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| << November19, 2005 - [ComicBooknet E-Mag] CBEM 550.03 |
November19, 2005 - [ComicBooknet E-Mag] CBEM 550.06 >> |
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------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 1.2 million kids a year are victims of human trafficking. Stop slavery. http://us.click.yahoo.com/WpTY2A/izNLAA/yQLSAA/bGIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----------------------------------------------------------------- [5] Interviews Richard Vasseur richardv@sympatico.ca Alex Sheikman creator/writer/artist of "Robotica" from Archaia Studios Press interviewed by Richard Vasseur www.jazmaonline.com Rich: Can you give us a basic outline of what we can expect to see from "Robotika"? Alex: Robotika ships in December from Archaia Studios Press (ASP) and the world of Robotika is set in the future. I imagined that the future would be shaped by two events. First, there will be a discovery, through genetic engineering, of a jellyfish that will be capable of converting nutrients into electrical DC energy. This organic battery soon replaces all other sources of power in everything from home appliances to super computers. It is also discovered that the jellyfish is capable of picking up, amplifying and converting human brain waves into digitally coded streams of data. This leads to a development of a huge virtual reality industry. The other development is the total failure of the scientific community to develop a prototype of a fully functional Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine. Instead, to produce cheaper labor, companies start paying people to be augmented with cybernetics to become more efficient laborers. Because of this, a pseudo-slave trade comes into existence. The less fortunate sell their children (or themselves) to cybernation plants where they are operated upon to become cyborgs. Rich: Who are the main characters and what are their personalities? Alex: The main character in the story is Niko, who serves as the bodyguard to the Queen. As the story opens, the cyborgs (who by now almost outnumber humans) are getting ready to fight for their share of political power. It is almost like the period of American history when workers tried to unionize (the more things change the more they stay the same). The Queen is trying to avoid a civil war and she sends Niko on a quest to recover a stolen invention that could save the situation. That is the start and from there the story explores who Niko is, what are his motivations and the part that he plays in the world of Robotika. Rich: Will there be lots of drawings of future technology? Alex: Yes, definitely. However even though some objects and environments will look very "high-tech", I also imagine that some things will deteriorate and will be very "low tech". In a way that presents a unique opportunity for me as a writer/artist, to draw objects side by side that will draw the attention of readers by their contrast to each other. Rich: Would you ever consider becoming a cyborg if the opportunity ever presented itself? Alex: I am a pretty "low-tech" guy. I like to keep things simple and natural if at all possible. Plus, I think I would be too afraid that if my body did not accept the mechanical interface I would be all screwed up. Rich: When did you first decide you wanted to work in the comic industry? Alex: I always liked drawing, but I could never picture myself doing anything specific with my drawings...until I saw comics. Right away I knew that I was going to try to draw comics. I think I was in high school and the guy I was sharing a desk with in a chemistry class brought in an old copy of "Star*Reach", an anthology that had Jim Starlin and Howard Chaykin stories. I was so blown away...it had all these things that I loved drawing! Barbarians, space ships, fantasy scenes. I asked him where he got it, and he told me that he found it at a comics shop 0.25-cent box. I did not even know there where special comic shops AND you could get cool stuff like that for 0.25 cents. I was hooked. Rich: What other comics have you worked on? Alex: I wrote and drew "Moonstruck" and I also illustrated "Bloodlust" over at Slave Labor Graphics. I also did a number of short stories for independent publishers and I assisted on a couple of projects for Marvel and DC. The only 4-color work that I got credit for was a short StingRay story in Marvel Comics Presents. I penciled and partially inked that. Other than that, most of my professional illustration work has been doing Role Playing illustrations for White Wolf, Holistic Design, Goodman Games, and other companies. Rich: What comics do you read now? Alex: Just recently I started reading the re-launch of She-Hulk. I also read Hellboy, Matador, House of M, and I am very much looking forward to the "All Star Superman" launch. Also, just recently at my local library, I discovered Stan Sakai's collections of "Usagi Yogimbo". That is a very nicely done