** view more cartoons and comics by Nerdtern, Jenny Fine **

**see other art Jenny makes**

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** see Jenny dance **

Jason JFish Fischer, illustrator of the new monster porn comic series Junqueland, is signing at Meltdown Comics! Jason will be signing copies of Junqueland #1, Junqueland #2 and the special full color erotic pin-up book Hot Buttons. Written by Robin Bogert, Junqueland is a monster porn comic series starring original monster characters having adults-only fun!

Junqueland #1 – Croc Gal runs a tight ship over at her bakery and can not stand tardiness. Big Mouth the baker is too slow for her tastes, so Croc Gal dishes some punishment… a food fight with day old pasties that leads to a hot, sticky mess! 12 B/W pages, color cover, written by Robin Bogert and illustrated by Jason JFish Fischer.

Junqueland #2 – Two tales of summer fun await you! Kiss Kiss the Gorgon and Strawberry Head get juicy in the poolside cabana and make some strawberry margaritas. After a dip in the pool, Abstract Head and Wolf Lady go for a hike through the woods looking for a reclusive monster known for seducing forest dwellers and horny hikers. 20 B/W pages, color cover, written by Robin Bogert and illustrated by Jason JFish Fischer.

Hot Buttons – A discreet pocket book containing 9 full color erotic pin-ups of your favorite Junqueland characters pressing their “hot buttons” (or getting them pressed by a pal!) A set of matching wearable buttons is available for those who wish to wear their monster porn love with pride! 9 color pages, color cover, illustrated by Jason JFish Fischer.

Who: Jason JFish Fischer
What: Junqueland comics signing
When: Wednesday, January 18th 7:00pm
Where: Meltdown Comics

By Jason Vaughn

As we lead up to our “35 Days with Kevin Eastman” event (Nov. 30^th-Jan. 4^th), it seems only right that we take some time to spotlight the next generation of independent creators out there who are following in the footsteps of such greats as Kevin, Peter Laird, Jeff Smith, Dave Sim, Eric Powell, Bryan Lee O’Malley and others. Two upcoming indie creators, Kyle Winters and Mike Andersen from Grass Valley, California are on the verge of a “big hit” and have “taken aim” (OK, I’ll stop with the puns) at the “big three” with their self-published title “Trigger Men.” Given the growing popularity of digital comics, it’s refreshing to see new creators with the courage to publish their own books in a market dominated by force-fed multiple Wolverine and Batman titles. Produced and published out of their shingle Triptych Books, Winters and Andersen (with the help of another future superstar, artist Heather Brinesh) have crafted a dark comedic bromance of a story. The plot revolves around the misadventures of two guys, friends since childhood who grew up to be contract killers in high school.  Now, adults who’ve gone their separate ways, they come together for what they believe will be one final job.  Think “Grosse Point Blank” meets “Justified.” I had the opportunity to talk to Mike and Kyle about “Trigger Men”, Triptych books, and what’s coming around the corner in the near future for both.

Guys, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. I’m digging the story of “Trigger Men” and not just because I’m a narcissist and there’s a lead named Jason in it.

M: We’ll take that.

Also, I was an assassin for hire at one point as well.

(Laughs)

I like the bromance between Matt and Jason you guys have come up with, it’s a lot of fun. Let’s start out with an easy one. What kind of comics were you guys in to growing up and what do you currently read?

M: “I’m really big in to indie comics in general, which is actually kind of a big motivation for us to create comics. We would go to conventions and only be able to find the first few issues of a run. It’s hard trying to find indie comics because a lot of them ended very early. The one I’m really enjoying now is “The Walking Dead.”

K: “I grew up with ‘Spiderman,’ that was a very integral part of my childhood. A lot of ‘Spiderman,’ some ‘Batman’ titles, comics that a traditional reader would pick up when they’re young. Then I basically got out of reading comics from about seventh grade through high school. Right after high school, we all started going to the San Diego Comic Con and that kind of got me back into comics. At that point, I found myself more interested in the independent stuff, the creator owned comics. Right now the things I’ve been into actually are more journalistic comics.”

M: “I’m also a huge fan of “The Tick.”

Spoon! (The Tick’s battle cry, I’d explain but it’d take too long. Hit Meltdown and grab a trade instead.)

(Laughs)

M: “We actually picked up like a five hundred page collection of ‘The Tick’ when we were down at the Long Beach Comic Con.”

Nice, I was a fan of the animated series. So, what was your inspiration for “Trigger Men?”

