Wayne Beamer
The Comics Page: Beasts! Volume 2
If you enjoyed Fantagraphics' great art anthology Beasts!, you'll be very pleased to learn FBI art director Jacob Covey is working on a second volume and promises "many names that readers won't recognize, bringing a whole new audience to some artists who deserve more exposure...
Howtoons: Why Graphic Novels ARE Educational!
I was more than surprised and pleased by the hits and response to my Thanksgiving weekend post about the literary worth of comics and graphic novels or, in the opinion of some thoughtful posters, the lack of it. My take: Whatever it takes to instill a love of reading and learning in children -- a daily newspaper, a Star Wars-themed cereal box, or comics -- is all to the good...
Creator Q&A: Gail Simone
Considering all the deserved raves writer Gail Simone has earned for her work on an array of mainstream superhero titles -- notably DC's Birds of Prey -- it's hard to believe until a couple of years ago, she hadn't admitted she was a professional writer of comics, one of the interesting fun facts she shared in a recent New York Times interview...
Funnybook Paparazzi in Austin
Had nice conversations with Tony Millionaire, nee of Maakies, Sock Monkey and Billy Hazelnuts fame, and Dave Herman, voice actor extraordinaire whose animation credits include Futurama, American Dad, Bee Movie and the upcoming Drinky Crow Show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim next spring at a signing hosted last Saturday at nationally reknowned Austin Books and Comics...
The Comics Page: Frank Espinosa
You know how much I admire Frank Espinosa, the talented cartoonist behind the wonderful adventure series Rocketo -- unfortunately on hiatus until next year -- and his recent work on the awesome Image mini-series Killing Girl. From time to time, I drop in on Espinosa's Image forum to see if he's posted any juicy art tidbits for the next Rocketo mini, Journey to the New World, but have found preciou
Creator Q&A: Tony Millionaire
Must 've been sleeping when the news broke that the fine folks at Cartoon Network's Adult Swim had aired a pilot based on Tony Millionaire's brilliant Maakies weekly strip, appearing in a fine alt-weekly newspaper near you (including the Austin Chronicle), earlier this year...
Heath Ledger as The Joker Revealed!
Can't wait another two weeks for the debut of the featurette/prologue of The Dark Knight before I Am Legend on IMAX screens across the U.S.? Hopefully, this groovy image of Heath Ledger as The Joker from the January 2008 cover of the UK-based film magazine Empire -- along with a short interview -- will whet your appetite in the short term...
Batman Fights the Terminator?
Evidently, helming the current Batman movie franchise hasn't dimmed Christian Bale's interest in superherodom, as the versatile and gifted actor will play John Connor in a planned Terminator sequel from Warner Bros. for the summer of 2009.
I like the idea of the Terminator movies forging ahead post-Schwarzenegger into new territory, and Bale is a terrific, chameleon-like actor who gives depth to m
Another American Elf in the Family!
While millions of Americans were flooding malls on Black Friday, one of my favorite cartoonists, the original American Elf James Kochalka, had more important things to do... James and his wife Amy welcomed their second son, Oliver Jonco, into the world on Nov...
Graphic Novels Aren’t Really Literature or Worthwhile At All…
Met up quite unexpectedly Thanksgiving eve with Alan J. Porter, the hardest working writer I know (one of the nicest too!) and an expert on all things comics, James Bond and The Beatles, at my town's local comic shop of record, Austin Books and Comics (before I forget, welcome Maakies creator Tony Millionaire there Dec...