400 B.C. Graphic Novel – Comic Book Review - Review

Rating: 3/5
Publisher Name: Campfire
Publisher Website: http://www.campfire.co.in/

Writer: Lewis Helfand
Pencils: Lalit Kumar Singh
Colors: Jayakrishnan K P
Number of Pages: 72
Price: .99
Color: Color
Safety Content Label: A – Appropriate for age 9 and up.

Publisher’s Blurb:
Fortune favours the bold…
They were an unstoppable force hired to take the crown from the King of Persia. They were a fearless army of Greek soldiers, and one hundred thousand men fighting as one. They were led by the finest and most courageous generals in all of Greece. They were being led to unimaginable wealth, but that was days ago.

Now their leaders are dead and their army has scattered. Now their numbers have fallen to ten thousand men and nothing remains but fear. Now they are men praying not for victory, but for the slim chance of living one more day.

Cut off by impassible terrain and pursued by an army of one million enemy soldiers; they must stand together to survive. To find their way home, one of their own must lead them. And to live one more day…
…they must fight.

Reviewer’s Comments:
400 B.C. tells the tale not just of a Greek Army, but the indomitable human spirit even in the face of adversity and overwhelming odds. This is a story that brings to life what every soldier must surely feel when the only thing driving their next step is the thought of home.

You won’t find underdogs defeating massive empires in the pages of 400 B.C. but what you will find is a realistic portrayal of what human interactions are like regardless of the time period in which they are set in.

Singh’s pencils bring Persia to life in the pages of the book and paint a land filled with blood, sweat and men who refuse to embrace death – the easier of the two routes to pick from.

If ancient stories of Persian wars and Greek tragedies are what you seek, you will find it here.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: MORITAT ON THE SPIRIT

Genre art must follow very specific rules. With noir, the art needs to reflect the dark, ominous tone of the story. Moritat, ongoing artist of THE SPIRIT, has done a superb job of capturing writer David Hine’s mysterious characters and storylines. We caught up with him and touched base on everything from Facebook chat to how he got involved with the series to how he turns scripts into the stunning art in the pages of THE SPIRIT:

On the tools he uses:

Chris Conroy told me that a Japanese brush maker by the name Kimitake Hiraoka makes a pretty good inking brush. He had also told me that several creators were using these brushes and that they were getting really good fan responses. I flew to Japan and sought out Hiraoka sensei. It turned out to be one of those ‘wait in front of the temple until you were ready’ or were ‘pure in mind’ scenarios. I’m not into all of that Eastern philosophy stuff. But, there were these cute Japansese girls who were working on their manga waiting and praying out front. So, I hung out with them and creeped in with them … when they were ready.

On how he got involved in the series:

A few years ago, I was catching the train at Broadway Junction to come into the city. Will Eisner walks up and we started talking. He said, “you should come work for me.” I said, “I would love to.” We talked a few times, but then I got drafted and I went off to Vietnam. So, it’s a pleasure to finally work with Mr. Eisner.

On how he turns script pages into art:

I print out the script. I place each page around me and meditate on the meaning. I boil down certain words that come to me in my subconscious. When I feel ready, I ride my motorcycle very fast at night until it finally clicks in a cohesive artistic pattern that I am comfortable with. Sometimes I can’t find the meaning. I confer with Joey Cavalieri and Dave Hine until I get maybe 90%. It’s not a perfect process but I’m getting it to where it works.

On how panels are arranged:

Ladronn arranges most everything. I then convince Rob Leigh to draw for me … while I chat on Facebook.

On the noir genre:

I love the noir genre. It is the field I fancy. The characters are flawed. They carry around some kind of hidden shame. There is something wrong with these people. The environment is barely hanging on. A few steps away from post-apocalyptic hell. The color has been washed away or moved to the suburbs. Gabe Bautista, the colorist on THE SPIRIT, would call me some nights and complain that working on noir was too depressing for him and that he had to quit (he lives in the suburbs). I would spend hours lying to him that it was going to get better.

THE SPIRIT #13 hits stores this Wednesday.

Originally posted by Alex Nagorski on the DC Universe: Source Blog

ARTISTS SPOTLIGHT: NICOLA SCOTT AND DOUG HAZLEWOOD ON TEEN TITANS

Last month, we revealed a major new storyline in the pages of TEEN TITANS. In issue #94, the Teen Titans and Solstice have to figure out who kidnapped Wonder Girl and Solstice’s parents – and why. Trapped in a lost kingdom and being preyed on by the land’s demonic inhabitants, the team is going to need all the help they can get to find their answers.

Bringing writer J.T. Krul’s epic storylines like this to life is no easy task – but it is one that the unstoppable artist duo Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood accelerate at tackling issue after issue. How do they do it? We asked them to describe their artistic processes and what it’s been like working together for so many years.

