Friday, July 09, 2010

5 Days To Die


In addition to Detective Crisara's conflicting priorities, there is also some ambiguity as to the sequence of events leading up to the fateful car crash and Crisara's perception of them. "Perception is a big theme in the book. For example, Hoverman himself is not written as an all-evil, all-the-time kind of bad guy. As much as I love Mr. Joshua from 'Lethal Weapon,' this isn't him," Schmidt said. "The perception that Ray has of Hoverman has him characterized as Satan himself. When we meet Hoverman, he's not exactly what you'd expect. He cares about his 'business,' but he also cares for his employees and so on. Some of my favorite stories are about perceptions - things like 'The Truman Show' and such. So, yeah, there's definitely more than meets the eye.

"It's actually something I'm a bit worried about when it comes to getting people to pick up the book. With the covers the way they are, and the set up, I worry that it looks too much like standard action fare or something. But then again, maybe that just plays into the theme even better..."

As for why the series will be published in five weekly installments throughout the month of September, Schmidt said, "It's all in the title. He's got 5 days. I can't put out a daily comic, but we could do weekly, so we looked up a good month with five Wednesdays and did it there. It was a happy coincidence that the content suggests itself to this kind of release schedule. That actually wasn't decided until we almost solicited issue #1 many months ago. And IDW hasn't done a weekly comic stunt like this before on its own. So we're really doing this as a test case, but I'm confident the content is strong and I hope people really connect with these characters. There's a lot to them, I just hope I was able to bring that all out in them. And Chee did a fantastic job capturing their facial expressions and movements. He's a tremendous talent just waiting to break out."

"5 Days" artist Chee Yang-Ong, most often credited simply as Chee, previously worked with Schmidt on the BOOM! Studios miniseries "Challenger Deep," created by Andrew Cosby. "I have the glorious Mark Waid to thank for that," Schmidt said of that first collaboration with Chee. "Mark had just joined BOOM! Studios and I had just left Marvel Comics to start Comics Experience. I called Mark to see if there was something I might be able to write for him and he offered me 'Challenger Deep.' It was a concept that BOOM! had, and they asked me to flesh it out. I had a great time working with Mark on it (man, did I learn a ton from him). But Mark had worked with Chee and knew that I really wanted a storyteller for the series and he hooked us up.

We decided any action scene that was more spectacular than anything in the original 'Die Hard' was too much. But you'll feel it when you read it. If someone gets shot once, even if they're not dead, they're out of the fight. That hurts. So, that was very much on our minds as well. I think it makes the fight scenes that much more exciting, personally. But, yeah, sorry, he doesn't take out a Harrier with his .45."

http://www.idwpublishing.com/

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Atomic Robo


Atomic Robo, the new print comic from Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener, chronicles the Action Science adventures of a robot that’s a little Ghostbusters and a little Indiana Jones crossed with a lot of Nikola Tesla.

If you’re tired of endless, meaningless mega-events and incomprehensible continuities, then Atomic Robo is the comic book series for you. Atomic Robo puts the fun, the adventure, and the optimism of the pulp era back into today’s comics. Join up with the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne, and let’s show that angst isn’t depth and fun isn’t frivolous. Pick up Atomic Robo today!

See what people are saying! Atomic Robo comics and collections are available at your local comic book store or online.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

The Last Unicorn in Comics!




Peter B. Gillis's writing captures the dark and magical story of an imprisoned unicorn that meets a strangely inept magician named Schmendrick. The adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's beloved novel, The Last Unicorn carries on with another exhilarating issue with illustrations by artist Renae De Liz.
http://issuu.com/idwpublishing/docs/lastuni-01

San Diego, CA (February 23, 2010) - Peter S. Beagle's acclaimed and enchanting fantasy, The Last Unicorn, has delighted fans for more than forty years. Now, IDW Publishing is pleased to launch The Last Unicorn comic book adaptation of Beagle's acclaimed novel at WonderCon, one of the country's leading comics and pop culture conventions, held April 2nd through the 4th in San Francisco. Under the close direction of Beagle himself, writer Peter B. Gillis, illustrator Renae De Liz and her husband, colorist Ray Dillon, have all joined forces with IDW to capture the depth of this heartfelt story. Beagle will be a guest of WonderCon and host a panel to discuss his famous story. A signing at the IDW booth with an exclusive variant cover number one issue will follow.

"I'm delighted that IDW is doing this adaptation of my book," says Beagle, "and by the real effort everyone there has made to stay true to what I wrote. Together with the creative team of Peter, Renae, and Ray, they are achieving something I honestly hadn't believed possible and I cannot wait to debut it at WonderCon."


The Last Unicorn was originally published in 1968 and became an instant classic, selling more than five million copies worldwide. Beagle created some of the most delightful and real characters in modern fantasy fiction, and also wrote the screenplay for the incredibly popular animated film that was adapted from his novel.