COMIC BOOK STORE TOUR IN AUGUST!

 

snake_eyes_large1G.I. JOE WEEKEND IS COMING!

August 7th is the premiere of GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA and I’ll be celebrating on a four city tour of comic book shops in America’s heartland! I’ll be signing comics and toys and whatever you have and meeting and greeting the fans!

 

Four stores in three days and I invite you to be there.

 

August 7th at Up Up and Away Comics in Cinncinnati, Ohio from 4-8PM

For details and directions go to:

http://www.upupandawaycomics.com/Welcome.html

 

August 8th I’ll be at Comic Book World in Florence, Kentucky from 11AM-2PM.

Then at Comic Book World in Louisville, Kentucky from 4-7PM

For details and directions go to:

http://www.comicbookworld.com/

 

The tour wraps up in Evansville, Indiana at Comic Quest from 1-5PM

http://www.comicquest.com/shop.asp?cat=feat

 

Other guests and more details as we get nearer the date!

Hope to see you there!

GO JOE!

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MANLIER COVERS INTERNATIONALE

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bluecoats

The Bluecoats No 1: Robertsonville Prison

The Bluecoats No 2: The Navy Blues

By Raoul Cauvin and Willy Lambil

Published by Cinebooks.

 

Cinebooks is a UK publisher currently releasing a line that re-prints classic European comic albums. These are all-ages comics like Lucky Luke and Yakari. My favorite of these series is The Bluecoats; the on-going mis-adventures of two Union soldiers during the American Civil War. Two volumes have been released in English with more to come.

 

Sergeant Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch are very much of the Laurel & Hardy model of classic comedy duos. Blutch the dimmer of the two and often the one who gets the pair in trouble. Chesterfield is the more experienced solder of the duo and the perpetual straight man who is tasked with getting into trouble with Blutch only to get him out of it.  The stories move fast with rising calamities for the boys to face. There’s plenty of battle action to provide a background for the slapstick set pieces. While it may be a bit off-putting to see the War Between the States used as a backdrop for silliness, I think we can excuse the Europeans if our bloodiest war seems rather distant to them. Think of this more along the lines of Buster Keaton’s silent classic The General.

 

In the first volume the hapless pair find themselves behind Confederate lines and sent to the notorious Robertsonville Prison. Their various attempts to escape do little more than frustrate their captors until the boys hatch a foolproof (even for them) plan to free themselves.

 

In the second outing, Chesterfield and Blutch’s antics find them fighting in the Union navy. The landlubbers create havoc for both sides but, as always, come out heroes in the finish.

 

Willy Lambil’s drawings are highly detailed and done in the big-foot humor style perfected in Belgium. Think of Tintin or Asterix and you get the idea. Lambil provides expertly rendered weapons of war and panoramic battle scenes that provide a fully-realized world for the action to take place in.

 

The stories, by Raoul Cauvin, are briskly paced and filled with sight gags. These are expertly structured farces loaded with twists and surprises and plenty of suspense. Cauvin writes the equivalent of a feature film in terms of plot, characterization and resolution.

 

The books in this series are appropriate for readers of all ages. While it deals with a dark chapter in American history the images don’t really move past cartoon violence. Highly recommended for the kids. They might even learn a little history without realizing it.  

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THE CURIOUS WORLD OF MANLIER COVERS

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THE BARONESS!

By me and S. L. Gallant.

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The Baroness in an action packed heist story set on the Italian Riviera.

Also featuring Ali Beau Baba!

How does Beau get in every comic I write even when I don’t write him in?

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CELEBRITY SWINE QUARANTINED IN FLU SCARE

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Rodolfo Damaggio site.

 http://homepage.mac.com/damaggio/PhotoAlbum18.html

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An awesome site packed with eye-popping images from my former collaborator Rodolfo Damaggio. Movie production stuff, storyboards and comics!

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The “overly masculine” writer at work

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Note FEMME NOIR mug and raised pinky.

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THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY preview

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Richard Stark’s THE HUNTER adapted by Darwyn Cooke

parkercoverThere’s only one comic project coming out this summer as far as I’m concerned. Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Richard Stark’s first novel of the professional thief Parker is due for release this summer from IDW. The Hunter begins a series of novels that are true crime novels as penned by master novelist Donald E. Westlake using the Stark pseudonym.

parker_comic_frame1Parker (not his real name, we never learn his real name) is taciturn, purposeful and driven. He’s violent when he needs to be and smart when he needs to be. Westlake sets up the scenario, inserts parker and then makes sure everything goes to hell.

The novels are short, punchy and made to be read in one sitting. They’re not cute and no one in them speaks in clever repartee. There’s no moralizing. No moral. This is about a guy who steals for a living and will do whatever it takes to keep what he believes is his.These novels are an enormous influence on me in general in terms of pacing and deconstructing plotlines. In particular, they were essential to my portrayal of Frank Castle.

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Other than myself, there’s only one guy on the planet who could get these novels right in comics form. I knew Darwyn would make these into masterpieces and, from all I’ve seen, he blew right through my expectations in a big way. This is a literal, page-by-page adaptation that translates Westlake’s world into comics of the highest caliber. The level of skill, craft and inventiveness is jaw-dropping. This is pure comics.

parker-sketchMy highest, highest recommendation. You’re gonna love this one and find yourself drawn to its pages over and over again.

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