Have you ever been watching an episode of The Walking Dead and wished that you could just hop inside of the TV and waste some zombies alongside Rick & Co.? Well, if you’re headed to this summer’s Comic-Con in San Diego, then you might want to pack a pair of running shoes and your inhaler. Walking Dead comic writer Robert Kirkman — who also serves as an executive producer on the series — and his Skybound imprint have announced plans to hold a zombie obstacle course at San Diego’s Petco Park to celebrate the July 11th release of their 100th issue.
“Our fans have been reading about it, watching it and now they get to live it with The Walking Dead Escape,” Kirkman said in a statement. “We are literally transforming Petco Park into the early days of society’s collapse and San Diego is just the first city to fall.” Sounds like it could be a little too intense for us, but if this is your cup of post-apocalyptic tea, registration opens today at 12pm here. [via InsideTV]
Folks, this might come as a shock, but the original Charlie Brown didn’t have zigzags on his shirt, nor eyebrows above his alarmingly wide-set eyes. Okay — maybe we’re being a little nitpicky with the eyebrows, but there’s certainly something strange about good ol’ Chuck in his 1950s Peanuts form. The same goes for Jon Arbuckle, whose eyes have grown tenfold in size since the downer’s first Garfield appearance. While wandering the depths of the Internet for our previous roundup of early character sketches, we kept bumping into these fascinating first comic strips of Charlie Brown, Garfield, Calvin, Hobbes, and more. So, since it’s always enjoyable to note the not-so-subtle changes in popular characters, we decided to save said strips for a roundup of their own. Click through for a good laugh, a bit of history, and ten debut comic strips featuring our favorite cartoon characters.
Want to start an online comic but you don’t know how to draw? No problem! You can always use real-life photography to make your comic-creating dreams a reality! Photo comics, as they are called, can run the gamut from hilarious and absurd to beautiful and gripping. All you need is a bunch of friends who don’t mind you constantly taking pictures of them (and barring that, a set of easily posable action figures), and you’re ready to go. For some inspiration, check out these already successful photo comics after the jump!
You may think you know the men and women behind your favorite superheroes, but of course, there’s yet another man behind Clark Kent — his creator. PowerHouse Books’s beautiful new book Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics celebrates one of the essential American art forms with interviews with and portraits of some of the all-time greats of American comics, from Stan Lee to Art Spiegelman, mixing in some newer — but no less phenomenal — faces as well. Click through to see a few elegant, revealing, and whimsical portraits of some of the true giants of American comics that we excerpted from the book, as well as a few choice quotes from their interviews, and if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check out the book’s launch event on April 14 at The powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn.
While some people waste their springs cleaning, the rest of us know that the best way to spend it is outside, with a bag of comics. All of the major comics publishers seem to have the same idea, as the next few months are stacked with great releases. Here are ten comic books and graphic novels we’re looking forward to, from Gary Panter’s previously hard to come by masterpiece Dal Tokyo to the first graphic novel from cartoonist Dan Zettwoch.
The past decade has been pretty good to movie-loving comic book nerds. Superman and Batman movies have been around for decades, but now Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hellboy, the X-men, the Hulk, Captain America, and even Green Lantern and Thor have made their way to the big screen. Hell, there’s a Watchmen movie, and nobody even thought that would be filmable!
The thing is, Hollywood is running out of cool comic book heroes to put on the silver screen. Recently, we learned that a long-rumored Ant-Man movie may actually happen – Ant-Man! Seriously! Once the Avengers and the final Dark Knight films premiere, what superheroes are going to be left? Here are a few that we can’t see carrying a franchise, no matter how hard to studio execs try to make it work.
Influential cartoonist Daniel Clowes has made an enviable career out of misanthropy. He’s earned awards for introducing readers to a well-meaning kidnapper, a superhero whose powers are activated by cigarettes, and a teenage girl with a penchant for hearses. Sunday marks the release of The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist, featuring rare material from the Ghost World creator’s 25-year career.
As Daniel Clowes continues to produce top-quality work, it’s easy to overlook the rising talent in alternative comics. There are many young artists who share his storytelling skills, interest in surrealism, and eye for biting observations. Discover some of these cartoonists below.
“I grew up with American comics — lots of Dracula, lots of Batman,” says Persepolis artist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi. “I ended up in a studio where everyone was making comics, and I said to myself, ‘This is the work for, you know, for nuts,’ because you have to be like a monk, you see. You do the same thing over and over.” Of course, after working on her own comics for a while, she “realized that I was a monk myself, inside.” This is only one of the great moments from Satrapi’s edition of Beginnings, director Chiara Clemente’s series of Sundance Channel short films in which artists tell stories about getting started in their field. Other highlights include watching Satrapi draw her most famous character — herself — and talk about how she always identified with “cool guys.” Watch the badass in action below.
Cupcakes aren’t just cutesy treats for girlie girls like Zooey Deschanel’s character from New Girl – they also make the perfect canvases for some awesome (and often decidedly geeky) comic-related pop art, featuring everything from superheroes to graphic novels, and even Sunday morning newspaper comics. Plus, they always look so delicious! We’ve scoured the Internet to show you some of the best comic cupcakes out there, so click through to check them out — if, like us, you’ve been quietly suffering from a massive post-Valentine’s sugar hangover all day, these sweet treats might be just the hair of the dog that you’ve been craving!
Had enough of costume-clad superheroes? A Vancouver-based comic book company called Bluewater Productions specializes in biography books about everyone from Steve Jobs to Stephenie Meyer. When we heard of their plans to release a Saturday Night Live-inspired book in March, we were curious to see some more celebrities, politicians, and historical figures in comic form. What we found is pretty weird, to say the least.
