often I tell them what I want to paint, like a great big samurai robot thing and then they get started! So why would I want to stop doing that?

The cover painting for 2000 AD Prog 1751 featuring Fallen Angel. On the left the painting integrated into the 2000 AD cover design. Click for a larger image.

BF: How does it work afterwards then? F.i. Ian Edginton, does he confer with you about the story you’re working on?

SD: Usually we just have a phone call and discuss what I would like to draw without any idea what this would mean story-wise. For example, I would like to do a detective thing and then he works up a synopsis, gives me a ring to see what I think and we take it from there. After that I draw some sketches and we send it off to our publisher for his opinion. So it’s quite collaborative. Ian is a really good writer and quite sympathetic to the artist so he puts in maximum 6 panels on every page. I am quite pleased we have this dynamic going.

It’s a bit different with Dan Abnett. He is an incredible writer who does just so much like novels, comics in the UK and US. The taps on his brain just seem to be constantly open. When we talk on the phone about something, you can expect to have something show up the same week that will be a thousand times crazier than what we talked about, fully realized with good characters and all. I worked with him on Sinister Dexter quite a few years, probably the longest I stayed on a character(s).

BF: Do you have a preferred genre that you like to work in?

SD: The story I’m doing at the moment, Ampney Crucis, was born out of me wanting to do a Golden Age English detective story which ended up tying into multiple dimensions and stuff. I always wanted to do something that was set in the 1920-30s so that is fun to do.

When I look at other people, the only comic that I really follow is Hellboy because I think Mike Mignola is an absolute genius. Even with Duncan Fegredo it is perfect, he is an amazing artist. So that would be the only character that I want to draw but I wouldn’t want to do a strip with that, maybe a painting. The style requires something blocky and beautiful design. It is the perfect comic to me. It’s all about Mignola liking these old horror movies and stuff coupled with this focused storytelling.

The three covers of the Ampney Crucis serial for a beautiful designed triptych. Click for a larger version.

BF: What are some of your influences?

SD: When I first started it was obviously Simon Bisley but the American artists I really liked were Bill Sienckiewicz, Kent Williams and John J. Muth. Stuff like Elektra: Assassin and Havok/Wolverine: Meltdown, that was absolutely brilliant. They made the comics seem a bit more relevant in a way. They were of course direct descendants from Jeff Jones and Berni Wrightson but they made it their own in those days.

When I wanted to move from comics to painting, I got in contact with a painter called Phil Hale who lived in London. I used to go see him - still do - and he just basically told me that if you want to paint, you need to paint and get to it. He is an amazing painter and a big inspiration. He did a few Swamp Thing covers for Vertigo from the more recent series. He’s an American chap but lives in London. I wouldn’t say that I was his apprentice but he was very encouraging and we went over stuff a lot.

BF: So what are you are working on at the moment?

SD: At the moment I am working on the story of Ampney Crucis. He is a detective who has a manservant called Cromwell. He just came back from the first World War and he is still haunted by a vision he saw at the Sommes. He gets caught up in an adventure with a monster from another dimension. It’s hard to explain (laughs). The first storyline is collected into a book. Nobody dies so hopefully there will be another storyline soon. [laughs]

Follow Simon Davis online at his website.

This interview was conducted at the Lille Comics Festival in Lille, France.

Alan Moore too has a valid point, but there have been plenty of reimaginings of his and Dave Gibbons’ classic tale, perhaps to the point of oversaturation. DC, in this instance, is delivering something that hordes of fans have been asking for for close to 30 years.

If you don’t want to read it, then don’t. Simple as that. The original Watchmen isn’t going to be edited Star Wars/George Lucas style. It will still remain intact for your children to enjoy years down the line. The original graphic novel isn’t going anywhere – remember that before you take to Twitter and convention panels.

If it brings in more readers to our shops, then I’m all for it. Personally, only four of the seven titles (RORSCHACH/MINUTEMEN/NITE OWL/OZYMANDIAS) interest me, though I’ll probably pick them all up just to see what the teams do when they are let loose in the world of The Watchmen. If you don’t want to read them at all then fine, I’m certainly not going to show up at your house and make you ingest them Clockwork Orange style.