“Basically I don’t really have an inherent or dominating style. At times I wish I was more of an overall artist and could just plug that style in and it would undoubtedly be faster in a lot of cases. As it is, I try to be pretty faithful to the pencils and whatever I add I try to be tasteful. There are inkers who can dominate the final look, but I have never been that type of an inker. It can come in handy if the penciller is weak and the inker has a strong approach (like Wally Wood or Jerry Ordway or some of these younger Image-y whippersnappers) and can compensate for some things,” Doug began.

“Doug and I have worked together for about five years now, building up a really decent body of work at DC, almost all on TEAM books. TEEN TITANS is a book I’ve wanted to work on since long before starting at DC. I love the characters and I was really interested in seeing how drawing teenagers would be different from drawing adults. I didn’t want to just make them smaller or shorter. Teen bodies are different. Their proportions, their body language and the puppy fat on their faces vary in a different way to that of adults. It’s been a fun experiment,” Nicola continued.

“For me, usually on the second read through, I start doing thumbnails, for each page, in the margins of the script. It’s at this stage that all the tricky stuff needs to be ironed out. Blocking the scene so that characters aren’t randomly jumping around from panel to panel. I think it’s important that it’s clear to the reader who everyone is and where they are. If it changes it’s because they’ve made a move. It keeps the storytelling clear.

I then go straight to the finished art boards and do a really loose composition breakdown in blue pencil. Then I flip the page and on goes my magic lightbox!

I do all my real rough work on the reverse side of the page. Getting my anatomy and faces right is really important and I don’t want to damage the surface of the right side with regular erasering. Next step is flipping it back to the right side and doing the final pencils. Even though this stage takes the longest, it’s the most straight forward because I’ve already done all the grunt work. What I’m left with is generally pretty tight, clean pencils all ready for Doug to ink,” she said.

Doug agreed: “Nicola’s pencils are quite tight. TEEN TITANS is the first series we have done via bluelines. She scans in her pencils and uploads them. Nicola is in Australia and I am in Texas. I download them and work with them a bit in Photoshop to make them a bit more high-contrast and clean up some smudges. Then they are converted to non-photo blue/cyan and printed out that way full-size onto DC boards.

This was MY first book done this way also and it took a bit of getting used to. I now have figured out a fairly reliable system and owe a lot of thanks to Walden Wong’s blog for great information on how to do stuff like this! It would have been tougher without it.

I’m not that fast an inker and here I have been on four TEAM series in row! I ink mostly with crowquill dip pens and Micron markers. Before I turned pro many moons ago, I really used brush a lot, but I don’t know if I could have kept up with deadlines if I had stayed loyal to that as much. Some of the things Nicola turns in I just marvel at and wish I was blessed with as much overall artistic ability,” he replied.

TEEN TITANS #94 hits stores on Wednesday.

Originally posted by Austin Trunick on the DC Universe: Source Blog

THEY’RE READY TO RISK IT ALL

Last we saw Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner, they made the unprecedented decision to remove their rings in the midst of battle. In part four of the epic War of Green Lanterns, the duo reunite with John Stewart and Kyle Rayner to stop the evil forces consuming their fellow Corps members. Their strategy will not only put their lives at stake, but will also go down as one of the riskiest acts committed in the Corps’ history.

GREEN LANTERN #65 is written by Geoff Johns and features art by Doug Mahnke, Keith Champagne, Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Mick Gray and Tom Nguyen. In stores this Wednesday.

Originally posted by Pamela Mullin on the DC Universe Source Blog.

Marvel Comics On-Sale 4/20/11

Hey there True Believers, here’s your official list of comic books, collections and posters arriving in comic stores on April 20th, 2011. For more information on any of these titles, and on upcoming mighty Marvel releases, please visit Marvel.Com or contact your local comic book retailer at 1-888-comicbook. Stay tuned each week for a brand new list of Marvel releases so that you’ll never miss your favorite heroes in action!

Comics On-Sale:
AVENGERS #12
AVENGERS ACADEMY #12
DEADPOOL MAX #7
FEAR ITSELF: SIN’S PAST #1
GENERATION HOPE #6
HALO: FALL OF REACH – COVENANT #1
HULK #32
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #503
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #503 THOR HOLLYWOOD VARIANT
IRON MAN 2.0 #4
IRON MAN 2.0 #4 THOR HOLLYWOOD VARIANT
MARVEL BACKLIST READING CHRONOLOGY #1
SIGIL #2
SILVER SURFER #3
SKAAR: KING OF THE SAVAGE LAND #2
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1000
THOR MGC #7
THUNDERBOLTS #156
UNCANNY X-FORCE #8
VENOM #1 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
WOLVERINE #8
WOLVERINE #8 THOR HOLLYWOOD VARIANT
WOLVERINE AND JUBILEE #4
X-FACTOR #218

