All The Rage: The Passion of the Liefeld

The Passion of the Liefeld

Welcome to our Easter Edition of ATR.

In honor of the weekend, we’ve got a “very special” comic flashback for your enjoyment, but first, the latest news and rumors:

Monitor Duty

While the DC panel at Wizard World LA dropped a lot of hints about their upcoming projects, one thing that remains hazy is the status of the JLA ongoing series. It had been expected that Kurt Busiek would return as the permanent JLA writer after a few guest stints (including the Geoff Johns/Alan Heinberg arc). However, Busiek recently clarified his status on JLA on the DC boards:

As it turns out, the answer is no… and yes. I won't be the regular writer on JLA after all -- by my own choice. I've been having trouble with the deadlines, as has Ron, and I ultimately came to the conclusion that on a book that requires this much coordination, that ties in with so much of the DCU, I simply can't manage a monthly schedule, not with my current health. I'd still like to do the book regularly, but it'll have to be another time.

However, that doesn't rule out me doing more JLA stuff -- if nothing else, there are at least three follow-up stories planted in the "Syndicate Rules" arc, maybe more. So the plan is for me to write some follow-ups, on a schedule I can manage, and maybe they'll be used in JLA: Classified, maybe in the main book, who knows? But I was just talking this morning with a terrific artist who's interested in doing one of those arcs with me, and I'm sure he's someone most JLA fans would be very, very happy with.

So I won't be back after Geoff's arc, but I'll be back.

According to sources within DC, a permanent JLA creative team is over a year away and has not been selected yet. I was also told that the Dan Slott/Dan Jurgens arc will follow the Johns/Heinberg story. There are also other JLA arcs in the works by Gail Simone & Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Roger Stern & John Byrne, which could show up in either JLA or JLA: Classified.

This Has A “Red Tornado” Factor of Seven Out of Ten

Where Darkness Dwells

In a late breaking story, Dan Jolley posted the following message at his website:

Purgatori

I can’t pretend to be too shocked here. You don’t spend $50,000 on a line of comic characters and then not use them. It took two years, but it looks like Tales of Wonder is finally going to make their move. However, there’s no word yet as to whether ToW will publish their own Chaos! imprint or partner with another publisher.

But there is an Evil Ernie crossover with Hack/Slash, coming up in June from Devil’s Due Publishing. Perhaps a sign of things to come?

This Has An “Armageddon & Megadeath” Factor of Eight Out of Ten

Dream A Little Dream

Earlier this week, Terry Dodson posted an update on his current projects at his yahoo group, which include Witchblade covers and “as many Marvel covers as my schedule allows.” He’s also working on designs for two video game projects.

As for Coraline, his forthcoming graphic novel from Humanoids, Dodson confirmed that the name has been changed to avoid confusion with Neil Gaiman’s similarly titled book. Dodson’s GN will now be called Songes Volume 1 Coraline.

This Has A “La Mer” Factor of Nine Out of Ten

Death Has Two Faces

Speaking of Humanoids, here’s a quick look at Sebastian X, Stuart Immonen’s collaboration with French screenwriter, Michelangelo La Neve.

This Has A “La Mort Aime Un Mystère” Factor of Eight Out of Ten

Straight To Hell

Tim Bradstreet has been a professional illustrator for almost twenty years, with a wide body of work that includes Star Wars, The Punisher and Hellblazer. Recently, Bradstreet took the time to answer a few questions from our roving ATR Associate, John Voulieris:

John Voulieris: Are you still going to be producing Punisher covers for the foreseeable future? And do you have any other cover gigs you have lined up?

Tim Bradstreet: Yes, I'll be staying on Punisher as long as Marvel feels I have something to contribute. When I leave I'll find something else to take its place, another monthly gig, but that's down the road.

I'm kinda itching to sink my teeth into another character/book sometime in the near future, though I wouldn't necessarily have to leave Punisher to do that. Mostly I take an extra cover or two a month anyway, whether it be Atomika, Star Wars, Angel, Serenity, Deadpool, GI Joe, you know… I take whatever passes my way that sounds fun and interesting.