What are your thoughts on Before Watchmen? Happy/Sad? Sound off below or get in touch with us on Twitter or Facebook.

February is here and in 2012 it’s host to an extra day and five weeks of Wednesday comics glory… something the fine folks of Marvel comics are taking full advantage of with a six-part Venom event dubbed the Circle of Four!

Promising big thrills, big action, and more than a little lunacy on a weekly basis, Circle of Four sees Venom scribe Rick Remender come together with Ghost Rider’s Rob Williams and Red Hulk’s Jeff Parker for a massive collaboration project.

Kickstarting the event this week within the pages of Venom #13, Rick Remender is bringing Venom, Red Hulk, Ghost Rider and X-23 together to fight the legions of hell off of the doorstep of Sin City. If that’s not enough to get you excited, Tony Moore is on hand to deliver un-freaking-believable interiors. Whoever said comic readers aren’t spoilt?

We caught up with Rob Williams to chat about Circle of Four, as well as the impending conclusion to his Ghost Rider series and his jam-packed near horizon. Read on true believers…

BROKEN FRONTIER: This month your lady Ghost Rider, Alejandra, and Johnny Blaze will be taking a road trip to Las Vegas and getting themselves in a whole mess of trouble during Circle of Four. But they aren’t the only ones! Venom, Red Hulk, X-23… what was it like playing in those character’s sandboxes?

ROB WILLIAMS: Pretty much total freedom. Rick Remender and Jeff Parker were involved throughout and [X-23 writer] Marjorie Liu was onboard at one point. Jeanine Schaefer is the editor of X-23, and Jeanine's edited this.

I was able to script the way I wanted, and those guys were there to offer advice on their characters, making sure I got the voices right etc. It was huge fun. Getting to write Red Hulk, the Venom Symbiote, X-23… great characters that I've not previously had a chance to play with.

Plus, Dr Strange guest stars! It was a blast.

BF: You are of course collaborating with Rick and Jeff.How did the three of you split writing/plotting duties?

WILLIAMS: Many conference calls and emails. This was a collaboration from the start. The three of us generated the plot, with the help of editorial. Then, when it came time to script, each of us ran our scripts past the other… it was very exciting and very open creatively.

I'd worked briefly with Rick before on the One Month To Live [2010 Marvel] mini-series, I'd not met Jeff before. But everyone was constantly open to the best idea. No egos got in the way. The project was a treat to work on.

BF: The idea of a ‘rag-tag Fantastic Four’ makes me smile. How have you found playing around with the concept? I’m guessing Alejandra doesn’t play nice with others…

WILLIAMS: They're not your perfect team, that's obvious. You've got Alejandra who has zero respect for anyone or anything, pretty much. Red Hulk's military and giving orders is in his blood, but no one's going to listen. There's a crazy alien symbiote bonded to an alcoholic in the pits of despair. And X-23's a cloned killing machine. It's about as dysfunctional a team as you can imagine.

BF: What sort of role does Johnny Blaze have in all this? Mephisto and Blackheart making a return to Earth must make this whole thing pretty personal for him?

WILLIAMS: Johnny's main drive is to protect and teach Alejandra, that's why he's drawn into this. But then it becomes clear that the stakes here are enormous and he has to get involved. And that means a terrible self-sacrifice. I'm not going to say more than that.

BF: When it comes to the ‘Ghost Rider issue’ what can readers expect? Is there going to be an emphasis on dealing vengeance, or can we expect a character centric piece?

WILLIAMS: A bit of both, I hope. That's what I've tried to do throughout the Ghost Rider run. Alejandra's going to get tempted, I will say that. It's what hell does; Offers her the thing she wants most, but there's going to be a price to pay.

Throughout Ghost Rider Alejandra's been trying to do the right thing, but events just don't seem to let her make it. Will she be a hero or a villain? Circle of Four will go a long way towards answering that.

BF: Circle of Four must be somewhat bittersweet for you. Looking back over your run on Ghost Rider, how happy are you with what you accomplished?

