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Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour Draws to a Close

2010-07-17T15:43:46Z

It all started with a vaguely remembered rant from Warren Ellis shortly after I started managing the Fantasy Shop in Fairview Heights in Illinois. The year was 2007 and I had been managing the store for a while and wanted to start getting books in that I had always heard good things about but had never seen in the store that I had worked at previously. I was looking through the Diamond Star System Catalog and trying to remember books that I had heard good buzz about when I remembered an issuance of Warren Ellis' Bad Signal that had mentioned a book called Scott Pilgrim and how if I hadn't been reading it that I was somehow doing myself a disservice as both a comics fan and a human being. And so I ordered the book. And that's when everything changed.

Bryan Lee O'Malley's epic tribute to video games, relationships, music, heartbreak, falling in love, and being in your 20's blew the doors wide open on what could be done with narratives and comics on the whole as far as I was concerned. I quickly devoured the currently available 3 volumes and started recommending it to everyone with a pulse. I even went so far as to extend an offer to buy-1-get-1-free on volumes 1 & 2 to get people to check out what I thought might be the kind of comic that would make even the most staunch super-hero fan understand the charm and wonder of independent comics. And in many ways I was more than successful. Readers and customers who took a chance on the books returned desperate for more and I couldn't have been more pleased.

And then volume 4 was solicited and my heart started racing. I had to have more. I've never been a "Wait for the trade" kind of guy. I love the anticipation and the time to evaluate what has happened in each issue of a story to develop my own theories and think about the narrative arc. But for the first time I'd ever experienced I needed, NEEDED, the next part of a story. I had to have Volume 4 and was willing to do bodily harm if necessary. Instead I focused that energy into getting more people excited about the book and started pointing more and more readers toward the book. Giving a satisfaction guarantee on the books was becoming more and more regular and nary a one took me up on the chance to return the book. They brought the first volume home and returned anytime between a day to a week later needing to read the rest of the series. And eventually we were all waiting for volume 4.

I remember distinctly the day it came out, I had gone to take the deposit to the bank and to get Thai food from Tong Phoon (if you live in the Fairview Heights, IL area and have never eaten at Tong Phoon do yourself a favor and go order the Pad See Eew, you'll wonder why you've been avoiding delicious food for so long) and was coming back to the store and sat down to eat my lunch. I looked at my clerk Brian and said: "The store is yours while I eat my lunch and read Scott Pilgrim, don't bother me for a little while."

I sat and shoveled delicious noodles into my gaping maw and plowed through the pages of a comic that made me laugh out loud, think about life, and even perhaps tear up a little at times. And then it was over. And I needed Volume 5.

Volume 5 wouldn't come until 15 months later. But it was ever so worth the wait. To say that it lived up to my expectation would be a misnomer, it exceeded it by leaps and bounds. Another thing that a lot of readers complain about (and at times rightfully so) is late books. Having to wait longer than a month for the next issue of a comic can be frustrating. But when the book is as good as Scott Pilgrim (which few books are) you're happy to wait.

Once again I took the opportunity between volumes to get more people to check out the book and they were just as taken with the series as I was. By the time that the fourth volume had hit the shelves the book had started to become known as "The Harry Potter Books of the Comics World", fans would show up at midnight to get the book from their favorite comic stores in order to read it as fast as was humanly possible. Then rumors of a possible movie started to make the rounds.

Having Edgar Wright, the mind behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (not to mention the utterly brilliant Spaced), behind the feature was an instant point of interest and the buzz behind the film began to grow exponentially. Wright featured frequent clips from on set on his website as well as a production journal that kept fans interest piqued. The casting seemed, to me at least, spot on at every choice and the wait to see a trailer of some sorts became almost interminable. By the time that the first clips of the film began trickling out as teasers, trailers, and finally the nearly flawless international trailer the excitement had reached a frenzy that could barely be contained. The release date for the final volume was announced and it left plenty of time to acquire the volume (though most would be waiting at the door the day of release) and read the conclusion to the series as well as give the whole series a re-reading or two before the film was upon us all. Michael Cera's Pilgrim looked spot on, Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Flowers a thing of alt-indie dreams, the Seven Evil Exes note perfect, and perhaps the most overlooked yet important Kieran Culkin's portrayal of Wallace Wells looked ready to steal scenes and become a kind of a step beyond mere token gay character. The world was ready for the brilliance of Mr. O'Malley.

And I have a secret ...

... I got to read the book early.

Scott Pilgrim Volume 6 Finest Hour is a tour de force. It's full of just as many brilliant, laugh out loud panels as any of the previous volumes and it shows the growth of the characters in such a deft and powerful way that I couldn't detach the ear to ear smile that grew on my face from the time I opened the first page. Opening a Scott Pilgrim book for me has become like watching the scroll before the Star Wars movies. There is a goose bumpy kind of quality to it. The final volume sated everything that I could have possibly hungered for when it comes to a comic of the sort quality (by which I mean totally awesome). From watching the effect that coffee has on Scott (eyes wide with the thrill of stimulants, hair jutting up like a Super Sayan), to the brilliantly contextual way that Scott remembers the way he's treated all of his previous girlfriends (Scott vs. NegaScott will go down as one of my favorite moments of the series), to Scott being forced to fight Gideon while wearing a promotional shirt for Gideon's new club ... to perhaps one of the best moments of the volume, the return of Gideon the Cat and the look on it's face when Scott holds it as he sleeps (could not stop laughing). The conclusion of volume 5 had left a lot of readers more than a little antsy about how the series would conclude and without spoiling it I will say that I was more than satisfied with the conclusion to this window into Scott's life that we were granted. I loved watching the questions get answered, I loved watching Scott do the things that heartbroken 20-somethings do. I loved the book. I loved that it concluded and that there won't be "The Continuing Adventures of Scott Pilgrim".

