Prison Island

Colleen Frakes had a very interesting childhood. Her parents worked, and so her family lived, on McNeil Island, Washington, the location of the last prison in the US only accessible by sea or air. Prison Island is a graphic memoir of moments from that life, framed within her final visit back. The state decided to shut down the prison in 2011. Her parents had left in 2004, but the closing ceremony made it clear that Frakes couldn’t return any more [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1PHRZYA


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Zodiac Starforce #1

With the success of Lumberjanes, we’re seeing more comics with girl teams, a trend I welcome. Zodiac Starforce takes its influences from the manga-style magical girl group, such as that seen in Sailor Moon, but layering it with American schoolgirl life. There’s a twist here, as written by Kevin Panetta and illustrated by Paulina Ganucheau — the team has broken up, split apart after defeating a villain and now pursuing normal lives. Except, of course, that trick never works, and [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1JI1AtV


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

CBS Supergirl Marketing Not the Typical Superhero Show Package

Most of the superhero TV show marketing revolves around expected ideas: Gotham pushes a dark, mythic world, while the CW superhero shows, like Arrow, have a strong dash of relationship angst. Supergirl, coming this fall to CBS, aims to be different, which I welcome. I’d also expect as much — CBS viewers skew older than the “newer” networks, and they likely have higher expectations for their first superhero show. Their idea of a promo event goes like this: invite 400 [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1KzVDUV


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Vixen Gets an Animated Series

CW Seed is an online streaming network focused on “animation, game shows, comedy, and digital personalities”. The main advertising point is that they have every episode ever of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (the American version). They’re also airing Almost Human (the scifi show with Michael Ealy as a robot and Karl Urban as his grumpy cop partner), Hellcats (a cheerleader soap opera that was surprisingly good), The (1990) Flash, the Veronica Mars spinoff Play It Again, Dick, and season [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1LG4LpL


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

LARP! Volume 1: To Geek or Not to Geek

LARP! Volume 1: To Geek or Not to Geek is a short, predictable graphic novel written by Dan Jolley (Bloodhound, My Boyfriend Is a Monster) and Shawn deLoache and illustrated by Marlin Shoop. Kids, especially those who don’t fit in and dream of being popular, might enjoy it; others will find it lacking in surprises, although it has a certain amount of charm. Pete’s going to a new school, and thanks to a sudden growth spurt over the summer, he’s [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1KWeu8j


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

The Fuse #13

Time for a new mystery in the dynamite science fiction series by Antony Johnston and Justin Greenwood! Or maybe more than one. The latest arc begins here, with Perihelion, which is the day the space station is closest to the sun. It’s also an excuse for a Mardi Gras-like party that takes over the whole place. You don’t need to get up to speed with previous issues, since there’s a helpful introductory piece kicking off this issue, but I do [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1Kmuo1E


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Black Canary #3

I love the premise of this Black Canary revamp — the hero’s on the road with a scrappy band — and I like the way we’re already learning more about the bigger picture. Kid-looking Ditto, who plays guitar, is being pursued by a mysterious group, and this issue lays out the back story, via Kurt, Black Canary’s estranged husband (!) and member of a secret military organization. (I hope it turns out to be related to what’s going on in [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1LLLXIj


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Jill Trent, Science Sleuth #1

What a neat idea! Take an intriguing character first published in 1943 (and now public domain) and make new stories about her. Jill Trent, Science Sleuth was a backup feature in Wonder Comics #8-20. (You can read them here.) Accompanied by her best friend Daisy Smythe, Jill used science to detect crimes, invent new technology, and stop bad guys. Typical of the era, the stories are action-packed, and it’s refreshing to see women fighting crime in regular clothes, winning out [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1UfgR0h


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Zombie Wife and Other Tales of Supernatural Law

The most recent Supernatural Law collection, Zombie Wife and Other Tales of Supernatural Law, came out last year after a successful Kickstarter campaign. (That link also has the information on where the stories originally appeared.) I was reminded of the series when I read Comic Book Creator #8, which concludes a two-part interview with creator Batton Lash. It had been a while since I’d read any issues. I think, like so many other independent, self-published comics, it changed from print [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1MUYyri


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Make Comics Like the Pros

These days, a comic guidebook doesn’t get published without including business advice. That’s a good thing — artists should learn more than they were traditionally taught about how to make a living (just as businesspeople should learn more about valuing creativity, but that’s a different post) — but with so many different formats and industry paths available to people these days, a lot of books aren’t clear enough about their target audience. (See, for example, Brian Michael Bendis’ Words for [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1ho7ycz


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

The Last Domino: Dark Horse Joins ComiXology

This news came out two months ago, but I wanted to capture it here, because I think it’s significant. On June 22, it was announced that Dark Horse, who previously had established their own digital comic distribution platform, would make “their full digital catalog of collections, graphic novels, and manga” available via ComiXology. Dark Horse was the last large major comic publisher to not be available on the de facto monopoly digital distributor. We were told “all Dark Horse Comics [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1fNPh7p


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Arrow Season 3 Out September 22

I don’t watch much wrestling, but since we had friends over for SummerSlam, I paid attention to one match in particular. Stephen Amell, star of Arrow, actually got in the ring as part of a tag team with Neville. There was some typically jumped-up plotine about Amell and Stardust (who looks and acts like a comic-book crazy), and yes, the fight was likely well-choreographed ahead of time, but I was just impressed that a TV lead was willing to do [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1UiC5oP


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

The Monet Murders

I had high hopes for The Monet Murders, since it’s a murder mystery set in 1934 Hollywood, but the book by Terry Mort is disappointing. For one thing, there are no real-life characters involved, even tangentially. All the characters are made-up types: the Jewish producer, several gorgeous starlets, a loutish actor, some drunken writers… although one of those is implied to be F. Scott Fitzgerald under a different name. Which feels like wimping out. This kind of novel doesn’t work [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1KrcxF7