WILLIAMS: There's a lot I'm very happy with and a few things I'd have done differently, certainly. It was an interesting learning experience for me, in terms of how quickly you have to grab readers in order to keep them onboard.

Ideally we'd not have started with the Fear Itself tie-in, but the book wouldn't have launched without Fear Itself so that's a double edged sword. I'd have loved to have kept the book around, developed it over time, but the market's so unforgiving right now. I'm going to miss writing the book and the characters, certainly.

BF: It is interesting that you should mention the impact Fear Itself had on Ghost Rider. What would you say the pitfalls of launching in the middle of a line-wide event are?

WILLIAMS: Well, as I said, it has plusses and minuses. I'm not sure Marvel would have launched a new Ghost Rider series were it not tied into one of their big events. So we benefitted in that sense. In terms of pitfalls, it meant we were immediately coming out of the gate tying into the larger Fear Itself storyline but, because we were a 'mid-tier' book, we could only do so in a peripheral way.

If Ghost Rider could've come in and done something meaningful against or for The Serpent, for instance, fair enough. But that was never going to be possible as it would've meant us asking for rewrites of the main Fear Itself storyline. Wouldn't happen. It's the nature of working in this massive shared universe, I guess. But ideally we'd have launched Ghost Rider #1 with our own storyline and not had Alejandra go off to fight Syn.

BF: What can readers expect from your final issue on Ghost Rider in March?

WILLIAMS: Ghost Rider #9 is a huge 30-page finale. A frontal assault on Mephisto and his kingdom, and the final battle for Alejandra's soul. By the end you'll see who the Ghost Rider is going to be going forward.

There’s going to be loads of massive visuals and the biggest Ghost Rider fight you've ever seen in your life!

BF: What’s on the horizon for you next?Anything you can tease for us?

WILLIAMS: I'm finishing up Daken with issue #23 [also arriving in March] and there's a few other things on the horizon right now, including my work for 2000AD with Low Life and The Grievous Journey Of Ichabod Azreal. I've got an eight-page western called Evangelyne coming in the Outlaw Territory 3 anthology from Image that I'm very proud of. One of the best things I've written in my career, that short story, with unbelievable art. I'm looking forward to seeing that in print.

BROKEN FRONTIER:  In the pages of Fathom, Kiani will not stop the war against the humans and in the last showdown Aspen defeated Kiani, whereby she disintegrated. How come she’s alive and kicking?

VINCE HERNANDEZ: There’s an important bit of Kiani history that comes into play regarding her return, and how it’s possible she survived being torn apart by Aspen’s powers. It’s actually something that die-hard Fathom fans know about their existence that we draw upon. New readers will be caught up to speed with the introductory zero issue out in March that highlights some of the most recent Kiani developments that have led her to this point. I’m excited to see what both longtime and new readers will think!

BF: Kiani has a big and strong personality. She was strong-willed already before she found out Killian was her father. Kiani even went as far as to agree with Killian and his ill-will towards the human race, making her a real enemy to Aspen, who is trying hard to make all races get along with each other. What is her perspective on humans, Blues, Blacks, Reds and of course Aspen in Volume 2?

HERNANDEZ: Haha, well Richard, with the exception of the Reds, which you know don’t exist in Fathom, her ideals and her hatred towards the Human race have not been altered, but her approach most definitely has. Before, Kiani was driven more by her emotions and her passionate means of action. In this volume, she is learning to adapt to a powerful set of new abilities through her painful experience of death, while also committing to a more focused approach to what she sees as a problem of co-existence.

BF: I like it when you laugh at me. Seriously though, I was talking about the Lava-Blues of course. Getting back to Kiani; her resurrection did not make her change her ways then. Why did you take this route and not turn her into an Aspen-acolyte for instance?

HERNANDEZ: Ah, gotcha! Well the race of lava citizens and Kiani share a very strained relationship because they suspected that she was a deity returning to save their civilization, which in reality she was not. I didn’t have her become a supporter of Aspen’s cause because at her core, that’s not the person she is, and I felt this wouldn’t seem realistic to who she is. But, she will see a very radical change of her ways, which readers will discover early on in this new series.