The last decade or so have included some incredibly satisfying conclusions to stories that I have loved, books like Y: The Last Man, Planetary, Bone, Strangers in Paradise, The Essex County Trilogy, Ennis' Punisher, Bendis' Daredevil, Brubaker's Daredevil, Alias, Rising Stars, Transmetropolitan, Losers, Preacher, Sleeper ... books like these are the kinds of books that come to mind when I think of Scott Pilgrim. I hope that Mr. O'Malley would find these kinds of comparisons favorable if not complimentary.

Scott Pilgrim is the kind of story that, if you have a beating heart inside your chest, will make you love comics, or even make you love comics again. I'll be the first to admit that over the last few months that it has taken me longer and longer to get through my weekly stacks of comics. I've felt a little over-saturated. But in the last few weeks there have been books that have rekindled my love for comics from it's waning bonfire to it's former towering inferno. And Scott Pilgrim's graceful yet frenetic and gloriously appropriate ending is certainly one of them.

And I love him even more because his name is Scott.

Sixth Gun Signing TODAY!

2010-06-30T16:17:57Z

A Time for Stacks of Books and Things: Scott's Summer Reading List

2010-06-15T21:43:23Z

The time has come again. It's time for the weather to spike up over the 90 degree mark and for people the country over to go on summer vacation and pick up books from libraries, book stores, and airport news-stands. To best build on this increased interest in casual reading book sellers and critics the world over start to put together their "Summer Reading Lists". We here at the Fantasy Shop are really no different, and the comics industry is glad to provide us with plenty of quality material as the days grow warmer and the nights grow shorter. So, first off I would recommend checking out the following Best of The Summer 2010 lists (here, here and here), and then you should read on and check out some of the upcoming reads, re-issues, and forgotten classics.

I couldn't wait to read the first item on my list, and so it's the only item that I can tell you about from experience. It's a prose novel from one of my favorite writers over the last several years: Cory Doctorow. Cory's gift for future-now fiction is the kind that many writers wish that they could achieve and his ability to teach the future of tech is one part professor one part prophet.

His newest novel is a Young Adult novel called For The Win which is an amazing story of young gamers the world over who find themselves in the unenviable position of being a part of a new generation of sweat shops: Gold Farms. The novel follows characters from all over South East Asia and the West Coast of America as they suffer the trials and travails of a world that wants to grind the most value out of a game instance with little care for the health and wellbeing of those who do the work. The characters are as diverse in their experience with MMORPG's as they are in their geographical locality, from Mala who is only just getting into gaming and finds herself recruited into the world of Gold Farming, to Matthew who has worked in one of China's hardest working Gold Farms only to venture out on his own in an attempt to make money while having more fun, to Big Sister Nor who comes from the world of Unionized Labor in Factories and knows less of gaming than she does of leading people, to Leonard who'd rather you call him "Wei Dong" who lives in California and is fascinated with Chinese culture. It's a brilliant book that kept me enraptured from the first page through the end. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep even the most jaded of readers on edge and it provides a look at the future of our economy while looking back at the ways of the past.

A great book for readers of all ages and an instant recommendation for those who love the works of Orson Scott Card and Warren Ellis.

One of the books on my stack of "To Be Read" that I've been dying to get around to is Farscape. I really wanted to re-watch the series before I dove into the comics in order to get the stories and the characters refreshed in my mind. Thanks to Netflix I've been able to go through and rediscover the many wonders that is the series of Farscape. The tale of John Crichton is one of truly epic proportions and one that I have greatly enjoyed watching. So when BOOM! Studios announced that they would be bringing the series back in comic form under the oversight of series creator Rockne S. O'Bannon I was utterly thrilled. I've kept myself from reading much of the books since it's launched in my meager attempt to re-digest the series as it had been but I must admit that from time to time I have slipped and that the comics are everything I had hoped that they would be and more.

The art captures the characters as they were in the series without feeling stale and posed. The writing grasps the nuances of the relationships as well as the depth of the personalities. And I can only say that if you haven't ever checked out Farscape that you are doing yourself a great disservice. Even though the series is a bit older now I can assure you that it is the kind of classic that keeps itself from feeling dated.

So get over to Netflix and watch the series. I can guarantee that you won't regret it.

Another item on my "To Read List" isn't fiction, it's a game. From Evil Hat Games comes The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game. In an attempt to keep myself from going stark raving mad a few years back when I was living in Saint Charles and working in Fairview Heights, IL I decided to start listening to audiobooks during my commute and based on the recommendation of one Mr. Mark Finefield, I decided to check out the Dresden Files series. And I couldn't have possibly been more pleased. The life and times of Harry Dresden are amazing. Author Jim Butcher has a talent for combining the modern world and the world of magic and wizards.

The game is based on the underground hit The FATE System, the game which the currently available Spirit of the Century is based on. Everything about it seems like it's going to be right up my alley and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

While I'm at it I should also recommend Spirit of the Century, from Evil Hat Games, just recently available for retail and in all 4 stores of the Fantasy Shop.