book, not at all what I expected from a "funny animal" comic. Rich: What other fields of work have you been employed in? Alex: Too many to list. It would be simpler to list what I have not done yet. Let's see...I never flew the Space Shuttle. Rich: What would you like to achieve next in your life? Alex: I just want to continue working, trying to get better at telling stories. And it is not just working harder; it is also about working smarter. ASP gave me a great opportunity to start developing some of my skills. I hope I can take what I learn on this mini series and apply it to my next project. Rich: How can someone contact you? Alex: The best way would be through my website: http://www.sheikman.com The website has lots of drawings including some Robotika pages in glorious black and white. There is also a nice assortment of some of my RPG illustrations. I welcome any and all comments. Rich: Any last words of wisdom? Alex: I have been working on Robotika for about two years and I am very proud of getting far enough with it, to be interviewed about it. But at the same time I understand that I was only able to achieve this with the help of my friends and my family who have supported me in all of my artistic endeavors. I am very thankful for that. ***** John Taddeo creator/writer/director of Zoom Suit interviewed by Richard Vasseur www.jazmaonline.com Rich: What prompted you to make "Zoom Suit" the animation film? John: First off, my love of comics and animation. I'm a hardcore comic fan and collector for over 30 years. Every comic fan has a story idea or character idea in their head. I wrote the first version of Zoom Suit close to twenty years ago (I think it was on a Commodore Vic 20), so the idea has been in my head for quite some time. Now my first film "The Inside Job" was vulgar, profane, violent and blasphemous. So for my second film I wanted a complete departure. Something classical, brightly colored and on the other end of the spectrum. Zoom Suit fit perfectly. It's a lot of fun and far more tame. Rich: What is "Zoom Suit" about? John: It's a very classical story in the Cinderella or Ugly Duckling sense. The main difference is that it's set in a superhero universe. The government covers up the Roswell crash and is back engineering alien tech for 60 years. Fast forward to present day Halloween, a comedic chain of events leads to the alien battle suit being mistaken for a Halloween costume by a latch key kid. Rich: When can we expect the comic book version of "Zoom Suit" to come out? John: The comic will be solicited in the February issue of Previews for items shipping in April 2006. There are a few animated promo trailers for the comic on the Superverse web site. One of them even contains some shots from the upcoming second installment of the animated short. Rich: Who is the creative team on the comic? John: It's written by me. As for the artists, are you sitting down? This is a list of comic book legends. Bill Tucci, Bob Layton, Bart Sears, Jim Starlin and Gene Colan all pitched in on the covers and the interior art in issue #1 is by Billy Dallas Patton. I think Iron Man fans are going to flip over seeing Bob Layton back on armor. Bob penciled an incredible 97 issues of Iron Man. 97 issues! Then we have Bart who put X-O on the map for Valiant, the original artist on Iron Man #1 Gene Colan, and of course Jim Starlin turned in a very classic cover. Last but definitely not least is my good friend Bill Tucci, who is without question the most underrated artist in comics. I'm not saying this because he's a friend, Bill Tucci is one of the best artists in the entire comic book industry. (There, I said it. $20 Billy, you know the home address). The entire first issue is complete. After completing issue #1 Billy Dallas Patton was hired by Marvel to do an Astonishing X- Men story, and eventually DC to draw Miracle Man, so he won't be returning for issue #2, but we recently had a miracle of our own. The guy coming on board for issue #2 is huge. He just turned in three pages with the note, "This is the best work I've ever done". We'll be announcing it shortly. Rich: What company will publish the comic book? John: It will be listed under SUPERVERSE in the catalog. Superverse is my film production company. Rich: Will the comic book stick to the film version? John: Pretty close to the animation. Although the comic has over a hundred inside jokes and hidden gags. We also hid some other secrets in the comic. Fans that read carefully between the lines can unravel an alien conspiracy that could earn them DVDs, Limited Edition comics and other prizes, so read carefully. Rich: Where does the inspiration for "Zoom Suit" come from? John: Definitely my love of comics and pop culture. There are so many inside jokes and hidden gags in the comic . . .I don't think I could even find them all anymore! And worst of all is we didn't keep a list so someone is going to have to go through the book with a magnifying glass to find them all. There are even lines