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It’s been said that the Devil has all the best tunes. If this is true, he likes to keep a conspicuously low profile. While songs of praise for Jesus, God, Krishna, Buddha, the Virgin Mary, and a host of other deities, saints, and semi-deities abound, Satan is seldom properly hymned.

The post The Devil’s best tunes appeared first on OUPblog.

Jeremy Holt is the perfect example of a grinder. Over the years, he’s forged connections and written good comics to write for Challenger Comics (the under appreciated home of great indy comics), Monkeybrain (the digital-first and quality-driven publisher) and now the new Heavy Metal comics imprint. I interviewed him about the “music as time travel” […]

How a two-hundred-year-old opera made the transition to an online motion comic for contemporary audiences.

Crazy comics mastermind Grant Morrison is at it again.  Now that he’s finished his run on DC’s Multiversity, Morrison is turning his sights away from tights and will now focus his attention on Heavy Metal, the bimontly comics zine that introduced cartoonists like Moebius and H.R. Giger to the American scene.  Beginning in February 2016, he will serve as editor to the magazine for a minimum of a year.

Morrison plans to produce comics and prose content for the magazine himself, but is also looking to recruit talent that will ultimately create something he hopes will be “unique and provocative, a bit more scary for people and challenging.”

Ever the eclectic, Morrison has really made the past decade his own.  He published his own textual account of American comics history in Supergods, hosted a convention where he got to make magic and sonic love with Gerard Way, brought the DC universe together for a big multiversal shish-kabob in Multiversity, and recently announced that he’d be writing Santa Claus’ origin story in Boom! Studios’ Klaus.  Heavy Metal will be Morrison’s primary focus in 2016, but one can only assume he’s already eyeing his next perception-shattering project.

Check out Entertainment Weekly for more on the magazine and this wonderful bit:

Heavy Metal has always been a little bit dirty. Next year, it’ll get positively Filthy.

groan.

Since relaunching early last year, the new Heavy Metal has been relatively quiet, relaunching Hoax Hunters under their banner and pursuing their multi media plans mostly behind the scenes. However, a recent appearance at Wizard World Portland has revealed plans for locating the comics operations of the company in Portland, OR where they’ll pursue a model that takes advantage of their well known branding:

“We’re looking at (comics) properties in the same way we look at television and film,” says Krelitz, who attended Wizard World Portland last weekend.

“We have a much better economic model than anyone will offer in the marketplace.  We have a merchandizing company that’s one of the biggest in the world.  Not only are we not going to fleece you to get your self-published book, we’re going to help your brand building.”

While things ramp up, the regular Heavy Metal website is publishing some short comics such as “Deadline of Death” by Jason Paulos, (shown above) a satisfyingly ECish tale of a deal with the devil to work for Marvelous Comics. Short version: do not make a deal with the devil.

From: Darius Pogue
To: ”Office List”
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 8:39 AM
Subject: Who here at the Yorktown Pennysaver is up for a little Gwar?

Hey gang,

Sigh in relief. This isn’t another email about security software updates. Trust your humble one-man IT department when I assure you that the Yorktown Pennysaver is now a veritable Fortress of Solitude, and that this email blast is of a decidedly more personal nature. It’s sure to be the talk of the office until the steam whistle blows.

“Out with it!” you say? Fair enough. Guess who’s going to see Gwar this Saturday at Hogan’s Hideaway? That’s right. The very same fella who tells you, “don’t panic!” when you’ve got a kernel panic, who converts your JPEGs to PDFs and is a BMF besides. Me! And I’ve got an extra ticket.

So who wants in?

Now I realize some of you will probably have questions before committing. It’s natural. Seeing Gwar ain’t exactly like popping by the Cineplex for some Pixar. It’s an event, one that will quite possibly define your life. So I’ll try to walk any Gwar-dolescents (as I like to call the newbies) through the basics.

First question is obvious: What time? Well, doors are at 8 PM, but you should probably stop by my place around 11 AM so we can prep.

I can hear our favorite Mary Kay spokesperson/administrative assistant Deidre right now. “Prep? Like makeup and stuff?” Little different than that, D. But it’s all par for the Gwar course. We’ll be pouring latex molds for our festering neck boils. Doing a little mace polishing. The requisite codpiece fitting.

I know. I know. The boys in sales love a good codpiece joke, but I assure you, the codpieces are an absolute necessity. You gotta be prepared should you find yourself on the business end of a flail some goblined-up tweaker is swinging willy-nilly. Learned that the hard way during the Scumdogs of the Universe Tour.

