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Via: Boing Boing
Graphic novel on stage in Los Angeles By David Pescovitz

No Good Deed is a new multimedia play in Los Angeles that melds a graphic novel with live theater. Created by the edgy, experimental Furious Theatre Company — including my brother Robert Pescovitz — No Good Deed is a classic, dark superhero story of good and evil injected with the cultural criticism that is Furious’ modus operandi. The live production, written by Matt Pelfrey and directed by Dámaso Rodriguez, employs projected illustrations, intense fight choreography, and compelling characters to immerse the viewer in the action. And if you’re thinking that sounds like Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, here’s what industry mag TalkinBroadway wrote, “I want to hold this production up to the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark and say, ‘This is how you put a graphic novel on stage.” No Good Deed is actually the first story in an ongoing narrative that continues with Hellbound Heroes, a print comic with art by Ben Matsuya. You can grab a copy by donating $5 to Furious Theatre. The play runs until February 26 and Furious has kindly offered Boing Boing a discount code to save $5 on admission. Just enter BoingBoing as the coupon code when you purchase tickets here!

This is what LAist had to say about No Good Deed:

Nick Cernoch leads the cast as Josh Jaxon, a conflicted and abused high-school student that must deal with a major change in his social status. As both a hero and antihero, Cernoch easily makes a bold transition feel natural. He guides Jaxon away from an appropriately subdued modality as a bullied kid to an energized, engaging and exciting alter-ego realized through a drug-induced multi-dimensional fantasy.

Shawn Lee and Troy Metcalf play Jaxon’s “fucking-with-crime” sidekicks Bryant Feld and Danny Diamond. As Feld, Lee is a charismatic and commanding actor that often drives pulsed tension on stage. Metcalf renders Diamond as a sympathy-drawing underling, beautifully executing Diamond’s most tragic scene and delivering the best performance of the show. Finally, Robert Pescovitz renders the role of Jaxon’s frightening step-father with impressive authenticity.

The complex staging of No Good Deed must be a nightmare to direct, but Damaso Rodriguez smoothly orchestrates the entire production with raw grace and a little kitsch. In fact, Rodriguez has crafted an indie-version of Broadway’s Spiderman, minus all of the Spiderman failures, of course. Brian Danner’s fight choreography is perfectly executed, conceptualized and is a huge audience draw. Scenic design of John Icovelli, costuming by Christy Hauptman, graphic design of Ben Matsuya and original music composition of Doug Newell contribute tremendously in capturing the essence of a great comic book.

Furious Theatre Company presents No Good Deed

Fairy tales are often warped for the enjoyment of comic book fans—see GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES and FABLES as two obvious examples. In GODCHILD, Kaori Yuki has done similar things with nursery rhymes, and the effect is simultaneously gorgeous and horrifying.

This is an eight-part series about an Earl named Cain, who has a cursed heritage and even more disturbing hobbies—in this case, collecting poisons and solving other royals’ mysteries with them. The mysteries that Cain solves involve blood-draining parasites, human embalming, medieval torture masks, and reanimated dead people. It is truly mad Victorian mayhem, with brief moments of subtle emotion. The characters can barely breathe between plot elements, and when they do, it’s usually in the form of self-reflection… or self-hatred.

Cain himself is a curious cross of Sherlock Holmes and The Shade.  He enjoys solving mysteries but has moral loyalty to no one but his valet, Riff. His actions can be arbitrary and dictated by mere curiosity, but he also seems to be capable of great love—as far as it serves his own interests, that is.

Kaori Yuki’s artwork, while amazing, is difficult to defend in an American comics context, because it is very, very Japanese. Yuki is a master of spidery lines, wandering limbs, and slender faces. Her attention to detail is shocking; even a straining neck seems elegant, and the imagery—spiders, petals, candles, the tarot—makes Dracula seem tame and dry. But Yuki never apologizes for her style. It’s rich and genre-filled like a classic Hammer horror film.

I have a friend who used to say that Kaori Yuki is ‘like Shakespeare with pictures’, and that has never been more accurate than in the case of GODCHILD. Meet your manga Macbeth, your comic King Lear, your gothically illustrated Titus Andronicus. And if this comparison puts you off, then perhaps it’s just as well, for there are no happy endings here, and Cain’s Victorian London is darker than any Green Lantern can light.

