Website: hexcomix.com
Style Classification: Single Title Publisher
Notable Works: Hex 11
Story:
I met the young ladies that run Hex Comix at Wondercon 2016. This is a very small company stationed in Los Angeles. All three employees are smart and talented young women: Kelly Sue Milano on writing duties, Lisa Weber on art duty, and Lynly Forrest running the office and doing most everything else.
At large scale gatherings, like Wondercon, I like to do support companies I like, like Valiant, while eventually patrolling the smaller booths on the outer edges. This is how I do my part to really help the fringe artists and educate myself on tiny companies.
Like Hex Comix.
As it was, the ladies talked me into purchasing their collection of issues 1-6 of their lone title Hex 11. It takes place in a future where magic has been discovered and acts like the new science. The main character is a young witch, and she's learning about her powers.
Honestly, that premise would never cause me to buy that book. But I enjoyed my time talking with the ladies and wanted to be supportive, and seeing as how some of my students are comic-crazed young ladies, I thought the connection could prove fruitful later.
But, dang, if that comic was not quite gripping. It was a page turner that drew me in. I even checked to see when the series would resume. (It has.)
If you have any young ladies in your life who may be into interesting girl-centered comics, and want to support a tiny fringe comic publisher, and would like some good content, check this company and their title out.
Monday, August 8, 2016
"Harvey Awards" Could be Renamed "Valiant Awards"
I mean no disrespect to Harvey Kurtzman. I'm just excited for our phoenix-like resurrected independent superhero comic publisher.
The Harvey Awards are one of the two prestigious cartoonist and comic industry annual award shows. The Eisners are the other. The Harvey Awards are voted on by industry insiders: artists, writers, colorists, and editors.
This year my favorite company has garnered the most nominations in history at 50. Fifty.
Valiant Entertainment has been honored with, on many occasions, multiple nominations in the same category. Artist Mico Suayan, writers Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt are just a few of the creators who nabbed nominations.
Titles like Divinity, Ninjak (two of the books I read regularly), and Bloodshot Reborn were among the titles nominated.
Matt Kindt's Ninjak has had one of the most complex narrative structures for an espionage/superhero comic around. Each issue hovers in around 40 pages as readers get at least two, but occasionally three, separate narratives timelines telling the story of Colin King, his familial background, his training, his connection to those he hunts for the British government, and ultimately his future. It's a good time.
I have some more homer-like thoughts about Valiant's Generation Zero vs Marvel's The Champions, and the way Faith Hebert connected with fans in ways that slightly more fringe-worthy works like Image's Bitch Planet have yet to.
Homerism to come later...
Congratulations to Valiant Entertainment's 50 Harvey Award nominations, the voting of which ends today. Winners will be announced on September 3rd.
The Harvey Awards are one of the two prestigious cartoonist and comic industry annual award shows. The Eisners are the other. The Harvey Awards are voted on by industry insiders: artists, writers, colorists, and editors.
This year my favorite company has garnered the most nominations in history at 50. Fifty.
Valiant Entertainment has been honored with, on many occasions, multiple nominations in the same category. Artist Mico Suayan, writers Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt are just a few of the creators who nabbed nominations.
Titles like Divinity, Ninjak (two of the books I read regularly), and Bloodshot Reborn were among the titles nominated.
Matt Kindt's Ninjak has had one of the most complex narrative structures for an espionage/superhero comic around. Each issue hovers in around 40 pages as readers get at least two, but occasionally three, separate narratives timelines telling the story of Colin King, his familial background, his training, his connection to those he hunts for the British government, and ultimately his future. It's a good time.
I have some more homer-like thoughts about Valiant's Generation Zero vs Marvel's The Champions, and the way Faith Hebert connected with fans in ways that slightly more fringe-worthy works like Image's Bitch Planet have yet to.
Homerism to come later...
Congratulations to Valiant Entertainment's 50 Harvey Award nominations, the voting of which ends today. Winners will be announced on September 3rd.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Blue Juice Comics
Website: Blue Juice Comics
Style Classification: Company Outgrowth
Notable Works: The Accelerators; Anne Bonnie; Aether & Empire
Story:
This is the first use of this specific classification, something I'm calling "Company Outgrowth." I think that there is a better name for the kind of content this company produces, but for now it'll stand.