Haley, I know you’re hip to all the new bands (I’m gonna get that Atari Fire album you keep raving about), but do you have “Scumdogs of the Universe” on vinyl? I’m betting you don’t. Let me tell you, “Sexecutioner” sounds so much warmer, and with all the lovely crackles and pops laying some ambiance down on “Slaughterama,” you can practically feel the Nazi decapitation.

But as great as those songs sound from the turntable, they sound infinitely better live, when your ears are soaked with blood. Judging from Mike’s fainting spell at last year’s blood drive, I’m guessing I lost him right there. But hold on, Mike. Weren’t you the one who told me The Blue Man Group was “the best show in Vegas?” Didn’t you forward that Gallagher video around? Gwar’s a lot like Gallagher, but instead of washing watermelon juice out of your hair the next morning, it’ll be blood…possibly pus.

Notice I said possibly pus. I stress the possibly. Gwar makes no guarantees in the pus department. They are very clear about this. My apologies if the inclusion of pus, or lack there-of, is a deal-breaker for some. Not much I can do about that.

Now I don’t doubt that Carmen, the consummate copy

Barnes & Noble will debut the newest member of its Nook family on Monday (but Engadget has a sneak peek. The new version, called the Nook Tablet, looks a lot like the Nook Color and will have twice the RAM and built-in storage of the Kindle... Read the rest of this post

What’s this? A new graphic novel illustrated by the amazing Nathan Fox and written by M.F. Wilson?

Why, yes! Or at least a collection of “Fluorescent Black,” their story that has been running in HEAVY METAL for the last three years. Fox writes “We are really proud of how it turned out and it features a TON of new content including guest pinups, additional narrative pages and more.”

An 8-page preview can be seen here.

And the PR:

Heavy Metal Magazine will publish and distribute the graphic novel Fluorescent Black in July of 2010. A hardbound limited edition will be sold at San Diego and New York Comic Con. The novel is nearly 200 pages long and was written by MF Wilson, illustrated by Nathan Fox and colored by Jeromy Cox. Fluorescent Black is one of the most popular stories featured in the adult illustrated magazine and has a massive cult following. “We are very excited to be publishing Fluorescent Black. This book is like nothing else out there! It’s crazy, original and totally punk,” says Kevin Eastman, Editor-in-Chief of Heavy Metal Magazine.

The novel takes the reader into the hard-hitting dark future of South East Asia where gene-tech has divided the human race into two races. A particularily unique element of the story is the way in which a utopian and dystopian future exist in near proximity; it seems to draw inspiration from a lot of the border disputes going on in politics today. The story plays with other hot-button themes like public healthcare, gene patenting, eugenics, the dangers of bio-artistry, and the limits of body modification. Known for it provocative ideas and scientific accuracy, Fluorescent Black has been praised by biotechnology web rings and counter-culture magazines as a seminal “bio-punk” novel, a relatively new genre which has been slowly working it’s way into the literary and cinematic marketplace. MF says, “I wanted to write this story for all the things it is guilty of; it’s hard-core, violent, sexual and frightening. It’s venereal horror, bio-punk and psychadelic science fiction all rolled into one.” It seems to be the perfect material for an illustrator like Nathan Fox who has built a fan base out of his featured work in rock-and-roll magazines and adult comic books, and who is known for his kinetic freehand and raucus style. Every panel is a work of art, with hidden (sometimes blush-worthy) details that only become apparent on a second or third read. “I wanted this book to be wild and colorful; it had to be a living, moving thing.” The collaboration between these artists has produced a one-of-a-kind novel that is well worth the pricetag. It is available through heavymetal.com, amazon.com and will be on comic book shelves everywhere later this year. For more information, visit freethegene.com

The first posts of 2009! Hope y'all likes!



My apologies - I've been away from SFG for far too long now. Drawing for "funny" coming soon.

Earlier in the year, I read and loved Elizabeth Scott's novel Bloom, which has been nominated for a Cybils in the YA category. I was so happy when she agreed to do an interview! You may read my review of Bloom here. But in part, I wrote: "Ever wished for an intelligent take on VALLEY GIRL? You know, the 80s movie that presented a girl with the "perfect" boyfriend and friends...but who secretly wanted more. She wanted a different boy who wasn't so perfect. Who wasn't so stereotypically supreme. So deliciously popular. The movie was far from perfect, stress on the word "far," but it had its moments. The ending is still one of my all-time favorites. The song "I'll Melt With You" still gets to me. Why bring it up? Bloom is for me a smarter version of Valley Girl. No, it isn't set in the valley. There are no annoying accents or slang. But it's captured part of the essence in my opinion. Everything that I loved about Valley Girl is what I loved in Bloom. I am not trying to cheapen the book by comparing it to an old movie. I'm not suggesting the plot lacks originality. It IS a familiar story line. But it is done well.The plot. The characters. They work for me. Now I can only speak for myself, but BLOOM works for me. Elizabeth Scott has added depth to this familiar story." Be sure to visit her site and her blog.

