Comic world buzzes about DC Comics' new 'Blackest Night'
Comic-Con International starts next week (and we’ll be there), but publication today of Blackest Night — an eight-issue epic — is the talk of the comic book world now. The DC Comics Blackest Night story crosses over into many of the company’s other books. It stars Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman and other well-known superheroes. However, today's buzz is all about the resurrection of slain heroes and the possibility of them becoming a part of the mysterious Black Lanterns. However, the big question is — will Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) rise from the dead? Our comics expert Brian Truitt talks with Blackest Night writer Geoff Johns to find out. Click on read more for that and a look at the first three pages of the debut issue.
Art courtesy of DC Comics
May 15, 2009
Comics creators straddle fiction and reality with 'The Unwritten'
The new Vertigo Comics title The Unwritten, created by writer Mike Carey and artist Peter Gross, mines familiar territory if you’re into pop culture: A book series about a prodigal boy wizard is a worldwide phenomenon, and the author’s son/character’s namesake is making the most of that infamy. Yet if you’re thinking it’s just a Harry Potter retread, you’re falling down the wrong rabbit hole, Alice. Carey and Gross have created an expansive world where audiences are in love with a man they think is the living embodiment of their fandom, all while a shadowy cabal manipulates popular fiction for its own ends. You know Dan Brown is drooling somewhere right now. “Fiction has tremendous consequences in the real world,” Gross says. “Story is the driving force of civilizations, wars, religions. It’s pretty easy to make a convincing argument that story is the most important thing that humans have ever come up with.” The first issue (which is only a buck!) was released this week, and I caught up with the creators to find out more about this fascinating landscape they’ve conjured up — no wands necessary. Click read more for the full report and three pages from the debut issue.
Art courtesy of DC Comics
April 03, 2009
Celebrity authors Chenoweth, Osmond, Gifford and more
Lately it seems as if every thick envelope arriving on my desk holds a new book by a celebrity. A bunch of them come out this month, including autobios by Kristin Chenoweth, Marie Osmond and Jaime Pressly. Click on read more for a look at a few you might like.
March 20, 2009
Meet G. Willow Wilson, writer of the intriguing comic 'Air'
G. Willow Wilson is one of the brightest new stars in the comics world, and one with a diverse resume and full passport. At times, she's been a music critic, political journalist, history scholar and essayist on topics including religion and the Middle East. But the American pop-culture world may know her best for writing the acclaimed Cairo graphic novel (her husband is Egyptian and she lived in Cairo for four years before moving to Seattle) and the ongoing series Air for Vertigo Comics.
A collection of the first five issues hit stores this week, and Air would be a favorite for anybody who likes Lost, conspiracy theories or the Discovery Channel. It starts out seemingly as a post-9/11 thriller — Blythe, an airline stewardess who's afraid of heights, has a run-in with a mysterious group whose mission it is to keep the skies safe from terrorism, and the man they're after, the equally mysterious Zayn. From there, the story flies off into a whole other direction as Blythe finds out there's an entire country in the Middle East that no one knows about because it's not on any maps, a weird science called "hyperpraxis" exists and Amelia Earhart may not be as missing as everybody thought. The seventh issue, also out this week and priced at a reasonable $1, is a perfect jumping-on point for new readers.
I got recently a chance to talk with Wilson as she was waiting for a repair guy to fix her dryer. A recent devotee to the Scott Pilgrim books like myself, Wilson discussed her first crush, what got her into comics and Air's underlying themes. Click read more for our engaging conversation.
Photo by Jane N. Egerton
March 18, 2009
Stephen King not done with his 'Dark Tower' series
We seem to have a lot of blog readers who are big fans of Stephen King, judging by the comments on our post about the master of horror’s take on Stephenie Meyer as well as your picks on who’s the best writer between King, Meyer and J.K. Rowling. I went looking through the notes from my interview with King for a recent cover story to see if I could uncover any more nuggets you guys might like. And I think I found one.