Collections On-Sale:
CAPTAIN AMERICA VS. THE RED SKULL TPB
ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 5 TPB
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN: SENSATIONAL DIGEST
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: DOCTOR STRANGE VOL. 5 HC
RED HULK: SCORCHED EARTH TPB
S.H.I.E.L.D.: ARCHITECTS OF FOREVER HC
SPIDER-MAN: NEW YORK STORIES TPB
SPIDER-MAN: ONE MOMENT IN TIME TPB
THUNDERBOLTS CLASSIC VOL. 1 TPB
ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT TPB
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS – CLASS PORTRAITS GN-TPB

Archaia Entertainment Names Mike Kennedy As Publisher

Chicago (April 14, 2011) – Leading graphic novel publisher Archaia Entertainment, LLC has named distinguished videogame veteran and comic book writer Mike Kennedy as Publisher, as recently announced by PJ Bickett, CEO. Kennedy’s appointment comes at a time of dramatic growth for Archaia, as the company has successfully grown into an award winning house of original content, which includes such breakout hits as Mouse Guard, Return of the Dapper Men, and Tumor. Kennedy’s experience will play a key role in Archaia’s expanded focus on device- and app-based publishing, as well as digital and interactive development.

Kennedy joins Archaia with a distinguished 20-year career in the comic book and videogame industries, including high-profile writing assignments with such leading comic book publishers as Dark Horse and DC. His writing credits encompass numerous notable and high-profile titles such as Star Wars (Dark Horse); Superman (DC); Aliens Vs. Predator (20th Century Fox/Dark Horse) and Aeon Flux (Dark Horse/MTV). Kennedy has also earned industry-wide recognition for his innovative work developing original videogame IP’s for such major players as Electronic Arts, Namco, Activision and 3DO.

“Since day one, our focus has been on recruiting the best talent for all facets of our business. Mike fits well within that core objective, which includes a proven track record of leadership that he now brings to Archaia. We are pleased to welcome Mike aboard as Archaia’s publisher,” said Bickett.

As publisher, Kennedy will oversee and manage all aspects of Archaia’s production schedule, marketing initiatives and distribution process, including significant digital outreach, reporting back to Bickett.

Natsume Ono to appear @ Kinokuniya NYC

Special Event Celebrates The Creator Of RISTORANTE PARADISO And HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES; Raffle Contest To Award Grand Prize Original Artwork

San Francisco, CA, April 18, 2011– VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, together with Japanese licensor Ohta Shuppan, welcomes renowned manga (graphic novel) artist Natsume Ono for a personal appearance and special event celebrating her work, hosted by the Kinokuniya Bookstores of America Company (Kinokuniya Bookstore) in New York City on Tuesday, May 10th starting at 7:00pm.

Kinokuniya Bookstore is located at 1073 Avenue of the Americas, between 40th St. & 41st St., New York City.

The event will feature commentary from Ono on her past and present works and her continued evolution as one of the foremost manga artists and graphic novel storytellers, hosted by Megumi Sato of Samurai Beat Radio. An audience Q&A session will follow. A raffle contest (open to all attendees, one raffle ticket per person) also will award one lucky Grand Prize winner an original Natsume Ono artwork, signed in-person by the artist; 2 additional runner-up winners will get a Natsume Ono print. Each winner will also have the opportunity to have Ono sign one personal item at the event.

“We’re extremely honored to partner with Kinokuniya Bookstore to present fans with a rare opportunity to meet one of manga’s most talented creators,” says Leyla Aker, Editorial Director. “Ono has deservedly earned a wide range of international accolades for her intelligent, genre-defying stories, and we look forward to introducing her work to new readers.”

Natsume Ono’s work is characterized by a minimalist yet sensual art style and composed psychological portraits that explore the relationships and dramas of everyday life. Ono made her professional debut in 2003 with the web comic, LA QUINTA CAMERA, and subsequent works such as not simple, RISTORANTE PARADISO, GENTE and HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES (all published VIZ Media’s Signature imprint) have pushed the manga genre in intriguing new directions and shown the creative breadth of this unique manga talent. RISTORANTE PARADISO and HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES have both been adapted into animated TV series.

Natsume Ono’s RISTORANTE PARADISO weaves a story around the lives of the staff of a restaurant in Rome and continues to follow the character’s romances, heartaches, hopes and dreams in the follow-up manga, GENTE. Complex, powerful, and emotionally wrenching, not simple is a novel told in visual form about the search for family and an emotional home. HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES, a many-sided tale of drama and intrigue set in the world of old Edo, was recently nominated for a 2011 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia.