There is a translated prequel series, entitled THE CAIN SAGA, which is no less disturbing or poetic but slightly more difficult to read, seeing as Yuki’s art style has matured so drastically since she first wrote it. GODCHILD bewitches all on its own. In fact, if you buy Volume One at Meltdown, we’ll take ten percent off of it and everything else. Do you still dare to resist?

LAST MONTH: Junji Ito’s UZUMAKI.

For more of why Kaori Yuki is so diabolically different from Western writers, read my blog: http://concretesoul.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/why-kaori-yuki-is-my-favourite/
For more comic & manga ramblings, follow my twitter: http://twitter.com/junkstory
#comicgeeksagainstmangadiscrimination

Meltdown University DrawMelt Life Drawing Class: Clothed Figure Drawing.  Come to Meltdown and take a Life Drawing Class 7-10 every Monday & Tuesday. All levels & experience welcome.

All Mediums welcome. $20/person

On Monday, February 6th at 9:30pm, you can see The Nerdist himself doing a full hour of comedy!

Best of all, it’s FREE!

See Chris’ special before anyone else gets to, in the theater named after him!

No need to RSVP, just show up ready to laugh!

NerdMelt Theater

7522 W Sunset Blvd

(Be aware, space is limited. Not everyone who comes will be able to get in)

Digital Comics Now Available

Meltdown University DrawMelt Life Drawing Class: Clothed Figure Drawing.  Come to Meltdown and take a Life Drawing Class 7-10 every Monday & Tuesday. All levels & experience welcome.

All Mediums welcome. $20/person

(Want to take Jim’s next Creating Comics class, which starts on Wednesday, February 15? Want to find out about the other Meltdown U classes like the Webcomics and Inking and Coloring classes which are starting new series in the next week or two? Or learn about the ongoing Kids Comics class? Then go here for more info and to sign up:

http://www.meltcomics.com/blog/meltdown-university/

http://www.meetup.com/DrawMelt/

And what else are you doing on with your Saturday afternoon anyway — watching reality television?  Spending important hours of your life on Facebook? Hanging around in some stupid park where you’ll just wind up with grass stains on your jeans? Your really good jeans? Instead, bring yourself down to Meltdown and see these rising stars and get some great comics. We have spoken!

Two pages from the minicomic by Otis student Carolyn Tom.

Celebrate with…

cocktail mistresses Alie and Georgia

Sean Patton

sketch group Diani and Devine

DJ Douggpound

Steve Agee

and Margaret Cho!

Come for the comedy, stay for the signing and meet and greet with the co-creators, artists, and other people involved in the making of Alpha Girl!

Thursday at 8pm at NerdMelt Theater!

Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door, and you can get them here!

About the Meltdown Comics EXTRAS edition

Included in this pack will be a commemorative Meltdown Comics envelope and letterhead, Meltdown Comics sticker, vintage Baby Melt ribbon (yeah, we made this), a tiny 1:6 scale T-Shirt (Sized-to-Fit the DEATH RAY ACTION FIGURE, the Hi-Fashion Enid DOLL or to class-up your child’s BRATZ doll if you will), a little silkscreen print, a pin, plus other surprises. All using the Meltdown Comics Mel Mascot and logo designed last century for Meltdown, Inc. by Dan Clowes. That is like  back in the 1990s,man! ONLY 200 sets will be made. FUN! Will cost us more that 10 bux to make all of these bits but will only add 10 bux over the cover price if you buy the book from us.  Pre-order Meltdown Comics EXTRAS edition here

Throughout his 25-year career, alternative cartoonist/screenwriter Daniel Clowes has always been ahead of artistic and cultural movements. In the late 1980s his groundbreaking comic book series Eightball defined indie culture with wit, venom, and even a little sympathy. With each successive graphic novel (Ghost World, David Boring, Ice Haven, Wilson, Mister Wonderful ), Clowes has been praised for his emotionally compelling narratives that reimagine the ways that stories can be told in comics. The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist is the first monograph on this award-winning, New York Times–bestselling creator, compiled with his complete cooperation. It includes all of Clowes’s best-known illustrations as well as rare and previously unpublished work, all reproduced from the original art, and also includes essays by noted contributors such as designer Chip Kidd and cartoonist Chris Ware.

Alvin Buenaventura recently started the publishing company Pigeon Press. He previously published artistic and insightful graphic novels, books, and prints under the imprint Buenaventura Press from 2003 to 2009. Buenaventura also edits the monthly comics section for McSweeney’s literary magazine, The Believer. He lives in Oakland, California.