Join Kevin Baker and Danijel Zezelj
at BOOKCOURT
163 Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
(Between Dean St. and Pacific St.)
Tonight, Thursday, November 19th
at 7:00 pm
as they discuss LUNA PARK

And in case you missed these:
TIME/Techland previews pages from LUNA PARK
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL/Speakeasy features LUNA PARK
GRAPHIC NOVEL REPORTER talks LUNA PARK with Kevin Baker

Join Kevin Baker and Danijel Zezelj
at BOOKCOURT
163 Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
(Between Dean St. and Pacific St.)
Thursday, November 19th
at 7:00 pm
as they discuss LUNA PARK

The original MADAME XANADU team of Eisner nominees Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley is back! Bringing to my mind a certain AMC TV show, this month’s issue is full of fashion . . . and unexplained occurrences. When the gloss and polish of a 1950s Madison Avenue exec’s wife begins to tarnish she needs more than a pair of pants.

Check out the cover and these gorgeous pages from issue #16:

For all you Peter Milligan fans and those unfamiliar with this series, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN issue #1 is now available for download. Read it here.

And as a reminder, this November, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN Volume 1: The American Scream will be re-issued and, issues 7-13 will be collected for the first time, in SHADE THE CHANGING MAN Volume 2: The Edge of Vision!

This month AIR: Pureland continues with part 2. Joined by Zayn’s brother, deep in the Pakistani frontier, Blythe is drawn into a holy war with a bizarre twist.

Check out a couple pages from issue #13:

FABLES, The New York Times Bestselling series, Winner of Twelve Eisner Awards, and 2009 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Graphic Story will be available for the first time in a deluxe hardcover volume later this month.

Read Bill Willingham’s intro:

Down in the Deep Grand Green

Thank you for picking up this deluxe edition of the Fables comic book series. This volume collects the first ten monthly issues of Fables in their entirety, with a few extra tidbits thrown in. As I understand it, about once each year another deluxe Fables volume will follow this one, until (one hopes) the entire sweeping Fables saga is eventually collected. And because our “sweeping Fables saga” is still ongoing, at the rate of one new issue each month, that finish line may be some time coming. And that’s a good thing. I’m not in a hurry to see these stories come to an end. I hope you feel the same.

No doubt some of you are veteran Fables readers, who’ve decided to revisit the past stories in this format. To you I don’t have all that much to add to what we’ve already shared together, time and again, over the eight years (and counting) of Fables’ publication — except of course for the one thing that can’t be repeated often enough: Thank you for reading. Thank you, not only for reading these tales once, but coming back to them again. C.S. Lewis used to say, “What good is a book you only want to read once?” I’m grateful that Fables seems to be a series that merits those second and third readings. Thank you also for so often passing your copies and collections on to your friends, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and the occasional stranger. Your missionary efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. And thank you, gentlewomen and gentlemen, for helping me make my living by telling these tall tales. Devoid of any respectable skills, unable to contribute to society in a meaningful way, and possessed of questionable character, I happily take my humble place among the other scurrilous liars, scoundrels and hoodwinkers of history.

But now, having spoken to you familiar and welcome old companions of previous adventures, I wonder if you’d excuse me a moment while I say a word or two to our new readers — to those who’re about to read these first ten Fables issues for the first time.

At the time I’ve had to pause in my normal routine to write this introduction, I have just completed the following line of dialogue for the 88th issue of the monthly Fables series: “I’m here because all fairy tales take place in the woods, King Cole, even those that don’t.” Never mind who said those words, or why they were spoken to Old King Cole — yes, that fellow of the merry old soul. It doesn’t matter. What does matter here is that this turns out to be an apt line with which to begin your introduction to the Fables series.

Welcome to the woods, where all fairy tales take place —even those that don’t.

Fables are fairy tales, folktales, whispered legends and ribald ballads, sung too loud and off-key, but with vigor and purpose. They’re mysteries about things unknown, and perhaps unknowable, but desired, or feared, or both. The woods are and always have been a place of the deepest mysteries, the heart of the unknown. Fables takes place in the woods.