Megumi Sato is one of the most unique bilingual show hosts in New York. Sato’s Samurai Beat Radio is a multimedia project that promotes today’s best Japanese music and other cultural happenings to a worldwide audience. Sato has extensive experience as a radio producer, on-air personality and writer, producing and hosting shows for Japan’s premier commercial FM radio stations and writing about Japanese and American culture for various publications. For more information, please go to www.SamuraiBeatRadio.com and http://ameblo.jp/meguminy.

For more information on Natsume Ono or to check out other VIZ Signature titles, please visit www.SigIKKI.com.

FEAR THE REAPER

The Walking Dead’s Cliff Rathburn Returns to Reaper With a Second Issue This July
BERKELEY, CA –15 April 2011 – Best known for his work providing gray tones on THE WALKING DEAD, artist Cliff Rathburn is returning to his own creator-owned work this July. REAPER is the second installment of a horror/fantasy tale first published in 2004, as a black and white one-shot written by Robert Kirkman. Seven years later, Rathburn is picking up the threads of that initial story in an all-new full color one-shot that looks even more amazing than the first.

The original REAPER one-shot told the violent and gutsy story of a deadly assassin, Reaper, who had been hired by a mysterious figure to kill a supposedly indestructible tyrant ruler. That mysterious figure turned out to be none other than Death, though, whose ultimate aim was to wipe out all life on Earth. Rathburn’s knack for handily illustrating brutality and dismemberment, however, brought the story to vivid (and often unsettling) life.

“REAPER was the first time I worked with Robert KIrkman, and he really took my creation and improved it,” explained Rathburn. “His script kept me driven to penciling, toning and lettering the first volume of REAPER, which is a lot of work for one person to do on their own.

“As of right now in my career, I have done everything you can do in comics apart from writing my own script. Writing the second REAPER has given me the a chance to play to my strengths as a penciler and helped me produce a final product where I can finally say I am proud of my work.”

The second installment of REAPER begins 400 years after Death failed to eradicate life. Now, the magical gem that gave Lord Shirak his power has fallen into the possession of our hero, allowing Reaper to become a warlord himself. Unfortunately, as Reaper should know full well, Death is not easily deterred…

“REAPER is a gem from early in Robert Kirkman’s writing career, and seeing the story continue should be a real treat, not just for his fans, but anyone who likes visceral, over-the-top artwork,” said Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson. “Cliff has spent several years now doing gray tones on THE WALKING DEAD and he’s inked several issues of INVINCIBLE over Ryan Ottley, but he’s an amazing artist and storyteller in his own right. And if you thought REAPER looked good when it first appeared in black and white – just wait ’til you see it in color!”

The original REAPER one-shot (JAN041314) is available now for $6.95, while REAPER #2 (MAY110438), a 48-page part color and part black & white comic book priced at $4.99, which will be available for order in the May issue of Diamond Previews catalog, with an in-store date of July 21, 2011.

TERMINATOR / ROBOCOP: KILL HUMAN #1!

April 18, 2011, Runnemede, NJ – The ultimate killing machine meets the future of law enforcement. In the Terminator’s future all humanity must be wiped out, so when Robocop is woken from an enforced hibernation, Alex Murphy finds himself amongst the final hunted. But will his body side with Skynet? Or can man finally overcome machines? Rising star Rob Williams (Ghost Rider, Punisher Max: Get Castle) and P.J. Holden (Battlefields, Judge Dredd for 2000 AD), create the ultimate tale of life and death for humanity in Terminator/Robocop: Kill Human #1 this July from Dynamite Entertainment!

“I’m hugely excited to bring together two much loved Hollywood war machines in the ultimate mash-up of action sequences, satire and very heavy metal,” says writer Rob Williams. “What makes for a stronger machine? The desire to uphold the law or the desire to wipe out humanity? We’re going to find out!”

“As someone who grew up on a strict diet of 80s/90s machismo and robot laced action movies (not to mention the dark humour of 2000AD) – Robocop/Terminator is dream project for me,” says artist P.J. Holden. “I’ve known Rob for years, and it’s a real pleasure to finally work with him. I look forward to drawing many, many, things being blown up while I speak all the dialogue to myself in a faux Ahnuld accent (even the dialogue that isn’t supposed to be).”

“We’ve been fans of Rob’s writing for years, and he’s proven himself with an excellent Robocop run for Dynamite,” says Dynamite President and Publisher Nick Barrucci. “While we’re saddened that he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, we’re very happy for him and his success. It reinforces that we worked with such a great writer. But Rob has written one more excellent story for us, and we’re sure that the fans will agree! And working with P.J., whose body of work says it all, is perfect to help ensure that this story sure to be a timeless tale.”

“Rob and PJ bring a fresh, wonderful sensibility to both of these characters and each, in their own way, inject a serious amount of “soul” into these two machines and their worlds,” says Dynamite Editor Joe Rybandt. “Well, that and all the guns and killing.”