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Axe Cop One Year Anniversary Party @MeltdownComics, Jan 27th, 7pm

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Jan 132011

Meltdown Comics and Dark Horse Comics welcomes:
Artist Ethan Nicolle and Writer Malachai Nicolle to Los Angeles, CA
Both signing copies of their collected ‘Axe Cop’ Vol. 1
Thursday, January 27th, 7pm

In case you’re new to the Internet, Axe Cop is a webcomic (http://axecop.com/) that became wildly popular over this past year for being awesome, and also because of the unique creative team; Axe Cop writer Malachai Nicolle was 5 when the series …began and artist Ethan Nicolle, his older brother, was 29. The combination of the two’s different talents have taken the world by storm!

On Thursday, January 27th, from 7:00pm to 10:00pm, fans will have the chance to purchase ‘Axe Cop’ Vol. 1, see a sneak-peak of the ‘Bad Guy Earth’ series with never-before-seen artwork, watch short movie about the creative process between the brothers, and participate in a Q&A with the creators moderated by the Chop Cast team. In addition to getting your brand-new copies of Axe Cop signed, you can purchase a special 18″ x 24″ two-color screen print!

So, come out and support the most interesting creative team in comics, or we’ll chop your head off!

Meltdown Comics
7522 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-851-7223
www.meltcomics.com

With Tasty Tacos by THE KO TACO TRUCK

Cosmic Comics

Did you know?, Educate, Exclusive, New Books This Week, News, Press Release, Read This!, Reviews, Stacey and Jason No Responses »

Aug 102010

by: Jason Vaughn

Space… the final frontier… well, actually, for sci-fi comics, it’s more like the first, best, and only frontier. When I was a kid, outer space TV shows like “Buck Rogers” and “Star Trek” rocketed me light speed toward a geosynchronous orbit around syndicated fun and excitement. (Ok, “Star Trek” was due mostly to my dad’s “Ming the Merciless”-like despotic control over the remote control. I grew up to be a “Star Wars” kid, go figure.) Even though I’m referring to the reruns of the seventies and eighties, space cowboys and adventurers have been astonishing and scaring the crap out of the little kid in all of us since almost a decade before Superman ever lifted his first car on the cover of Action Comics. So let’s take a look at two current books and one upcoming title with stories from a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars: Rescues #3 – Dark Horse (On sale now!)

Like I said above, I’ve been a “Star Wars” fan ever since I can remember. (However, the prequels did make me question the sanity of that devotion each time I left the theater.) The horrendous Jar Jar movies aside, in recent years I’ve found myself running to the arms of a different pusher by the name of Dark Horse in order to acquire my “Star Wars” fix. I thoroughly enjoyed “Knights of the Old Republic” and duly look forward to John Jackson Miller’s new title “Star Wars: Knight Errant.” Let’s not forget “Dark Times” which has its moments as a character driven piece that follows ex-Jedi-in-hiding Dass Jennir as he copes with life in a galaxy ruled by the newly founded Empire. Unlike these other titles, “Star Wars: Rescues” features the original crew of Luke Skywalker and company, although several years in the future. In this part of the “Star Wars” timeline, Luke has rebuilt the Jedi with a small band of knights; Han and Leia have twins (Jaina and Jacen) who are also under Luke’s tutelage as future Jedi; and a new, yet strange threat with unusual technology is invading the fragile Republic from parts unknown, the Yuuzhan Vong. Not having read the “New Jedi Order” books (I stopped right after the second Timothy Zahn trilogy), I’m thrilled Dark Horse decided to do this series. My only issue is this - get on with it already! “Rescues” suffers from the same fatal flaw “Legacy” did – it was ungodly slow for a sci-fi action comic. Granted, “Legacy” took some set up due to its placement in the time line, but “Rescues,” and “Invasion” before it, has no such excuse yet suffers from the same plod-along pacing. We know the “sandbox” by now. Enough with the set up and let’s actually get to a major beat point already. There are plenty of books in this series, so I’m not sure I see the need in dragging out the story to the point where Ambien-like sleep kicks in while I’m reading it. As a fan, I’m on board for a few more issues because I do think the use of the Vong as the antagonist is a surprising change from the stand-by, overly used “Sith,” and also in hopes they’ll pick up the pacing a bit.