I've got an upcoming date with covers for Bad Planet by Steve Niles and Tom Jane, as well as another Niles project, the Cal Mcdonald stuff, both comics and paperback. Most offers hit me anywhere from 1-3 weeks before someone needs art so it's hard for me to say what would be directly next.

JV: I really enjoyed that Hellblazer short story (The Crib) you illustrated for Warren Ellis. Do you have any more interior work planned for 2005?

TB: I've been threatening to do it for a while. I really want to do another issue of Hellblazer. I've got an idea in the works for a Punisher one shot possibly starring Tom Jane that I've been discussing with Marvel. Jane wants to model for it and I think that would be a nice tie in, especially with a sequel on the horizon.

Beyond that there is a good chance people will finally see Clive Barker's Age Of Desire sometime this year. It's a 48 page graphic novel that I did back in '91 that has remained unpublished since Eclipse went bankrupt and lost my art for 7 years. I've been looking for the right publisher and the right timing to get it up to snuff and get it on the shelves. I've been in serious talks with Joe Pruett at Desperado Publishing and they really want to do it.

Sometime soon.

JV: Your comic book covers are getting some attention from Hollywood. Is there any movie poster work in your future? Is this something you want to pursue?

TB: I do have more movie poster stuff coming up. The Punisher ad campaign was highly successful and it's helped get me seen by some of the right people. Avi Arad and I talked about some possibilities recently for other Marvel films as well which has me very excited. It's a great challenge because of the incredible body of work out there by other great artists and designers. It's my wish to make an impact on that industry in some way. It's tremendously exciting to see your art representing a film when you walk into a theater. It's something I'm definitely pursuing.

JV: Are there any writers you want to work with? Or any particular characters you want to tackle as a cover or interior artist?

TB: There are a lot of writers I'd love to work with. I'm happy to finally be working with Steve Niles, we have been talking about doing this since our old days back at Eclipse. I love the humor and wit that come through in his work. I'd like to work with Garth Ennis on something, wouldn't have to be the Punisher. I'd like to work with Andrew Vachss again. I maintain a relationship with him so the cards are in my favor there. Azzarello? Any day of the week.

As for characters, Deathlok, Nick Fury, Batman, Manhunter, Grimjack, Scout, Hell, almost any character of Truman's.

JV: How long does it take for you to produce a cover?

TB: Covers can take anywhere from 2-3 days if it's a rush thing, to 3-5 if it's not. I can lay it out in a day and have it penciled and inked the next. A perfect world is when I can lay it out at my leisure and take one day to pencil, one day to line it out in ink, and a partial day to fill in the blacks

JV: Any other projects you want to talk about? Comic or non comic related.

TB: I'm always trying to get people to read Hellblazer. Its reader base is mostly relegated to longtime fans. I think it's easy to pick the book up with just about any arc. Since issue 200 was out not too long ago I believe it's as good a place as any to start, there is also a lot in TPB so you wouldn't have to track down scores of back issue to get yourself caught up.

It's a damn fine book to be a part of every month. I'm proud to have been a mainstay on it for so long now. I just hope they don't get tired of me. Mike Carey and Leo Manco are doing some wonderful things on that book. I think it's a shame more people are not reading it.

This Has A “Not Vengeance… It’s Punishment” Factor of Ten Out of Ten

Tossing The Hammer Aside

Mark Millar recently addressed the persistent rumors about his involvement with the Thor relaunch.

Long story, short: it’s not gonna happen.

But he does endorse Mike Oeming for the gig. And after reading Oeming’s Ragnarok story, I’d have to agree…

This Has A “Midgard Serpent” Factor of Eight Out of Ten

The Force Is Strong With This One

Here are a few of my favorite pics from Adam Hughes’ newly opened, official website, http://www.justsayah.com.

Incidentally, Hughes will be a special guest at next month’s Star Wars Celebrations 3, where he will be selling a limited edition art print featuring his rendition of Han Solo & Chewbacca. You can check out an early prelim of it here.

This Has A “Flying Through Hyperspace Ain’t Like Dustin’ Crops, Boy” Factor of Ten Out of Ten

She-Devil With A Sword

Here’s a first look at the Red Sonja variant covers by Michael Turner, John Cassaday, Paolo Rivera, Joseph Michael Linser, Alex Ross and Art Adams.