The motivation behind the classification: Founded in 2012, Blue Juice Comics is an outgrowth of the film production company Blue Juice Films. The three titles they produce aren't so much created by a company looking to produce already realized content created by outsiders, nor are the three titles sprung from a single person's imagination and all coexist in a tidy cohesive universe.
Blue Juice Comics is the result of people who love comics trying their hand at it.
Blue Juice Films doesn't make major block busters, rather they make and work on (in collaboration with other studios) documentaries, music videos, and animated productions. "Living the dream" they call it down here in the Southland.
Anne Bonnie stars the titular young girl pirate and swashbuckles. Aether & Empire is their newest title and is described as "Victorian sci-fi steampunk space adventure."
The Accerlerators is their founding title and follows reluctant time-travelers who find themselves stuck in a future where time machines are normal but dangerous.
Only three titles, and each one seems completed with excellent execution.
Special Status: SOLID COMPANY
Style Classification: Company Outgrowth
Notable Works: The Accelerators; Anne Bonnie; Aether & Empire
Story:
This is the first use of this specific classification, something I'm calling "Company Outgrowth." I think that there is a better name for the kind of content this company produces, but for now it'll stand.
The motivation behind the classification: Founded in 2012, Blue Juice Comics is an outgrowth of the film production company Blue Juice Films. The three titles they produce aren't so much created by a company looking to produce already realized content created by outsiders, nor are the three titles sprung from a single person's imagination and all coexist in a tidy cohesive universe.
Blue Juice Comics is the result of people who love comics trying their hand at it.
Blue Juice Films doesn't make major block busters, rather they make and work on (in collaboration with other studios) documentaries, music videos, and animated productions. "Living the dream" they call it down here in the Southland.
Anne Bonnie stars the titular young girl pirate and swashbuckles. Aether & Empire is their newest title and is described as "Victorian sci-fi steampunk space adventure."
The Accerlerators is their founding title and follows reluctant time-travelers who find themselves stuck in a future where time machines are normal but dangerous.
Only three titles, and each one seems completed with excellent execution.
Special Status: SOLID COMPANY
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Action Lab
Website: actionlabcomics.com
Style Classification: Creator Owned Content
Notable Works: Zombie Tramp; Princeless; Snowed In
Story:
Founded in 2011, Action Lab's website talks about their mad science and their desire to create "the most action packed, the most thought provoking comics" out there.
They have the all-ages title "Monsters Are Just Like Us" as well as the mature title "Double Jumper."
Princeless has garnered award nomination attention.
Upon viewing their Previews pages each month, it looks like there is more exploitation content than they make known on their website. Between the variously declining clothing covers of Vampblade and Zombie Tramp, readers may get a specific impression.
I'm excited a comic company is finding success, but for me the only appealing thing about Action Lab is there logo: a Labrador retriever wearing a rocket,
Style Classification: Creator Owned Content
Notable Works: Zombie Tramp; Princeless; Snowed In
Story:
Founded in 2011, Action Lab's website talks about their mad science and their desire to create "the most action packed, the most thought provoking comics" out there.
They have the all-ages title "Monsters Are Just Like Us" as well as the mature title "Double Jumper."
Princeless has garnered award nomination attention.
Upon viewing their Previews pages each month, it looks like there is more exploitation content than they make known on their website. Between the variously declining clothing covers of Vampblade and Zombie Tramp, readers may get a specific impression.
I'm excited a comic company is finding success, but for me the only appealing thing about Action Lab is there logo: a Labrador retriever wearing a rocket,
From The Big Two
I usually avoid discussing topics from either DC Comics or Marvel. Marvel owns more than 40% of the entire comics market. Plenty of people talk about them.
DC is like the less-successful older brother, but right now there is something I wanted to get towards with this post.
Vertigo is one of DC's imprints. It started back in 1993 when editor Karen Barger saw that certain titles, like Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and most famously, The Sandman, were being written with different goals and with a different and more mature audience in mind. The opportunity to lump them all together presented itself organically.
Famous books came afterwards, all under the Vertigo imprint, like Preacher.
Eventually after the DC imprint Helix folded, Transmetropolitan was folded into Vertigo. Preacher, Transmet, and Doom Patrol are all titles I'd like to discuss at some time, but I need to talk myself into it for this BB2 blog. Whatever...
