Category Archives: Creators

Mike Wieringo Marvel Apes Variant Benefits the Hero Initiative

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The Hero Initiative has released a variant edition of Marvel Apes #1, penciled by the late Mike Wieringo and inked by Karl Kesel.

Daregorilla, the Ape Without Fear, penciled before Mike's passing.

Daregorilla, the Ape Without Fear, penciled before Mike’s passing.

Marvel Apes writer and cover inker Karl Kesel said:

It was a blast working on Marvel Apes — one of the most far-out, fun assignments I’ve ever had! And inking Mike Wieringo’s “Daregorilla” variant cover only made it better. This drawing is one of the initial inspirations for the entire mini-series — chances are the comic would have never happened without it — so this cover brings everything full circle. And it’s only fitting that it helps The Hero Initiative, because Mike was a big believer in giving back to the comics community, and that’s exactly what The Hero Initiative is all about.

The book is limited to only 3000 copies worldwide and is available now at Atomic Comics. Retail price is $8, and the book will also be available at the Hero Initiative booth at the Baltimore Comic-Con (Sep. 27–28), Mid-Ohio Con (Oct. 4–5), Adventure Con (Oct. 25–26) and Wizard World Texas (Nov. 7–9).

The Hero Initiative is dedicated to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays’ creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work.

(Adapted from the Hero Initiative’s press release.)

(Edit: Fixed the typo in the title. *sigh*)

Linkage: Waid on Spider-Man, DC Movies, Artist Spotlights

Classic Flash writer Mark Waid, in between his duties as Editor-in-Chief of BOOM! Studios, still manages to find time to write comics. His latest project: Spider-Man, detailed in an interview with Newsarama.

Newsarama tries to make sense out of Warner Bros. DC Movie plans, and concludes that The Flash is unlikely to reach the big screen anytime in the next three years. Meanwhile, The Geek Files reports that Ryan Reynolds is still interested in the role.

Comics Should Be Good has been running Underappreciated Artist Spotlights, including features on Ross Andru and Mort Meskin. Ross Andru and Mike Esposito took over from Carmine Infantino as artists on The Flash in 1967. Mort Meskin was the regular artist on fellow speedster Johnny Quick‘s stories in More Fun Comics and Adventure Comics throughout most of the 1940s.

Interview: Tom Peyer Talks Flash

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Here’s a Speed Force first: An original interview (Not a link! Not a reprint!) with outgoing Flash writer Tom Peyer!

SPEED FORCE: You started your run by introducing a new villain, Spin, who has the power to make people’s anxieties into reality. Did you envision him as a single-use villain, or a recurring one?

TOM PEYER: You never really know if a villain is recurring until he or she recurs. I didn’t plan to kill him — but even that doesn’t always stop a villain from coming back. I was just thinking of him one story at a time.

SF: While the Flash has had many enemies over the course of his career, few have had the staying power of the original Rogues. A few years ago, they were practically regulars in the book. If they had been available when you took over as writer, would you have used them early on, or held them in reserve for later stories?

PEYER: Well, we did use Grodd. But the Mirror Masters and Captain Colds had appeared a lot in recent years, so it felt like creating Spin was the right approach. Plus, I wanted to grind my axe about cable news, and the Weather Wizard didn’t quite fit. But if I’d wanted to write a polemic against the Weather Channel… oh, don’t get me started.

SF: How did you approach balancing the story between the Flash and his kids? Do you think that the family dynamic ultimately resulted in more or fewer story possibilities? Continue reading →

Quote of the Day

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Grant Morrison on Final Crisis (from an interview at IGN):

I think of it like dance music, and how they just took pop music to a place where there was nothing left but the bass and the drum and the build-up and release, and I kind of wanted a comic that would throw out all the boring conversations and fights and keep only the stuff I like to read. You know, to create the crack cocaine of superhero comics. [laughs]

Also worth noting, for anyone who’s confused about how the monthlies line up with Final Crisis:

Pretty much every storyline that’s currently running in a DC book is happening before Final Crisis, because the events of Final Crisis are so big, that we didn’t want to see its influence destabilizing major stories already running in the other comics. The whole story of Final Crisis is in that one book and its few tie-ins, and then when Final Crisis ends, the entire range of DC books will be dealing with the aftermath. So if you look at it that way, everything that you’re reading that comes out during Final Crisis tends to be happening the week before the story takes place.

There’s a lot of other interesting stuff in there — it’s worth a read if you have the time.

Linkage: Didio, Ramos & More

CBR talks with Dan Didio about Flash:Rebirth and why Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver are right for the job — namely, their work relaunching Green Lantern. “They are going to embrace everything there is about The Flash, not ignore it, and I think the story lends itself to the whole Flash legacy and how important Barry is to it.”

Meanwhile, Occasional Superheroine’s Valerie D’Orazio comments on Didio’s “rebooting was a mistake” remarks from Fan Expo.

Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers has a trio of interviews. First she talks with Humberto Ramos, original artist on Impulse, about the upcoming relaunch of Runaways. Next, Geoff Johns discusses Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds. Finally, Marc Guggenheim is writing another Flash: a Spider-Man spotlight on Flash Thompson, drawn by Flash/Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold artist Barry Kitson.

Girl-Wonder.org has launched the Con Anti-Harassment Project.

Brian Cronin of Comics Should Be Good presents the Cronin Theory of Comics – Comics Tend to Eventually Regress to the Mean. For the most part, characters will reset over time to the “standard” interpretation. Rarely, that standard will change, such as Dick Grayson as Nightwing, rather than Robin. It will be interesting to see how this applies to Wally West, now that DC is pushing Barry Allen as, in EVS’ words, “The King of Flashes.”

J.G. Jones is the Flash

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According to CBR’s coverage of the J.G. Jones Spotlight panel at Comic-Con, the artist used himself as the reference for the iconic Flash cover on Final Crisis #2:

Finally, who did Jones use for photo reference for the Flash image on the cover of “Final Crisis” #2? “I used me!” But self-reliance has its price, Jones revealed, because the posing process slows things down. “I have to pose, take a shot, look at it, pose, take a shot, look at it…” Fortunately for readers, Jones’s patience tends to pay off.