Sure, you’ll find out in the very first panel of the very first page that I’ve just told a whopper. Hey, I admitted to being the worst sort of liar not four paragraphs ago. I’ve lied, boldly and bald faced, because anyone can see with a glance that these stories take place in New York City, where our hapless characters are living in secret as refugees. Ah, but the woods are here, dear reader. Since we traffic in fairy tales, we have magic among our bag of tricks. And using such powers we’ve taken those enchanted glades with us, those ancient and venerable stands of oak and ash, yew and hawthorn, bright linden and cursed juniper. We’ve taken them and tarted them up in urban drag — the gaudy dress of stone, steel, plaster and glass. From the very first page, Fables begins in a building called The Woodland, and its hallways are the dark and twisted trails of the deep forest. Its rooms, even the very big ones (and you’ll quickly see that there are impossibly big ones), are close and brooding, with dense green canopies overhead that filter, edit, and rephrase what natural light gets through, until it is very unnatural indeed. The Woodland is a place where you only get to know what we tell you, and you should never trust a fraction of it. It’s a place beyond the fields that you know, where the forgotten old monsters still lurk, and wait, and husband their years, until they can venture out again, stalking new young prey, that probably should have listened to the dotty old timers and heeded their dire warnings. It’s a place where you can spread all the breadcrumbs behind you that you like; you’re still going to get lost.

Lost, but not alone. You’re about to meet some old friends that you haven’t seen in a while. You already know their first stories — their adventurous tales from long ago. Now you get to find out what they’ve been up to lately. Some you can trust. Others you should never turn your back on. But isn’t that always the way of things?

Welcome to the woods.

And now it’s time for our stories to begin.

— Bill Willingham

25 June 2009

Written in the Woods

Post-apocalyptic comics that have influenced SWEET TOOTH by Jeff Lemire

With my Vertigo monthly SWEET TOOTH coming up in just a few days, I’ve been hunting down and/or re-reading as much post-apocalyptic fiction as I can for inspiration. In addition to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and films like The Road Warrior, I’ve also been hunting down as many post-apocalyptic comics as I can. Here are some of my favorite comics in the genre:

SCOUT–Tim Truman’s overlooked masterpiece from the 1980’s. A hard traveling Apache warrior hunting down the “Four Monsters” of Native lore, who have taken the form of politicians and war mongers in this post-apocalyptic America. Truman’s storytelling is incredible. The first series ran for 24 issues, and the sequel, SCOUT: WAR SHAMAN ran for 16, and is even better. It follows a wiser older Scout, ten years later as he treks across America with his two young sons in tow. It was a huge impact on me when I read it as a kid, and is now a huge influence on SWEET TOOTH.

WINTERWORLD–A three issue mini-series from Truman’s “4-Winds” imprint at Eclipse Comics. The same imprint under which he produced Scout. This 1987 story by Chuck Dixon and Jorge Zaffino, follows a scavenger in a world frozen over. He uncovers shopping malls long buried in the snow and ice, and trades the goods he finds. It might have been Zaffino’s first American comics work, and the art is simply stunning.

BOY AND HIS DOG–Harlan Elllison and Richard Corben. This is a total classic which my partner in crime, and colorist on SWEET TOOTH Jose Villarrubia recommended. I love Corben, and he is in peak form here adapting Ellison’s short stories about a young post-nuke survivor and his highly intelligent telepathic dog. Apparently it was made into a film in the 70’s or 80’s with Don Johnson, but I haven’t found that yet.

PUNISHER THE END–Garth Ennis and Richard Corben. Another Corben gem. This is my favorite Punisher story. Frank Castle breaks out of prison after decades inside to find a world demolished by a holocaust. He immediately sets out to punish those responsible. Corben’s aging gray-haired Frank is an unstoppable force of nature and amazing to behold. This character design ended up being a huge influence on the design of Jepperd, the big bad ass in SWEET TOOTH.

As a bonus, here are a few pencils of a particularly “post-apocalyptical” sequence from SWEET TOOTH #3!

Today, Cory Doctorow raves about DMZ Vol. 7 at BOING BOING.

And ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’s Shelf Life gives DARK ENTRIES a glowing review.

Vertigo Crime has officially launched!

In honor of the publication of FILTHY RICH by Brian Azzarello and artist Victor Santos and its femme fatale Vicki, I’d like to pose a question to all Vertigo GRAPHIC CONTENT readers.

Who’s your favorite femme fatale and why? Brigid O’Shaughnessy in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon? Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct? Phyllis Nirdlinger in James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity? Vivian Rutledge in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep?

Let the conversation begin!

On G4 TV/FRESH INK Blair Butler picks 5 Comics You Should Be Reading Right Now. UNKNOWN SOLDIER “A chilling and meticulously researched comic that definitely isn’t for the faint of heart” hit the list at #4. Watch the full segment here.

IFANBOY reviews UNKNOWN SOLDIER

And Yale Assistant Professor of Political Science and Economics, CHRIS BLATTMAN, blogs about UNKNOWN SOLDIER.