It's going to be a great Summer.

An Injection of Youth into Marvel Comics

2010-06-08T20:27:54Z

For a long, long, long time in the world of comics there have been team books. In 1941 Marvel even had a book that teamed together all of the side-kicks of the Golden Age and had them fight Nazis just like their adult counterparts. And as far back as the launch of X-Men there have been books about young super-powered individuals being brought together to assure that they would become the heroes of tomorrow. New Mutants, Legion of Superheroes, Teen Titans, Young Justice, Infinity Inc., Generation X, Gen13, Young X-Men, Young Avengers, Avengers Initiative ... the list goes on and on. But this week Marvel has two different books coming out that high-light the exploits of young heroes who have had a rough go of it and who are in need of being pointed in the right direction.

First up is Young Allies from one of the best writers that comics has to offer when it comes to detailing the adventures of young characters super-powered or non: Sean McKeever and his recent partner in crime (they worked together on Nomad: Girl Without a World as well as the Nomad back up feature in Captain America) David Baldeόn. The two have clearly got a good sense for how the other likes to tell stories as they communicate the story they are presenting. The pages seem to have a natural flow to both the dialog and the visuals. The story they are telling is the formation of the team of Young Allies which happens to have also been the title of the team book that I mentioned before that began in 1941. The team, so far, seems to consist of a rag-tag group of characters that have had a certain level of popularity at times but have all (or mostly all) fallen by the wayside. Among them is Nomad (she used to be known as Bucky [the one created by Rob Liefeld during the Heroes Reborn days ... I know ... I thought it was going to be a terrible idea to use her as well ... but McKeever has proven that she can be an engaging and interesting character and so I trust him on this front]), Araña (a character that I was not sure warranted a return ... but again I trust McKeever), Gravity (a character that McKeever created with Mike Norton back when he first started working for Marvel back in 2005 and a character that I don't think was ever really given a fair day in court because he is a cool character), Firestar (yes, the one from Spider-Man's Amazing Friends), and a new character that McKeever has created for this series named: Toro (which is also the name of the sidekick of the original Human Torch from the 1940's, who appeared in the first Young Allies book).

The book is charming and instantly has the feel of "THE GATHERING OF THE HEROES" but still manages to do so without feeling overly cliché. The dialog is appropriately aged and has a genuine feel. The villains in the book are "The Bastards of Evil", which at first sounded like the most spectacularly lame name in the history of comics, until they reveal that each of the characters are the bastard children of super-villains and then it carries a certain emotional weight even if the characters are mostly, if not entirely, unlikable considering their motivations, which I will not spoil here, by which I mean they are the kinds of characters that you love to hate, they are the kinds of characters that I hope become longtime foils of the Young Allies. There is an interesting dynamic between them as they fight in the streets of Manhattan.

I highly recommend the book even if you haven't read Nomad: Girl Without a World, or any of the other books that introduced these characters. It's a solid read from beginning to end. McKeever's already got the kind of experience that is required to keep a book like this fresh and interesting (his run on Teen Titans was really great and is terribly under-read) and Baldeόn's artwork is consistently getting better and I think that he has the chance of becoming one of the artists about which the title of "Most Underrated" might start getting thrown around.

The other book that Marvel is releasing this week is Avengers Academy which comes to us from writer Christos Gage and artist Mike McKone. Gage, fresh off his run on Avengers Initiative (the spiritual predecessor to this book) brings a head of steam and the right kind of momentum to this book. McKone is one of my all time favorite comic artists and has worked on some of my favorite team books in recent memory (his runs on Exiles, Fantastic Four, and Teen Titans were all incredible not to mention that he was the artist on the first book I ever special ordered "Vext" from DC Comics). These are two high caliber creators teaming together on one of the highest profile launches of a teenaged Avengers launch since Allan Heinberg's Young Avengers.

The book lives up to the hype that has been built up around it as well. This is also one of those books where becoming a team isn't going to be second nature for any of these characters, it's got a "learning on the job" kind of feel as well. There is something about this book that makes me really excited about it's prospects. All of the characters are potential powerhouses in their own ways and it's clear that both the other characters and the creators understand this possibility and will be exploring this concept as we watch these characters learn about what it is to be a hero, because as has been proven many, many times before it takes more than super-powers to be a super hero.

The characters are all interesting and what I think is most interesting is the cast of characters who are going to be the "Teachers" of these young characters. Among them are Hank Pym, Justice, Speedball, Tigra, and Quicksilver. These are all characters with a history who have had problems in the past and have a dynamic concept to the process of teaching these rather powerful characters. The young characters again have a feeling of being genuine young characters, they don't seem like young figures delivering the dialog of adult characters like so often happens in books like this. Gage has more than proven his talent for writing the dynamic of teams and has a clear grasp on how to properly pen the characters he has created for the series.

There is a whole lot going for both of these books and I think that it shows a positive indication for the Heroic Age when it comes to new team books as both these as well as Avengers and Secret Avengers have all been strong stories upon debut and leave nothing to indicate that they won't continue to be strong books. So perhaps the time has finally come where Marvel's team books are going to be performing on the same kind of level as many of their solo character books had been over the last few years.

Get excited people!