MGM Drive-In: “It! The Terror From Beyond Space” #1- IDW (On sale now!)

This book is the first of three special series updating classic sci-fi flicks. This new title by IDW harkens back to the days of midnight B movie marathons when you had to keep the volume low out of fear you’d wake up your parents. You know the type, a flick that Tom Servo, Crow and Joel would’ve made fun of on MST3K. The story begins with the hastily assembled crew of the Challenge 142 en route to Mars on a rescue mission where they discover that the one lone survivor of the Challenge 141 may have killed the rest of his crew for the remaining rations. Or at least that’s the way it appears until the survivor reveals they’re not alone on the red planet. I love the retro-pulp feel of this title. For example, how the book refers to their technology as “atomic engines” and the nod and wink to old school 50’s Hollywood with members of the crew smoking in an oxygen enriched environment. I guess no one told the Captain Kirk-lite that offering a cigarette to an alien just after sex might blow up his cabin. This book is cheeky, smarmy, and just cheesy enough to be considered a guilty pleasure.

Farscape: Scorpius #4 – Boom (Drops this Wednesday!)

There’s a growing trend these days for popular TV and movie properties to find renewed life in the world of graphic novels and comic books long after they’ve left the screen. Obvious examples are “Buffy,” “The Green Hornet,” “Die Hard,” “Charmed,” “Blade Runner” (“Andriods…”), and “Farscape.” “Farscape” was one of those shows that flew under my radar when it first debuted. However, my introduction to this show is a day I’ll not likely ever forget. In an effort not to make this column all morbid, I’ll just quickly say that if you ask someone from a previous generation where they were when JFK was shot, most would be able to tell you exactly the place, and could probably recall the following few days afterwards as well. I had a similar experience on the day I first learned what a “translator microbe,” a “Luxan,” and a “Hynerian” were on September 12, 2001. I vividly remember that day as I was walking to a friend’s house, thinking how odd it was not to see any con-trails in the sky from the neighboring airport. Living in Atlanta at the time, which is close to one of, if not the, busiest airports in the world, it was an extremely unusual sight not to see a single plane in the sky. After I arrived, my friend would soon put on a recorded episode of “Farscape” while looking at me in awe uttering “what, are you kidding me? You haven’t seen it!? This show is like ‘The Muppets’ on acid.” From that day forward, I was on board with John Crighton, the ultimate fish out of water, and his desperate attempt to get home to Earth while trying to relate to these creatures he’s been forced to live with while on the run from the authorities. If you were ever a fan of the show, I can tell you that you won’t be disappointed with this series. Issue #4 in the “Farscape: Scorpius” prelude to “The War for the Uncharted Territories” is a great read. The tone and feel of this arc is so reminiscent of the show, I feel like its Friday night and I’m watching TV when SyFy was still Sci-Fi (and didn’t have to steal their story ideas from hard-working filmmakers, but I digress… *cough* Drones! *cough*.) And it should have that sense of nostalgia since one of the writers is none other than series creator Rockne O’Bannon. Along with fellow writer Alan Mack and art by Mike Ruiz, O’Bannon has managed to catch the heart of the series with a story following the twisted machinations of John Crichton’s arch nemesis Scorpius. Up to his old tricks, Scorpius deceives, intimidates and manipulates his way into command of an invading armada from the “grey space” who have their sights set on destroying the Peacekeepers and setting up camp in “Scorpy’s” backyard. For a prelude, this story has a smooth set-up and great jumping on point for any longtime fans who haven’t yet read the comics, or for the newbie who’s just dying to learn what “farbot” means.

Follow on twitter: Jason -@GoTodash

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?

