MaximumFun.org’s 2010 MaxFunDrive ends on May 28th with a blowout eight-hour show hosted by Jordan and Jesse, with all kinds of amazing special guests. We’ll have a live audience at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, and stream live audio and video to our adoring fans across the world.

Reservations for the show are currently full, and attendees with reservations will be seated first. However, there is ample space for overflow. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Scheduled guests include:
Jimmy Pardo & Matt Belknap
The Sklar Brothers
Sarah Thyre & Andy Richter
Paul Scheer & Rob Huebel
Jimmy Dore & Stef Zamorano
Edie McClurg
Scott Aukerman
Clifford & Kidd
Karen Kilgariff
Stephen Tobolowski
Superego
Mike Schmidt
Plus, from Stop Podcasting Yourself, Dave Shumka!

See you May 28th!

Live video provided by INDHD.com

MaxFunDrive 2010 Blowout Finale Bash @MeltdownComics this Friday! | Meltdown, Inc.

Saturday June 12 from 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

San Diego Comic Con Creator Book Camp $20.00! Please pay day of event. 20 seats left!

Disney producer and The Webcomic Factory co-founder Christian Beranek wants to help you get your proposals and projects in shape for the Grandaddy of all conventions — San Diego Comic Con! This three hour boot camp will provide you with expert insight on what editors, studio executives and fans are looking for in the next great comic book property.

From launching your idea on the web, to succeeding in print, to selling your pride and joy as a film, this course will tell you what it takes to make it happen and stand out in the crowd at the industry’s biggest event!


Bizzaro Maneuverings

Read more about Christian Beranek in the latest column by Jason & Stacey here: A Convo with “Contropussy” creator Caulfield.

Hey gang, Jason and Stacey here with another Meltdown exclusive interview for all of you indie title readers out there.  Just saying the title of Emma Caulfield’s newest project out of Lead Pipe Entertainment, “Contropussy,” invokes a small sense of hidden taboo.   Most of you “Whedonites” will remember Emma from her stint as Anya on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but in her first foray into comics, “Contropussy” shows an entirely different side to Emma’s talent and creativity.

Since her “Buffy” days, Emma has been busy.  She’s not only shown up all over your DVRs in shows ranging from “Private Practice” to “Monk” to “Robot Chicken,” she just completed shooting ten episodes of “Gigantic” for TeenNick which is executive produced by “Buffy” alum Marti Noxon and set to premiere this summer.  And she can currently be seen in the critically-acclaimed indie film “Timer” which can already be seen in Los Angeles and just opened in New York City.  During her down time, Emma has turned her successful “Contropussy” webcomic series into a book filled to the brim with double entendres and stylized kaleidoscopic art.  The “Contropussy” [I admittedly still giggle a bit when I say that, like when I was ten and heard “Woodcock” for the first time – but I digress] graphic novel is the brainchild of Emma and Camilla Rantsen with gorgeous artwork done by Christian Meesey.  We caught up with Emma and the gang as they were preparing to sit down for a signing at Meltdown.  Here’s a peek inside her inspiration and motivation for the “contro”-versial book.

Q. The art on this is amazing!  How did you meet up with Christian?

A. Camilla [Rantsen] and I have been friends and writing partners for years.  We pitched this as an animated project at Disney with Christian Beranek [the president of Lead Pipe Ent.] It was really a long shot – we never really thought Disney would pick up a title called Contropussy; it’s never going to happen.  But he loved it and said ‘there’s a way to build this property through comics.  Do you guys know anything about that?’  No, not at all.  So he introduced us to Christian [Meesey],who as you can see is a brilliant artist.  So I said let’s just try to put this together and see what we can do with it in this format and it took off.  We had a really good time with it. Continue reading »

Comics on Comics returns to Meltdown Comics in L.A. for a special live taping of Comics on Comics Radio!

Join host Sax Carr and comedians Jonah Ray (Web Soup), Tim Powers (Second City, The Schmoes) and journalist Blair Marnell (MTV Splash Page) as they welcome superstar comic writer Paul Dini (Detective Comics, Batman: The Animated Series, Zatanna) and The Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Medium, Annihilation Conquest: Wraith) for an amazing night of comics and comedy!

Thursday, May 27th @ 8pm
Meltdown Comics
7522 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA.
(map)

admission is $5!

The event will also stream LIVE at ComicsOnComics.com!

     Greetings, hola, konnichiha, privet, ni hao, and bonjour to all of you comic book aficionados out there in cyberspace.  It’s Jason and Stacey once again to bring you the conclusion to our two part tag-team interview with the incomparable Felicia Day!  So enough with our rambling, let’s get back to it. 

Photo By: Angie Riemersma

Q:  Will there be another run of the comics? A prequel perhaps?

A: I don’t know yet because I don’t know how this first issue has done.  Hopefully people have bought it.  I was on the set of “Red” [the made for SyFy movie Felicia just wrapped] when the first issue came out, and nobody on the set really knew about it before, but the make-up and hair ladies got more excited about the comic than if I had done a blockbuster movie.  They started calling every comic shop in a two hundred mile radius of our set in Ontario.  They would get off the phone saying: ‘You’re sold out! You’re sold out!’ and I was like, ‘Ladies, they might have only ordered one copy.’  And they’d say, ‘That doesn’t matter, you’re sold out!’

