By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/2/2015
This is the first in a planned series of articles about the “Image Effect.” Over the past 20+ years Image Comics has grown from a vanity publisher for the top talents of the 90s into a trendsetter and home to a diverse range of popular titles and creators. How did they accomplish that? Image’s well-known […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 1/20/2015
The Luther Strode trilogy by Justin Jordan (SPREAD, LUTHER STRODE) and Tradd Moore (LUTHER STRODE, All New Ghost Rider) warps up with a double sized issue of the LEGACY OF LUTHER STRODE on April 1. The story debuted in The Strange Talent of Luther Strode (the book which put basically put Jordan on the map) and continued in The Legend of Luther Strode.
For five years, Luther Strode and Petra have been on the run. Now the time for running is over, and the Murder Cult is going down. The road to Cain starts here in the double-sized debut of LEGACY OF LUTHER STRODE #1.
“This is what we’ve been building to. All those questions? They get answered here,” said Jordan. “This is Luther Strode taken worldwide. We’re going bigger, crazier and bloodier than before, and there’s no guarantees anyone is making it out alive.”
Readers first met Luther Strode in THE STRANGE TALENT OF LUTHER STRODE. Just an average nerd, Luther Strode sends away for a bodybuilding course from an old comic book—one that ends up working a lot better than he ever imagined. Though his newfound strength and strange talents make school a lot easier, they’ve also caused some very, very bad people to take a very, very keen interest in him.
In the follow-up, THE LEGEND OF LUTHER STRODE, Luther became more than a nightmare for the evil men in his city… he became a legend. He found himself hunted by a legendary killer and ended up with a measure of redemption and a new mission in life: stop the people that made him what he is.
LEGACY OF LUTHER STRODE takes Petra and Luther across the world, from Russia to Hong Kong to some place east of Eden, hunting for the man who started all of this: Cain himself. The story ends here.
The double-sized LEGACY OF LUTHER STRODE #1 will land in stores on April 1 and can be pre-ordered using Diamond Code FEB150498.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/12/2014
Remember that Boom! Studios conspiracy book we were teasing last week? The cpinsorators have been revealed: Writer Justin Jordan and artist Ariela Kristantina (Death of Wolverine) will unveil DEEP STATE in NOvember. According to pr,
So yearn a a little moon landing cover-up a little ancient astronauts, a little this ‘n’ that. Deep State is one of the three books Jordan teased prior to Comic-Con, so two down one to go?  Deep State #1 Main Cover by Matt Taylorit’s about John Harrow, a man who works for the U.S. government to ensure the nation’s secrets stay that way—secret. In the first story arc, Harrow recruits a new partner to help him control the fallout after a secret about the 1969 moon landing gets out. And no, it’s not the popular conspiracy theory that some believe the moon landing was faked and created on a sound stage. Rather, it’s something far more sinister and this main cover image by Matt Taylor should tease it a little better.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/3/2014
And Boom continues it’s two week announcement roll-out with news that Justin Jordan (Luther Strode) will be writing not one not two but THREE THREE THREE titles for Boom!
Jordan has really cemented his place as an up and comer over the last few years so this is another strong announcement for all concerned.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/21/2014
Straight from the offices of Publishers Weekly, it’s More to Come! Your podcast source of comics news and discussion starring The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald.
In this week’s interview special, Heidi goes to Mid-Georgia Con in Macon, Georgia and interviews comics creator Justin Jordan of The Strange Talent of Luther Strode and Shadowman, Rico Renzi – creative director of Heroes Con and successful comics colorist, and veteran comics artist Brian Stelfreeze, currently working on the new Boom comic Day Men on PW Comics World’s More To Come podcast.
Listen to this episode in streaming here, download it direct here and catch up with our previous podcasts on the PublishersWeekly website, or subscribe to More To Come on iTunes
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/13/2013
After taking a look over the solicitations for Marvel and DC in December, it’s time to take a look at Image’s new comics. There’s a whole new load of first issues, along with some specials and – uh-oh – a Black Kiss 2 Christmas Special. Ho-ho-ho?
CBR have the full list, which must have taken them ages to format - here are the cherry-pickings:
There are a lot of new stories starting this month, including Dead Body Road from Justin Jordan and Matteo Scalera (above) and The Saviors by James Robinson and J. Bone (below). The former will be a revenge story, with a man avenging the death of his wife, which happened during a botched robbery. The latter is a conspiracy story, with the hero uncovering an alien cabal who plan to take over the World.
