Beautiful cover by Cliff Chiang

So the DC Comic Solicits were released yesterday to a big underwhelming thud.

It’s not that there weren’t any interesting ideas shown; see the wonderful solicit for Wonder Woman. It’s just I’m underwhelmed with a sense of not caring. I think my main problem is, for the most part I’m only seeing four – maybe five writers whose voices I feel are incredibly unique.

Back in film school, we learned about ‘auteur theory’ – which as Wikipedia puts it: “auteur theory holds that a director’s film reflects the director’s personal creative vision, as if they were the primary “auteur” (the French word for “author”). In spite of—and sometimes even because of—the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the author’s creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process.”

Morrison, Lemire, Snyder, Simone and Azzarello. These are people who I feel are Auteurs in comics.

I’m not saying that the rest are terrible writers…what I’ve read of Kyle Higgens has been pretty fantastic and Peter Milligan is one of my favourite writers when he’s on. It’s just a lot of the writers presented seem to be basic journey men. People who are presented with a status quo maintain and story beats to accomplish. Obviously I don’t know that this is the way it’s going to be, but it sure does feel that way.

There’s a story out there about how when Marvel was looking to start up the Ultimate comic line, Bill Jemas was looking for suggestions on who should start-up the line:

Welcome to the 1990s.

In 1999 Bendis, Millar, Ennis and Morrison were unique voices in comics. They were Auteurs of the comic book set.

I don’t really see any a lot of that when it comes to DC’s relaunch.

I’ve gone on record before about not really ‘getting’ Geoff Johns. I think that probably has more to do with not connecting with the same comic book era. Johns only wants to write the heroes he grew up reading, which is understandable, but I feel that it’s a comic book creators duty to build rather than scale back.

Every single character revamp that’s come out so far has seemed really…90s. That’s really the only way to describe it. I don’t have much attachment to most DC Characters outside of Batman and late additions like The New Gods (and cast offs) – but a lot of the choices DC seems to be making kind of harkens towards being ‘what people think kids think is cool’ rather than good and genuinely exciting ideas.

I think if DC really wanted to make a big splash, they’d have looked at more writers like Cullen Bunn, Kathryn Immonen, Matt Kindt or Nathan Edmondson whose ‘Who is Jake Ellis?’ is currently one of the most interesting high concept books on the market. It’s great that he’s writing Grifter, but I’d much rather have his voice on Detective rather than Tony Daniels’ who seems content to retread minor plot points from better stories – which of course kind of seems like DC’s MO for the last few years anyway.

I have a feeling that a year from now they’ll be another event that ends with the old universe and the new DCU being split into two worlds – giving us a Ultimate-esque Earth 2 line…

On other DC is missing the point news: the new Catwoman solicit is arguably one of the worst things I’ve ever read.

Look, I really like March's art.. but she's getting a pearl necklace here.. isn't she?

It reeks of sexism and completely misses the point on the character. If you haven’t read Darwyn Cooke/Ed Brubaker/Cameron Stewart’s revamp on Catwoman a few years back, you’re doing yourself a severe injustice. It’s not only one of the best crime series ever written, it also made Selina Kyle the most interesting female character in the DCU.  Editor’s note: unfortunately they’re all out of print.  For shame DC.

The solicit sounds like a bad caption on a 1950s B-Movie than anything representative of the character growth she experienced during that time. Is it too late for Winnick and Joshua Hale Fialkov to do a switcheroo? Hell, Cameron Stewart has proved his writing chops and definitely has an affinity for the character – why not bring him on?

And finally…to end on some good news. Brian Wood, writer of such amazing series as Northlanders, The Tourist and DMZ has put up  a free download of the entire 132-page Public Domain 2 artbook.  It’s about 115 megs, nicely high res, and has beautiful art – especially for those of you who, like me, like drawings of architecture.

Cameron Stewart posted his amazing “pencils” from Batman and Robin #16 on his blog the other day. I would love to buy the original pages! Too bad they’re aren’t any.

From Cameron Stewart’s blog post:
Unfortunately, none of these pages are for sale…as they don’t exist! I did this issue completely digitally, so there are no physical pages.

Wow, those are some very pretty digital drawings. I found the direction Stewart has added to “Insert Painting Here” pretty amusing.  If you want to see more of his work from Batman and Robin #16 like the above image, or this gem:

Check out his blog here.

Stewart joins fellow Batman & Robin alums Frazier Irving and Frank Quitely in the move to Digital penciling.  But what this will mean for fans of original art?

Writer: Grant Morrison

Pencils: Georges Jeanty

Inks: Walden Wong

Colours: Tony Avina

There’s something strange, in the neighbourhood. Who you gonna call? Bat-Zorro!

Welcome to another review of Grant Morrison’s Batman mini-series, The Return of Bruce Wayne. We’re up to issue four now and things are starting to heat up a little in the series. With new revelations of the Wayne family’s past revealed and another chapter in Bruce’s time travelling journey written, where does this leave the Dark Knight? Let’s take a gander, shall we?

What’s the Story?