M: “I think it was an idea that the genesis stemmed from the fact that I like hit men, assassin based stories. But frequently the stories don’t go where I want them to go, and this particular story I like because it’s more personal. “

K: “More realistic I think.”

M: “Exactly, so I think it was more that I wanted to write not just in the genre, but the way I wanted to read the genre.”

When did you guys start collaborating together?

K: “We met in a high school creative writing class and we were the only ones in the class not writing ‘boy meets girl, girl meets boy, they break up, they get back together again and fall in love forever’ stories. Our stuff was a little dark, but that’s high school. From that we became friends, and within six months of knowing each other, we knew that we wanted to write something together. For five years we’ve been working on what we wanted to do and created our own company, Triptych Books. Finally in the last two years things have started to move forward, and a little over a year ago we debuted with ‘Trigger Men.’”

So tell me, which of you was bullied so bad in high school that you wanted to kill the jerk? (Read the book.)

(Laughs)

K: “I never had issues with bullying in high school. In our high school, everyone was big enough and pretty well accepted. In my school, the nerds were in charge.”

M: “I saw a bit of bullying, but I was never personally bullied. It was something that I felt  was definitely there, that type of favoritism, and I think that was something I wanted to use in the series because it’s very relatable to a lot of people. Plus it’s always fun to watch an @$$h*le get his comeupins. It’s a good plot point in the story, because you can have a character do something that is objectively bad and still find yourself rooting for them.”

Right, it’s a great engine for the first arc. What made you guys decide to publish your own title instead of going the much cheaper digital comic route?

K: “We really liked the idea of trying to attack the whole thing professionally. One thing we noticed with a lot of indie comics when we were going to conventions and kind of learning about what the comic world really was is that their presentation was one of the things holding them back. They weren’t thinking about this as trying to future prove it, they weren’t thinking about it as a business.  We wanted to do something for the long run. Our goal is to create a publishing company that not only creates a large body of work but good work, but the editorial meddling isn’t there. One thing about going to a bigger publisher, which we kind of toyed with after we started poking around a little bit, is that after they promise to make it, you get, ‘We love Matt and Jason, but what if there was a talking dog? And instead of them being hitmen maybe they could be cops. One of them is a cop and the other is a police dog.”

Welcome to Hollywood.

K: “Exactly, and we didn’t want that so we kind of felt like we could make a better product if we did it professionally, of high quality, and under our own guidance.”

I hear you guys were approached to potentially develop for television. How did that come about?

K: “The rep from the production company was going to her husband’s panel at Wonder Con and we were the first booth she saw as she was walking across the floor. She saw our book, picked it up, and a few months later called us and basically said ‘we really like this, we’re really interested.’ It was basically just a really happy accident. One thing though that’s kind of been interesting, before we were approached to pitch, Mike and I would go to a panel at these conventions called ‘Hollywood Horror Stories.’ The whole thing is these comic creators talking about their horrible experiences in Hollywood. So, when we got our first call, we were initially worried about becoming like the guys at those panels in a couple of years, but we’ve had nothing but positive interactions with them. ”

M: “We’re incredibly lucky. We send them material and apparently everyone in the office eats it up. We’re told every time they get ‘Trigger Men’ in, every copy is quickly snatched up. It’s a pretty gratifying feeling.”

Can you share some of that luck this way?

(Laughs)

K: “You know, that’s kind of one of our guiding principles, that ‘we all succeed when we all do better.’ The comics world needs more diversity, and it needs more people to succeed, not just the big three. Now don’t get me wrong I love ‘Spiderman,’ I love ‘Green Lantern,’ but I really think the industry needs more people like all the other creators out there who are trying to show their own work, trying to do something different. So we try to get books out whenever we can.”

What’s in store for the future of Triptych Books Publishing? Are there any other titles in the works?

K: “Mike is the main creative force on “Trigger Men” as the writer, and I do the production side of it, help with ideas, edit, I think they call it ‘touch-up’ in Hollywood. I’m also writing a couple of series that are currently under production. Mike has a few other things that are going on. We also have a friend of ours who is an absolutely fantastic writer; she’s working on a series for us. So we have a number of projects that are currently in different levels of production. We’re hoping that soon enough these series will start coming down the pipeline. We’re going to start expanding out. ‘Trigger Men’ is our first pillar in what we hope is going to be a foundation of awesome comics.”

What type of genres are you looking to publish? Or is it just anything goes as long as it’s good storytelling?

K: “We really want to go the wide spectrum, but we also do like to write in a certain area. We both really enjoy stories that have a fair amount of action in them, so a lot of our projects have leaned toward the action genre. We’ve got everything from scifi to supernatural to very, very dark humor coming out. We want to balance things accordingly, but eventually end up with a wide spectrum of books.”