Joseph Michael Linsner returns to his Cry for Dawn characters for a one-shot this month called Sin Boldly.
As it’s Christmas, Image have decided to celebrate with two specials – the first of which is Krampus! by Brian Joines and Dean Kotz, a story loosing the mythical anti-Santa after all the actual-Santas somehow lose the source of their powers.
Black Kiss 2 also has a Christmas special, with Howard Chaykin both writing and drawing the story. Look at the cover. Listen to this solicitation:
because nothing says “holiday fun” like an endless stream of incredibly nasty revenge sex.
Oh lordy. Hide the kids.
The final chapter of Carbon Grey begins this month, from Paul Gardner, Hoang Nhuyen, Khari Evans and Kinsun Loh
A studio edition of Jupiter’s Children #1 is out – basically a version without the colours, so you can see Frank Quitely’s artwork in black and white.
A Distant Soil II is released in trade this month, continuing Colleen Doran’s series.
Mind The Gap begins ‘Act II’, which seems to be essentially a ‘season two’ for the book. Issue #12 closes the mystery of the first season, and now the book moves onwards to some new mystery.
Image will be releasing The Complete Multiple Warheads in trade, compiling Multiple Warheads #1-4 and Multiple Warheads: Down Fall, both written and drawn by Brandon Graham.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/11/2013
The most recent book to return from Valiant, Shadowman started a second arc this week, with issue #5 from Justin Jordan and Patrick Zircher. The series has made an effective return, with some good character work and world-building – although the book is struggling to lift all the different storylines it has weighing it down. There are around four different ongoing storylines at the moment, all of which are currently working separate to one another.
This is only a setup issue for the second arc as a whole, but we have a lot of different things to keep track of here. Whilst lead character Jack Boniface learns a little more about the mantle of Shadowman, the villains make some moves – both on Earth and in a place known as ‘deadside’. Then there’s a new character, Dr Mirage, who also seems set to get involved in things somehow. The stories are starting to pile up, and it’s working fairly well so far.
Each section – Boniface, Dr Mirage, the villains on Earth and villains in Deadside – all have a different artist on them (I believe!), although there’s only one clearly different artistic style. That would be Roberto De La Torre, who is an inspired choice to draw the Deadside section. His work highlights something which has slowly come to dominate the book: the effectiveness of the villains. The fact the book is managing to deal with having several unconnected storylines at once is due to the way in which the villains are written. They plan against each other and with each other in unexplained and interesting ways, and are very hard to predict and track. That’s making for an unnerving effect on the book as a whole, and is the best part of this series so far. Here we get an opening section with one villain, bookended with a final sequence following a second villain, and tying him to the first.
It’s all very interesting, and the ways in which Jordan slowly connects bits of the story is making for a great ongoing narrative here. The book doesn’t get a chance to slow down, because so many people are involved in so many different things. The new character, Dr Mirage (who I’m told is a re-imagined classic character) gets a great showcase, with the best sequence of the book devoted to her. The writing doesn’t rely on readers recognising the name – we get to spend several pages with the character, to establish her role in the story going forward. There aren’t many character moments involved quite yet, but she fits so well into the overall tone of the series that it doesn’t really matter.
Characterisation is rather variable in this book so far. Some characters get to have fun and show off to the reader, while others are more restrained and held in place. Shadowman himself falls into the latter category, mainly filling a role rather than living as a fully dimensional character in his own right. After a first issue which built him into place very well, he’s mainly been stuck in an everyman loop, repeating his character definition issue after issue. He gets a few moments here, but is for the most part outpaced by the other characters. There’s a fairly abrupt sequence here which was designed to give him a bit more purpose and depth, but is cut off quickly by the need to fill in other stories – he’s the character most short-changed by the decision to stack so many plots on top of one another.
Actually, though, my only real concern with the book comes through in the colouring. Jack Boniface has been growing paler and paler in every issue of the series so far, to the point where he looks like a white man in this issue. Whilst Zircher is drawing a black character from New Orleans, the colourist doesn’t appear to be following through with that particularly well. I bring this up because Shadowman is one of the most well-known black characters in comics, and it seems a shame that he isn’t being represented as strongly as he could be. That aside, the work done in this issue is great, with some excellent work done in the Deadside setting in particular.