Tumor Leaves Little to Malign

2010-06-01T22:50:14Z

Sometimes there are books that take you wholesale by surprise. Books that you didn't know anything about going into and are maybe even in a genre of which you're not typically a fan. Books that people think "Huh? Really?" when you recommend it to them. Tumor is not one of those cases for me. it is a book that I have been excited about ever since I first heard about it. It's a book that takes so many things that I rather enjoy and puts them together into one package that I will even go so far as to use the recently overused phrase "in my wheelhouse" in order to properly describe. It's Noir, and it's Private Detective, and it's got gorgeously sketchy artwork, and it's more nightmarish than dreamlike but contains just enough of the ethereal ephemera of dreams-cape that it retains the kind of feel of Noir that I so enjoy (read my review of Area 10 if you're not familiar with what it takes to make a really great Noir story).

Joshua Hale Fialkov brings a certain kind of magic to everything he works on (Having worked on Pilot Season: Cyblade [which won], Cyblade: Agent of Cyberdata, Pilot Season: Alibi [which did not win but is currently in development to be a feature film], Elk's Run [which was nominated for a Harvey Award], and also has contributed to the incredibly awesome anthologies "Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened" and "Outlaw Territory") and The Tumor is no exception. The book is really something special. And not just because it was one of the first comics to really make a splash on The Kindle, though that doesn't hurt it's status one iota. Archaia Studios Press took a chance by releasing the book in chapters for the Kindle starting back in August and it payed off in a big way, charting at the #1 digital download for several weeks and outpaced even some of the big hitters in the world of Graphic Novels ... like The Watchmen.

The Tumor brings the story of Frank Armstrong, a private detective who has never really had much luck and never really had much of a desire to be a private detective. He's given a few scraps from a friend who is a detective with LAPD and makes a few bucks doing it. As the story begins he is suffering from some pretty blinding headaches and has been taking aspirin by the fistfull and downing them with anything handy. He's been given the briefest of details about a case that his friend Detective Polish wants to throw his way. Just that a girl is missing and that he can make a couple hundred bucks if he takes it off the police's plate. He quickly learns that the missing girl is the daughter of a prominent man in the criminal underworld and that there might have been a pretty good reason that she ran away in the first place.

Just when Frank thinks he has a handle on the case and a lead worth following everything changes. Frank has an inoperable tumor in his brain that is causing him all kinds of problems and that has resulted in a skewed capacity to cope with the world around him. He is having vivid flashbacks to events that surround his late wife's murder and also to his taking of the case ... or perhaps they're flash forwards to his hospital stay and diagnosis. It's a haze of neuro-chemicals, stress, cranial pressure, mistaken identities, and regret. And it's all incredibly brilliantly told. Fialkov dances around the flashes with the grace of a ballerino (which is the male ballerina ... you probably didn't know that). The story has just as many twists and turns as Memento, Narcoleptic Sunday, Slaughterhouse 5, The Prestige, and other incredible non-linear styled stories. But there is a certain magic that Tumor brings to the page that makes it feel even more simultaneously human and unconscious.

Noel Tuazon brings something like a sketchy Carla Speed McNeil to his pages and plays both the heavy inks of the shadows of the kind of stark story that Frank finds himself in, and the watered down washes of the memories and dreams he finds himself reliving with equal aplomb. The characters are emotive and pensive and human. You can see the dishonesty of Evelyn's eyes and the world weary wrinkles of Frank's face, the laziness and satisfaction of Polish's paunch ... every character is at once seemingly an everyman and very specific. They are people you've known, strangers on the street. And Fialkov writes them in the same fashion. They have favorite restaurants (not to mention favorite dishes as those restaurants) and grandparents who lived in this neighborhood years ago and an awareness of the miasma that is Los Angeles, an amorphous city that resists definition and defies stagnancy. They embrace the multicultural melting pot that's become more of a cesspool than anything else and they do so without hesitation. There is something immediately appealing about these characters.

Fialkov has penned an incredible story here and it's really in the intimate little corners of the story and the commentary about the city he calls home that the narrative really sings. When Frank is at his lowest is when you understand him the most, when Evelyn is at her most aghast you identify with her, when the circumstances of the case that Frank is working now and the situation that resulted in the death of his wife is the most similar you start to see the beauty of the piece.

Do I think that it's success online means that it is the future of the way comics should be communicated to it's audience? No. As much I enjoyed reading it on the screen of my computer and later on the surface of my roommate's Kindle I more thoroughly enjoyed the reading of it in the gorgeous package that is the hardcover. With it's Deckle Edged pages (that's the rough, uneven cut to the pages that a lot of hardcover books in the literary industry have started to take on and dates back ... well that's for another time), it's half dust jacket revealing the embossed cover image of Frank's brain, the "Frank Armstrong Mystery" short story in the back, the original pitch material (including original character sketches), the essay about the Los Angeles of The Tumor, and the Afterword written by Fialkov I think that it makes for an incredible package that is more than worth it's price tag at $14.95. I think that fans of Criminal, Parker: The Hunter, Sleeper, Queen & Country, Scalped, and all great crime fiction will more than enjoy this book.

Tumor - The Trailer from Joshua Fialkov on Vimeo.

Answers From an American Vampire

2010-05-17T17:38:17Z

Since it's release there hasn't been a hotter Vertigo title (at least at the store I manage) than American Vampire. It's rich world and deep characters at once evoke the kind of reactions that books like Y: The Last Man and Fables did upon their release and has since surpassed the sales figures of all other Vertigo books that are currently on the shelves (once again, at least at the store I manage). And when you add to it the fact that Stephen King is working on the book for the first 5 issues it's certainly made for a big hit. But what most people might not take in to consideration when they look at the book is that it isn't based on a Stephen King story or even a Stephen King idea, it's core concept is, whole cloth, the work of comics newcomer Scott Snyder.