M: “I’d say the only real strong trend to our stuff is that it leans towards older readers. A lot of it tends to be for a more mature audience.”

K: “Like sixteen and up.”

M: “Yeah, but other than that, the three main books I’m working on right now are ‘Trigger Men,’ a goofier comedy, and a much more serious and somber story. We’re really trying to hit as many notes as we can.”

K: “It helps us, I think, to market our company also by saying that we don’t want to be just an indie publisher. Our interest is in well told stories.”

The famed American novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler once said, “A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.” Well, whatever the guys at Triptych Books have brewing up next, count me in. And if you would like to drink the kool-aid as well, click on the link to their website below and pick up a copy of “Trigger Men.”

www.triptychbooks.com

Go ahead and follow me on Twitter: @GoTodash

by Jason Vaughn

Long before the world was forced to choose between camp Edward and camp Jacob in Twilight, and well before Sookie became the never ending damsel in distress on True Blood, the genre world got its fix of horror/romance by the queen of all things supernatural, Anne Rice. Now longtime fans of Rice have a new reason to be excited with the release of IDW’s latest limited series, Servant of the Bones. Thanks to my sister, I grew up a big fan of Rice’s Vampire Lestat series. This eventually led to me reading her other books outside of the series such as Servant of the Bones, a dark tale of the demon Azriel who’s hunting down a murderer in New York City. (A murderer in NYC, go figure.)

IDW describes the comic version of the story as a “six-part tale of murder, demonic revenge, and the redemptive power of faith.” The series is written, of course, by Anne Rice, the multiple New York Times Bestselling author of Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned, with art by the New York Times Best-selling team of The Last Unicorn, Renae DeLiz and Ray Dillion. And if that isn’t enough, there’s a little extra nugget of goodiness for all the die-hard fans in the form of a new essay by Rice at the end of this first issue. For first time readers of Anne Rice’s work this issue is an excellent jumping on point, and for those of you familiar with the book the adaptation is as close to the original source material as one can possibly get. I could go on for days about how brilliant the art is or how DeLiz and Dillon go out of their way to perfectly set the tone of the story, but just go out and get a copy and see for yourself. Servant of the Bones hits the shelves this Wednesday the 17^th, so don’t forget to log on to Comixology and add a copy to your pull list or you just might miss out on the first issue of what is sure to be IDW’s latest hit, and that would suck. (Get it, “suck”? Come on, we’ve been talking about vampires! Ah, never mind.)

Go ahead and follow me on Twitter: @GoTodash

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K.L.F., P.W.E.I., P.I.L.

Hey ladies, ever wonder what “the man your man could smell like” would look like if he were Luke Cage? Well, wonder no more because the Old Spice peddler Isaiah Mustafa is putting his own special brand of swagger on the popular Marvel property in a unique bid to play the role. For those of you who don’t know, comic book-obsessed Nic Cage’s stage name is taken from the popular “Luke Cage” character.

While Marvel contemplates the future of Luke, Isaiah, along with friend writer/director Jason Markarian, devised an idea to show the Marvel brass just how cool it would be to greenlight a project based on him.  So they produced their own take on what a Luke Cage film would look like with Isaiah obviously in the title role giving Marvel/Disney something to think about if they ever get around to the long rumored project which, at one point, had John Singleton (“Abduction”) set to direct and Tyrese Gibson (“Transformers”) in the titular part. The video below is a short teaser to a longer trailer that was leaked earlier in the week and has since been taken down.  Fortunately for us, Jason Markarian has sent over the teaser and a few production stills to see what we all think. The trailer is essentially a big budget audition reel, along the lines of the one we all saw of a beefed up Tobey McGuire during his bid for Spiderman back in the day. I don’t know about you guys, but I think Isaiah has enough on-screen charisma to pull it off. Looks like we’ve got ourselves an old school “Cage match” with Tyrese vs. Isaiah! Take a peek at the teaser by clicking on the link below and tell us who you think should play the part.

Luke Cage Teaser!

Follow us on twitter!

Jason Vaughn - @GoTodash!

Stacey Levin –  @TVStaceyLevin

When I first heard Boom! Studios would be releasing a new Planet of the Apes series, I was instantly hit with wonderful nostalgic memories.  Planet of the Apes holds a special place in my heart because I can vividly remember watching the old movies with my father on local television in the 70′s.  I can definitely credit my father for my early love of genre since our Sundays were mostly comprised of rerun Apes and Godzilla movies.  I even owned all of the Planet of the Apes dolls complete with the treehouse playset.  What I wouldn’t give to still have those toys today!