Well, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way is starting a "pop-up" imprint at DC under the weird-as-hell world inspired by Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol. Why not just work under the Vertigo imprint?
It turns out that Vertigo is much more like a creator owned imprint now (see Jeff Lemire's "Trillium"). This new imprint is called Young Animal, and it makes sense that Doom Patrol is the first title.
For the other titles, the story goes, DC execs gave a DC encyclopedia to Way and told him to find someone obscure.
Another Young Animal title will be "Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye." Obscurity, baby! Cave Carson has never had his own title, just a few specials in the early '60s and some crossovers later.
The whole reason this post exists is because I wanted to share these covers, from The Brave and the Bold and Showcase:
Their new title is mildly connected:
Anyway, here is a link to what a reader has called my Swamp Thing Dissertation. It's more of a review of a collection I bought too long ago that covers the first 10 issues from the early '70s.
DC is like the less-successful older brother, but right now there is something I wanted to get towards with this post.
Vertigo is one of DC's imprints. It started back in 1993 when editor Karen Barger saw that certain titles, like Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and most famously, The Sandman, were being written with different goals and with a different and more mature audience in mind. The opportunity to lump them all together presented itself organically.
Famous books came afterwards, all under the Vertigo imprint, like Preacher.
Eventually after the DC imprint Helix folded, Transmetropolitan was folded into Vertigo. Preacher, Transmet, and Doom Patrol are all titles I'd like to discuss at some time, but I need to talk myself into it for this BB2 blog. Whatever...
Well, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way is starting a "pop-up" imprint at DC under the weird-as-hell world inspired by Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol. Why not just work under the Vertigo imprint?
It turns out that Vertigo is much more like a creator owned imprint now (see Jeff Lemire's "Trillium"). This new imprint is called Young Animal, and it makes sense that Doom Patrol is the first title.
For the other titles, the story goes, DC execs gave a DC encyclopedia to Way and told him to find someone obscure.
Another Young Animal title will be "Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye." Obscurity, baby! Cave Carson has never had his own title, just a few specials in the early '60s and some crossovers later.
The whole reason this post exists is because I wanted to share these covers, from The Brave and the Bold and Showcase:
Their new title is mildly connected:
Anyway, here is a link to what a reader has called my Swamp Thing Dissertation. It's more of a review of a collection I bought too long ago that covers the first 10 issues from the early '70s.
New England Comics
Website: newenglandcomics.com
Style Classification: Cohesive Universe? Store-Turned-Publisher?
Notable Works: The Tick
Story:
Not nearly as important as Image Comics and "The Walking Dead," but NEC achieved more notoriety than many mainstream comics. The creation that garnered such a public acknowledgement: The Tick.
New England Comics is a chain of comic shops in Massachusetts that decided in the '80s that they would try their hand at publishing. They asked their customers for ideas, and eventually settled on a sketch by a young artist named Ben Edlund. They loved the idea of un-squish-ability and tongue-in-cheek humor, and in 1986 the Tick was born.
Similar in spirit to Alan Moore's The Watchmen, the Tick as a comic is more about a world in which super heroes exist, but instead of Moore's look into the existential issues involved therein, NEC focused on absurdity and humor.
It worked. The comics were popular even in the suburb of Sacramento where I grew up. There was a popular and hilarious Saturday morning cartoon show, and even a live-action prime-time show inspired by the character.
New England Comics remains a stand up company: I obtained their offering this year for Free Comic Book Day. Inside the front cover is a letter from the company thanking me for reading and offering, while supplies lasted, each of the FCBD issues they had offered in years past, free of charge. The hitch was that I would have to send a pre-stamped envelope.
Two weeks after sending out that large pre-stamped envelope, I received five issues of NEC's FCBD Tick.
Pretty sweet.
Style Classification: Cohesive Universe? Store-Turned-Publisher?
Notable Works: The Tick
Story:
Not nearly as important as Image Comics and "The Walking Dead," but NEC achieved more notoriety than many mainstream comics. The creation that garnered such a public acknowledgement: The Tick.
New England Comics is a chain of comic shops in Massachusetts that decided in the '80s that they would try their hand at publishing. They asked their customers for ideas, and eventually settled on a sketch by a young artist named Ben Edlund. They loved the idea of un-squish-ability and tongue-in-cheek humor, and in 1986 the Tick was born.