BF:  Killian forsook his thirst for power and war when he learned the fact that he would become a father again. Did this change after Kiani died, and will we see Killian return to those wicked ways?

HERNANDEZ: Killian plays a very prominent role in this series, so fans will get to see how he is adjusting to life as a citizen of the Blue. He’s no longer seen as a dissident—or criminal to his own people. They’ve even allowed him to sit in on the summit between the Blue and the humans, which was essentially the most important moment in the Blue’s history, as they sought to attempt to forge a future together with both civilizations.

BF: 'Completely rehabilitated', that would be a dream-come-true in the real world. Are you sure there are no negative sentiments left either on the Blue or on the human side?

HERNANDEZ: Absolutely, everything takes place in a real world vacuum in Fathom, so while Killian might be considered to be on the “good guy” side, there are still characters that are not sold on his change of personality and action. Killian will never be able to fully go back to being the person he was before he began his crusade to attack the humans, it’s part of the crux of his identity now.

BF: Will we be seeing returning characters in this volume?

HERNANDEZ: Oh, yeah. I absolutely love picking and choosing characters that have appeared before and reworking them back into the current continuity. I know a lot of writers enjoy creating new characters—and I do to an extent as well—but, I think it adds weight to the story when you have characters that are already embedded in the fans’ psyche.

BF: That is a compelling statement. Which begs the question: which returning character is the most pivotal in the upcoming arc?

HERNANDEZ: This story is obviously about Kiani, but in many ways it’s also the story of the current leader of the Blue, Siphon, who we’ve seen in previous volumes grow from being an Elite Soldier to the leader of the Elite Council at a time when relations between the Blue and the Humans are at their most vital. Siphon’s story is just as important to the future of the Fathom universe.

BF: What attracts you to the world of Kiani and Fathom?

HERNANDEZ: I love the adventure and the mystery that is inherent below the surface of the ocean. While it’s cliché to say, the ocean truly is the last great frontier on Earth so there’s just so many possibilities when it comes to stories in the Fathom universe. Plus, I enjoy the characters and have a deep affinity for many of them like Kiani, Aspen and Killian. I feel as if they’ve grown alongside me as I’ve written more and more stories with them. And finally, I think it’s a tremendous honor to be tasked with writing stories based off Michael Turner’s work. His legacy is Fathom and to be able to help shape that world will always be a great honor for me.

BF: Do you think that having such a vivid reverence for Turner’s legacy makes both artists and writers more aware of how they will never downgrade his characters?

HERNANDEZ: It’s a legacy built on the life’s work of one brilliant man, I think that’s inevitable with every artist that takes on the mantle…if not, we make sure they realize the importance quickly! [Laughs]

BF: What should convince readers to tag along for this new Kiani-ride?

HERNANDEZ: Well, it’s a high-tension underwater action-adventure story with a fierce and deadly heroine, deep sea battles and plenty of surprises for current Fathom fans who have seen this property grow from one volume to four with several miniseries' and more. I think there’s something for everyone who gives it a try—and I hope they will!

The Neonomicon hardcover collects the two-issue Alan Moore’s The Courtyard series, which was an adaptation of Moore’s original prose story by Antony Johnston and Jacen Burrows, alongside the four parts that comprised Avatar Press’s Alan Moore’s Neonomicon. The Courtyard acts as something of a prelude piece to Neonomicon, setting up the story of agent Aldo Sax’s fall from grace and abandonment of his own definition of reality; themes that will later be extrapolated on to great effect by Moore in the hardcover’s main feature.

Both stories are crammed to the rafters with Lovecraftian references that will reward, and perhaps even delight, fans of the author’s mythos. But this is so much more than a continuity fest for Howard’s fanboy following. Neonomicon brings Lovecraft’s oeuvre to a contemporary setting and fleshes out (literally) the often unseen and unspeakable horrors of his fictional universe, with Moore placing his tale somewhere on the borderlands of metafiction - Lovecraft’s original work here posited as influenced by the Great Old Ones themselves.

Indeed Lovecraft’s own prejudices and insecurities regarding race and sex, never particularly difficult to discern in his stories, are reflected throughout the four chapters of the book, and one doesn’t have to look too hard to see Moore’s commentaries on both the man and his creations embedded into the storyline.