from classic films right in the scripting. I'd like to see how many fans can find . . .maybe we should make it a contest. Rich: Why are you involved with the Tri County Humane Society? John: Why? What a good question. Because they need the support and it makes me feel good. I'm actually involved with a few different animal and children's charities, and I'm not a big believer in just firing off checks. I try to volunteer my time as well. Making a donation is cool, but if you want to really feel like a superhero, spend some time with kids or animals in need. Donna (my wife) and I were at a local orphanage doing homework with kids a few weeks before Hurricane Wilma. We had a great time, and afterward we built Bionicles. By the way, . . . have you ever tried to put together a Bionicle? They're insane. There were like four kids with me and it took me like 45 minutes to do one Bionicle. I was there lego-ing my heart out. Rich: What was it like working as Marvel's Marketing Manager? John: Well actually I started as Fabian Nicieza's intern, so what was it like to get coffee for Fabian? Pretty lousy actually. (Although if you want a tip on a very funny book, Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic by Evan Dorkin is a highly underrated comic that Fabian was editing at the time.) After a few months of "Makin' Copies" I was offered a job in marketing and eventually reported directly to Bill Jemas during his first tenure at Marvel. I loved working for Bill. He's tough but really gets the best out of his people. I definitely appreciate the time I worked for him. I really learned a lot. We're still friends to this day. We talk just about every week. Overall it was the most fun Job I've ever had. I was in my early twenties so I wasn't very "polished" as an executive. There were definitely times I wanted to grab some moron by the face and bang his head until he realized that "Metallic foil on Iron Man is cool, foil on Sleepwalker is stupid", but I made it through without injury to myself or others - which is good. I guess it's the patience I learned at Marvel that makes me the crack Bionicle builder that I am today. Rich: What future projects do you have planned? John: Making sure that the Zoom Suit limited series is as cool as possible is number one, but I'm in the middle of some fun stuff. We're almost finished with the next 10 minutes of the Zoom Suit animation, which will be released sometime around the release of the comic (April 2006, see a preview at the Superverse website) My online comic CO-ED DORM, which you can read on our web site, is in negotiations for a television series, like a South Park or Drawn Together type of show. My next stint in the directors chair is a music video for The Fallz (www.fallz.com). They're known for some very cool music for video games - especially the upcoming X-Box 360 and were recently featured on MTV Rich Girls and My Super Sweet 16. They have a pretty sick techno track titled Savior that I'm excited to shoot the video for in early 2006. It's going to be very "Kill Bill". I get to do the fight choreography too, so I'm excited about that. I just finished the full script for a studio budget live action Zoom Suit feature film. There's a big Zoom Suit announcement coming in the next 30 days. When my producer reads this she's going to go postal because I'm not supposed to say anything yet, so let me leave it at that for now, but I'll follow up with you as soon as possible. I was recently hired to "Punch up" a script and do some rewriting for a very funny feature film called, "The Wizard's Magic Candles" which is like Harry Potter and Back To The Future Smashed together. And of course, my tequila (www.voodootiki.com) and anything else that comes up that's fun. Rich: What more will you be doing to promote "Zoom Suit"? John: We sent out hundreds of copies of the Zoom Suit DVD to retailers. Additionally, we sent shops "Metal Effects" Zoom Suit promo cards. If your shop doesn't have them, tell them to e-mail us right away. This three-card set is chase card quality on 18 point board with a cool metallic effect. They're free for the asking so have your LCS e-mail us right away. Also, fans can get a free Armored Legends Chase Card set from our website. Just sign up via e-mail. The Zoom Suit animated short has been an official selection at over 40 major film festivals including stops in the Carolinas, Georgia, two stops in Texas, five stops in NYC, two in Pennsylvania, two in Boston, two in Chicago, Oregon, five stops in Florida, Arizona and an incredible 14 stops in California. We've also played on various cable and satellite stations. Zoom Suit has screened to over 200,000 fans to date. By the ship date in April 2006 Zoom Suit will have been screened by well over 250,000 viewers. We have an awesome giant size movie poster that is going out in the January Previews to comic shops. It's a movie poster on one side and a comic poster on the other. It's very cool. Retailers will receive a special TEAM ZOOM Edition