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Iron Giant Returns to Theaters With New Footage

The 1999 animated classic The Iron Giant, directed by Brad Bird and with Vin Diesel as the robot, will be back in theaters on September 30 and October 4. Warner Bros. has dubbed this the “Signature Edition”, and they’ve remastered the film and added two all-new scenes. This was Bird’s first film, before The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and this year’s Tomorrowland. The screenplay for The Iron Giant was written by Tim McCanlies based on the book by Ted Hughes. Jennifer Aniston [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1NYvjmi


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Sunny Side Up

Sunny Side Up is the newest work by the sibling team who created the unstoppable Babymouse. Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm unspool a semi-autobiographical story about family that packs a sucker-punch, in that you won’t see it coming but it will leave you with a new perspective on how we hurt others. It’s the 70s, and Sunny’s been sent to spend the summer with Gramps. Seems ok, although she has trouble adapting to the slow pace of life in [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1hdkvWC


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Elk’s Run #1

After a checkered publication past, Elk’s Run has returned in digital serialization before the hardcover debuts in November. Issue #1 is out today at ComiXology. As written by Joshua Hale Fialkov (The Bunker) and illustrated by Noel Tuazon (The Broadcast, Family Ties: An Alaskan Crime Drama), the mysterious atmosphere I remember (from the first go-round) permeates the story. A group of teen boys living in a small West Virginia town chafe at their parents’ controlling attitudes. They hang out at [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1Eiwkpx


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

What Did You Eat Yesterday? Volume 9

What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 9 may be the last volume of the series by Fumi Yoshinaga we see for a while. There’s no volume 10 listed yet at Amazon, and sales reportedly haven’t been great. That’s a shame, since this is a wonderful manga, blending gorgeous art, well-realized characters, realistic interpersonal challenges, and a deep dive into a particular skill. In this case, it’s cooking, with Shiro making tasty-sounding everyday meals to feed himself and his boyfriend Kenji, [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1V3u2yg


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

When Life Hands You Lemons, Check For Lymes

When Life Hands You Lemons, Check For Lymes is a roughly drawn, self-published medical memoir by Phil Gerigscott. He was bitten by a tick in 2012, during a camping trip, and he began suffering swollen and painful joints, particularly his knees, when he returned to college. A couple of years later, he began taking his condition seriously — previously, he thought it was due to over-exercising, and he treated it with a variety of homeopathic remedies. Here’s an early page [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1KeKN6s


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

The End of the Magazine Age: ACE, We Barely Knew You

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about the planned launch of ACE magazine, a new publication from the editor of Comic Book Artist, Jon B. Cooke, and publisher/retailer Robert Yeremian. “ACE” stands for “All Comics Evaluated”, and the magazine promised both interviews and reviews of current material as well as a price guide. It debuted in March, and it was monthly after that — until May, when issue #3 was published. No issues have followed, although issue #4 [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1EdI5NW


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Princeless Volume 4: Be Yourself #1-2

Princeless, the comedy adventure fantasy starring a different kind of princess, has now made it to four miniseries and the occasional spin-off. Volume 1, Save Yourself, establishes the premise, as Princess Adrienne, instead of waiting to be rescued, escapes from a tower with the aid of her dragon Sparky and sets off to free her sisters. (King Dad thinks that all of his seven daughters need to be rescued by a prince in order to find the most suitable suitor [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1LtszzJ


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

People Places Things

People Places Things is the latest white-guy-mid-life-crisis indy movie I’ve stumbled across, but aspects of the setting will be of great interest to my readers. Written and directed by James C. Strouse, the film stars Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) as a graphic novelist teaching a comic course at the School for Visual Arts in New York City. On his twin daughters’ fifth birthdays, he discovers his wife (Stephanie Allynne) cheating on him. They divorce, and a year later, [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1U7eK9w


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Old Wounds #4

I don’t want to say too much about Old Wounds #4, written by Russell Lissau and drawn by John Bivens, since it concludes the mystery set up at the beginning of the miniseries. The killer was revealed at the end of issue #3, but this one is the important one, the part that tells us why the murders happened. In case you don’t want to visit that link to my review of the previous issues, the setup is this: Michael [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1EM0gVB


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Goodbye Little Pointy Teeth

Brian Moore is brilliant. Apparently, Goodbye Little Pointy Teeth is his debut comic collection, and it’s gorgeous, with unusual influences and painted in watercolor. Don’t think pastels, though, but vibrant shades that suit the unworldly subjects. There are three stories, with a series of interstitials between them, making up 48 perfect-bound pages. “A Crooked Line”, in black and white, deconstructs the medium of the kind of cartoon you see in the New Yorker to tell a meta-fictional crime story. And [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1U1cP6j


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem

In the goal to make more DVD movies suitable for kids — since no matter how long or often people say it’s not true, some insist on believing that superhero cartoons should always be ok for children — DC and Warner have released Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem. It’s a sequel to Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts, which I haven’t seen, and a tie-in to a toy line, which accounts for the different costumes than I expected and the variety of vehicles [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1J6kGul


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More

Small Press Expo a Month Away — Guests and Award Nominees

The Small Press Expo is always one of the highlights of my comic-show-going every year. It’s a terrific way to find many amazing comics and interact directly with the artists or publishers. SPX is celebrating its 21st birthday this year, and so the show is planning to spotlight creators who have only worked in the 21st century, which seems a clever way to keep the focus looking forward and feature younger creators. Those special guests announced so far include: Kate [...]
from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1J4kVYM


Sourced by "The typist writer". The place where writers, bloggers, and publicists come to expand their knowledge in the field content production and publication.

Read More