Similar in spirit to Alan Moore's The Watchmen, the Tick as a comic is more about a world in which super heroes exist, but instead of Moore's look into the existential issues involved therein, NEC focused on absurdity and humor.
It worked. The comics were popular even in the suburb of Sacramento where I grew up. There was a popular and hilarious Saturday morning cartoon show, and even a live-action prime-time show inspired by the character.
New England Comics remains a stand up company: I obtained their offering this year for Free Comic Book Day. Inside the front cover is a letter from the company thanking me for reading and offering, while supplies lasted, each of the FCBD issues they had offered in years past, free of charge. The hitch was that I would have to send a pre-stamped envelope.
Two weeks after sending out that large pre-stamped envelope, I received five issues of NEC's FCBD Tick.
Pretty sweet.
Benitez Productions
Website: Benitez Productions
Style Classification: Single Proprietor
Notable Works: Lady Mechanika
Story:
Similar to Rothic Comics, Joe Benitez founded and runs his own comic publishing company. His most popular character is Lady Mechanika, an interesting part machine/part lady in a steampunk universe.
Lady Mechanika is more popular than a single proprietor could hope for, but maybe that's just my bias of having seen images of her in many places. There have been a small collection of other titles from Benitez Productions over the years, and it appears that they all live in the same steampunk universe as Lady Mechanika.
Keep up the success, Mr. Benitez.
Style Classification: Single Proprietor
Notable Works: Lady Mechanika
Story:
Similar to Rothic Comics, Joe Benitez founded and runs his own comic publishing company. His most popular character is Lady Mechanika, an interesting part machine/part lady in a steampunk universe.
Lady Mechanika is more popular than a single proprietor could hope for, but maybe that's just my bias of having seen images of her in many places. There have been a small collection of other titles from Benitez Productions over the years, and it appears that they all live in the same steampunk universe as Lady Mechanika.
Keep up the success, Mr. Benitez.
Comic Cover Inspiration
Dynamite will be publishing what they're calling "Kung Fu Noir", which sounds very interesting. It is a mini-series called "Intertwined."
One of the alternate covers to the first issue is instantly recognizable to fans of '90s era Frank Miller:
This image caught my eye before I knew anything about Intertwined's successful Kickstarter campaign and the Fabrice Sapolsky and Fred Pham Chuong central conceit: What if Peter Parker had been a Chinese immigrant, what kind of hero would he have been?
That question is interesting enough, but when the title is also described as "Bruce Lee meets Swamp Thing," the brain starts to reel.
Anyway, after seeing the cover, I immediately remembered the very first cover for the first mini-series Frank Miller did for Sin City (after the serialization of Marv's avenging of Goldie's murder), A Dame to Kill For:
Avatar Press
Website: avatarpress.com
Style Classification: Creator Owned Content
Notable Works: Providence; Cinema Purgatorio; Crossed
Story:
Founded in 1996 by Wizard alum William Christensen, Avatar Press started out as a '90s-era bad-girl press. After a while of finding moderate success in a genre that was already on borrowed time in '96, Christensen started to offer his press up to any elite talent that wanted to make some creator-owned content without any editorial interference.
The biggest names to take him up on the offer over the years were Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Garth Ennis (Preacher), Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan), and Mark Millar.
Eventually they branched out into some licensed content with titles like Frank Miller's Robocop, but the big stories recently, the ones you'll be apt to see at your local shop are Crossed, Crossed+100, Cinema Purgatorio and Alan Moore's heavily researched Cthulhu prequel Providence.
Style Classification: Creator Owned Content
Notable Works: Providence; Cinema Purgatorio; Crossed
Story:
Founded in 1996 by Wizard alum William Christensen, Avatar Press started out as a '90s-era bad-girl press. After a while of finding moderate success in a genre that was already on borrowed time in '96, Christensen started to offer his press up to any elite talent that wanted to make some creator-owned content without any editorial interference.
The biggest names to take him up on the offer over the years were Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Garth Ennis (Preacher), Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan), and Mark Millar.
Eventually they branched out into some licensed content with titles like Frank Miller's Robocop, but the big stories recently, the ones you'll be apt to see at your local shop are Crossed, Crossed+100, Cinema Purgatorio and Alan Moore's heavily researched Cthulhu prequel Providence.
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