Snyder shows in the first issue of his first ongoing series that he has an incredible grasp of the comic medium and knows how to write for both the issue and the arc the way it takes most writers several years to grasp. Paired with one of the most incredible (and underrated artists in the industry) Rafael Albuquerque they've put a whole new spin on what it means to be a Vampire. I had the opportunity to talk with Snyder at c2e2 in Chicago back in April and he was both incredibly gracious and incredibly excited to be at his first big convention pimping his first ongoing series and when I asked him if he'd be willing to answer some questions about his work with Vertigo as well as his work with Marvel he was more than happy to oblige. So, on the eve of the release of the 3rd issue of American Vampire, I bring you my interview with Scott Snyder:

Fantasy Shop: How long have you been into comics? What was the first comic you read that made you want to write comics?

Scott Snyder: I've been into comics for as long as I can remember. My dad used to take me to the old Forbidden Planet in NYC every week, when I was in grade school. He used to send me comics at sleepaway camp - it's his fault. As for the first comic that made me want to write, I actually wanted to draw comics when I was a kid - all the way through high-school. (I got more into the writing side of things in college.) So it was things like McFarlane's first Spidey run, Bernie Wrightson's Swamp Thing (and this Frankenstein), Jim Lee's X-Men - I traced those guys over and over.

FS: What kind of comics do you find yourself drawn toward, currently or historically?

SS: I've always liked slightly darker stuff I guess. The books I return to over and over for story are Batman Year One, the Dark Knight Returns, Swamp Thing, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum, Gotham Central... My more recent favorites are everything Mike Mignola does, Scalped, Sweet Tooth... Honestly, I read pretty much everything now, and it's hard to throw a rock without hitting a good book nowadays. The quality in the DCU, at Marvel, all the mainstream stuff is firing on all cylinders too.

FS: I understand that you are a teacher as well, do you use comics in your classes?

SS: Mostly I just teach fiction workshops, so it's almost all student work. But I do teach a class at NYU about the crossover between genre, literary fiction, and comics in the last 20 years - it's mostly a workshop, but I end up talking a lot of comics.

FS: Having a cover quote from Stephen King must have felt rather cool for your short story collection, Voodoo Heart, but getting him to work on the origin story for one of your comic's central characters must have been a whole other kind of high. How did that pairing happen?

SS: I've been in close touch with him ever since he gave me that review/quote. So when it became clear that Vertigo was going to greenlight the series, I sent him the pitch to see if he’d be up for giving a quote or doing an intro for the trade at some point — really just seeing if he’d be up for writing a line or two. Anyway, he wrote back saying he liked the character of Skinner enough that he’d actually be up for writing an issue or two if anyone would let him. I was like, “If anyone will let you?” Obviously, when I told Karen Berger and everyone at Vertigo that Steve was up for writing an issue, they jumped at it. So he started off just writing an issue. But then a couple weeks in, he wrote me asking if he might be able to go off the rez a little. I told him to do anything he wanted and he ended up writing five full issues... What I learned is that the thing about Steve - the thing that's so wild - is that when he likes a story, he writes like a hungry young writer, right out of the gate - a writer with something to prove, not like someone established (established beyond anyone out there!). It's very inspiring to see someone of his stature go to the mat for a story that way. We emailed and spoke every day for those couple months - talked ideas, edits... Again, the series as a whole, not just his part of it, is exponentially better for his involvement. A hundred thanks to him.

FS: When we talked at C2E2 you mentioned that you were thinking about pitching some other ideas around to see what sticks in the hopes of getting more work in the comics world, what do you think that you bring to the comics medium that is going to differentiate your style and voice from the other writers of the day (for example I've said many times that I think that Jason Aaron explores the world of moral grey better than most other comics writers currently working today)?

SS: Wow. That's a tough one. I can tell you what I hope I bring, which is maybe a bit of a darker sensibility when it comes to character. I've always been drawn to stories that bring characters face to face with the ugly parts of themselves.

FS: What has it been like working with a talent like Rafael Albuquerque?

SS: Alright - I know I sound like a PR asshole, between singing Steve's praises and now singing Rafa's, but honestly, the experience working on this comic has been a dream come true with these guys - the editor, too, Mark Doyle (who you met in Chicago, too). I told Rafa early on I wanted him really involved in the story-process, if he was up for it, and he jumped right in - he's been sweating blood for the thing. He actually came up with the idea of doing two different styles for the two stories in each of the first 5 issues. I couldn't be more grateful that Rafa agreed to work on the series. He's a major creative force behind the book - not just layouts and compositions, but character design, style, tone... We chat almost every day on AIM - he's honestly become a good friend, like Mark and Steve. We're a tight team on this thing, which makes it a pleasure to work on.

FS: What can you tell us about your prose work and where can we get our grubby little hands on it?

SS: My collection of stories, Voodoo Heart, is out there in paperback still.

FS: What can you tease us with about the coming stories in American Vampire?

