Get Your GWOPA On! Hello there. Welcome one and all back to yet another glorious installment of All The Rage. This week I have things for everyone, so it’s best we don’t waste time and get started. I received an odd email from someone calling themselves “WKB” who is claiming to be White King’s Bishop in Checkmate, Thinker. With this message the following image was attached:  Tinkering around, I found this web address in the properties: http://www.gideonii.com/DEPUTIZATION_ORDER_OUTGOING/Order_192_101_DEPUTIZATION.gif Since this stuff comes from the Gideon II site, and indicates that there will be “Cypher” changes, I can only assume that they are going to add something, or change the password, or something. I really did spend some time on this whole thing; and yes, that very same thought you are thinking right now did occur to me. First things first, I got a hold of Eric Trautmann, current co-writer on Checkmate. He vehemently denied any involvement or knowledge of the site and is a bit confused over how the password ended up in Checkmate #17 (“Yeah, right”, I’m sure some of you say; don’t blame you). Eric also added that he is delighted by this website. So, even if he isn’t involved, at least he likes it. This left primary scribe Greg Rucka. It took some time track this busy writing machine down, but he was kind enough to provide a statement on the matter: “Honestly, the first I knew about it was when I read the posts on Comic Bloc. I'm embarrassed to admit it took me about a week to figure out the username/password. I don't know who's doing it, but I sure as hell am impressed." Greg’s not involved then? Or a clever ruse? I’ll take him on his word for now. Hmmm… All signs also point to it not being an official DC thing either. Viral marketing? Obsessed fan-person? Covert operations from some PR source? It’s only guesswork right now. If anything else interesting pops up, I’ll make sure to mention it. This Has A “And I Left My Ninja Suit At The Dry Cleaners” Factor Of Eight Out Of Ten
Exclusive First Born #2 Unlettered Pages If you like Witchblade and are or plan on reading First Born, here’s a sneak peek at some previously unseen pre-lettered pages from First Born #2. Two gnomes were maimed getting these out of Top Cow’s fortified bunker.    Full details on this nice looking Ron Marz and Stjepan Sejic project can be found here. This Has A “Prenatal Super Light/Dark Action Time!” Factor Of Eight Out Of Ten
A Fearless First Look And for those of you looking for a neat new comic to get into, I recommend Fearless from Image, due out on November 7th. I’ve seen the first two issues, and I will tell you that Mark Sable, P.J. Holden, and David Roth really knock this one out of the park. Here’s what you should expect:
Read all about this upcoming series here. As a special treat, what you are seeing are two pages not seen elsewhere.  
Markosia’s New Bad Blood, Now with More Kong! The unlettered first looks continue with Markosia’s Starship Troopers #5, beginning the Bad Blood story arc, and being the debut of the new Troopers creative team. Check ‘em out:        Nice. Very nice. To top it off, take a look at these great King Kong: King of Skull Island covers and some of #0 which will be coming out in October:          I’ve had a chance to flip though the #0 issue and I have to say that it perfectly captures the old pulp magazines in look, feel, and style. When I was little, I would go through my father’s old comics and other fine forms of pulp literature and this Kong comic is like a time machine back to those wonderful moments in my young life. This Has A “Will Troopers Ever Bug Kong, Though?” Factor Of Nine Out Of Ten
Rahsan Ekedal: Heating Up the Forge of War Warhammer. One of my all-time most beloved franchises. I have played Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 and most of its incarnations since 1987 or so. Needless to say, when BOOM! Studios gave me an opportunity to talk to Rahsan Ekedal, the amazingly talented artist on Warhammer: Forge of War, I pounced on it like Genestealers on first edition Imperial Guardsmen. After going through some bizarre rituals that were very suspect (Tzeentchian, maybe?), I finally made contact with Mr. Ekedal…. -Audio Log Begins-  ATR: Hey, Rahsan, thanks for joining me here on the Rage. First off, I love your work on Forge of War. It's absolutely stunning. I understand that this is one of your first jobs in the industry?Rahsan Ekedal (RE): Thanks, Steve! Happy to be here. Yeah, this is my first major gig. I did a very limited run indie called Dante's Inferno with a writer I met at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, but Forge of War is the first thing I think anyone has actually seen! ATR: It's a good start, my friend. How did you land this gig with BOOM! anyway? RE: Well, I bumped into Ross Richie at WonderCon last March. We talked a little bit, I showed him some samples, and he asked me to get in touch with Joe Abraham at Boom!. Joe had just taken over editing the Warhammer books - he liked my stuff, and needed someone to take on Forge of War, so that was that! ATR: And how is working with Dan Abnett? What is the process like? Is it difficult working with clones? Readers need to know. RE: It's a bit hard because I never know which clone I'll be dealing with day to day, and some of them are more homicidal than others... No, really Dan is great. He and Ian send me fantastic scripts every month that always get me juiced up for drawing. From an artistic standpoint, I'd say the style they've developed together on this series is great. The give me quite a bit of room to choose how each page will look, while also giving enough of a framework so I know what they're thinking, what they visualize. It's perfect. ATR: Oh dear, I neglected Ian! Sorry, Mr. Edginton. Now he'll send the dire weasels after me. Guess I was