What do you love about being a writer?

I love getting an idea for a story, and I love the first moment of sitting down to write it, when it's all possibility.

You write young adult books, what do you love about the genre?

Young adult novels are, in my opinion--and granted, I'm a little biased, but still!--the most vibrant genre in literature today, with authors who write intelligent, daring, and honest stories.

Can you tell us anything about your current work in progress?

I'm ridiculously superstitious about my writing, so I'm afraid my lips are sealed. I once got burned really badly when I first started writing by talking about a story I was working on so much that I never finished it--and I took that as a sign to keep quiet!

You have three books coming out in 2008! What can you tell us about the books?

I had to do five-word summaries for two of them for an interview, and I'm pretty proud of what I came up with, so...

Perfect You -- parents + former friend x boy = trouble!
Stealing Heaven -- thief meets cop: love? disaster?

Let's see if I can do the same for Living Dead Girl...

Okay. Here goes.

Living Dead Girl -- Everything you see is lies.

How long does it take you to write a novel and see it through to the finished product?

It depends. I've written a novel in less than two weeks, and I've had first drafts take me about nine months. And, of course, once a novel is purchased, it can be published anywhere from a year or so after it's purchased, to upwards of three years later! (For instance, my second novel, STEALING HEAVEN, was the first novel I sold, but is actually being published after my fifth novel, PERFECT YOU, is released, because my second, third, and fourth novels are all with HarperCollins, and they set their production schedules years (!) in advance)

Does award-season (best-of lists, awards, etc) make you nervous or excited as a writer?

I don't think about them too much. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to win an award or be on a best-of-list (you'd be able to hear my shriek around the world if either of those happened), but when it comes to those sorts of things, all I can do is write the best book I can, and hope that people like it.

How excited were you to find out that your book, Bloom, had been nominated for the Cybils?

I was shocked! And so, so flattered. It was an amazingly wonderful surprise.

What do you love about being a blogger?

I love running contests. LOVE! Giving away books is about my favorite thing ever--I love to read, and I love that other people enjoy it too.

Do you think it is important for authors to have a presence on the internet?

No.

Wait, wait, let me explain! I know everyone says it is, and I do think it is slightly more important for young adult novelists than those who write in other genres, but I don't think it's necessary by any means. I think it's easy to forget that a lot of people don't have regular internet access.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Leaving young adult writers aside, some of my favorite authors are Helen Dunmore, Amy Bloom, Keith Maillard, and Maggie Helwig.

This one is for both you as a reader and an author. Do you write fan letters to authors you admire? And have you received any fan letters from readers?

I do send fan letters to authors I like. I still remember getting a response from Laurie Halse Anderson when I wrote to her about how much I loved PROM, and thinking, "Laurie Halse Anderson WROTE ME BACK!"

I have gotten some lovely emails and letters from readers and it is the best feeling ever! The fact that someone liked BLOOM enough to send me a note about it--WOW.

Do you have a book or two (or three) that you would recommend that everyone read? What handful of books are must-reads in your opinion?

With Your Crooked Heart by Helen Dunmore, Gloria by Keith Maillard, Where She Was Standing by Maggie Helwig, and Love Invents Us by Amy Bloom are all excellent novels.

As far as must-reads...I don't have any. One person's perfect novel is another person's poison, you know? For instance, to this day, I deeply (and I mean *deeply*) resent the person who decided that, in order to graduate from high school, everyone in my English class had to read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. (Yes, both!) But some people, like say the people who decided I had to read those books, would say they did me a favor.

Do you have a reading hero? Someone who inspired you? Someone you love, respect, and admire? A mentor who made a great impact on you?

I don't have a reading hero, or a mentor, or anything like that, but I do have amazingly supportive friends--I wouldn't be published if it wasn't for them encouraging me to go for it over and over (and over!) again.

If you had twenty-four hours, a time machine, and a limitless supply of money, what would you want to do?

I wouldn't need the time machine, because I'm happy where I am. I'd take the money though, and use the twenty-four hours to set up a foundation to provide health care for everyone in the United States.

On second thought, I would also take the time machine, and go forward to a time when someone's found a way to cure food allergies. Then I'd come back and eat about eighty-seven pounds of chocolate. I'd like that.

Lauren has the perfect boyfriend that every girl in school lusts after, and yet she is not happy. Insecure and unpopular Lauren still wonders why popular, and perfect Dave chooses to be with her. So to keep him, Lauren feels like she has to be perfect as well- perfect grades, perfect attitude, perfect behavior. Lauren hides a lot of herself in order to keep everyone happy. She doesn’t discuss