Foz McDermott: Helix Reminiscence

Foz McDermott was with Heroes on its first day, all the way to its last day. This is the first in a series of posts on his blog recalling what it was like to be there:

"It has been 5 years almost to the week where we started up production, so I figured no better time than now. What you will get in this series is a look back on my time at Heroes. I was one of the very few that were there from the very first, to very last day of the show. What you will NOT get in this series will be any huge insider secrets, or bashing, or tidbits of any huge dirty laundry piles. As I have said before, that show and it’s people were the closest thing I had to a family since moving to the West coast and I would never say anything horrible, mostly because there really isn’t anything horrible to say about people and experiences that you truly love."

For the rest of this terrific post, Click Here.

Walter Simonson’s The Mighty Thor: Artist’s Edition at San Diego Comic-Con

Legendary comics writer and artist Walter Simonson will appear at the IDW booth every day during the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, signing copies of Walter Simonson's The Mighty Thor: Artist's Edition. In addition to the regular edition available in July at comic stores, IDW will offer a limited Comic-Con exclusive edition featuring a variant cover, only available through IDW at the convention. Readers can now pre-order both editions direct from IDW Publishing for pick up at Comic-Con.

“I wrote and drew The Mighty Thor for Marvel more 25 years ago now, at a time when it was the fate of old comics to be deployed to the back issue bins in comic shops and at conventions.  No one had any expectations of reprints or trade collections.  Now, it’s a new day,” said Simonson. “I’m pleased that IDW and Marvel have seen fit to go back and revisit this work as they have. I couldn’t be more delighted to know Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and all their friends turned out to have a much longer shelf-life than I would ever have imagined.”

The oversized, hardcover collection will present Thor 337-340, Simonson’s first classic story arc, which introduced Beta Ray Bill, and Thor 360-362, Simonson’s choice for the second arc in the book. All the pages in the Artist's Edition have been scanned from Simonson’s personal original art to ensure the highest possible quality reproduction. While appearing to be in black and white, each page was scanned in color to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art—for instance, white-out corrections and blue pencil notations.

“Walter’s run on The Mighty Thor is one of the best ever in comics—period,” said editor Scott Dunbier, “and to be able to see it now as an Artist’s Edition, printed the same size as drawn, and scanned from all the originals… well, I just can’t wait to get my paws on it!”

This will be Simonson’s first visit to San Diego Comic-Con since 2004. Joining Simonson will be his wife, Louise “Weezie” Simonson, a noted comic book editor and writer. This book will be the first in a series of Artist’s Editions featuring legendary creators and comics from Marvel.

Dark Destinations

I stumbled on a neat website today, or rather, my husband did. In reading about the happenings over at Atlantis Fantasyworld comics in Santa Cruz, CA, his old hometown, he clicked on the Lost Boys link. The classic 1980s vampire movie was filmed in and around Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, with the staff of Atlantis comics being featured in the film when the Frog brothers go to buy a comic book about vampires. My husband, knowing this, wanted to see what Atlantis had on their Lost Boys page, and ran across the Dark Destinations website.

If you have GPS and a little bit of wanderlust, visit their website to find the macabre location you're looking for, punch in the numbers, set a waypoint, and you're off on an adventure. Want to see where Lost Boys was filmed? How about the locations for Halloween? Or, if you're feeling less cinematic, you can search by type of destination (Cemeteries, Infamous Crimes, Mysterious Creatures, etc.) or by location, just in case you happen to be in the neighborhood and want to drive by Stephen King's house. Happy haunting!

Jill Thompson first woman to win NCS award in comics

Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) was awarded the highly coveted National Cartoonists Society (NCS) award this past weekend at the Reuben Awards Ceremony.  She was presented this award in regards to her work in the Dark Horse comic Beasts of Burden.

Jill Thompson is the first female creator to win in the comics category in the history of the Rueben Awards. To add to her list of credits, Jill Thompson is a New York Times Best Selling graphic novelist, as well as having received multiple Eisner awards for her work on Scary Godmother (2001), The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings (2004) and The Dark Horse Book of the Dead (2005).

The collected trade Scary Godmother: Comic Book Stories will be on sale in stores June 15th.

Beasts of Burden returns this fall in issue #4 of the eighty-page anthology, Dark Horse Presents!, on sale in September.