Photo By: Angie Riemersma

Q:  Based on your experience creating “The Guild” comic, is there any chance you’ll do more in comics beyond “The Guild”?

A: It’s very interesting, I feel like I finally got my training wheels off by the end of book three.  I definitely learned how much goes into the process.  It took me a very long time to write these, like embarrassingly long.  I had to figure out how to tell the story, because how I write is really so opposite of what comic book storytelling is. “The Guild” is a few locations and lots of dialogue, where typical comics are really no dialogue and lots of locations.  And then putting humor into a graphic novel format was really hard for me because a lot of it is reaction shots and I never had enough room to really hit a joke the way I wanted to.  In retrospect, I thought ‘you have to be ruthless and more concise,’ and that was very difficult because that’s not what “The Guild” is about necessarily.  So now that I’ve learned how to do it, I would not be opposed, if people actually buy it, to doing more Guild or other things.

Photo By: Angie Riemersma

I love fantasy novels and I know of some novels that come to mind that I think would be great in graphic novel format.  If I get time, I would actually really love to do another graphic novel of a different non-Guild property once I find something I want to tell in this format specifically.  Just collaborating with an artist is such a pure expression, even more than a novel because you are connecting with an audience on such a visual level and collaborating with an artist to create a world.  Especially if I want to do a sci-fi or fantasy idea, unless I want to go and try to do a big budget movie that will never get made or get made completely different than what I envisioned it, the only way to do it is in comic form.

Q:  Did Dark Horse pick it up right away or did you have to meet with a bunch of different publishers?

A: Oh no, Dark Horse picked it up – it was Scott’s [Allie; editor of “The Guild”] idea to do a Guild comic.  I just said no for a whole year because I couldn’t figure out how to do it and I didn’t want to do anything that was like half-assed.  I haven’t talked to Dark Horse because I’ve been so busy, but I’ll have to check in with them to see if they are interested in doing more.  And see how the fans are reacting.  I hope they’re enjoying it.

Q:  What other comics are you currently reading?

A: I read anything that’s kind of fantasy based.  I have a whole stack that I haven’t gotten through yet.  I just finished Joss’ [Whedon] run on “The Runaways” and when I was in Canada, I read “Sandman” – I bought all of Neil Gaiman’s work.  Why haven’t I read them before?  No real reason – guess ‘cause I’m an asshole.  I’m reading “Walking Dead” -  I love that comic.  I’m definitely drawn towards more women stories.  To me, I feel with some comics, I’m only there for character.  Some comics are a little thin on character and very high on action, and those don’t draw me in as much.  I’m sorry, but Spiderman is hot because of him and Mary Jane.  I know I’m a stupid girl for saying that, but that’s what attracts me to it.  Anything that’s kind of female centric… oh, and I love “Scott Pilgrim,” too!  “Love and Rockets” – I read that before I got started which is kind of old school.

Courtesy of: Jedi Chefs

Q: Lastly, what are you favorite characters to play in World of Warcraft, and what other games do you happen to play?

A:  In WoW, I play a gnome and a dwarf.  I generally like to play the little people.  I usually play elves, the tinier races.  In “Dragon Age,” I play an elf.  “Dragon Age” I’ve been playing obsessively, and “Mass Effect” I’ve been playing obsessively.  Any RPG – I like stealing things.  Any time I can go into a virtual world and open someone’s chest and steal something from them, I will do it.  I really like taking things from people when I play.  I also like blowing them up with spells.  I never play warriors – I always play a magic user or a thief.  My whole life, going all the way back to “Ultimo,” I wanted to take things from you.  In “Ultimo,” you can open someone’s dresser draws and just take some bananas.  It gives me satisfaction just looting other people’s stuff.  God help us if there’s a revolution, you’ll see me at Best Buy.

Unfortunately, this brings us to the end of our interview with the industrious Felicia Day.  A true entrepreneur of modern day Hollywood, this town could stand to deal with a few more people who think like Felicia: “Unless you do stuff that scares you, then you’re not pushing your limits and you’re not going to learn how to do new things.”  From webseries to graphic novels (don’t forget to pick up the first two issues of “The Guild” on sale now at Meltdown!) to television and movies to who knows what next, Ms. Day is sure to be a permanent fixture in the entertainment landscape for many years to come. Just be sure to watch out where you hide your bananas because we all know “that’s how Felicia operates.”

As we promised last week, we’ll be holding a trivia drawing for a signed copy of “The Guild” #1!  Here’s all you have to do to win: this Wednesday 5/12 through Wednesday 5/19 come in to Meltdown and with any purchase receive an entry slip for the contest.  On the slip, write your name, email address and the answer to the following question.  The winner will be chosen at random and announced here on our blog.  So good luck, and we’ll see you all at Meltdown for the Wednesday pulls.

Trivia Question:

In “The Guild” webseries, what specific product is Finn modeling that got him caught?


©2010 Meltdown, Inc. WP retouched by the hand of Meltdown, Inc.