¶ Ape Entertainment has teamed up with the lost lost publishing house Sirius to publish an on going Poison Elves series which will lunch an adults-only imprint at the usually family-friendly Ape.
Poison Elves is the life work of the late Drew Hayes, who died in 2007. The series ran from 1991 until 2004. It’s definitely a post 80s indie comic with a rebellious protagonist and a black and white vibe. DREW HAYES’ POISON ELVES #1 comes out in march with covers by Darick Robertson, Terry Moore, and interior artist, Osvaldo Montpeller. Ape publisher David Hedgecock has more n the revival in an interview with Robot 6.
“Drew Hayes’ Poison Elves comic series was one of the biggest influences in my decision to become a comic book professional,” said David Hedgecock, CEO of Ape Entertainment. “This book is one small way for me to say ‘thank you’ to Mr. Hayes and to the legacy he left behind.”
Poison Elves is the story of Lusiphur, an elf with an attitude. Lusiphur is a thief, an assassin, a force of nature that will wipe you clean from the map if you dare to call him foe. He has a disdain for authority and lives by a moral code that others might question (and often do). He is also the reluctant key player in a grand tapestry of events that may very well decide the fate of his world and all those who live upon it.
Poison Elves was one of the most successful black-and-white “indy” comics ever produced. In his time the creator, Drew Hayes, produced over 100 issues worth of material. The book spawned trading cards, statuettes, spin-off titles and more. It was a seminal work of the ’90s, a modern-day Cerebus if you will.
§ Scott Kurtz is teaming with D&D for a new webcomic which will be called Table Titans. ON his blog Kurtz wrote:
Table Titans follows the real and imagined adventures of three friends, Andrew, Alan and Valeria, in their struggle to become the world’s most legendary D&D gaming group. The comic will be presented long form via the web, and then collected into real books twice a year. This isn’t a gag-a-day like PvP. I’m giving myself the room to tell bigger stories. The strip is launching January 28th, 2013 at tabletitans.com.
When we approached Wizards with the idea of spinning Val and her gaming group into it’s own comic we thought we would get a very polite “no thank you.” But not only did WoTC say “Yes! Let’s do it.” they took it a step further and asked “What other cool things can we do together? That discussion quickly lead to the plan to premiere the Table Titans Mines of Madness D&D Next adventure at PAX East 2013. That’s right, I get to work with DM Chris Perkins to write an official D&D module based on the comics I wrote. Still can’t wrap my head around that.
¶ Some news on comics around the world from from Colombia: Matt Madden writes to say that the laws of that country have been changed so that comics are no longer classified as “non-cultural” material alongside horoscopes and pornography.
In the last year or so some young cartoonists spearheaded by my friend Daniel Jimenez-Quiroz made a petition and have just succeeded in getting the law changed so that comics are now “cultural” objects, meaning they get a bunch of tax breaks and access to grants and other kinds of support. The comics scene is just taking off there so this is great news and clears the way for new publishers like Editorial Robot (of which Daniel is also one of the publishers) and others to establish themselves.
South American comics outside of the Brazilian scene aren’;t talked about two much but Madden reports that Colombia has a burgeoning scene, with a comics festival called Entreviñetas (between the panels), which recently featured Sarah Glidden, Anders Nilsen, and Ruppert & Mulot as guests. “It’s a small but promising scene down there and I hope it will lead to general uptick in comics production throughout Latin America,” writes Madden. Peru and Bolivia also have small, emerging indy comics scenes.
§ We don’t often write about what’s going on at the Co2 comics portal, but part two of Kevin Atkinson’s Eaten by Planet 29 has just begun serialization.
¶ Dean Haspiel drew the cover to LOIS #2 by Lois Gilbert, with interior line art by Gary Dumm and Ryan Alexander-Tanner, featuring Harvey Pekar. And he sent us a jpeg of it.
¶ A big 70% off sale is going on at www.twomorrows.com for one week only, through December 16th. Big savings on issues of WRITE NOW and ROUGH STUFF magazines, and COMICS and LEGO books for ONE WEEK ONLY. A partial list:
BrickJournal Compendium - regular $34.95, only $10.49
Comic Book Podcast Companion - regular $15.95, only $4.79
Comics Introspective: Peter Bagge - regular $16.95, only $5.09
I Have To Live With This Guy! - regular $19.95, only $5.99
Wallace Wood Checklist - regular $5.95, only $1.79
Comic Book Nerd - regular $8.95, only $2.69
Crazy Hip Groovy Go-Go Way Out Monsters #29 and #32 - regular $5.95 each, only $1.79 each
Best of Write Now! - regular $19.95, only $5.99
Some amazing historical resources here, folks. Get ‘em cheap!
[This news column will run as often as we can do it. Send news items to comicsbeat at gmail dot com.]
To be fair, Argentina has a richer comics tradition than Brazil. The country has given birth to comics legends like Enrique Breccia (his father Alberto was born in Uruguay, but made his carrer at Argentina), Hector German Oesterheld, Francisco Solano Lopez, Juan Gimenez, Carlos Trillo and Eduardo Risso.
Other creators made their careers there, like the aforementioned Alberto Breccia, Robin Wodd and even Hugo Pratt for an extended period of time!
Nowadays the argentinian comics industry is much diminished, with most of their big names working for foreign publishers, but it is still a force to be reckoned.