Issue four picks up in the Wild West, as a man is hanged from a tree and forced to watch his home burn and ransacked by thieves as he dies. The thieves search for a relic, a small rectangular coffin with a bat symbol on its face. They continue to assault the family until the couple’s son jumps into protect his mother before being shot himself. The men leave, leaving the woman to hold her lifeless son, praying for a dark avenger to seek retribution. And he arrives, utility belt and all.

The next scenes bring Jonah Hex back into the picture, meeting his benefactor for his bounty hunting job on the mysterious avenging stranger in black. They quickly converse about the job and payment, as well as what’s behind the door nearby. After a quick exchange, we meet up with Bruce in the middle of the streets as he faces down four outlaws. He confronts them and throws batarangs into their shooting arms as they try to fire, effectively disarming them. Flashing back to Hex and his benefactor, he leaves along with his bounty, hot in pursuit of the mysterious stranger.

In the next scene we find out what was behind the previously mentioned door, as it’s revealed a “qualified doctor” is interrogating a young woman who holds the secret to opening the rectangular case. The woman begins to refer to a dark god opening his box, and there are bells. She says that these bells summon another from the shadows at the end of time, one who won’t stop until the wicked are held to account. And he’s here now. The shaman who had been trying to get the woman to speak berates the doctor for his methods, catching a bullet from the good doctor for his troubles. The good doctor’s name? Dr. Thomas Wayne. His partner and Jonah Hex’s benefactor? Someone who’s only referred to as Savage.

Next we catch up with Bruce up to his old tricks, using smoke bombs to distract and deceive his foes. As Savage and Thomas Wayne try to escape with the woman, Bruce gives chase and eventually runs their wagon off the road. After incapacitating both Savage and Wayne, Bruce goes to the woman, who hands him the small rectangular box with the bat symbol. She whistles a tune and Bruce opens the box. His eyes widen and he gazes into the box and its contents, while Thomas Wayne who’s now come to his senses proclaims the contents to be his. Bruce proceeds to rough him up a little, but Jonah Hex arrives to collect his bounty. He and Bruce face-off at a nearby dock, and although he tries to quickly draw and throw a batarang, Hex fires his gun and wounds Bruce. He falls into the water and transports through time as he has in past issues. We spring forward in time once again to a man with dark hair stumbling about the streets of a modern Gotham. The man stumbles onto a busy street and collapses. Still the holding the rectangular box, the man lays there, bleeding from his stomach from a gunshot.

The Pretty, Pretty Pictures

The book continues its rotating cast of artists with this issue, bringing Georges Jeanty of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 fame on board to do the penciling in this issue. For the most part though, it’s hit and miss. There are panels where the art is quite well done. Pages that jump to mind include our first look at Bat-Zorro early in the issue where Bruce ominously stands in the rain as the lightening crackles behind him. Others include Thomas Wayne’s interrogation of the young woman, Bruce’s scuffle with the woman’s abductors and the final pages as he arrives in what I assume is pre-Batman Gotham City. Jeanty’s style though doesn’t lend itself well to Jonah Hex, who’s scarring is badly drawn and doesn’t come across as well as it could. I recall an earlier page where Hex’s face just feels incomplete, which is a disservice to Jeanty’s otherwise solid art.

Avina’s colouring though doesn’t come across that well in some pages. Although there are pages where it’s quite good, in the scenes where characters are crying for example, the tears are coloured in such a way that it looks like they’re kind of just layered over top the character’s face; caked on and feeling unnatural. It looks more like they’re wearing paint, the tears just feel lifeless and its hard to establish a connection with them and their emotional state. What I liked about the art is the minor nuance within the book regarding the weather. Throughout the book it’s raining constantly, even when Bruce has travelled further into the future (his past). It’s both a nice maintenance of continuity throughout the issue, while also enhancing the thought that Bruce is being forced to live through a succession of lives and deaths. It’s only natural then that the weather and his wounds would accumulate and continue forward. Despite some misgivings I have about Jeanty’s artwork and some poor colouring, this was a nice touch to the issue.

Overall Thoughts

The book continues to push Wayne further towards his destiny, nearing ever closer to his return to contemporary Gotham. In this issue we see several things introduced and clarified. Foremost, it’s likely that the Savage in this issue is Vandal Savage, whom I thought might be involved after the first issue of the series. Secondly, we’re introduced to a Thomas Wayne, who’s a doctor no less similarly to Bruce’s own father. If that’s the case, it poses interesting questions as to Bruce’s past and the nature of Thomas Wayne’s life. Is his father dead? Is this Thomas Wayne and his father one and the same? Is this Thomas Wayne Dr. Hurt? The identity of Hurt is no less clear, but certainly more interesting if he’s in fact the same man who Bruce foiled in this issue. Constant reference is made in the issue to the end of time and the birth of an avenger, while also mentioning a dark god; more than likely a reference to Darkseid.