of Zoom Suit #1 with the February issue of previews. This may be the first time that Diamond will actually put a complete product sample of the comic in the hands of retailers when they place their order. Obviously this will be very limited (one per store) so if you want a Team Zoom Edition you should talk to your comic retailer right away. We recently mailed over 3,000 comic shops a letter and some promo cards. We have two more mailings planned. Best of all, we have a Fan Club of about 2,000 members called Team Zoom. The members have been joining us at conventions and Film Festivals as well as promoting us and dropping off promo materials to the comic shops. Team Zoom has been awesome. They have really helped get the word out. If you would like to join our fan club, get free stuff and help promote Zoom Suit contact Diana Striker at Diana@superverse.com . . .and ask her to marry you too, she likes it when the Team Zoom members do that. And anything else that comes to mind. This is our primary focus. Zoom Suit is really putting our best foot forward, so if you have any cool ideas on how to get the word out, e-mail me! Rich: What comics do you read now? John: My comic bill is about $100 a month, so I'll just name a few. The whole Superman line, Ultimate Spider-Man, Teen Titans, the mainstream X-Men stuff and SHI. My favorite character is Superman, My favorite Superhero Universe is Marvel, although DC has really closed the gap over the past two years and it's very close these days. My favorite artists aside from the guys on Zoom Suit are Jim Lee and Joe Quesada on the Super famous side and Skottie Young and Mike Lilly on the "Very up and coming" side. My favorite director is John Woo. My all time favorite run of comics is Frank Miller's first run on Daredevil, although Born Again is awesome, too. Rich: How can someone contact you? John: If you want to reach me, my personal e-mail is JT@superverse.com. If you want to receive a set of Zoom Suit Armored legends cards it's TradingCardsOffer@superverse.com, but if you screw up and request them through me I'll just forward it for you. Rich: Any last words of advice? John: Uh . . . don't eat the yellow snow? Seriously, we worked real hard on this book. It's a true labor of love and we think it shows through in the work. If you dig the short, definitely check out the comic. Please ask your LCS to order Zoom Suit. And of course thank you Rich for the interview and thanks to all for reading. _________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------- COMICS OBSCURA Mike Curtis shandafa@cyberback.com [COMICS OBSCURA are facts Mike Curtis has dug out during his 30 years of collecting Superman and writing about comics. His website for his comic imprint is www.shandafantasyarts.net ] WHICH ONE OF US ARE YOU? Although HECKLE AND JECKLE were major stars for TERRYTOONS studios, it was never differentiated which of the magpies was which. The only difference was their voice, one Brooklyn, one English, but they were never called by name. _________________________________________________________________ Thanks for subscribing to the Comic Book Network Electronic Magazine (CBEM) --------------------------->Disclaimer<--------------------------- This is an ANNOUNCE only mailing list, only the Editor can send messages to the list. No one else has access to the subscriber list. Replies to these messages will be received by the Editor ONLY, so you must CC: individual contributors if you want them to get your E-Mail. The E-mail to the E-mag MAY be used in future issues at the Editor's discretion UNLESS you specifically request that they not be. It is our policy to withhold names and/or Addresses, by request only, from letters of comment. All contributors are required to use their real name and have a valid Email address for their columns to be published. Send Email comments to: ComicBkNet@aol.com Material for inclusion in the Emag - press releases, solicitations, column submissions, Letters to the Editor, guesses for the trivia contest should be sent to ComicBkNet@aol.com The EDITOR, not the submitter, has final approval and edit rights on ALL material. Printed comic books and advanced copies for review in the Emag should be sent via US Mail or UPS to David L. LeBlanc 84 Heather Circle Jefferson, MA 01522-1419 TO Subscribe send a message FROM the intended address to: ComicBookNetworkEmag-subscribe@yahoogroups.com TO Unsubscribe send a message FROM the address to be dropped to: ComicBookNetworkEmag-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com You may also unsubscribe from the Egroups Web page at the short cut below. Shortcut URL to the Egroup page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ComicBookNetworkEmag All contents COPYRIGHT 2005 The Comic Book Network. 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| << November19, 2005 - [ComicBooknet E-Mag] CBEM 550.03 |
November19, 2005 - [ComicBooknet E-Mag] CBEM 550.06 >> |
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