Meltdown University announces the start of its next series of classes on writing and drawing comics, Creating Comics, plus a brand new series, Inking and Coloring Comics. What started three years ago as just one class, has now expanded to seven classes on five different subjects and is still growing. It’s a graphic novel school in the making!

“I was doing private classes in New York City while I was also teaching in the Cartooning and Illustration Department at The School of Visual Art,” said Meltdown U Program Director and former DC Comics editor Jim Higgins. “When I moved to LA, I approached Meltdown Comics about hosting similar classes. They were very receptive and supportive, and already doing things like gallery shows and book signings. Owner Gaston Dominguez-Letelier turned out to be probably the most innovative and aggressive event host in the comic book business.  I started the classes and ran them just like a semester of my college comics courses, but for a lot less money.”

The program has now grown to include two sections of Creating Comics, where the students either write and draw their own minicomic (a short-run, locally printed, photocopied comic) or write a short comic book script. In the past six months, the program has added an ongoing Kid’s Comics class for ages 7 to 12 taught by LA artist Donna Letterese, a Web Comics class about doing comics on the Internet by comedy writer and editor of the humor magazine The Devastator Geoffrey Golden, two DrawMelt: Life Drawing classes moderated by artist and celebutante Satine Phoenix, and will soon add more.

Meltdown U’s newest offering, Inking and Coloring Comics, is starting on Tuesday, February 14 at 7pm. The class is taught by professional comics artist and colorist Chris Northrop, who has worked for Marvel, DC, and other major comics companies.  “Inking and coloring are skills very specific to comics and we’re one of the only places in California where you can learn them in one place,” Higgins said.  Northrup has been teaching comic art for years.

So who takes these classes? Screenwriters, graphic artists, computer programmers, teachers, social workers – anyone who has a story to tell and wants to do it with comics! Higgins also teaches comic book classes at Otis College of Art and Design and CalArts, but says, “Meltdown U is for everyone.”

The next Creating Comics class begins Wednesday, February 15 from 7 to 9:30pm.

The next Web Comics class starts Saturday, February 11 from 12 to 3pm.

The Kid’s Comics class meet on Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:30pm and is ongoing.

To sign up for these classes, go to: www.meltcomics.com/blog/meltdown-university/

The DrawMelt: Life Drawing classes meet on Mondays and Tuesdays at 7pm and are ongoing.

To sign up for these classes, e-mail Satine at DnD@Meltcomics.com.

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!

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Jason Vaughn - @GoTodash!

Stacey Levin –  @TVStaceyLevin

Stussy x Marvel Launch Party! Featuring DJ Pete Rock. April 26th from 9-11pm at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles!!!

The Stussy Tribe IsLivin’ Stoopid Large!!!

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!

XXX

Also Wednesday, Dec. 15th Meet X-23 Cover Artist Danni Shinya Luo 7pm

XXX

Thor Movie Site!

Follow on twitter: Jason -@GoTodash

Some say the animation and sound effects threaten the aesthetic foundation and could wipe out comic shops. Others say the medium is bringing badly needed new readers and innovation.

Chris Rosa manages Meltdown Comics in Hollywood. New readers who become interested in digital comic books might eventually want to collect paper issues, but “the jury is still out on that one,” Rosa said. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times / July 21, 2010)

It’s a book! It’s a cartoon! It’s … digital comics!

Technology, which has already upended the music, television and movie businesses, is now gripping the comic book world. Publishers are unleashing a torrent of digital comic books across smart phones, tablet devices, game consoles and digital book readers, portending major changes in how comics are made and marketed.

Read the rest of the article here.

…Stephen King, that is, because the sovereign of scare has done it again with his newest entries into the comic arena – “American Vampire” and the limited series “N.”  The King (That’s my nickname for him.  Cause we’re friends.  And friends have nicknames for each other.  Ok, fine, I don’t actually know him… yet.) has been writing comic books and graphic novels for over 25 years.  In fact, on his website, he lists “Creepshow,” the companion comic to the movie, as his earliest comic credit back in 1982.  But most fans readily associate his comic work as extensions and companions to his existing published titles such as “The Dark Tower” and “The Stand.”  All great stuff, but with “American Vampire” and “N,” The King has gone back to the roots of his horror story telling which is what I love the most.  Ok, yeah, so this is a completely biased ode to The King.  Sue me.  Well, I guess you could stop reading, but it’s STEPHEN KING, people!