SS: They keep me on a pretty short leash in that department, but I can tell you that the next cycle, issues 6-9, will take place in the Depression 1930's, in a young, booming Las Vegas, where a series of gruesome murders leads the local chief of police to start to suspect that the killings might be the work of something worse than human. The cycle will introduce new characters, explore the mythology of the series further, give more vampire history, touch on human/vampire conflict, and also continue the stories of Skinner and Pearl (though all the issues from 6 on will be single story-format, 22 pages of all me and Rafa). They just posted the cover (by Rafa) on the Vertigo blog.

FS: Turning to your Marvel miniseries: Iron Man Noir, what can you tell us about the inspiration behind that series (as it seems to combine several different concepts into a really satisfying concoction, sort of a Doc Savage-meets-Rocketeer-meets-Indiana Jones sort of feel)?

SS: My editor at Marvel, Jeanine Schaefer told me about a year ago about that Iron Man Noir might be a possibility if someone pitched something Marvel liked. I was elated to hear that - I'd been a big fan of the Noir line - but also a little stifled, because no matter how I tried I simply couldn't imagine Tony as a noir character. He's got his demons (which will be on display in IM Noir), he's a dark guy, but world of Iron Man for me has more to do with tech and adventure and big, bright stories. But just then David Hine's terrific Spider-Man Noir series started, and I saw that in it, he'd taken the Noir world a little closer to pulp - that story has mysticism, colorful gangsters and super-powers; it read a lot more like a re-imagining of something like the Shadow or even the Phantom or the Avenger than a re-vamped hard-boiled noir. And so being a big, big fan of 1930's pulp stories and pulp art, it just clicked for me; the only way I was going to make an Iron Man Noir series that I'd love myself would be to go all out into pulp and Men's Adventure, which to me at least, seemed like a context Tony would fit perfectly in. Once I knew that was the way I was going to go, the story began to fall into place. And it's been an insanely fun job - getting to re-imagine Tony and Rhodey and Pepper and Jarvis, but also characters like Namor... I hope I get to do more of the series someday.

FS: You've clearly hit the ground running with the world of comics as you've got an ongoing series from Vertigo and a mini-series from Marvel hitting the shelves within a few weeks of one another, was it simply a matter of convenient timing or was it more an issue of DC announcing your title last fall and then Marvel coming to see if you had anything that you'd be interested in contributing?

SS: My Marvel one-shots came first, actually. Back in 2008, I wrote a story for an anthology that features contemporary writers coming up with new superheroes or villains - the books is called "Who Can Save Us Now." The story I contributed, "The Thirteenth Egg," ended up catching the eye of an editor at Marvel and an editor at DC. After asking me if I was a genuine comic fan (which was easy to answer), the Marvel editor gave me a chance to pitch a couple one-shot possibilities, and I jumped at the Torch opening. I've always loved the Original Torch, the weird blend of Frankenstein and superhero he is... Anyway, I pitched hard for that, writing up a number of ideas, and luckily I got it and soon after I got the chance to pitch to the DC editor, Mark Doyle, who worked at Vertigo. I'd had American Vampire in mind for a while at that point and so I went to he meeting with a pitch for it. Mark liked it right away and helped me re-work the pitch a number of times, before it was ready for Karen Berger and Will Dennis. From pitching it to Mark to having it greenlit took about 6 months.

FS: Your comics to date haven't been straightforward Super Hero tales, what kind of comics do you have interest in writing?

SS: I have some original ideas that are sci-fi and horror things, but I'm really excited about doing more super-hero stuff. As for characters, I'd kill to get my hands on anyone in the bat universe.

FS: And like I prefer to end every interview, is there anything that we should be looking forward to from you? Anywhere people can look for you online or out in the real world (conventions and whatnot that you're planning on attending)?

SS: I'll be at the NY: Comic-Con in October... And I'd love to hear what people think of American Vamprie as it comes out, and I'm easy to find on facebook and twitter - honestly, please get in touch and let me know what you like or don't like. As for what else is upcoming, I have some irons in the fire at DC for later in the year, but nothing concrete yet. Really, making American Vampire as good as I can is what I'm focused on hard right now.

___

Be sure to check out American Vampire, in stores now, or for you trade waiters the Hard Cover will be released in September!

2010 FCBD Remembered

2010-05-11T22:07:01Z

The day has come and past once again and I think that it is easy enough to say that once again Free Comic Book Day was a resounding success! From the overwhelming success of Saint Louis' own Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt's Sixth Gun from ONI, to the wonderful costumed appearances by the one and only Batman (and the rumored appearance of his sometimes nemesis Catwoman as well), to the slew of back issues that everyone took home with them from the various sales that we had at each of the locations. Once again we paired Free Comic Book Day with a company wide back issue sale (each store had their regular stock back issues at $1 a piece!) and a Warehouse Sale at the Saint Charles Location. This year we were glad to see many families returning to once again take part in the celebration (perhaps some would say the madness). We hope that everyone in attendance had a fantastic time and that you were able to find the books you were looking for (or perhaps you found something you never knew you needed) and that you're planning on making it back to The Fantasy Shop before another year rolls around. We got some great pictures at some of the stores and here are links to the galleries for the South County Store and the Saint Charles Store!

Sixth Gun Blows it's Free Comic Book Day Competition Away

2010-04-27T23:05:55Z

When I think of Cullen Bunn I think of three things:

1. "Formerly the World's Youngest Hypnotist" (... yeah).

2. The really funny story about when he worked for the Fantasy Shop and was called to the old Saint Charles location by the cops when the security alarm went off in the middle of the night.