Jacen Burrows’s art can often be intriguingly understated for a tale that relies on such graphic and shocking imagery. But by portraying events with an almost commonplace visual realism, Burrows provides the reader with the most disconcerting type of horror; that which is firmly grounded in the recognisable world around us. Having been so successfully convinced of the naturalism of the story’s setting, it makes the reading experience all the more disquieting when the supernatural elements begin to come more to the fore towards the latter part of the book.

It’s incumbent on me, without giving away too many significant parts of the plot, to warn potential readers that Neonomicon is an often difficult and deeply unsettling read. In Agent Brears we have a central character that fulfils a role so often seen in Lovecraft’s fiction; that of the protagonist doomed to an inescapable fate. But the set-up to that destiny includes an extended sequence that not just the easily offended will find a gruelling and demanding section of the book to get through.

Neonomicon is both Moore at his most arcane and, simultaneously, his most explicit. Uncompromisingly bleak and fatalistic, this is Lovecraft unrepressed – multi-layered horror that will squat unwelcome in the reader’s consciousness long after the book has been consigned to the back of a dusty, forgotten shelf.

The Neonomicon hardcover is available from Titan Books in the U.K. priced £20.99 and from Avatar Press in the U.S. priced $27.99.

As the artist of the runaway hit

Having worked his whole life in the comics industry, R. M. Guéra originally came from ex-Yugoslavia, now Serbia, having moved to Spain in 1981. He has now written and drawn over eight albums for the French comics market and in 2006 his breakthrough in the US market arrived with the crime drama Scalped, written by Jason Aaron and published by Vertigo. Scalped is an intense work that has consumed all the time of the artist, who describes it as written with a true heart, containing infinite depth coming out of a true synergy with Jason Aaron.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Scalped seems to me to be a rather research heavy book.

RM GUÉRA: Yes, I research a lot. But it’s a part of the business that I don’t mind. I read a lot, I’m interested in the human condition. I like movies, photography and so on, so all of those things are part of Scalped. I also had gypsy friends; I never went to visit their reservations but it did bring me into contact with real poverty, what it is like to be poor. I can understand it because I spent a year and a half with them as a musician. Somehow I used that in Scalped. But research, yes; you sketch, you read, you remember.

Like when Jason Aaron was describing Carol to me, that was fantastic. Carol is sexy and tragic and all but I will always remember how Aaron said ‘Give me the kind of girl that everybody wants to have sex with but nobody wants to marry!’ So this is typical of our dialogue surrounding Scalped. We talk about Bob Dylan or movies or books and after these things he says something to me in the script and I know exactly what he means. So this is work and research and talking about it.

Carol Danvers stands in the centre in this Scalped sketch by R.M. Guéra

BF: So you would say that this partnership is essential to the success of Scalped?

GUÉRA: The whole thing is about the story, not my style or the writing itself. We both are making the story, we matter less, we are secondary to the story which is this big Greek tragedy. It’s like I always say, you can only be creative up to 3 or 4 hours a day. All the rest of the time you’re working is spent on making it look good, figuring out the angles, research. After 6 years of Scalped we are still trying to come up with new pages and new compositions. It’s hard to stay innovative but I must admit that I have never seen anything like Scalped before. The only thing that comes close is a show on television that is called The Wire. That is trying similar things. 

BF: Can Scalped be described as a western?

GUÉRA: I would say yes, but in a way it also depends on what you like. The most important thing is the story, not my style. I just look if it cooks, you know? Scalped is a band, playing one thing, turning it into magic. The hardest part is to make it together. You have to understand the script and then I decide everything else and if you are lucky the writer knows what you are good at. This is creating something together.

Carol takes her femme fatale role too far

BF: Your style is rather dark and noir, filled with shadows and lighting techniques but still very clear and readable.

GUÉRA: Yes and it is something that really clicked for me from issue 25 on. At first Scalped was really dark and at times very bright and I was trying to join these two attitudes of mine into one cohesive style that would serve the story. Issue 9 was about Catcher and it was drowned in darkness and distorted in black and it is the darkest story I ever did. Issue 25 was about a black hustler, a real killer whom I tried to draw very clean because he is a very cold person so all my efforts went into maintaining this sort of cleanliness. So after that issue, it clicked for me and I was able to join my two styles together. 

