Wondercon Day 2: IDW Publishing
Out of the panels I attended today, IDW Publishing was the most exciting. While I'm all for DC's major events, I've gravitated more and more to IDW for some substance. Life can't all be superheroes, right? So what can we expect from the company this year?
Our neighbours to the north take heed: Canada's own Captain Canuck will be reprinted in 2 hard cover volumes. I know nothing about the character other than what was explained in the panel, and will be keeping an eye when it arrives.
For avid political and pop culture fiends who followed the success of Presidential Material, the company will publish a 2 issue Barack Obama comic. The first part will cover the results of the election to the inauguration, and the second part will be the first 100 days in office. Of course, we aren't even close to nearing the latter but it's not stopping IDW :D During the Q&A session I asked if this means they might consider publishing more biographical comics. Unfortunately not biographical, but historical comics might down the road. The problem, and I wholly agree, is that it's a hard sell. History has a reputation for being boring. But you know who'd buy historical comics? People who love beatonna. Man, IDW should see the amount of comments she gets for her stuff. Without her comics, I would never have known a thing about Canadian prime ministers. Did you know, you can't leave Canada without getting an official hug from a Mountie? Fact.
Back to the panel at hand: Jimmy Palmiotti's Club Med with zombies book The Last Resort will have covers by Amanda Conner and Darwyn Cooke. I'm not a big zombies or vampire or aliens person, but hearing that the artist will not be coloring on the computer piqued my interest. It later clicked when I learned Giancarlo Caracuzzo is a European artist. Palmiotti's blog on Newsarama has some preview pages, and they look fab.
One of two projects announced at last year's San Diego Comic-Con that caught my attention is Torpedo, a Spanish comic that's being translated and re-written by Jimmy Palmiotti. Cooke will be on design duties for the releases. The other is Cooke's own adaptation of the Parker books by Richard Stark, aka Donald E Westlake. Not much was revealed about Torpedo (other than explained at the last Comic-Con) but we were treated to two pages of the first Parker adaptation, The Hunter. Ignore my obvious idolising of Darwyn Cooke, but do know that what we saw is fan-freaking-tastic. The tone, the font, the colouring... *whistles* Book 1 at 140-144 pages will be released this June for $24.99.
Thanks to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal, I think now's a great time to put out crime and noir fiction. When I was starting to get into noir nearly a decade ago, I limited myself to Sin City because that was what people were using as an example of the genre. Thankfully we have Criminal being genius in that it includes essays and recommendations of great stories/movies. This not only serves as an education, but also increases demand for well-executed works. Personally, I have to thank Cooke because it was his gushing recommendation that made me pick up Westlake novels. See how it works?
Finally, for fans of Dave Stevens and Rocketeer, IDW will collect the entire run in its entirety. WOAH. The only snag is that it'll be recoloured. Not so fast because as explained Stevens was unhappy with the original colouring. The new published work will now be recoloured by the colourist Stevens himself wanted. Good news, after all. Additionally there are plans for an oversized book full of unpublished work like script pages, logos, and the like. Stevens' mother and sister were at hand to hear the announcement, and were thanked for trusting IDW with the materials. It's going to be AMAZING.
Our neighbours to the north take heed: Canada's own Captain Canuck will be reprinted in 2 hard cover volumes. I know nothing about the character other than what was explained in the panel, and will be keeping an eye when it arrives.
For avid political and pop culture fiends who followed the success of Presidential Material, the company will publish a 2 issue Barack Obama comic. The first part will cover the results of the election to the inauguration, and the second part will be the first 100 days in office. Of course, we aren't even close to nearing the latter but it's not stopping IDW :D During the Q&A session I asked if this means they might consider publishing more biographical comics. Unfortunately not biographical, but historical comics might down the road. The problem, and I wholly agree, is that it's a hard sell. History has a reputation for being boring. But you know who'd buy historical comics? People who love beatonna. Man, IDW should see the amount of comments she gets for her stuff. Without her comics, I would never have known a thing about Canadian prime ministers. Did you know, you can't leave Canada without getting an official hug from a Mountie? Fact.
Back to the panel at hand: Jimmy Palmiotti's Club Med with zombies book The Last Resort will have covers by Amanda Conner and Darwyn Cooke. I'm not a big zombies or vampire or aliens person, but hearing that the artist will not be coloring on the computer piqued my interest. It later clicked when I learned Giancarlo Caracuzzo is a European artist. Palmiotti's blog on Newsarama has some preview pages, and they look fab.
One of two projects announced at last year's San Diego Comic-Con that caught my attention is Torpedo, a Spanish comic that's being translated and re-written by Jimmy Palmiotti. Cooke will be on design duties for the releases. The other is Cooke's own adaptation of the Parker books by Richard Stark, aka Donald E Westlake. Not much was revealed about Torpedo (other than explained at the last Comic-Con) but we were treated to two pages of the first Parker adaptation, The Hunter. Ignore my obvious idolising of Darwyn Cooke, but do know that what we saw is fan-freaking-tastic. The tone, the font, the colouring... *whistles* Book 1 at 140-144 pages will be released this June for $24.99.
Thanks to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal, I think now's a great time to put out crime and noir fiction. When I was starting to get into noir nearly a decade ago, I limited myself to Sin City because that was what people were using as an example of the genre. Thankfully we have Criminal being genius in that it includes essays and recommendations of great stories/movies. This not only serves as an education, but also increases demand for well-executed works. Personally, I have to thank Cooke because it was his gushing recommendation that made me pick up Westlake novels. See how it works?
Finally, for fans of Dave Stevens and Rocketeer, IDW will collect the entire run in its entirety. WOAH. The only snag is that it'll be recoloured. Not so fast because as explained Stevens was unhappy with the original colouring. The new published work will now be recoloured by the colourist Stevens himself wanted. Good news, after all. Additionally there are plans for an oversized book full of unpublished work like script pages, logos, and the like. Stevens' mother and sister were at hand to hear the announcement, and were thanked for trusting IDW with the materials. It's going to be AMAZING.