When we were chatting about his upcoming book Under the Dome, a novel with political subtext out in November, King said he had recently had an idea for a short story. “And then I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I find three more like this and do a book that would be almost like modern fairy tales?’ Then this thing started to add on bits and pieces so I guess it will be a novel.” That idea, according to King, is for a new Dark Tower novel, a continuation of his epic seven-part fantasy/sci-fi/Western series about a lone gunslinger named Roland and his ongoing hunt for the Man in Black. “It’s not really done yet,” King admits of his magnum opus. “Those seven books are really sections of one long uber-novel.” Click read more to find out what other Dark Tower plans he has.
March 06, 2009
Stephen King on alcoholism, afterlife and the paparazzi
Stephen King is an American Icon, a fiction writer who has worked non-stop for 35 years. He's an aging baby boomer, who at 61 stays so on top of the popular culture he writes a regular, insightful column for Entertainment Weekly. I encourage you to read Brian Truitt's interview for our American Icons series. But there's more to King than we could fit in print. So, click on read more for just that, more juicy details from the man who is King of the scary story.
Photo courtesy of Scribner
'Watchmen' illustrator Dave Gibbons on his masterpiece
By now you know our newsroom got excited about Watchmen, in theaters today. But we were even more jazzed when we got British illustrator Dave Gibbons, left, who drew the 1980s graphic novel, to create the exclusive poster we unveiled last weekend. (If you missed it, click here.) Unlike Watchmen writer Alan Moore, who doesn't want anything to do with turning his work into movies, Gibbons is happy with the film. Our Watchmen expert Brian Truitt talks with Gibbons; click read more below.
Photo by Clay Enos
Vote for your favorite writer: King, Rowling or Meyer
We started an Internet firestorm last month when we excerpted here on the blog part of this weekend's magazine interview with Stephen King. The best-selling author talked about Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, saying of Meyer that she "can't write worth a darn." No surprise, King's comment went viral, and some 1,600 blog readers shared definite opinions on which of the three pop fiction writers is the best. Today, I want to put it to a vote. Click on the ballot below to tell us who you think is the best writer: King, who has written more than 60 books and scared the wits out of us for 35 years; Rowling, whose series about a boy wizard got young people raised in the computer age turning page after page; or Meyer, whose vampire romance series is seen as publishing's next big thing. After you vote, feel free to tell us why you chose your favorite in the comment section below.
February 09, 2009
Christopher Moore on new book 'Fool'
Author Christopher Moore may not be William Shakespeare but he's certainly built a cult following of readers who can't wait for his newest novel, Fool, out tomorrow. Moore's writing is much like the madcap prose of Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey, and this humorous retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear stars a wise fool named Pocket; his oaf of an assistant, Drool; and a number of royal buffoons. (Check out the first chapter here.) Because our Brian Truitt is a fan of Moore’s work, he took the opportunity to talk before Moore starts on a 15-city tour. Click read more for Brian's report.
Photos courtesy of HarperCollins
February 03, 2009
Neil Gaiman on the 'Coraline' movie
Anybody who's into fantasy literature knows the name Neil Gaiman. I'm a big fan of his, from his work on the seminal comic Sandman to prose novels such as Anansi Boys and American Gods, and he just won the coveted John Newberry Medal for The Graveyard Book. Yet he's also had his creative hands in the screen worlds, as well, turning Neverwhere into a British TV miniseries, writing the screenplay for Beowulf, and having his own stories such as MirrorMask and Stardust adapted into multiplex fare. His next cinematic foray, the stop-motion animated fable Coraline, gets a theatrical release Friday. Our Nancy Mills caught up with the 48-year-old British writer, who now resides in Minneapolis and counts Tori Amos as one of his BFFs, recently in L.A. Click read more for her report and check out the Coraline trailer below.
Photo by Philippe Matsas