BF: The character Diesel seems to a bit out of touch with your style though with his big protruding cartoon chin.

GUÉRA: Yes, I just tried something with him and I still don’t know if it worked. I think it did, especially because of his ending. Everybody else in the cast is a rounded character but Diesel is a cartoon in itself. Diesel is just bad, he doesn’t know it himself, he just is. So I tried to put that in the design.

Diesel at his worst by Guéra

BF: How emotionally challenging is it to spend time with the story of all these morally challenged characters?

GUÉRA: It is hard but you can’t leave. You learn to love these characters. Even granny Poor Bear is based upon my grandmother, it goes that far. She is a woman who helps a lot of kids but not one of those is hers. She is a strong person and my grandmother was like that.

You get emotionally involved but it has to be controlled. My way of doing this is reading. I have a lot of books which is not a visual thing. It helps me to keep a distance. With comics and photography the visuals are already fixed, I don’t want that. I read Cormac McCarthy and it helps to refuel my emotional state.

Granny Poor Bear stands watch over one of her strays

BF: So looking at your own life helps you to put life into the characters of Scalped.

GUÉRA: Yes, bad things that happen to you, like with the gypsies and my grandmother. I really am trying to apply what actors are doing. It is the same thing. Our job is not to illustrate, it is to express. Each page and drawing is a sentiment. The style doesn’t matter, it’s about expression and what you feel about it.

BF: Having had experience both in comics and in Europe with publishing books, how do you feel about the serialisation of Scalped as part of the US comics market?

GUÉRA: I think that if the story is good, the format almost doesn’t matter. But the format has to be in sync with the story. If we present just the single comics, I don’t think everyone will like it. For the European market I want to adjust it a bit to make the publications more in line with what they are used to. To make it a bit more serious, something that will better represent the content of Scalped. The design needs to be better. I really think Europeans are much more experienced with this.

I personally prefer reading the paperbacks. I don’t know why we are so pressured to produce a monthly comic book but I trust that there is a logic to it.

Dashiel Bad Horse, one of the leading players in the Scalped crime drama

BF: You grew up in Serbia and developed your artistic skills there, did the move to Spain influence your style and take it into other directions?

GUÉRA: Yes, but not obviously. It made me believe that you can make drawings as you are. Like looking at Franquin’s art you can tell that it is really him. You can see so much of him on those pages.

BF: Do you have other European influences in your art?

GUÉRA: I would say Franquin is the biggest influence on me. Not that it is apparent in my drawings but people like Franquin... they opened the doors for us. They showed us how it can be done differently, they opened the doors and we stepped in. The same thing is true for Jean Giraud (or Moebius).

There’s also - this is American artists now - there’s Noel Sickles because I don’t think Milt Caniff is good and Frank Robbins, I adore him. He is one of the best ever together with Alex Toth. And the Mad squad is also an important part being Jack Davis and Wallace Wood. They are the American part of my personality. But Giraud, he also changed my life with Blueberry and The Ghost of the Goldmine.

Follow R. M. Guéra at his website and his Facebook. Scalped is published by Vertigo.

This interview was conducted at the Lille Comics Festival 2011 in Lille, France in conjunction with comicsblog.fr.

Mary Talbot is a newcomer to comics. Her husband Bryan is anything but, having spent the last forty years or so making an indelible mark on the industry with a body of work that has frequently broken new ground for the medium.

But this latest project, Dotter of Her Father's Eyes released this February through Dark Horse, is something just a little bit special. The graphic novel marks the Talbots' first collaborative effort in the field, and Broken Frontier asked them how it came about…

BROKEN FRONTIER: Obvious first question, Mary: what prompted you to write this Dotter of her Father’s Eyes in this particular way?

MARY TALBOT: Bryan prompted it initially, with the simple suggestion: ‘Why not write about your relationship with your father, the Joycean scholar?’ I’ve had academic work in print for years, but early retirement has opened up my horizons to other kinds of writing. The idea of producing a graphic novel script really appealed to me. I wasn’t too sure about autobiography, though, so I starting looking into ways of making it interesting, or so I thought.