The book continues to maintain a sense of mystery about it, as we near closer to the book’s conclusion. The mysteries surrounding the small rectangular coffin with the bat symbol and what exactly its key unlocks are captivating in their subtle way. It’s clearly an important plot point, one which we’ve only gleamed over so far. This is another solid issue for Morrison, developing the Batman mythology piece by piece with each passing issue, bringing his grander vision of the Dark Knight even closer to realization. Now with Bruce back in at least a modern Gotham and the coffin opened, it appears the story has reached the cusp of its climax. Hold on folks, this could be a doozy. Until next time, same bat time (probably not), same bat address (not entirely accurate, it’ll be a different address. This is the web after all).

Andrew Ardizzi is a student of journalism at Humber. He writes for the Humber Et Cetera. You can find him at his blog Come Gather ’round People Wherever You Roam. You can also follow him on Twitter.

image by marvel studios... colors and jazz by the great Jim Rugg

• Cameron Stewart to draw Grant Morrison’s Thunderworld(!) issue for his Multiversity comic book series. Thunderworld will be his take on Captain Marvel with frequent collaborator Cameron Stewart. Calling it Thunderworld, because Grant is bored by always having to use Shazam in the title, look for it next year. In one of our last interviews with Mr. Stewart, he mentioned that he’d been approached but had heard nothing about it since then. Any Morrison/Stewart collaboration is something to look forward to.
• Dan Slott manages to outlive, outlast and out-write the rest of the Brand New Day Brain-trust and takes over Amazing Spider-Man! He’ll be accompanied by a rotating team of top notch artists such as Marcos Martin! Humberto Ramos! and Stefano Caselli! The book will ship twice a month.
• At that same panel, Marvel announced the creative team on the new Spider-Girl series teased in recently in Previews will be Paul Tobin and Clayton Henry. They also announced a new Carnage miniseries by Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain, as well as an Osborn miniseries by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios about Norman Osborn’s time in prison.
• According to MTV News, the Will Eisner graphic novel “Contract With God” will become an anthology film. “Four directors, Alex Rivera (‘Sleep Dealer’), Tze Chun (‘Children of Invention’), Barry Jenkins (‘Medicine for Melancholy’) and Sean Baker (‘Warren the Ape’) will each tackle the book’s individual chapters, ‘A Contract With God,’ ‘The Street Singer,’ ‘The Super’ and ‘Cookalien,’ respectively,” they write. Former DC Comic editor Bob Schrek is involved as a producer. “We are all well aware that the work ahead has a very high bar of excellence to aspire to set by Mr. Eisner’s pioneering achievements in storytelling,” he said.
• Still no word on Brian Michael Bendis becoming Editor in Chief of Marvel.. but that’s just ’cause they’re waiting for Toronto’s Fan Expo.. right?
• G4TV will air four Madhouse Studios-produced Marvel anime series — Iron Man, X-Men, Wolverine and Blade — in 2011.
• apparently the Infinity Gauntlet is going to be in the Thor movie… no one has confirmed this, but that’s a pretty bad-ass prop.

Official Press Release

Today, Ubisoft announced an Assassin’s Creed comic book mini-series is currently in development and due for release this fall. Developed by Eisner Award nominees and Joe Shuster Award-winning illustrators Cameron Stewart Batman & Robin, Seaguy and Catwoman) and Karl Kerschl (Superman and The Flash), the Assassin’s Creed comic mini-series will be unveiled during a panel to be held on July 22, 2010 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. in Room 7AB at Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Moderated by G4TV’s Morgan Webb, the panel entitled “Assassin’s Creed: Behind and Beyond the Brotherhood” will include details of the new comic series and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood video game release.  Featured panelists will include Stewart and Kerschl, along with Jeffrey Johalem, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood video game scriptwriter. Stewart and Kerschl recently visited Saint Petersburg, Russia on a research trip for the upcoming project.  That visit, along with the teaser video released today, will give fans an inkling on where and when the new Assassin comic series will be taking place. Additional details on the project will be revealed at the Comic-Con panel.

The new comic series is part of Ubisoft Montreal’s UbiWorkshop initiative that encompasses a number of the studio’s projects related to leveraging Ubisoft intellectual properties in entertainment mediums outside of video games, such as comic books.

“We always thought that the Assassin’s Creed universe would be perfect for transmedia initiatives like this new comic series,” said Mathieu Ferland, transmedia senior producer at Ubisoft Montreal.  “We are excited to have the fantastic and acclaimed artists Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl working on the project.  Ubisoft is looking forward to showing Assassin’s Creed fans what these talented artists have been up to at next week’s Comic-Con panel.”

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION:

For more information about Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, please visit: www.assassinscreed.com.

For more information on Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl, please visit: www.cameron-stewart.com and www.karlkerschl.com.

To learn more about UbiWorkshop initiatives, please visit: www.ubiworkshop.com or follow @ubiworkshop on Twitter.

I’ve been re-reading Grant Morrison’s Batman run – mostly because I’ve been enjoying David Uzumeri‘s annotations, and it’s gotten me thinking about how comics are put together.