asking for it. Anyhow, it's good to hear you guys all work together well. As far as your art is concerned, could you please tell the readers what is is that you do exactly in regards to your art duties. And what is -your- process? RE: My robots do most of the work. ATR: Clones and robots... what's the industry coming to? RE: It's a brave new world, man. Get with it! When my robots aren't working, this is how it goes. I get the script from Dan and Ian and sit down and read it through about twice. Twice because the first time I generally just read it like I'm reading a book, just to get into the story and the feeling of the setting, characters, etc. The second time I really start visualizing everything, and I might make some little thumbnail notes. Dan and Ian have pretty visceral images built into the scripts, so it's usually pretty clear in my mind from the beginning. After that I move to the thumbnail stage - making little sketches that only I can read, getting panel layouts figured out, figure placement, and camera angles. After that, I move to the full size art board, and draw tight blue-pencil layouts. I scan these layouts, convert them to grayscale in Photoshop, and darken them a bit, then send them off to get approved by Boom! and Games Workshop. After all that, I finally get to do the finished pencils! We don't have an inker on this project, so Scott colors right over my scanned pencils.  ATR: Now do you work closely with Scott on the colouring?RE: I give him notes when I visualize something specific, or when I want to make sure there isn't confusion about some detail. Color is very important to the storytelling, and we want to get it right. Scott has been great and sometimes even picks up on things I didn't indicate in the pencils, which is the definition of good collaboration in my book. ATR: Well, this team seems to have its process down, and the results make this Sigmarite a very pleased customer. For those readers out there not in the know, Forge of War is a limited series. What does the future hold, Rahsan? When will we see more purty Warhammer comics (in a new series, I mean)? RE: I can say definitely doing another Warhammer miniseries after Forge of War is done. I can't say much, but if everything works out, you should be seeing my pencils on both more Warhammer fantasy, as well as Warhammer 40K. And that will be rolling right after Forge of War ends. ATR: Any chance to see your work in any Warhammer tabletop or RPG products? Speaking of which, what's your personal relation to the Warhammer franchise? Are you a gamer? And how much research did you have to do to get the results we see? RE: Games Workshop hasn't approached me, but I'd love to. I don't get much time for painting and more traditional illustration with all the comics work, so that would be a lot of fun. As far as my relation Warhammer, I wish I had the money to afford everything! I'd like to build a huge Chaos army - that's my heart's desire at the moment. Time is an issue too - getting a book out every month take up almost every waking moment (translation: I don't have a life)! But I love Warhammer and working on the book as allowed me to delve deeper into the world, which is fantastic. I did quite a bit of research before starting issue #1, and the level of detail involved in the world of Warhammer requires new research with every new script I get. It's really important to me that I get it right. My mission is really to give the fans of Warhammer a visual realization of this world that feels right and fits with the figurines, book art, etc., while also hopefully showing it from a new angle, or revealing a new detail here and there. I want to give the fans a sense of depth, and maybe help them imagine themselves standing on some hard scrabble hill in Averland facing off against the ravenous hordes of Chaos! ATR: Averland has cruddy weather, you jerk! I caught a chill! Um, I guess you're doing a good job, then. RE: Sorry! ATR: A Chaos army, huh? I always figured artist sorts as followers of the Ruinous Powers. The weather thing makes so much sense now. RE: There's nothing I love better than fog, rain, and severed limbs ATR: There's nothing quite as romantic, that's for sure. So, this other non-Warhammer comic you worked on... before we go, could you tell us a little about it? RE: That project was a fictional story set in 1906 San Francisco, telling the story of a firefighter who experiences the Great Earthquake that destroyed the city. It was a collaboration between a handful of students from the Academy of Art, which is where I studied before landing with Boom!. It also required a lot of research (I guess you could say I'm a bit obsessive), but it was fun to rebuild old San Francisco in my head, and then destroy it!  ATR: That sounds great! Where can people find this comic?RE: They can go to http://www.dantesinfernothemovie.com, and I believe they can download a digital version there, although I'm not positive about what's currently available there, since the writer/creator handles that whole aspect. ATR: I'm definitely checking that out. Alright, Rahsan, it's been great having you on here, man! As a HUGE Warhammer freak (I insisted that I wear my Imperial Aquila belt-buckle with my snazzy wedding suit, for instance) I'm happy I got the opportunity to talk to you. You're welcome back anytime, so don't be a stranger. The closing words are yours, sir. But they have to end with "...there is only war". RE: Thanks so much, Steve! If anyone hasn't picked up issue #3 of Forge of War yet, it's really cool, especially if you love Dwarfs kicking ass! And issue #4 will be coming out soon, with lots more brutal violence and perhaps a... Griffon? Oops, did I say that? So till then - in Sigmar's name - there is only war. -End Log. Thought of the Day: Fire Purges the Unclean- And only two Astropaths burned out during this whole affair. Not bad. For more forbidden data, please visit the vaults over at BOOM! Studios. This Has A “So, Are Dark Elves Canadian?” Skull Factor Of Ten Out Of Ten