Hey gang, Jason and Stacey here with a pop quiz for all of you internet savvy guys and gals out there. Who’s the one person every woman at a comic convention (who may or may not be wearing a costume that’s a little too tight for propriety) wants to be, and every carpal tunnel-suffering, ventrilo-chatting dude wants to date? Well, it’s none other than the online sensation and “Whedon-verse” media darling, Felicia Day. Stacey and I were fortunate enough (and by “fortunate enough,” I mean hounded until she finally gave in for pity’s sake) to sit down with the always congenial and extremely funny Ms. Day over mochas and blueberry muffins at “Milk” in West Hollywood where she regaled us with stories about “The Guild,” her new series from Dark Horse based on the award-winning webisode series.

Photo by: Bui Brothers

Q: Let’s talk about the evolution of “The Guild.” Did it start simply as an actress vehicle, or were you in this because you had this idea to create a full on series?

A: No, I created it as an actor vehicle, ‘cause I wanted to write a part for me that no one would write in Hollywood or ever let me play. Codex is kind of a geeky girl and she’s very introverted, everything you don’t see in T.V. unless it’s a very tangential character. So, I just did it – really as an exercise. I didn’t have any idea that it would ever get made. I just had this idea that I would do it as a half-hour comedy because it’s a nice format. And it was just a sense of accomplishment I felt when I finished the end that it was worth the whole exercise, and the fact that anything happened after that is kind of a miracle.

Q: So you had no idea that you were tapping into this incredibly embroiled fan base that would just grab hold of this?

A: Initially we did, but it became way more than that when we started production. I’ve never produced anything before and it was so much fun. We did everything… I would drive out to Sylmar at 7:00 am because someone posted they had free computer monitors, so it was me getting into the car to get that set dressing. There’s a painting on Tink’s wall that, in fact, is a piece of wrapping paper ‘cause I wanted something colorful behind her head and I couldn’t afford to buy anything. Even a print was too expensive because we were completely out of pocket. So we bought a two dollar piece of wallpaper and then my boyfriend and I downloaded some tattoo art off the internet and drew it with a sharpie. And still it’s the thing we use. That’s just what it is if you don’t have any money and you just make it work.

Photo by: Angie Riemersma

Thankfully we have enough film making know-how: we were on set, so we knew the director’s experience; our experience as actors, and my co-producer Kim Evey had already done a bunch of web videos so she kind of had tips about how to make the video pop and make it more polished. Our combined small pieces of knowledge about filmmaking helped make it look more polished than the average web series at the time – this was just 2007 and people weren’t doing web series very much at all. So then we just put it up, and I’m a very focused person, so it became this mission in life to get as many people to watch the thing ‘cause I really believed it was brilliant. Guess you have to believe your stuff is brilliant in order to go on.

Q: You’ve seemed to figure out something most major studios have yet to wrap their heads around, and you’ve already gotten a sponsor. Have you figured out how to make The Guild profitable? Did you promise to make money and then people jumped on board?

A: We are now able to make some money off “The Guild,” which is good because it’s been our 24/7 job for three years now and we’re just kind of getting there. The first two episodes were out of our pocket, almost no money, and then we put a paypal button up because we couldn’t afford to do the show ourselves. We were able to tap into a niche audience who was very passionate about our show and willing to donate five dollars in order to participate in the show. From Indonesia, England, we had donors all over the world and it really brought a community together who were able to share in the pleasure of making a film together without having all of these layers of crap and junk.

So then we wanted to pay back our crew, because we didn’t pay them at first. The donations just paid for cost, so we were like ‘let’s make a DVD.’ We had no clue about how to make a DVD, it’s too many processes for you and me to appreciate, but we had to do it on our own because we didn’t have money to pay people who knew what they were doing. So we made a lot of mistakes, and we continue to make a lot of mistakes, but I have to say it is the most valuable way to learn. And we‘ve learned a lot of things along the way: we self-publish the DVD, we package them out of my kitchen – thousands of them and it was a horrible experience because order fulfillment was not what I got into, but that’s what we had to do. We did have some volunteers come help us, but at the end of the day it was me and Kim doing all this stuff.