With the exception of the republishing of Arkham Asylum’s in the back of the tpb, I don’t think I’ve ever read a Morrison script. While Arkham Asylum’s script is incredibly detailed with rambling thoughts – it seems as though Grant spends a lot of time sharing his story ideas to Dave McKean, rather than dictating every minute detail in a single specific image, as shown by this really verbose example (depicted and expanded by McKean on page 39 of the comic):

Batman pushes the glass into his palm. His face creases with the flare of pain. ((This act deepens some of the ritual symbolism of the story. The recurring Fish motif–which relates to Pisces, the astrological attribution of the Moon card – also relates to Christ, who in turn can be linked to the Egyptian God Osiris, whose life and descent into the underworld parallels with the story of Amadeus Arkham. We also see later that the Asylum is built upon a Vescica Pisces – this symbol (…) forms the ground plan of much religious architecture and is used in the construction of most of the major buildings of antiquity, like Stonehenge and Avebury in England. It is a development of the Greek symbol for Christ (…). We also have the Clown Fish in our story, of course. Interestingly enough, while doing some research into folklore, I came across a book, published in the 16th century by a quack doctor Andrew Borde, called ‘Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham’. The English village of Gotham in Nottinghamshire was famous for the antics of its fools and the three stories mentioned all contained some reference to images in our Arkham story. On one occasion, for instance, the Gotham villagers, upon seeing the reflection of the moon in a pool attempt to fish it out. In another story, they surround a bush with stakes in an attempt to catch a cuckoo. The third story tells of how an eel was eating all the fish in their pond. The villagers take the eel and throw it into another pond, leaving it to drown. Synchronicity is alive and well!

As a final interesting aside on the subject of fish, the Vescica Piscis symbol is a very basic representation of the holographic process in which intersecting circular wave patterns produce three dimensional images. Physicist David Bohm believes the hologram to be an analogy for his vision of a vast interconnecting universe, in which every part is in some sense a reflection of every other part. In a few pages time, the Mad Hatter will endeavour to outline Bohm’s theories as applied to child molestation.

In the same way, everyhting in this story reflects and comments upon everything else.

What was I talking about anyway?

Yeah, so Batman is here inflicting upon himself one of Christ’s wounds and it’s all got something to do with fish, okay?

Maybe I’ve been doing this for too long.))

BATMAN: UH!

BATMAN: JESUS!

All these references makes you want to check out where he read them in the first place. You get a sense of the immense scope of thought and creativity Grant’s pouring into the comic book, into that one little scene – and you wonder just how it all comes together in a script.

When Shawn Young and I interviewed Cameron Stewart back at Wizard World Toronto, Shawn asked him how Morrison’s scripts came in. Stewart told us that “…most of the important stuff is in there, and then he leaves certain action things open to artists that he trusts. I know that myself and Frank Quitely he just says go nuts on the action.”

There was another interview (which I cannot currently find) wherein one of the artists on Seven Soldiers of Victory said that he didn’t even write the dialogue for each issue until AFTER he received the final art in an almost Stan Lee/Marvel Style storytelling. I think this explains why – when in the hands of a lesser talent or, more fairly, of someone who is working on a deadline and can’t give 110% – his current crop of comics can seem like channel-surfing through the DC Universe and others seem so organic that you’d think it was done by one person.

Again, I don’t really know the ins and outs and how specific or non-specific Morrison is – but the fact remains that Morrison’s use of dialogue pared with body language (and not caption boxes) is really the driving force of the narrative for Batman and Robin.

Up next – we take a look at what Pete thinks Morrison is really doing with Batman.

Karl Kerschl is one of the most in-demand artists working in comics right now. From his work on Superman with Greg Rucka to the critically and fan acclaimed Flash installments in the Wednesday Comics Project. However his heart seems to lie with his Transmission X webcomic The Abominable Charles Christopher.

Abominable Charles Christopher is a beautifully odd book. Set in a woodland populated by cute and humorous woodland animals, the comic follows the adventures of Charles Christopher, a gentle, childlike abominable snowman. CBD correspondent Shawn Young got to talk with Karl at TCAF where he was promoting Book One of The Abominable Charles Christopher, collecting Chapter One of the Eisner-nominated webcomic.

Shawn Young: I tried to explain The Abominable Charles Christopher in a single sentence and found it near impossible, what was the inspiration for this ambitious story?

Karl Kerschl: Oh God! The inspiration was from lots of different things. One of them is obviously Miyazaki’s stuff. I grew up with it and it was super inspirational. The other big ones are Calvin and Hobbes and Chuck Jones.

SY: Did Chuck Jones inspire the humour?

KK: Yeah, I just like the Chuck Jones brand of humour. For that particular script the inspiration was the old Walter Lantz Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Not in terms of themes, but the inception of the Charles Christopher story was as an animated series. It was something I came up with in the car when I was driving to work. I thought it would be interesting to do a children’s show that was a lot of quiet woodland scenes with a silent character surrounded by really obnoxious animals. So I started not knowing where I was going and not having any idea who the surrounding characters would be and it’s turned into what it is.

one of my personal favourite strips from '07

SY: I read in the introduction to the book that you imprinted the characters with pieces of your personality, are there recognizable traits of friends and family as well?