Shadowman is a fascinating series, with a brilliantly established central tone and style. The book is interesting, and three of the four stories here are great fun to follow. The lead character is struggling for space amongst the more interesting villains, but hopefully once he starts to cross over into the other storylines then things will spark up for him again. I’m really enjoying Shadowman as a whole, and it’s an excellent addition to the Valiant line. It’s wildly unpredictable, and very good fun.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/20/2013
Recently it was announced that the landmark Geoff Johns 100+ issue Green Lantern era was over, and a whole new creative team wold be brought aboard the line. Well, the news is out, a new team of fearless creators has been announced—in brightest convention appearance, in blackest message board meltdown, no storyline will escape rewrites. In addition to the four existing books, a new one starring popular bad good guy Larfleeze has been added to the New 52 line-up. here's the roll-call:
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/20/2013
Recently it was announced that the landmark Geoff Johns 100+ issue Green Lantern era was over, and a whole new creative team wold be brought aboard the line. Well, the news is out, a new team of fearless creators has been announced—in brightest convention appearance, in blackest message board meltdown, no storyline will escape rewrites. In addition to the four existing books, a new one starring popular bad good guy Larfleeze has been added to the New 52 line-up. here's the roll-call:
This is a great peek behind the curtain, thank you for this.
To work totally editor free is an awesome experience, to do whatever you want feels nice….. and scary.
the truth is I like working with editors, I learned a LOT working with them, When I was in Image, even Jim Valentino and Erik Larsen gave us great advice. Then with Scott Allie I learned (and keep doing so) great things and made me a better storyteller.
Having that outside eye is really important, and making changes are not a bad thing at all, we creators sometimes are so in love with what we’re doing that we cannot separate ourselves from our work to find the flaws, and an editor definitely can.
I think Editors will stay for as long as there are comics.
Editors thriving?
Hahahaha! Oh good one.
Good editors are often like good bartenders, to be friends and confidants, sounding boards and in some cases uncredited co-writers. Every creative team and project is different. Approach on a corporate owned project is completely different to a creator owned one. So many variables and you have to be able to handle all of them.
Like the big publishing houses, the comics editors have been viewed as not integral to the end product by the bean counters like Ike Perlmutter. Many traffic managers have been allowed to assume the ‘Editor’ title in lieu of a pay rise.
DC’s best editors were Archie Goodwin and Andy Helfer. Marvel had people like Ann Nocenti and Louise Simonson. Image don’t have any editors but they do have some great production people who read most of what they handle and pass on any mistakes they just happen to catch.
That’s not to say good editors aren’t at these companies but they’re usually overworked, underpaid, and told not to upset the talent by interfering.
Rewrite someone’s script? Most creators used to get the opportunity to rewrite their own unless they were unwilling to do what the publisher wanted or went awol (it happens), but if you don’t get the approval or acknowledgment of the creator good luck surviving the next month on social media.
Then there were the Marvel years where artists would get plots and then drew whatever they felt like drawing. Writer gets three or four issue ahead before he sees pencils to dialogue and can’t find his story in there beyond page three. Realizes his other scripts are now useless.
Ah, editors. Last out the office, first to be shit on.
What Dave Elliott said. Exactly.
Editors definitely seem to be underappreciated, which I explained in the article. But they’re increasingly in-demand amongst creators at publishers like Image, so in creator-owned comics at least I think they’re being viewed as increasingly important.
This post is terrible.
Dustin, be prepared to support your answer!
Reading article it seams that that today’s editors are simply focusing on production and financial matters rather than on the actual editing.
“Over the past 20+ years Image Comics has grown from a vanity publisher for the top talents of the 90s into a trendsetter and home to a diverse range of popular titles and creators. ”
I don’t think Vanity Publisher is an apt description of Image at it’s outset, unless of course you’re John Byrne. They’ve also been trendsetters, for better and worse, for most of the time since their inception.
Heidi this post needed… an editor. Backing up the “editorial interference is often overstated” subhead with a scoffing Nick Lowe tweet is not exactly digging into a topic. Nor is the rest of the post, which seems more like a long commercial for whatever Andy Schmidt is selling. Whatever the role of or possible need for editors might be in today’s comics landscape, I know exactly 0% more than I did when I started reading this, but I do know a ton more about Andy Schmidt. Andy Schmidt. Andy Schmidt!