Enjoy.

This Has A “Hyborian Age” Factor of Ten Out of Ten

Missing A Legend

In June, Devil’s Due Publishing will be putting out a trade paperback of Dragonlance: The Legend of Huma, which was produced in association with the Dabel Brothers. The interesting thing here is that issue six was never released, so the only way the fans can get the conclusion is by buying the trade. Naturally, some of the fans are quite upset by this, at least judging by the emails I’ve received about it. But something else came out as well. It seems that the last issue was being produced just as things went sour between DDP and the Dabel brothers. So, DDP has the script for the final issue but not the pages from the original artists. Which means that DDP had to get another art team to finish the story.

It’ll be interesting to see if they found someone whose style meshes with the original artists…

This Has A “Dark Magus” Factor of Seven Out of Ten

The Passion of The Liefeld

Since it’s Easter Sunday, ATR presents a special blast from the past… The Godyssey, by Rob Liefield with a young Ed Benes on art:

No, your eyes do not deceive you. That’s Jesus, ripping himself off the cross and tearing the Greek Gods a new ass.

Ah… Rob…

Don’t ever change.

This Has A “Jesus Christ: WWE Superstar” Factor of Eight Out of Ten

Liberality, He Wrote

One more Easter item… because it wouldn’t be Easter without some wacky neoconservatives!

And by far, the wackiest thing to come out this week was from this thread on the Byrne Robotics message board (by way of Fanboy Rampage) A man named Mike Mackey, whose goal is to put out the “world’s first conservative comic”, posted a synopsis for his project, Liberality For All:

America’s future has become an Orwellian nightmare of ultra-liberalism. Beginning with the Gore Presidency, the government has become increasingly dominated by liberal extremists. In 2004, Muslim terrorists stopped viewing the weakened American government as a threat; instead they set their sites on their true enemies, vocal American conservatives. Terrorist assassins have thinned the ranks of the vocal Right. The few conservatives that survived attempts on their lives have been forced underground by the oppressive 'Coulter Laws' of 2007. In order to further their cause, they have joined forces and formed a powerful covert conservative organization called 'The Freedom of Information League', aka F.O.I.L. The New York City faction of F.O.I.L. is lead by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North, each uniquely endowed with special abilities devised by a biomechanical engineer affectionately named 'Oscar'. F.O.I.L. is soon to be joined by a young man named Reagan McGee. Reagan was born on September 11th, 2001. Reagan has grown to manhood in an ultra-liberal educational system: being told, not asked, what to think. With personal determination, which alienates him from his contemporaries, he has chosen the path less traveled…the path to the Right. Two decades of negotiation with the U.N., and America’s administration of 2021 (President Chelsea Clinton and Vice President Michael Moore), has culminated in a truce with fundamentalist Islamic terrorists, or so America is told. The honorable ambassador from Afghanistan has come to NYC to address the U.N., his name is Usama Bin Laden. Although, Ambassador Bin Laden has announced that he will publicly apologize for the 'misunderstanding' of the events of 9/11. In actuality, he intends on detonating a tactical nuke that is contained in his private diplomatic briefcase. It is a race against the clock to save NYC from a nuclear holocaust and the world from liberal domination. Only with F.O.I.L.’s help, can 'Liberality For All' once again become 'Liberty For All!'Well… It made me laugh. I’ll give him that.

If Mackey is serious about putting this out (and he insists that he is), then I think I’ve just found my Civilian Justice.

This Has A “F.O.I.L.ed Again” Factor of One Out of Ten

And we’re just about done. Special thanks to John for contributing.

One more thing to note: SBC’s Ambidextrous columnist, Brandon Thomas has a store signing this Wednesday, March 30 at Quintessential Comics in Glendale Heights, IL. If you’re in the area, drop in and tell him I said “hi.”

Until next time.

Later,
Blair

PS If anyone has any rumors, stories or news to share, please email me at blairm@silverbulletcomicbooks.com. Thanks to everyone who has been sending stuff in. It’s greatly appreciated.