KK: Even the pieces of myself are not specific or direct, they’re just bits of my personality or bits of my life. It’s more tonal shifts you know? If I wake up one morning and I’m in a bad mood that strip might be a little sad. I didn’t expect that there would be so many sad moments and there are! There are lots of them. But I find working on those scenes from a storytelling standpoint to be more satisfying than doing the humour in a lot of ways. It satisfies some emotional need I must have. A lot of the comic is inspired by whatever music I’m listening to, especially since I don’t plan them ahead… a song will come on and it will generate some sort of imagery for something and I just have to work it into the comic. I think I must listen to a lot of melancholy music (chuckles) and it resonates in your chest.

SY: Is it a cathartic release to put it on page?

KK: I wish it was it’s actually, almost frustrating… the output is never as good as it was in your head. For example the ending of the first chapter, the ending of this particular book is a scene I worked up in my head for awhile. I was listening to Sigur Ros and it was months ahead of getting to that point in the story so I would listen to the music and it would bring back that imagery and I would get emotional, almost to the point of tears. But when I actually sat down, I was excited and it didn’t come out the way I intended it. I don’t know why? Partly because of the weekly format.

SY: Do you find the weekly strip difficult to convey your ideas? Is it constraining?

KK: I don’t find the weekly format restrictive. In fact it’s liberating. I’m used to working in the standard comic page format. There’s a lot more room on the page to tell a story and I view each page as a scene or a beat of time. The same way I view a strip, and in a strip I have to be very efficient.

SY: So the format of the strip has forced you to tighten your storytelling?

KK: Yeah a lot, I’ve learned a lot in just the couple of years since I’ve been doing the strip.

SY: Did you apply the same principles to your Flash story in Wednesday Comics?

KK: Absolutely, I couldn’t have predicted that. I first thought ‘ Wednesday Comics I’ll have a huge page to do a scene’ but then we split it up into two strips. And cutting out those longer beats goes against all of my instincts as a storyteller. But forcing myself to has taught me to be more efficient.

SY: Book One of The Abominable Charles Christopher collects the first year of the web-series..

KK: Actually the first two years. It’s the first chapter which took two years.

SY: How far along are you in the story? Can we expect a second book in the near future?

KK: I’d love to people have been asking me especially here at TCAF ‘How many books will there be?’

I think probably three…. I think about stories in three acts. Just instinctively so I’m very aware that I’m working on a second act. Unfortunately second acts are very tough to write I would love to do a second book a year from now. It might be a bigger book.

SY: Will the second book collect the guest strips?

KK: Probably not I could have put them in this volume. I don’t want to put them in the book because I don’t want to profit from other artist’s free contributions to my strip. I love them, they will always be there online and if I can return the favour in anyway I will happily do so, but I won’t sell them to prints and I don’t want to collect them. Although I’m sure they would all be ok with it.

SY: In addition to Abominable Charles Christopher what else can we look forward to from you?

KK: I’d like to increase the frequency of this. I’ve got some work with DC. I’ve got a zombie book which will be out in October. It’s written by Peter Milligan which is not at all what you would expect from a zombie book. It’s different. And after that I’m working on a really big project with Cameron Stewart that I’m not supposed to talk about.

You can find The Abominable Charles Christopher weekly at www.abominable.cc and if you love the series as much as I do you can purchase Book One which is collected in a beautifully bound hardcover edition at www.store.txcomics.com

I had approached Cameron as he was at Wizard World Toronto as a guest of honor, he was doing sketches and the line up was fairly solid. Luckily the dude ahead of me was asking some pretty great questions and allowed me to record and then join in on the questions.

While the first part of our interview did get cut off when a fire alarm was pulled, we managed to pick right back up where we were shortly after.

Special thanks to Cameron for being – as always – an amazingly generous interview, and to Shawn Young for doing half of my job for me.

____________

Shawn: So you were telling me about Grant Morrison’s scripts…

Cameron Stewart: Yeah

S: They come in pretty loose for action?

CS: You know most of the important stuff is in there, and then he leaves certain action things open to artists that he trusts. I know that myself and Frank Quitely he just says go nuts on the action. In issue seven of Batman and Robin, the opening chase scene through London that was all on the motorbike and through the streets of London, that was all very specifically planned out and he gave me…it’s an actual specific route through London that he gave me directions and said look on Google Earth and find the appropriate reference for it. But the later action scenes… The fight scenes, he just kind of allowed me to run with. And he said you know the fight that’s between the two Batmen down near that Lazarus Pit? He basically said I want this to be a fight where both of them are evenly matched and it’s just a series of blocks and parries and none of them can actually get a blow in. And then he just said “Do that and make it look fun”.

S: You were saying you turned to movies for references?

CS: Yeah, I looked at a bunch of martial arts, a bunch of vintage Jet Li martial arts movies and what I would do is I would just sit and watch them and sketch out moves that I liked. I’d press pause and just kind of sketch a quick pose. And then once I had a whole page of little poses that I’d drawn…I work digitally with my layouts. I do the final art on paper, obviously, but all of the pencilling is done digitally in Manga Studio with a Cintiq Tablet, so what I did was I had all my little sketches and I was able to just kind of play with it and arrange them on the page until I had a sequence that kind of flows.

S: Storyboarded?