Now Boom! is cashing in on the Planet of the Apes craze which has already begun with the release of the trailer for the upcoming feature “Rise of the Planet of theApes” hitting theaters on August 5.  Once the trailer hit the internet, comic retailers nationwide suddenly made an unprecedented amount of late-breaking advanced re-orders leading to an early sell out of the title.

The official description of the comic series tells us the first issue begins before the original 1968 PLANET OF THE APES movie , but true to the continuity of the first five films.   Although Ape society has reached a new golden age,  there are ripples of dissent amongst both the ape and human ranks.  Tensions will rise and soon all will be caught in chaos, and amidst all this uncertainty, the the fate of The Lawgiver remains an unknown.

Written by Daryl Gregory with art by Carlos Magno, Planet of the Apes #1 will be in stores this Wednesday, April 27.  Better get one while you can!

Peace, love and all that jazz.

Follow me on twitter: @TVStaceyLevin

GET YOUR GIFT ON! Everybody Dies! LMS! Tokidoki/MARVEL DC Comics toys, Star Wars toys, Marvel toys, TIN TIN! Oh, and so much more just in time for Wednesday Last NEW ISSUE COMICS DAY before Christmas!

From the mind of Ken Tanaka Everybody Dies-A Children’s Book For Grown Ups. $12.00

A last minute direct shipment of the most talked about book at San Diego Comic Con. This book sold out in 2 hrs! Buy yours now! Writer-illustrator Dan LuVisi’s two-year-and-a-half-in-the-making, 230-page graphic novel, Last Man Standing. $34.95

Find the latest batch of TOKIDOKI tees for Man and Woman $28.00

Great goods from your Local Comic Store! Shop Meltdown!

by: Jason Vaughn

“It is a time of magic and monsters, a time when the civilized world has been reduced to a few scattered points of light glowing with stubborn determination amid a rising tide of shadows. It is a time when only the bravest dared to tread the wilds of the unknown…”

Welcome back, D&D!  Thanks to IDW Publishing, under license from Hasbro, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast, an all-new comic book series based on the crazy popular game launches next week.  For those who don’t know anything about “Dungeons & Dragons” (although you literally would had to have been living under a huge, all-consuming rock), it’s the biggest fantasy role-playing game ever.  It defined the genre, the industry and provided the social backdrop for countless number of fans for decades.   IDW’s “Dungeons & Dragons #1” is the inaugural issue of the first ongoing “Dungeons & Dragons” series in more than 20 years.

Ok, firstly, let me admit (much to the great relief of my internal teenage jock) that I didn’t play “Dungeons and Dragons” as a kid.  I missed out on the days of sitting in a dank basement in someone’s mother’s house with cardboard cutout swords, twelve-sided die and Led Zepplin playing in the background under a black light poster.  Fine, maybe not the Led Zep part – what?  Don’t look at me like that, it was college!  Now before you go and blow your helm and say that I’m just a role-player bashing troll, I’ll confess that much like Christine O’Donnell, “I too, am just like you.”  I may not have been into fantasy games as a kid, but as an adult, I‘ve completely embraced my inner nerd rage.  With the advent of MMORPGs, we now have the opportunity to pawn someone from half a world away… silly, silly newb.  Games like “World of Warcraft,” “Everquest,” and “Final Fantasy” owe their very existence to the grandfather of all role-playing games, D&D.  Jumping on to the bandwagon of RPG resurgence, the elven horde over at IDW is about to catapult a new ongoing “Dungeons & Dragons” title on to the shelves of Meltdown next week.  So until you’re able to loot a copy for your very own, let’s take a peek at the GM’s story page and see what’s in store for our not-so-merry band of adventurers.

Speaking of adventurers, no D&D campaign is complete without a diverse group of strangers from across the land coming together to fight for a common goal… or for common gold as often is the case .  (It’s a lot like the United Nations in that way, but I digress.)   The series artist Andrea Di Vito from Marvel’s “Thor” and “Nova,” renders such sharp characters that they look as if they just jumped out of a “Lord of the Rings” flick.  Adric Fell, a pirate like soldier-of-arms, leads a group consisting of a dwarven paladin named Kahl, the elven hunter Varis, the roguish halfling Bree, and the tiefling warlock Tisha (who resembles an unnatural breeding between a ram and elf.)   Having slayed the young black dragon and freed the human slaves in the Underdark (issue #0), we join our heroes as they enjoy a moment of relaxation in celebration of their recent victory.  The revelry doesn’t last long, however, as the group suddenly find themselves besieged upon by the walking dead.   (No, not the TV show, but yes they’re zombies).  In the course of defending himself, Adric slays several of the zombies only to find out a little too late they’re not the undead at all, but local villagers under a spell.  Now on the run for murder, Adric and his band of reluctant heroes must find out who’s behind a spell that’s turning normal folks into George A. Romero rejects all the while keeping their own skin intact in the process.

