I first met Keu Cha about a decade ago, just after he accepted his first major assignment, penciling Witchblade for Top Cow. I still remember being blown away by his highly detailed, stylish approach to that character and her world. As is typical, he moved on from there, taking on one plum assignment after another, including J. Michael Straczynski’s Rising...
Books: Tom Kaczynski on Uncivilized Books
As briefly mentioned at the end our previous conversation, the indefatigable Tom Kaczynski is more than a gifted comics creator. He’s also the publisher and driving force behind Uncivilized Books, an upstart press specializing in comics collections and original graphic novels. Now, if you happen to be a regular reader of this column and that imprint sounds familiar, that’s likely...
Books: Gary Scott Beatty on Tales of Fear
Gary Scott Beatty is someone whose work I’ve been following with real interest for the past few years. Not that I ignored him before that. Rather, it’s his recent activities, especially as a small press publisher with a singular vision that makes total sense in today’s fluid market, that’s proven to be particularly interesting. What really captured my attention was...
Books: Warren Ellis on Gun Machine
While he’s widely recognized by comics aficionados as the author of such critically acclaimed hit series as Planetary, Transmetropolitan and Astonishing X-Men, Warren Ellis is perhaps best known by the general public as the co-creator of RED, a three-issue comic mini-series that saw life as a rather successful film starring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich. But there’s another...
Books: Tom Kaczynski on Beta Testing the Apocalypse
The release of Tom Kaczynski’s latest book couldn’t have been better timed. Published by Fantagraphics late last year right around the time of the highly anticipated (not to mention greatly misunderstood) Mayan “end of days,” Kaczynski’s Beta Testing the Apocalypse collected a number of previously published shorter comics, along with a brand new graphic novella. And while there really weren’t...
Flying High: Interview with Arctic Air’s John Reardon
In the first season of the CBC drama Arctic Air, TV audiences were introduced to the struggling airline located in Yellowknife (the capital and largest city of the Northwest Territories in Canada) and the team of people risking everything, even, in some cases, their lives, in order to keep the business from going under. Among the high-flyers is Blake Laviolette,...
Blu-ray Review: Jack & Diane
Following a troubled preproduction history that saw the recasting of its two leads, Jack & Diane landed in all of two cinemas in November, 2012. It deserves to find a much wider audience now that it’s available on home video. It gained a misleading reputation as a “lesbian werewolf” film; a kind of romance-horror hybrid. I understand that many people...
On the Hunt: Interview with The Following’s Shawn Ashmore
As the good guy mutant Bobby Drake/Iceman in the hit X-Men feature film franchise, Shawn Ashmore battled a bevy of superhuman baddies. In his current role of FBI Special Agent Mike Weston in the new Fox TV crime thriller The Following (premiering Monday, January 21 at 9:00 p.m. EST/PST), the handsome and talented actor is pitted against an equally dangerous...
Blu-ray Review: The Jackson 5ive – The Complete Animated Series
Classic Media has revived a true gem for fans of The Jackson Five. Now available on Blu-ray is The Jackson 5ive, an animated series produced by Rankin/Bass (best known for their stop-motion holiday specials) that ran for two seasons in 1971-72. All 23 episodes (17 from season one, the remaining six from season two) are included on two discs. The...
Lucky Lady: Gabrielle Bell on The Voyeurs
As the title of her award-winning series, Lucky, suggests, Gabrielle Bell has lived what some might call a charmed life…and with good reason. Her work as both a cartoonist and diarist has been widely praised by critics, fans and her fellow professionals alike. One of her tales was adapted for a film by director Michel Gondry. And her announced intention...