CS: Yeah, and then if I had two actions that didn’t quite match up that I could draw a quick bridge between them, and once I had the choreography locked, then I inked it. He’s pretty good. He’s good to collaborate with in a true sense of collaboration.

S: Is he easily accessible?

CS: No, he’s not. I think every waking moment of his life is spent writing so he doesn’t have a lot of time. Every keystroke has to be on the scripts, it can’t be wasted on eBay or whatever so all of the communication I have is through his wife, who is also his manager.

S: So he calls?

CS: No, it’s not really phone calls. If I have a question, I’ll email her and ask for a question and she’ll either already know the answer or she’ll quickly check with him and then she’ll write back to me.

Pete DeCourcy: How much of an influence does Frank Quitely have on your page layouts? Specifically for…

We3: "Some next level shit."

CS: Oh, quite a bit. He’s my favourite artist by far. When I was working on it I didn’t want to just be copying him because I wanted to do obviously my own thing, but I found it almost impossible not to be influenced by him when I was thinking about how I wanted to have the pages look, envisioning “well, how would he do it?”

PD: There’s a couple of those panels that have that We3… where it’s inverted in and inverted out like those fight scenes. It just looked really, really cool.

CS: Well thank you. It was definitely a conscious…again not trying to copy him but have the same approach. I feel like consistency is pretty important with this kind of thing and I just wanted to make sure that it felt the same as his work on it. With something like We3, I always felt that We3 was such… Can I swear?

PD: yeah.

CS: I always felt that We3 is like the next level of shit that really. I was disappointed that more artists, including myself, didn’t pick that baton up and run with it. And start thinking more about the way that comics pages are almost… using it like a three dimensional space which is what he was doing. I don’t know if people were just intimidated by it, I guess I am certainly, or just think that nobody is as good as he is at doing that stuff. It’s definitely not a coincidence that it’s there.

PD: If I could just change gears to Sin Titulo. What are your feelings on the iPad? Last year at a Transmission X panel you said it’s not a coincidence that most of the panels in Sin Titulo are shaped like the iPhone. So with the iPad, what’s your take on it?

CS: I am going to Boston next weekend for a convention there, and I will be going to an Apple store and buying an iPad. I am so in the tank for that thing. I’m really, really excited.

PD: Do it think it’s going to change the way we’ll see digital comics?

CS: Yes. I think there are a couple of very key factors that I hope they…I think pricing is essential.

PD: Right now it’s like $600 for the cheapest model.

CS: Oh no, I think the price point on the iPad is…they nailed it. I think it’s perfect. I’m talking about pricing of comics. If Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, whoever, if they release comics on the iPad, and they try and charge $3.99, that’s going to fail. But if they’re bold with it, and they charge 99 cents for a comic, I know, personally, I will buy three times as many comics as I currently do. There are a lot of comics that I am actually kind of interested in, but casually enough that I don’t fell like paying four bucks. I don’t feel like having it clutter up my studio. But if I know that I can get it for 99 cents, and download it to my iPad, it won’t even be a question. I’ll absolutely do it. And I think this whole thing with the…you probably saw the Amazon big fiasco a couple of weeks ago where they accidentally listed comics at a really cheap price point. People flocked to Amazon and ordered stuff. Which I think proves, that if comics are priced reasonably, people will buy them in huge amounts. I think the iPad really has the potential for that if they do it right. There is a worry that the comics companies are going to be greedy and they’re going to want to charge four bucks for a digital download. I think that’s crazy. I think that they shouldn’t do that. I think that what will probably most likely happen, in the long run, which I am absolutely fine with, is that monthly pamphlet comics will die and go all digital and then the trade paperbacks will be what is printed and sold in stores.

PD: I’d actually be okay with that.

S: So would I.

CS: I would be completely happy with that. It remains to be seen. As I say, there’s a lot of variables, a lot of factors, that are going to influence it, but I hope they get it right. I really do because I really believe in that device. You know it’s funny because when it was announced I guess backlash against the hype and people were saying “That’s it! It’s just a big iPhone! What’s the point?” I think that’s really shortsighted. If anything, with the iPod and with the iPhone, Apple has a very proven track record for making these things monstrously successful. Changing the industries, changing the world. Both the iPod and the iPhone completely revolutionized those industries and I think the iPad is going to do the same. What’s not immediately apparent about the iPad is the… What made the iPhone sing was the third party applications that were developed for it. The first year of the iPhone, it was locked and you could only get the Apple stuff but when they opened it up to the developers and had the App Store, suddenly that thing…developers were coming up with stuff that was inconceivable. Every day there’d be a new app for the iPhone and I’d go “My god, I can’t believe someone thought to do this, how to use this phone this way”. And I think the iPad is going to be exactly the same. I think there’s going to be some really ingenious stuff that’s developed for it. And I think hopefully a lot of that is going to include not just comics, but magazines and books and everything.

PD: Well the newspapers are pretty much…maybe this will be a way for them to find new life.