Writer John Rogers, “Transformers” screenwriter and co-creator of the television series “Leverage,” crafts an excellent introductory issue.  For those of us who might have missed the actual first issue “Dungeons and Dragons #0,” what I dig most about how this issue unfolds is Rogers’ avoidance of the overdone origin element.  Instead, he opts to throw us right into the middle of the story of Adric’s small band of adventurers.  This allows for a wide range of potential back story for future issues which is part and parcel for the D&D cannon.  And let’s face it, we’re all tired of the constant carbon copy “Avengers Assemble” feeling that most new team oriented books have.  The pacing was quick and the story moved along from page one.

I hope everyone has on their +5 dexterity cloaks when the “Dungeons & Dragons – Dark Sun” limited series releases right on the heels of this title in January because it’s going to be one wild ride full of gold, goblins, and gear.  And for all of you actual D&D players out there, don’t forget to check out the last two pages of the issue for a cool treat.

If anyone can guess where the title of this column originated from, then congratulations, you just won yourself Meltdown’s very own version of a “no-prize!”  Stephen Lynch has to be the funniest person with a guitar and too much time on his hands since Adam Sandler’s days with SNL.  (Now there’s an idea for “Comics on Comics.”)  Check out his album “Superhero” which includes the aforementioned “D&D,” then follow Stephen on twitter @TheStephenLynch and myself @GoTodash.

What’s up Melt-heads?.. Meltdowners?.. The Dead Melt-Men?…  Oh well we’ll come up with that nickname sooner or later, but until that time, check out this quick preview of Stan “The Man” Lee’s latest. (I still have several of his “Superhuman’s” currently on my dvr. For a guy his age he certainly gets around.) “The Traveler” is out of Stan’s own shingle “POW! Entertainment” in conjunction with “Boom! Studios.”  (What’s up with the exclamation fetish?)  Scroll down and click on the thumbnails below for larger images of the first six pages of Stan Lee’s ” The Traveler” written by Mark Waid with interiors by Chad Hardin, along with several cover art examples.  I personally dig the first one – what do you guys/gals think?

STAN LEE’S THE TRAVELER #1

6 PAGE PREVIEW!

WRITTEN BY IREDEEMABLE’S MARK WAID

ART BY AMAZING SPIDER-MAN’S CHAD HARDIN

About POW! Entertainment

(Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, Inc. (Pinksheets: POWN) An advanced media and entertainment company, POW! was founded by Stan Lee together with award winning producer Gill Champion and intellectual property attorney Arthur Lieberman, Esq. to create, produce and license original intellectual properties. POW! specializes in franchises for the entertainment industry, including animation and live-action feature films, plus television, DVDs, video games, merchandising and related ancillary markets, all of which contribute to global expansion.

About BOOM! Studios

BOOM! Studios (www.boom-studios.com) 2009 “Best Publisher” of the year, generates a wide-ranging catalog of multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated comic books and graphic novels featuring some of the industry’s top talent, including Philip K. Dick’s DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, 20th Century Fox’s 28 DAYS LATER and DIE HARD, The Henson Company’s FARSCAPE, and the original Mark Waid series IRREDEEMABLE. This fall sees BOOM! teaming up with the legendary Stan Lee,creator of Marvel Comics’ characters Spider-Man, The Hulk, and The X-Men for a line of original superhero series, the legend’s first new superhero creations in nearly 20 years. BOOM!’s youth imprint, BOOM Kids!, is an undisputed industry leader publishing Disney/Pixar’s THE INCREDIBLES, CARS, and TOY STORY, as well as Disney’s THE MUPPETS, DONALD DUCK, UNCLE SCROOGE and WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES. This year, BOOM! Studios celebrates its fifth anniversary.

And if you’re not getting your daily dose of Stan the Man, then I suggest you follow the “Generalissimo” on twitter at @TheRealStanLee as he brandishes his baton to bravely lead his bold brigadiers into battle against the likes of the evil Craig Ferguson.

“Excelsior!”

(There’s that exclamation thing again… I’m just sayin’…)

by: Jason Vaughn

You can also stalk me on twitter as well: @GoTodash.