Zack Smith: Writer

’76 II: SETH PECK & TIGH WALKER

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by Zack Smith

Last time at Newsarama, we talked to half of Image’s ’76 team about Jackie Karma. This time, we head to the second half of the book to talk with Seth Peck and Tigh Walker about their storyline, Cool.

Full story here.

DWIGHT MacPHERSON ON ARCHIBALD SAVES CHRISTMAS & MORE

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by Zack Smith

Dwight L. MacPherson has become a name to watch among up-and-coming comic writers for such darkly funny works as Dead Men Tell No Tales and The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, earning raves from the likes of Brian K. Vaughan, Kurt Busiek and Steve Niles. Now, he’s taking on the holiday season with artist Grant Bond in Image’s Archibald Saves Christmas, a twisted tale of troubled ‘toons. The very busy MacPherson sat down with us to rap about Archibald, who might be the most warped aardvark in comics since Cerebus.

Full story here.

’76 I: TALKING TO B. CLAY MOORE & ED TADEM

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by Zack Smith

1976 was about more than disco fever and fancy-schmancy bicentennial quarters. It was a time when heroes walked across 110th Street like human tornados, throwing down, busting heads, breaking hearts, taking names, and gettin’ it on. Those days are back this January in ’76, a fly eight-issue miniseries from Image Comics so superbad you’re gonna go, “Damn, that’s funky!”

{ahem}
 

Full story here.

TALKING TO JONATHAN HICKMAN – PAX ROMANA & A RED MASS FOR MARS

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Jonathan Hickman’s Image miniseries The Nightly News established the writer/artist as a talent to watch, earning raves from the likes of Brian Michael Bendis and Brad Meltzer. Now he’s back with not one but two new projects from Image Pax Romana and A Red Mass for Mars, two books that promise to continue in News’ darkly subversive vein. Hickman recently spoke with us about his new works, and what he hopes to accomplish in comics.

Full story here!

All along the watchtower, a princess kept the view: Amy Adams in Enchanted Photo by Barry Wetcher/ Disney In Bruno Bettelheim’s classic analysis of fairy tales, The Uses of Enchantment, he suggests that the lack of description and characterization in fairy tales is a way of allowing the reader to relate themselves to the characters. The recent barrage of self-aware, deconstructionist fairy tale films (three Shreks, Happily N’Ever After and several dozen straight-to-DVD numbers) have all suffered from the problem of fleshing out the two-dimensional characters of fairy stories while maintaining this sense of reliability

Full review here (scoll down)

BEOWULF—This CGI version of the English 101 mainstay offers a Faustian update on the classic tale of a warrior (Ray Winstone) battling the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover at his most manic) and his mother (interpreted as a naked, 3-D Angelina Jolie). Director Robert Zemeckis has improved the quality of his motion-capture filmmaking since the creepiness of The Polar Express, but the computerized actors still suffer from Botoxed foreheads and unmoving eyebrows. The violence and sexuality makes this inappropriate for kids, and yet it doesn’t go far enough to be entertaining for adults. There’s a great mature-oriented animated film out there, but this isn’t it. Rated PG-13. —ZS

BACK TO THE BEGINNING: AMY WOLFRAM ON TEEN TITANS: YEAR ONE

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by Zack Smith

You probably haven’t read any of Amy Wolfram’s work…but most comic fans have probably seen it. Wolfram, who served as a writer and story editor on the Cartoon Networks’s Teen Titans animated series, makes the leap to print this January with DC’s Teen Titans: Year One, a look back at the original incarnation of one of DC’s most enduring super-teams written by Wolfram and illustrated by Karl Kerschl. Wolfram gave us the scoop on what to expect from her comics debut, and what it’s been like going from the animated Titans to their comic book inspirations.

Full story here.

JIM RUGG ON CAPTIN KIDD AND THE NEXT ISSUE PROJECT

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by Zack Smith

Continuing our look at Image’s The Next Issue Project, we’ve got Jim Rugg, who recently illustrated DC/Minx’s The PLAIN Janes, on the Captain Kidd story he’s doing with his Street Angel collaborator Brian Maruca. You’ll also get an ultra-brief look at a never-printed Marvel story that’s getting quite the reputation online.

Full story here.

TALKING TO BRIAN CHURILLA: THE ENGINEER AND MORE

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Brian Churilla has hit the comics scene in a big way with his new cosmic adventure The Engineer from Archaia Studios Press. The epic tale of a mysterious being who travels through space and time with a giant pipe organ, it’s a throwback to old-school cosmic comics, with action and adventure on a truly epic scale.

Churilla, whose work is already earning comparisons to the likes of Eric Powell and Mike Mignola, sat down with Newsarama to give us peek at this new adventure, along with a lot of his upcoming art, including a special look at The Salty Yarns of Ironside with Rick Remender.

Full interview here.

MIKE ALLRED TALKS REVIVING STARDUST FOR THE NEXT ISSUE PROJECT

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by Zack Smith

The Golden Age of Comics created such characters as Superman, Batman and Captain America…and hundreds if not thousands of other characters of all genres who filled out the 64-page books of the time. While some are still around today, many were gone after just one appearance.

Until now.

In December, Image will release the first volume of The Next Issue Project, a new anthology dedicated to literally picking up where the Golden Age left off. Here, modern-day creators offer their own takes on the strangest, coolest, most downright crazy characters of the 1940s.

We got to chat with a couple of the contributors to volume one, Fantastic Comics #24. First up is Madman auteur Mike Allred, who teams with Image’s Joe Keatinge to revive Fletcher Hanks. What happens when the man behind Madman is let loose on one of comics’ most insane creations? Read on to find out.

Full story here.