Dean Haspiel's Red Hook Writes a Striking Love Letter to Brooklyn and Silver-Age Bombast
| By Rich BarrettThere were rumors that the “Heart of Brooklyn” was broken, wounded by a self-entitled, indifferent society spoiling the promise of a better tomorrow.
Landry Q. Walker and Justin Greenwood Cut Deep Into Medieval History for The Last Siege
| By Jakob FreeLandry Walker has been waiting a long time to tell a specific story. “I’ve [wanted] to tell a straight medieval historical drama for 20 years and have been watching the shelves carefully out of fear that someone would beat me to the punch.”
Todd McFarlane Reflects on the Spawn Empire and Where It’s Expanding in 2018
| By Robert TuttonTodd McFarlane says he was about six years old when he received the advice that would shape the rest of his life.
Why I Believe in Comics, by Jordie Bellaire
When I began coloring comics, I had very little understanding of how comics worked and what it took to create them from page to page. I graduated from a prestigious art school with an illustration degree in hand—I wanted to draw comics.
Cullen Bunn on Being the World’s Youngest Hypnotist and the Subliminal Dread of Regression
Comic creators aren’t made: they’re forged. The people who devote their lives to sequential storytelling contain a pandora’s box of wayward adventures, often reflected in the subtext of their comics. In Secret Identities, we quiz select creators on their most noteworthy, bizarre, and outlandish gigs.
Why Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin's Barrier Is a Tool for Empathy in Trump’s America
| By Chris KindredIn the tail end of 2015, writer Brian K. Vaughan, artist Marcos Martín, and colorist Muntsa Vicente—the powerhouse team behind the sci-fi noir The Private Eye—quietly dropped Barrier #1 on their pay-what-you-want digital comics outlet Panel Syndicate. For those that missed its initial run, Barrier is a sci-fi miniseries that cuts straight to the heart of the conversation around American immigration. The miniseries introduces Liddy, a cattle rancher who prepares to protect her land from Mexican drug traffickers after finding a mutilated horse head on her property.
Brian Haberlin & Brian Holguin Unite Medieval Spawn and Witchblade in a Brutal New Miniseries
| By Jakob FreeBrian Haberlin first became friends with Brian Holguin as a teen, when both attended neighboring high schools La Canada and La Crescenta in Southern California. Holguin and his brother, Kevin, hooked Haberlin on comics by showing him the great sequential works of the ’70s and the ’80s, including iconic runs from Frank Miller, Jim Starlin, John Byrne, and Wally Wood.
Family and Freedom Race West in Rick Remender and Bengal’s Death Or Glory
| By Mark PetersThe dramatic tagline is worthy of a summer blockbuster: “FIVE thousand miles, FOUR heists, THREE days, TWO psychopaths, and ONE woman who’s had enough.” But at its core, Death Or Glory—a new Image series written by Rick Remender and illustrated by French upstart Bengal—is a relatable story about a kickass heroine dealing with relatable problems, as well as insane mayhem. It also dives deep into political realities that plague 27 million Americans without health insurance, a scenario Remender became intimately familiar with early in his career.
The Cyberpunk Renaissance
| By Mark PetersHow Analog, Paradiso, Lazarus, and Cyber Force Are Reconstructing the Genre of Technology and Rebellion.
Brian Azzarello Brews Barroom Inspiration in 3 Floyds: Alpha King and Moonshine
| By Robert TuttonWriters have long been known to find their inspiration at the bottom of a bottle, with humanity’s history of fermenting grains stretching back nearly twice as far as the written word.
Why I Believe in Comics, by Grace Ellis
Let’s start out by being clear about something that is hopefully already evident: LGBTQ people are everywhere. We’re in your offices, your schools, your bathrooms, your Image+ magazines. And, most relevantly, we’ve got our gay creator hands all over your comic books. A second fact that is hopefully already evident: none of this is new, not even our involvement in comics, not even in mainstream superhero comics. After all, who knows more about living a double life or secret identities than a closeted queer person? We’re here, we’ve always been here, and anyone in a moral panic about LGBTQ people in comics is at least 75 years too late to stop us.
Secret Identities: Son of Hitler Scribe Anthony Del Col on Managing Pop Stars
Comic creators aren’t made: they’re forged. The women and men who devote their lives to sequential storytelling contain a pandora’s box of stories all their own, often reflected in their comics. In Secret Identities, we quiz creators on the most noteworthy, bizarre, and outlandish gigs.
Former Editors Embrace Their Id as Writers and Artists
Pornsak Pichetshote, Sebastian Girner, and Cliff Chiang on Shifting Roles and Ideologies.
Jeff Lemire Works Through the Horror in Gideon Falls
Jeff Lemire's work is violence. Ask him about it and he'll tell you why: because comics are.
Why I Believe In Comics, By Wes Craig
I’ve always wanted to create comics. Ever since I was a kid, that’s all I wanted to do. I loved drawing, but I didn’t think to myself, “Maybe I’ll work as a storyboard artist, or be a commercial illustrator.” I was in love with telling stories with these little drawings inside these boxes. I wanted to tell stories with comics. That’s it.