In Marvel’s “N,” which is based on SK’s short story and written by the talented film and television writer Marc Guggenheim, The King tells a chilling tale about living in a personal hell of paranoia and obsession when his lead  character descends into the dark world of mental illness.  A lead character with a mental  illness is not new territory for S.K.  Some of his most famous creations were really just  batsh*t crazy folks.  (Hello, Annie Wilkes!  How ya doin’, Jack Torrance?)  But what’s  different about Dr. John Bousaint in “N” is that he starts out sane.  Actually, he’s a  psychiatrist who is literally driven crazy by the mysterious circumstances that surround  the death of one his patients known only as Patient N.  Patient N committed suicide –  pushed to the ultimate limit by hanging out at an odd geological formation of rocks in a  barren field.  Wait, what?  The rocks made him kill himself?  No, that can’t be and it sounds  illogical.  Well, that’s what the good Doc thought, too, until he went to investigate the place  and soon found himself catching the same kind of madness that Patient N suffered from.  So  you’d think people would stay away from the weird rocks, right?  Not in a horror comic,  peeps.  That’s just the beginning.  From there, The King’s story and Guggenheim’s expert scripting literally describe every pain staking moment of what it must be like to slowly go  insane… to know it’s happening to you, but be helpless to stop it.  I can’t think of too many  things more frightening than that.  Artfully drawn by the accomplished artist Alex Maleev,  the imagery in “N” makes you feel as if you too might be catch the insanity if you read too  much.  Effing brilliant.

With Vertigo’s “American Vampire,” The King takes on the overused area of vampiressszzzzzzz.  Oh, sorry, dozed off there for a second because every freakin’ publisher, studio and network is taking a stab at telling a vampire tale.  (Stab – get it?  Yes, cheesy pun intended.)  But once again, nobody can do it like The King.  I love “American Vampire”!  It’s the book I can’t wait for on pull days.  It’s not just any ordinary vampire tale.  It’s the story of one guy, vampire Skinner Sweet, told from two separate places in his timeline.  It’s the same storytelling device SK used in two of my favorite novels from his library – Desperation and The Regulators (under his pseudonym Richard Bachman.)  Written along with Scott Snyder, I suspect the two stories being told in “American Vampire” will soon meet in one complete tale.  Snyder’s story starts in 1920’s Los Angeles in the seedy underbelly of Hollywood where the heroine Pearl struggles to make ends meet while pursuing her acting dreams.  For many of us already living in Los Angeles, that in and of itself is the nightmare.  But wait, there’s more.  Poor Pearl gets sucked in by a handsome leading man (yep, I went there – sucked in!) who whisks her to a posh Hollywood party where she proceeds to find herself getting attacked by vampires.  Confused, scared and feeling really, really strange, Pearl awakens to her new life as a creature of the night.  Well, that blows.  She doesn’t know the first thing about being a vampire.  Luckily our new favorite bad guy, Skinner Sweet is there to give her a few tips… right before the story switches to an old west tale set in the early 1800’s- the setting for Skinner’s origin tale written by The King himself.  And for those of you familiar with “The Dark Tower” series, you know the West is a world S.K. loves; a place where he can take his time telling a rich tale with lots of character, color and history.  Complementing both sides of the Skinner Sweet yarn is the beautiful art by Rafael Albuquerque whose technique e fills the page with expression and life.  “American Vampire” has managed to accomplish what none of the countless other vampire books have yet to do – make vampires seem original and scary again.

Although I can go on and on about my main man, I’ll stop here so you can run to Meltdown and pick up the four issues to date of both “N” and “American Vampire.”  While you’re doing that, I’m going to hatch a plan to meet The King himself so we can embark on the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Shut up, it could happen!

Follow Stacey and Jason on twitter at @TVStaceyLevin and @GoTodash

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