Photo by: Angie Riemersma

We did have a lot of studios and producers want the show after season one. And the way Hollywood works is that you just add layers that would just soak up money in between. We knew the internet better than they did, so we couldn’t see the value they would add, especially for the money they were offering us. I was like: ‘so wait, let me get this straight. You’re going to pay me not very much money to take my show and the property, and not even guarantee our attachment at this point, and you’re going to have creative input, but you don’t actually use the internet?’ I was very protective ‘cause I felt like this does not just belong to me, it belongs to everyone who donated to this show, too.

So we started doing season two on DVD money and before our cameras rolled, Microsoft came in and said, ‘We want this. We’re going to develop independent content and we’re ok with you owning it.’ They were able to bring Sprint on board as an overall sponsor when most studios at the time couldn’t get sponsorship attached to a webseries. Now it’s more common, but it’s more branded entertainment. This year Sprint is just saying basically ‘Presented by Sprint,’ which is the old T.V. model from the fifties. I think it’s a testament to how their trust in us has grown. Also, I think they’re smarter because people identify and see value in their product versus seeing their logo everywhere.

Q: When did you get the idea to expand from a web series to the video (“Do you want to Date my Avatar?” music video) and the comic book?

A: I would love to take credit like I’m some sort of visionary. We usually owe an extra video, like a holiday video, for Microsoft. It was twelve episodes and an extra video, that’s what they requested. So I had to come up with an extra video and there was this weird timing issue where I didn’t know what to do as the extra video. I got the idea when I was writing and listening to “Joyride” by Roxette. And we had some scanned art sent in so we were really inspired by the fans. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we had our own Avatar costumes?’ And it just steam- rolled from there. ‘Oh Jed [Whedon], do you want to do this with me? I know you won’t because it’s too weird…’ And then he said yes! I called him as a lark and asked him to direct because he had never directed anything before. And it came out just brilliant! So, every single step of the way that was something – I’ll release it here and here and here, and I’ll do this on the launch date… There was this list of things I wanted to do and hoped the fans would support and like it. It’s all not an accident, there’s a lot of work that goes behind it, but it is sort of just following creative inspiration in a way that’s not allowed through traditional means.

With the comic, I knew Scott Allie [editor of The Guild] from working with Joss on “Dr. Horrible.” He wanted to do a comic right away and I waited a year before I said yes because I didn’t have time and I didn’t think the show was developed enough to deserve a comic. Then I came up with the idea, but I had no idea what I was getting into. And that’s how Felicia operates. 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. So with the comic, it was this huge endeavor that I really didn’t know at the time since I put it off as much as I did. At the end I was extremely happy, but the process was much more challenging than I had imagined. Now I respect comic book writers a hell of a lot more!

Q: How did you find your artist Jim Rugg?

Jim is great! I met him through the “Penny” comic, and that was initially the reason why I wasn’t sure if we should use him. I love his style, but was a little wary because he had already done me as Penny. And then he sent some samples, as if he was looking through a webcam and I knew the style was completely different. In my mind, the whole underlying tone is independent. Some artists that had done demos for the book were too comedic for my taste. And especially for this character – if I was going to do another character’s point of view, then a quirky or cartoony style might work better. But for Sid specifically, I wanted to explore the real underlying emotions of why someone would get into finding satisfaction from an online community in a real way versus a real community. She’s kind of a sad person, that’s her character, and I didn’t want to desecrate that by making everything so slapstick early on. Jim’s indy style is just so perfect! I’m very happy with the way they came out.

This seems to be a good place as any to take a break. Don’t miss our next column for the second part of Felicia’s interview. And since we know you don’t need any incentive ‘cause she’s so cool, it’s probably just a waste of our time to mention that we’ll be holding a contest for an autographed copy of “The Guild” #1. Be back next time for details on how to win!!!