Oni Press

In the overwhelmingly male comic book industry, it has been a challenge for some editors and readers to see the ever growing number of talented women currently trying to make a name for themselves. With that in mind, ComicsAlliance offers Hire This Woman, a recurring feature designed for comics readers as well as editors and other professionals, where we shine the spotlight on a female comics pro on the ascendance. Some of these women will be at the very beginning of their careers, while others will be more experienced but not yet “household names.” Cartoonist Corin Howell attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated with a degree in Sequential Art. Also one of the first students of the Murphy Apprenticeship with the great Sean Murphy, she writes, draws, and colors her projects, which so far have included work for Viz and Oni, as well as work she's self-publishing.

Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov has been building a positive reputation in the comics industry for years now. His work for Marvel and DC -- including Ultimate FF and I, Vampire -- may be what he’s best known for, but his creator-owned work -- including Oni's The Bunker and The Life After -- has built up its own fanbase. One of the most interesting things about Fialkov is his serious, business-like approach to even his most creative endeavors. Many comic creators have their own ways of getting work done -- with varying success when it comes to meeting deadlines -- but there’s something particularly fascinating for me as an editor about creators who plan and schedule their time, analyze their own work, and still produce art that is innovative and entertaining. Fialkov's blog, How Fialkov Do, offers a thoughtful and entertaining view into how he gets his writing out into the world. I've spoken to Fialkov about his process a great deal over the years, and I thought ComicsAlliance readers might be interested to read more about it.

The Adult Swim animated series Rick And Morty is about as well-suited for a comics adaptation as anything on TV. It's got a psychopathic mad scientist, inter-dimensional adventures, and lots of teenage growing pains. That's likely why the Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon-created series will be coming to Oni Press next year in a new comic written by Costume Quest: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers scribe Zac Gorman.

Zander Cannon's graphic novel Heck was hands-down one of the best books of 2013. It mixed an intricately detailed depiction of hell with a deep emotional resonance and an expressive, but also appealingly simply cartooning style. In some ways, it was so good that it made it hard to imagine how Cannon could follow it. But then Oni Press announced Cannon's new, ongoing series at New York Comic-Con Thursday. It's called Kaijumax, and it's about a maximum-security prison for giant monsters. Let me repeat that so it sinks in. It's about a maximum-security prison for giant monsters. When we all expected Cannon to zig, he zagged.

By the end of 2014, it might be tough to name a comics publisher that hasn't offered up a Humble Bundle deal. Oni Press is the latest publisher to join the ranks of the Humble Bundle crowd (others include Top Shelf, Valiant Comics, and Boom Studios), though it's put a bit of a spin on its offering of 24 titles and more than 2,500 pages of comics. Buyers can choose to donate the proceeds from their purchase to the charity Direct Relief, an organization helping to treat and contain the Ebola outbreak in Africa, among other humanitarian causes.

Back in July, ComiXology addressed one of the biggest questions people had with its digital comics service: Do customers actually own the issues they buy? The company unviled a DRM-free backup feature, but only for a handful of publishers, including Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and Top Shelf Productions, among others. This week, ComiXology announced a second wave of publishers that will offer DRM-free downloads -- and no, Marvel and DC still aren't part of the deal.

With hundreds of panels to choose from at San Diego Comic-Con, the show can be an overwhelming experience — and it’s far too easy to miss a panel you think you might have loved, or to find yourself on the wrong side of the con floor five minutes before a great panel is about to start! Take heart, brave reader. ComicsAlliance has sifted through the schedule to offer up our pick of the best programming at the con. Today we offer our suggested highlights for day three, Saturday July 26, 2014 — with an emphasis on comics programming. We’ll also let you know where and when you can find ComicsAlliance contributors at the San Diego show.

The San Diego Comic-Con is only a week away, and the reveals of convention exclusives just keep coming. Today, it's Oni Press, offering up a roster of special items and unique covers that you can only grab at Booth 1833, including a full-color hardcover edition of Scott Pilgrim v.5 that comes complete with a pair of Kim Pine's drumsticks. Other con-exclusive items include a mask and print for Paul Tobin and Benjamin Dewey's I Was The Cat, a patch for Charles Soule and Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque's Letter 44, an exclusive cover for Princess Ugg that crosses over with Battle Pug, and more.

A nomination for a Harvey Award, named for legendary MAD Magazine cartoonist and editor Harvey Kurtzman, is unquestionably the most prestigious honor that has ever been bestowed on a comic book about NASCAR. Seriously. It happened in 2009 with NASCAR Heroes. The Harvey Awards have released the list of this year's nominees. As you might expect, the usual suspects like Hawkeye and Daredevil were honored, along with other nomination leaders Saga and Quantum and Woody. Archie, Valiant and Image all received a good amount of nominations, but it's BOOM! Studios, along with its Archaia imprint, that earned the most recognition with 26 nominations; well more than any other publisher.

In the pages of Paul Tobin and Benjamin Dewey's I Was The Cat -- a new graphic novel serialized weekly on ComiXology -- a young journalist is hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of an eccentric billionaire named Burma. The trouble, as you may have already guessed from the title, is that Burma is a cat -- specifically, a talking cat who has spent his last eight lives attempting to conquer the world. It's a great premise, but what Tobin and Dewey are doing in their story is interesting not just for bizarre feline histories, but for how dark and sinister a fluffy kitty who spends most of his time on-panel being petted by the other lead characters can actually be. To find out more, we spoke to Tobin about the origins of the story, why you don't have to like cats to enjoy it, and the amount of research that he thinks a writer should be doing in order to create a proper history.