3. I can't imagine what it must be like inside the head of a guy who can craft complete worlds with such seeming ease.

One of Cullen's greatest strengths as a writer is that when you read his works you feel like the world is complete, from the ground up, you imagine that he knows the name of all of the characters who wander past in the background and that each of them has their own stories and that one day they might just become the focus of the story and you'll wonder how you never noticed them before. That is the kind of writer that Cullen is though, he crafts these complex and complete worlds and by the time you're finished reading the first issue of his most recent yarn you can't help but want to know everything there is to know about the nooks and crannies of the little lived in world to which he's just finished introducing to you.

It certainly doesn't hurt that he's got the partner in crime that he does. Brian Hurtt has a longer tenure in the comics industry (and if you haven't read his collaborations with Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis or the criminally under-read and underrated Hard Time from DC/DC Focus then you should do yourself the favor and check them out as soon as is humanly possible) but you can tell when he works with Cullen that he does so with the energy of someone who is working on their very first comic, the excitement is clearly visible on the page (and when you're drawing as many characters who wear suits and ties as wander around in a Cullen Bunn penned story you'd better be pretty excited about it). This is also some of the best work of Brian's career as he has really honed in on the character designs, layouts, emotive quality of his characters, and the general cartooning overall.

But enough about the creators of this work, let's talk about the book itself. Sixth Gun takes place in a Magical American West that we all might wish had been. Enchanted guns, truly mystical tarot decks, undead Generals, haunted gallows tree, and more than you could even imagine. If you tell me that the Pinkertons are going to appear in a comic then you've immediately got my attention but in this book they are more than just a private policing agency, they're so much more. Honestly the book was just incredible, and there is so much about the pacing and the writing and the way that the pages lead you into the next that made me really excited as I was reading this book.

I honestly think that it is probably the duo's best collaboration to date and considering how big a fan of The Damned that I am that is really saying something. It is just a really well crafted story with bits of Cullen's creepy imagination right alongside Brian's great eye for detail. Everything from the characters to the logo feels like it wasn't so much created as found and communicated to us by master story-tellers. I honestly think that this is going to be one of the biggest hits that ONI has had in quite a while and seeing it all in color (and don't even get me started on how great the colors are) will have fans rushing back to the store to get issue #2 when it comes out in July.

But if you want to talk to the creators themselves then you need not wait too much longer as they will be signing at the Fantasy Shop in South County on Wednesday May, 5th, the Wednesday after Free Comic Book Day! So make sure that you have your copy of Sixth Gun #1 and be ready to jump in with both feet into one of the most surprisingly enchanting comics of the year.

Evolution of American Vampire

2010-04-20T20:30:34Z

Forget everything you thought you knew about Vampires.

Go on, forget it all.

I'll wait.

That's right, take all you preconceived notions and throw them in the trash bin. Because this book is going to change how you feel about bloodsuckers on the whole. This book numbers among the best of Vampire stories that I have ever read in the comic format and I say that without hyperbole or hesitation. I put it among the elite stories of the like of Blood: A Tale, Life Sucks, Blood & Water, 30 Days of Night, and Damn Nation. In many ways American Vampire brings more to the table than those book and holds the promise of being an ongoing series as opposed to the limited series and Original Graphic Novels like the others. The ideas that are presented in the opening two issues of American Vampire also bring to mind the kind of feeling that I had reading the first two issues of The Walking Dead, where most stories of it's ilk are limited in their scope and reach this story seems to have the kind of energy and legs to go beyond the typical vampire yarn.

American Vampire is the brainchild of a new writer to the world of comics: Scott Snyder, known mostly for his collection of short stories, Voodoo Heart, and is drawn by artist Rafael Albuquerque, artist of (among other things) Blue Beetle, Crimeland, Nomad: Girl Without a World, & Robin/Spoiler Special. But also working on the book (for at least the first 5 issues) is New York Times Best Selling Author, Stephen King. So there is certainly bound to be people who are checking out this book because of King's name on the cover and in many ways I can't fault them for doing so as King's contribution to the book is quite good and the idea of Stephen King writing for comics instead of just overseeing an adaptation one of his works is certainly pretty cool. But when you read the issue I think that you'll be surprised to find that the ideas and the characters created by Snyder are what will keep you coming back for the book month after month, and that the level of craftsmanship that he brings to the pacing and telling of the story is quite spectacular. And that's not even including how thrilled you're going to be with the artwork of Albuquerque who affects two different styles for the book, one for the story that takes place in the 1920s and another for the story that takes place in the 1880s.

Ultimately the book is the story of a newly turned vampire named Pearl who came to Hollywoodland in the 20s to try and make it as an actress in the tumultuous era of transition between the silent films and the talkies and makes her way all the way up to the status of ... extra. But she's got some good friends and she's working on a movie with one of the great stars of the day and is pretty happy about where her life is going, especially when she is invited to a party by the one and only Chase Hamilton, the star of the picture where she is currently working as an extra. Before leaving for the party from her apartment she see's the same shady stranger that she's seen a few days in a row lounging by the pool ... and he certainly doesn't belong near the womens residences. Things go strangely at the party and I'll leave it up to your imagination as to what goes on exactly (or perhaps you'll just seek out the first issue to find out).