CS: I don’t think it’s going to be the amazing saviour of the print industry that people are maybe expecting it to be, but I think it’s going to help, and I think we’re in an interesting time right now where stuff is changing. The world is changing, the way that we consume media is changing, and right now people who produce this stuff haven’t really figured it out yet. They don’t know how to quite exploit it. But I think it will happen. It might take a little while, it’ll get there. I’m a big believer in the iPad. I would be very happy to sell my comics on the iPad. I will most likely at some point…what’s that?

a panel from Stewart's award winning webcomic "Sin Titulo"

S: Will that push you towards more creator owned stuff?

CS: Oh man, I don’t need the iPad to push me towards creator owned. I’m going to do that anyway. Yeah, I’ve got Sin Titulo, and I’ve got other stuff in the fire that I want to work on. The great thing about it is…you know with bands right now, you can get an album on the iTunes Music Store and have global distribution. You don’t have to be with a record company you don’t have to be anything.

PD: That’s how Arctic Monkeys got started, right?

CS: Yeah, exactly. And I think it’ll be the same… I mean, it already is the same with the internet. You can put a web comic up online for basically free, and build an audience that’s global that way, but I think if you’re able to sell them for a reasonable amount of money on the iTunes Music Store, or the iBooks, or however they are going to sell them, I think there’s a real potential for independent artists to do creator owned material and package it in a way that’s exactly equal to what Marvel, DC or all those other companies do. And it’s going to be a great equalizer, I think, which I’m sure Marvel and DC don’t want to hear, but it’s going to happen. I think it’s great. I’m all for it. So I’m really excited to get my hands on it and see what it can do.

PD: What do you have in the fire? What’s coming up? Outside of the Cowboy Batman, which we’re all really excited about.

CS: That’s unfortunately all I can talk about. I have my web comic still. I’ve got Sin Titulo which I’m working on. But the other stuff that I have is too early for me to actually make any official…

PD: Any word on either Apocolipstix or Seaguy? Or is that too secret?

CS: No, The Apocolipstix is a thing where I would like to do it but I don’t get paid to do it. The first book I did as a gamble. You do it and maybe it pays off, maybe it doesn’t, but if it pays off then great. Unfortunately, The Apocolipstix didn’t really set the sales charts on fire so it’s difficult to justify doing another 150 page graphic novel for free. The incentive is that they are my characters and I enjoy working on them but it don’t pay the bills. I will get back to it. If nothing else, I want to do it so I can work more with Ray, which is great, and…

PD: Have you had a chance to read Possessions yet?

CS: He gave me a copy but I haven’t read it yet.

PD: It’s really good.

CS: I’m sure it’s great because he’s wonderful. I would like to do it for that sake. I’m really not sure. It’s going to be a case where if I manage to get some free time, and I’ve got some money in the bank, then I’ll do more. Seaguy hopefully will be, I mean Grant is super busy right now. Grant is doing all kinds of stuff.

PD: Do you know if he’s got Multiversity coming up soon?

CS: It’s on the cards, but I don’t know how far along he is.

PD: You haven’t been approached for that yet?

CS: Well, I can’t really say anything.

PD: Well, let’s be honest. You’re one of Grant Morrison’s best collaborators.

CS: Well, thank you.

PD: You, Frank Quitely, who else? Phil Jiminez, Phillip Bond, JG Jones, Williams the 3^rd, etc… I mean there’s quite a few guys but not a lot of them can pull it off like you, Quitely and the rest of the guys do.

CS: Well, thank you.

PD: Would you say that you are probably going to be approached for that?

CS: Okay, okay, I’ll be honest. I’ve been asked about it. I don’t know if I’m doing it. My official comment is I’m not doing anything for it. But he asked me about it; Grant asked me about it quite a while ago. We’re talking over a year ago. He said “Would you like to do one of these Multiversity books?” and I said “Yeah, absolutely” but that was so long ago now that I don’t even know. I don’t know what’s going on. They may literally have filled it all already.

PD: It just seems that there’s going to be a lot of similarity between…with Seven Soldiers of Victory he had all his main guys minus Quitely, and then even with Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne it’s very similar.

CS: A lot of the same guys, yeah.

PD: So with that, how is your design sense, do you guys go with what Kubert drew or are you kind of allowed to go…

CS: I’m taking Andy’s design but I’m trying to draw it in a way that’s comfortable for me. With the Cowboy Batman stuff I want to have it look like…I don’t know if you’re familiar with Lt. Blueberry?

PD: Yeah

CS: By Moebius. I really want that kind of look to it.

PD: So kind of like what Darwyn Cooke did on Jonah Hex number 50.

CS: Jonah Hex. Yeah, I can show you some of the designs. They’re up on my blog. You can include them with your article. It’s not secret or anything. Obviously I don’t want to… Just like with working after Quitely, I don’t want to copy exactly what he’s been doing. It also has to be something of my own as well to justify doing it.

PD: So will we be seeing you return to Batman and Robin anytime soon?

CS: I don’t think so. I have certainly not been asked, and my understanding of it is that, we’ve got Andy Clark doing it now, and then Fraser. I think Quitely is coming back at some point.

PD: That’s the rumour. Hopefully. Because he’s supposed to do the Joker. Grant Morrison said somewhere that he wants to see Frank Quitely’s Joker.

