Here's lucky page 13 from the Sled Dog project. Enjoy!
Pop Matters Reviews The Act-i-vate Primer!
Zane Austin Grant has written a thoughtful and considered review of the Act-i-vate Primer over at PopMatters.com. He has lots of great things to say about a lot of the stories in the book but here's what he had to say about "Memoirs of the 'Kid Immortal" by yours truly:
Another standout story is Joe Infurnari’s Memoirs of the ‘Kid Immortal’, for example, which follows a defeated wrestler on an occult conquest to become a champion. The art for the story is made to look like a golden age comic you might have found in a junk bin. The page is faded and the edges are worn, but the story itself transforms the dramatic language of early adventure comics into a sad poetics that matches the main characters disappointment perfectly.
There's lots more to this review and he gives the book an 8 out of 10! I encourage you all to read the whole thing here.
Thanks, Zane!
Radar Documentary: Next Door Neighbor
At long last the Radar Documentary dedicated to SMITH Magazine's webseries, Next Door Neighbor, is available for viral proliferation! And here it has infected my blog! Enjoy the show!
To embed this video, use the following code:
<div style="background:#000000;width:498px;height:423px"><embed flashVars="playerVars=showStats=no|autoPlay=yes|" src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/bg-3015272/radar_one_next_door_neighbor.swf" width="498" height="423" wmode="transparent" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" name="Metacafe_bg-3015272" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><div style="font-size:12px;"><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/bg-3015272/radar_one_next_door_neighbor/">Radar One - Next Door Neighbor</a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">For more amazing video clips, click here</a></div></div>
Sled Dogs with Another Color Sample!
Here's another color sample. This pages shows off a little of the color distortions that can/will take place for emotional effect. Missed the earlier color sample? You can find it here. Thanks for looking!
The Act-i-vate Primer Salon at Book Court Thursday!
Brooklyn preeminent independent bookstore, Book Court, will be hosting a unique and exciting event this week, The Act-i-vate Salon! What makes it oh so fancy (hence the 'Salon') is that members of the Act-i-vate collective will be doing dramatic readings of some of their stories in The Act-i-vate Primer. It's a comics anthology meets performance art plus free alcohol and book signing extravaganza. Whoa, whoa there, Nelly! Don't rush off just yet, the event happens next Thursday, October 29th! Check out the poster above or the this blog post for even more tantalizing tidbits!
Sled Dogs with Full Page Color Sample!
Here's a test page for the final look of the book. Assuming this gets approval, this has my vote. What do you think?
Cosmic Comix Discusses The Act-i-vate Primer!
David Lee over at Cosmic Comix wrote a nice piece about our little collective's anthology. Here's an excerpt:
There were 16 stories within this collection and, like all anthologies, there are some stories that really worked, some that showed promise, but there weren’t any that failed. What makes Act-i-vate so strong is the fact that these are all established creators. Act-i-vate is a place for previously published writers and artists to try new things. Some of the highlights were:
(A) “When Lilly Met Cosmo” by Simon Fraser. This is a straight forward science fiction serial and probably the most conventional of all the stories. Our heroine Lilly is traveling to deep space where she will be one of the few women among a large group of men. Along the way she encounters some strange goings on and a man who seems to know her, but she doesn’t recognize him! This is a very polished story that quickly introduces the characters and a couple of subplots. But that’s to be expected from Fraser. He’s been working with 2000AD for a very long time and is a great writer/artist.
(B) “The Boy who came to Stay” by Roger Langridge. Langridge is by far the biggest name on the book because he most recently re-launched the Muppets for BOOM! He’s not new to the business and is one of the best cartoonists out there. This story involves Mugwhup the Great who Langridge has been writing for yours. It’s the same high quality humor that one expects from Langridge
(C) “Memoirs of Kid Immortal” by Joe Infurnari, which is a story about the quest for power and fame. It also made sure that there is a price to pay for such things. I’m not familiar with Infurnari but he turned in a great short story. He also set the pages up to look like an old comic book which was a nice touch.
There are too many good stories in this book to talk about all of them individually, but “Veils” by Mike Cavallaro, “Bring me the Heart of Billy Dogma” by Dean Haspiel (the one risqué story), “Motro” by Ulises Farinas, and “Persimmon Cup” by Nick Bertozzi were all very, very strong. Finally, all the stories are different. Some are science fiction, some are superheroes, some are just people dealing with weird situations but the diversity of the art and subject matter makes the book enjoyable.
Read the entire review here. Thanks so much David!
The Act-i-vate Primer is 29!
I don't exactly know what the number 29 refers to in this article by Jim Gibbons for Wizard Magazine but it's still great to have made it into print (again)!