The back-up story through the first 5 issues will tell the history of Skinner Sweet, one of the truly memorable criminals of the 1880s, and the focus of William Bunting's novel "Bad Blood". Skinner is also the mysterious stranger lounging outside Pearl's apartment and as we start to understand in the first issue was not a very nice man while he was alive and is perhaps still not a very nice man now that he is undead. The story of Skinner Sweet is told by acclaimed novelist Stephen King and for the story Albuquerque takes on a far more rendered look to his pencils and colorist Dave McCaig mutes the colors a little bit in order to give it almost a painted look.

The story of both characters are in ways similar and diametrically opposed and the way that the second issue builds off of the groundwork established by the first is certainly the kind of stuff of which dreams are made. Snyder reveals that vampirism evolves as it finds it's way into new cultures, new areas, or perhaps even new eras in order to adapt the new vampires to their surroundings as best it can. So while the vampires of Eastern Europe might not be able to cross running bodies of water or exist in the sunlight or cope with having their hearts pierced by wooden stakes, the vampires of the American West might be something wholly different. And that is one hell of an idea. To think that Vampires, or even other creatures of the night change as they find new bloodlines is something that might not be entirely new but in such different ways as Snyder brings to the table it makes for one hell of a ride. And of course he doesn't tell us all the differences between the Vampires of the past and the American Vampire right out of the gate, you'll have to read along as Pearl discovers just what kind of changes have happened to her.

This is one hell of a comic and I highly suggest that everyone go check it out. If you dig it I'd also recommend the most recent work by Snyder, Iron Man: Noir (think one part Indiana Jones, one part The Rocketeer, and one part pulp adventures).

And if you want to hear more about what Snyder has in store for you with American Vampire come back next week when I'll have an interview with him about how he got into comics and what he plans on doing with them now that he's in the door!

Vertigo's Crime Line Enlightens New Ground with Area 10

2010-03-30T20:05:38Z

The term "Noir"is getting thrown around a lot these days because of the recent return to popularity of crime fiction. But what people often forget about Film Noir is that it not only was it prominently used to tell crime fiction stories, but that it was also an aesthetic style and a kind of moral ambiguity in which the characters exsisted. The kind of fiction that I am talking about is not only the films of John Huston, Otto Preminger, and (sometimes questionably) Alfred Hitchcock or the novels of Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake), Mikey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, it is the visual style of painting with shadows, it is a style of fiction that could be defined as a tedious balance of "oneiric (dreamlike), strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel". Plenty of creators continue to produce fiction that would be well at home in the more simplified world of Noir, but a rare few really craft the kind of fiction that brings a nicely mixed feel of all the five elements as well as creating the right visual style. In the current world of comics I can think of a few pairs that seem obvious choices: Brubaker & Phillips (or Brubaker & Lark for that matter), Azzarello & Risso, & Bendis & Oeming (And Bendis & Maleev ... I suppose Bendis & Gaydos as well), also Darwyn Cooke on his own. But there is a new book that I think makes a case for each of it's creators to become part of Noir Cinematography Defined.the new wave of noir craftsman: Area 10. Written by an old hand at crime fiction, in the larger sense, Christos Gage and drawn by one of the brightest young stars in the industry Chris Samnee,

the book unfolds over several weeks in New York City as NYPD Homicide Detective Adam Kamen tries to solve the "Henry the VIII" Murders, a strange string of unconnected murders linked only by the removal of each of the victim's heads. Kamen is also trying to put behind him some personal drama involving his recent divorce after the sudden death of his (prematurely) newborn son. The book takes a wholly unexpected (though if you've seen the previews in the back of recent Vertigo single issues perhaps less so) turn 7 or so pages into the seemingly run of the mill crime story. Kamen is suddenly and brutally stabbed in the forehead with a Phillips head screwdriver by a lunatic who has also slain all the occupants of a Psychologists office and waiting room. The story then follows Kamen as he continues to try to unravel the ever more complicated case of "Henry" all the while experiencing side effects from his injury that might be more than they seem.

The book deals well with all the elements of being a Noir piece while also folding in some pseudo-sci-fi that brings a certain whet to my appetite. The book unfolds at a nice pace and reveals pieces of key information at just the right times to keep your interest and keep you speeding through the book. At 175 pages it reads well and evokes the kind of feeling I got from reading shorter works by some of the other great modern practitioners of Noir (Like Elmore Leonard's Swag an instant recommend if you're looking for some truly great crime fiction to occupy a summer afternoon).

Gage has been writing crime fiction on some level or another for most of his career and so his talent at the tale is certainly not unexpected, though those unfamiliar with Samnee might find themselves fairly stunned by the quality of work that he turns out in this piece. From what I understand from my recent discussions with Chris (See the interview I did with him a few weeks ago HERE) he completed this work several years ago and had been waiting for the Crime Line to launch and his place in the release schedule so that others might see the work. The work doesn't seem dated as Samnee has become something of a chameleon of late making subtle adaptations to his work from book to book as he tries to fit best in to the style of the story being told (you can see differences between his work from The Mighty to Siege: Embedded which are his most recent consecutive works). At times the work even evokes the work of another of my favorite artists, Shawn Martinbrough (who penned the only "How to Draw" book that I own: How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling).

All in all after having read the book I think that it is the kind of book that all fans of crime fiction (regardless of how close to truly Noir it might be) will love. I give it the utmost recommendation.

Also, if you're interested in picking up a copy from the artist himself on the day it releases Chris will be signing at our South County Location on Wednesday April 7th from 5-8pm.