CS: Right. So yeah, it might be that, I don’t know. But I’m not on the schedule for any more. I would love to do it.

PD: Is there anything you’re reading right now that you want to recommend?

CS: Right now I’m halfway through the Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. Anyone who has read my web comic I think would enjoy reading that. That’s what I’m reading.

PD: Awesome. Thanks very much for your time. And best of luck to you.

CS: Thanks very much.

Pete DeCourcy is EiC of ComicBookDaily.com. He tumbls over at You Practically Rock and writes for The Simple Art of Crime. If you have any questions or demands of him, he can be reached via email at pdecourcy[at]comicbookdaily[dot]com

DC Comics announced this morning that Frazer Irving will follow Andy Clarke as artist on Batman and Robin beginning with June’s Issue 13.

Irving, who collaborated with writer Grant Morrison on 2005′s Seven Soldiers: Klarion the Witch Boy, joins an impressive art roster that’s already featured Clarke, Frank Quitely, Philip Tan and Cameron Stewart.

That brings us to DC’s other Bat-related announcement — the full artist lineup for the six-issue miniseries: Chris Sprouse, Issue 1 (Cave-Batman); Irving (Solomon Bat-Kane), Issue 2; Yanick Paquette (Bat-Beard), Issue 3; Cameron Stewart (Bat Revere), Issue 4; Ryan Sook Issue 5 (Bat Spade); and Lee Garbett, Issue 6. The miniseries debuts in May.

Here’s a look at Irving’s Return of Bruce Wayne #2 Variant.

So cool.

Now most of these books are old, and for whatever reason I only recently picked them up. These include – Garth Ennis and John McCrea’s Hitman Vol. 2 A Thousand Bullets, Batman & Robin #7 and Paul Grist’s Jack Staff volume four: Rocky Realities.

I can’t really review Paul Grist’s work as it’s probably going to involve me just blathering on and on about how amazing the title is, how it’s probably the single most inventive superhero comic – maybe even comic period – on the stands right now. This volume keeps with the amazing mastery of the art form that Grist has established time and time again that he’s the best at. I can only urge you to either a. Check out the link to a earlier column devoted to Jack Staff, or to Brent’s column detailing the beauty that is his police procedural series Kane.

Batman and Robin #8 has all the earmarks of a classic Batman story, lazarus pits, team ups between Batwoman as well as the Knight and Squire as well as classic character moments that Grant Morrison really excels at.

This issue continues the storyline of Blackest Knight – which in some ways ties up plot threads established by Morrison in Final Crisis and Batman R.I.P. While Morrison’s scripting is, as always when it comes to Batman, a joy to behold – the real revelation is Cameron Stewart’s art.

Stewart’s long been a favourite of mine since I discovered his work following up Darwyn Cooke on Catwoman, I then set out and found every single piece of sequential story-telling that he’s put to ink and paper since.

He’s always been a fantastic storyteller, with beautiful and lush linework that is remeniscent of the aforementioned Cooke, but with hints of Hernandez and DeCarlo. But as of these past three issues, he’s come completely into his own, perhaps inspired by Frank Quitely’s brilliant panel layout during the first arc (Batman Reborn?) He apes Quitely’s fractured panel designs for fights scenes – practically saying: shit man, this is how bad-ass this fight is, the panels are actually being rocked off the grid, falling down or shifting inwards as each kick or punch is landed.

Batman & Robin has quickly become one of the must reads in terms of redefining what Superhero art can do in comics. I know that lots of people sort of poo-poo’d Philip Tan’s previous arc, but there were beautiful moments in his first issue, coupled with some brilliant Bolland-Killing-Joke inspired panels on his last issue. There’s something very special going on in this issues and i’m really excited for more and more people to discover this.

And now let’s talk Hitman volume two.

Garth Ennis doesn’t want to write a superhero comic, not really. He’s got other stuff going on, but it seems that every now and then he gives in – or atleast as much as he can – and he creates the closest thing he’ll get to superheroics.

Which means it’s pretty far away from anything remotely spandex clad.

No, the antagonist of this story – the titular Hitman – is just that a hired gun named Tommy Monaghan who through some wierd alien encounter just so happened to get superpowers – in this case x-ray vision.

This volume is where the series really hits it’s stride. Blending the male bonding, war stories, and hyper violence that Ennis is known for.

While the first storyline wraps up loose ends from the previous volume (though not without planting a few more and giving us a villain that really seems to match the ruthlessness that Tommy himself eschews for a blaise attitude towards his given profession.

The second story is a final night tie-in that goes the Cantebury tales route and has each man talk about their experiences with death and killing. These are either heartfelt, hilarious or war stories that probably have happened

The last story though; the Hitman annual is pure and utter joy.

It’s a spaghetti western that hits all the hallmarks of a Leone western without seeming cloyingly cute.

Look, the truth is – this series is a total gem – it’s not the best thing Ennis has ever done, but it’s so good that you’re willing to look past it’s good looking sisters to try it out.

Pete DeCourcy is Editor in Chief of Comic book daily. He also manages Blue Beetle Comics in Barrie, Ontario. You can find more of his writings at the Simple Art of Crime and You Practically Rock.