For the Kids: Batman Strikes! I realise that not many kids read, or really should be reading, this column—but I’m sure some fellow parents do. One great thing about the comics industry is Johnny DC and the titles it carries. That said, a great thing about Johnny DC is Batman Strikes. An upcoming issue in January will have the first team-up in the Batman Strikes universe of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn (which is also the same universe of The Batman TV show). It starts with issue #41 and is called “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, and has them on the run in Gotham City, winding up at a stadium that will probably seem familiar to some Chicago baseball fans. This sure to be good story is written by Russell Lissau and the artist is to be announced. Speaking of writer Russell Lissau’s work on Batman Strikes, his third issue (#38) is coming out in October and is titled “Pretty Poison”, and is one of his all-time fave scripts from what I understand. As you may surmise, this too features Poison Ivy. Take a gander at some of Christopher Jones’ pencils on the issue here.  Be sure to also take a look at Mr. Lissau’s MySpace page where he talks about Hope: New Orleans which is in stores now. This Has A “Poison Ivy CAN Be Good For Kids” Factor Of Nine Out Of Ten
The Parting Grapeshot and Other Projectiles Quote of the last week goes to Mike Sterling over at the Progressive Ruin blog. His thoughts on Heroes for Hire #13 (aka “Heroes for Hentai”) arriving at his store “Ah, this seminal cover which had folks in the comics internet shooting out loads of white-hot anger, leaving them breathing hard with their passion, has found its release this week to, at least at our shop, no in-store ejaculations of outrage. So at least there's a happy ending.” Brilliant! Entertaining rant and commentary on Iron Man over at Scans Daily. Here’s an appropriate song to go along with it, I think. Caution! This song uses the Fuck-Word. You’re welcome, Jason (Bazinet not Brice, but hello to that Jason, too). Oh, and of course, Moon Knight agrees that Tony is a dick. Scans Daily can also be incredibly entertaining to nerdy gamer types (like myself). Take for instance this recent entry. Ah, ye olde Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comic. Probably my favourite thing (along with the Forgotten Realms one and Hellblazer aside) that DC ever released. This entry deals with AD&D #23—“Why Lawful isn’t the best alignment”. I’d like to note that Kenzer & Company did a decent D&D comic series… If you can find it, it’s worth checking out. Over at C.B. Cebulski’s blog, he reminds us that the Tales of the Fear Agent trade is coming out, of which he has a story in. Fear Agent is awesome, so it’s worth a mention here. Okay, C.B. is pretty cool, too. He so owes me some tacos. Why? Only he knows. Ask him and he might tell you. Maybe. My arch-nemesis John Layman has a great idea for a new column name: “The Flying Rumor Friar”. Very imaginative, man. All that stuff he says about me having sex with animals? Completely true. There was a steamy Thundercats love scene that was inspired by me (which was sadly cut, I hear). On a much more somber note, Neil Gaiman talks about his friend Robert Jordan’s passing. That last bit where he say that if he stayed home he could keep everyone alive actually choked me up a bit. It’s truly a sad time for fantasy fans. Finally, my pal Daniel Lundie of Futurius sent me this birthday picture he did for me. Very cool, man. Bribery and flattery will get you everywhere, I’m told. Speaking of Futurius, I’ll have an excellent little preview of things to come from them next week.  Well, folks, that’s it for another ATR. Thanks for dropping by. Some personal issues helped push this back by a day or two. Yeah, I know, and I just got back, too! Things will iron out. They better, anyway. For now, you should expect ATR on Mondays, or thereabouts. The weekends are too damn packed for me lately and I hate writing up a column on Thursday (because much of my best stuff knocks at my door on Friday or Saturday). Inconsistent? Heck yes, and you have my apologies. However, things have been set in motion to alleviate this problem. Just hang in there and everything will be fine. It’s either that or extra-terrestrial domination complete with clockwork cyborg weasels and peanut butter death rays. It’s quite easy to track me down, and I encourage it. If you have comments, suggestions, complaints, ideas, tips, things I just have to see: please o’ please, drop me a line. Email: steves@silverbulletcomicbooks.com Livejournal: http://synabetic.livejournal.com (a good place to find out the status of ATR or some cool hints as to what’s to come) MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/synabetic ComicSpace: http://www.comicspace.com/steven_g_saunders Diary of a Grognerd: http://grognerd.blogspot.com/ And on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com you can find me under my full name: Steven George Saunders You may also IM me if you so desire, and see that I’m online. People have done this before, and I’m a very good sport about it. I like to talk. Can you tell? Instant Messaging info can be found in my various profiles (I think Livejournal has the best selection). Oh, yes, and let's not overlook Steve's Rage Cage, the ATR Forums. Feel free to spout off on there and speak you mind. About whatever you want, really. All I ask is that people play nice with each other. I will try to place items that didn't make the column and other tidbits, too, and other insidious messages as pertaining to me obsession with weevils. Take care, dear readers! Until next time… |