James Joyce had a daughter, as I was vaguely aware, so I went into that as a possible angle. That’s how it started.  Bryan was keen on producing something different too, I think. He’d had an idea for a collaborative project lined up with the narrative poet, Dorothy Porter, who he’d met at a Literary Festival in Brisbane. Sadly, she died before anything came out of it.

BF: How do you find writing for the graphic novel format?

MARY: Writing for the graphic novel format? It’s great! I love explaining something, telling a story or whatever, using a combination of words and images. The richness of the whole medium is brilliant. I’m still very much a novice, of course, but I have a very experienced advisor... [Laughs]

BF: Mary, the way you’ve described your childhood really makes it come to life-but it’s very much a warts and all account, it comes across as almost brutally honest. Did you have to consider whether to take that approach?

MARY: I’ve got a feeling a memoir that isn’t warts-and-all honest wouldn’t be worth reading. I wouldn’t have written it at all when my parents were alive. I don’t think I’d have been able to.

BF: I do like the little ‘corrections’ to Bryan’s art, as with the bit about the kids being segregated in the classroom. Whose idea was that little touch?

MARY: The first of the footnote comments came about when I wasn’t keen on the way Bryan had drawn my mother in one panel. He had her in an apron as worn by the stereotypical 1950s American housewife! Rather than ‘correcting’ his drawing, he suggested that we make a joke of it. We then went through looking for places to fit in more of them. I like the way it highlights the collaboration and adds an element of meta-textual commentary.

BF: The narrative isn’t precisely linear-it tends to veer off in unexpected directions, giving it a very natural, conversational feel, as though you’re remembering things as you go along. Was that the intention?

MARY: Yes, exactly. The traveller in the present-day segment is drifting off into a reverie; it’s triggered by a combination of the noisy kids in the train compartment and her reading material.

BF: The parallels you draw between your life and Lucia’s are fascinating, but neither your father nor Joyce came out of it looking too great at times. You’re obviously a devotee of Joyce’s work, but how do you see him as person?

MARY: By all accounts, Joyce was pretty hopeless at a lot of things, including making a living. This was hard work for everyone around him, especially his family. He seems to have doted on them in his way, but he was obviously very self-absorbed. The title of his brother Stanislaus’s biography was My Brother’s Keeper, which speaks volumes.

BF: Bryan, the use of different colours to differentiate between the scenes featuring Mary and those featuring Lucia was obviously a conscious decision-but why those particular colours? I can understand the shades of blue for Lucia, nicely melancholic, but many of the scenes showing your life and Mary’s seem to be almost sepia toned? Deliberate, or am I imagining it?

BRYAN TALBOT: It was deliberate, to give those sequences a sense of being in the past and also to give them their own recognisable atmosphere, to colour-code them, if you will, to make them distinct from the Joyce pages. They were drawn with a soft B pencil on textured watercolour paper with touches of spot colour to suggest the way that memory works – thinking of the past we always remember some things more vividly than others.

You’ll notice that more colour appears gradually as events become more recent. The present day sequences are in a clear ink line technique with flat colour. The Joycean sequences were inked with a dip pen on smooth Bristol board so that the blue wash would have a different texture than the sepia wash. Actually both washes were done with lamp black and tinted on computer. I thought the dip pen and blue somehow suited the Art Deco style of the 20s and 30s I was portraying.

BF: What’s next? I gather there’s a historical graphic novel in the works; can you tell us anything more about it?

MARY: The next book is largely set in Edwardian England. It will probably run to about 150 pages – and it’s a corker. That’s all there is to say at this time!  

BRYAN: I’m around halfway through Grandville Bête Noire and as I have two further Grandville books lined up, I’ll not be drawing Mary’s next one, though I’ll probably do some work on the panel breakdowns. We’re currently trying to find a suitable artist.

Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, by Mary and Brian Talbot, goes on sale February 8, 2012 from Dark Horse Comics. The 96-page graphic novel has a cover price of $14.99.