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It’s not easy to impose structure on a circus kid who’s never had any…
DC Comics today announced a new 12-issue comic book series, Batman and Robin: Year One, by storytellers Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. The adventures kick off on Wednesday, October 16, when the first issue of the new series hits... more
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HOW TO STAY IN COMICS
The following--“How to Stay in Comics”--is the keynote speech I gave at the 2023 Ringo Awards in Baltimore, so named after the late artist--and my good friend--Mike Wieringo. Even if you’re not familiar with Mike, you will be by the end of the speech. I hope you enjoy it;... more
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Award-winning writer Mark Waid is featured in this 3-part docuseries offering a comprehensive, inside look at DC’s iconic characters, cultural impact, and enduring legacy.
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Netflix is developing a live-action feature take of the bestselling Boom! Studios comic series Irredeemable and its sister title Incorruptible with BAFTA-winning The Harder They Fall filmmaker Jeymes Samuel directing, Oscar-nominated scribe Kemp Powers writing and producers Shawn ‘Jay-Z‘ Carter and... more
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Two years ago, a colleague introduced me at a promotional event for the Harley Quinn animated series to writer and frequent unofficial “ambassador of comics” Jimmy Palmiotti. To break the ice, she described me to him as the DC website and community’s resident trivia expert and knowledge-keeper.
“... more
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Can you point to something specific you read, something specific you saw or heard as a kid that is the one thing that made you what you are today? Chances are you can't--lives are huge tapestries full of so many, many threads, and we're the sum and expression of millions of experiences.
I can,... more
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If anyone has the sheer credibility to write a Superman movie, it's Mark Waid.
The longtime and acclaimed comics writer has penned terrific story arcs for both of the big houses, Marvel and DC, and has put his imprint on many of the greatest heroes in each of those universes, including The Flash,... more
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MARK WAID (W) • JESUS SAIZ (A/C)
RETURN OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR VARIANT COVER BY DAVID AJA
• Doctor Strange’s interplanetary power trip continues!
• But now there’s a secret between him and his alien companion — can she fight by his side if she can’t trust him?
• Can a former member of the Illuminati... more
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Mark Waid, current writer of Marvel’s Doctor Strange and Ant-Man and the Wasp and Archie Comics’, well, Archie, and past writer of seven zillion comic books, will be doing a chat with us next week based on YOUR questions!
We’ll be taking reader-submitted questions until Thursday, June 21st at 11:59... more
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Mark Waid will team up with co-writer Brian Augustyn, artist Peter Krause, colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick, and letterer Jack Morelli for a brand new Archie Comics series, Archie 1941.
The new series will see Riverdale preparing to deal with the impact of World War II and how it affects the personal... more
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Meet Eisner Award-winning writer Mark Waid at Bedrock City Comic Co’s Westheimer location on Wednesday, May 23rd from 4:00 -7:00 PM.
Waid is known for his Marvel books such as Avengers, Captain America, Champions, Fantastic Four, and, of course, Daredevil.
Waid’s DC titles includes one of the best... more
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I was honored last week to be asked to be a Keynote Speaker at the O'Reilly Tools of Change Publishing Conference in New York (thank you, Kat Meyer, for lining it up!) Here I am, preaching Digital Comics Storytelling (as usual). I'd like to think what I lack in polish, I make up for in enthusiasm.... more
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You know, there's a big, BIG clue hanging in the air about who's behind all this villainy...it's been hanging for months now...and NO ONE has picked up on it. I'm hesitant to say more because it may give the whole thing away, but something Nocturnus did very early on should have raised at least... more
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Up and running-please to leave any comments, thoughts or observations below. Pete and Nolan both knocked themselves out this week especially. Me, I'm leaving for the New York Comicon in 15 minutes and will be in Artist's Alley at booth H-18 ? stop by and say hello if you're there, and be among the... more
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Almost have the Thrillbent site back up as promised. We were hacked HARD, says Lori-tons of images deleted, it's just a mess, and everyone (including our new hosting service) is doing Herculean work to get it all put back together, but in the meantime, we're not gonna leave you hanging for your... more
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Okay! New Thrillbent server locked in, construction almost complete, loading it up with one or two NEW free weekly series in ADDITION to Insufferable-plan to launch next week, will keep you all posted. Thanks for your boundless patience! In the meantime, so you can get your fix, here are direct... more
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We appreciate your patience. The Thrillbent site is being moved to a different, far more secure server this week now that we've been Hacker Bait three times, so there's no on-line reading until it's up again-but in the meantime, you can still get your direct-download fix of this week's installment... more
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Up now and free to read at Thrillbent. Thanks to writer Tom Peyer for suggesting this week's one sweet moment of father/son bonding. It's a nice sentiment.
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Up and available to read right now at Thrillbent! Various threads are beginning to weave into a giant tapestry of crime and danger, and by the end of this installment, you may be able to suss out some of the Master Plan. We're thick into Act Two.
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Thrillbent got hacked, so we're down for a bit while we do maintenance. However, lest we deny you your weekly fix, here are direct-download links to this week's Insufferable installment: PDF, CBZ
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Up on Thrillbent right now. I have to admit, I really do have mixed feelings about Galahad, and my opinion of him changes from week to week. In some ways, I'm still trying to figure him out; I thought I knew him and what makes him tick, and then he quite literally starts saying things that I... more
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Today has a special significance for me because–here’s something you probably don’t know about me–I’m a huge fan of Elvis Aron Presley. Of his music and, at his best, of the man.
I grew up in the Deep South to parents and maternal grandparents who were likewise fans. One of my earliest memories in... more
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And we're live with this week's installment. Who IS after Nocturnus and Galahad? Who knows this much about them? How do we get Troy Peteri to letter so much each week for so little money?
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It went by and I almost missed it. Twenty-five years ago last Friday, I became a Comics Professional. I could have sworn it was August 10–I distinctly remember that Bob Wayne was hired a week before me–but I just checked the calendar. August 3.
I’d had a couple of stories published in Action Comics... more
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What a friend we have in Twitter. Hope you like the pop-up captions technique, because we use it to what I believe is strong effect in this installment. And, yes, most of those @TheRealGalahad followers are real. They're fans of the series, and this is far from the last time we'll be incorporating... more
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And we lurch into what is roughly Act Two of our little dramedy, though don't hold us tightly to that-right now, the team and I are having great fun following these characters down some unexpectedly windy roads, so much so that we're in no rush to get to Act Three. Nor am I positively sure that... more
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I know Ed Brubaker's disappointed. He thought it would be funnier than this. But we're way, way off the map. That's what doing an adventure/crime story as a weekly serial creates-an awful lot of chances to turn and swerve and, in general, fling the original map out the window and just drive.
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Up now. If you think you understand the dynamic we're establishing between Nocturnus and Galahad...fooled you.
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-and, see? Didn't I warn you that there would be dark to balance the light? It was Pete's idea to cram Nocturnus into a sidecar, by the way. Really good. I love how uncomfortable Pete makes him look. Also, reminder to self-we need to sit down soon and catalogue exactly what that Battle Staff can... more
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Courtesy of Maureen Ryan, TV critic for the Huffington Post in her critique of this season’s Mad Men finale (no spoilers):
“[M]ost engaging stories get you to want something for the characters. The characters don’t have to be good people or they don’t even have to have admirable goals, yet because... more
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Thrillbent has been up about six weeks. Several Forum members, fellow webcomics creators and Twitterers have asked about some of the site stats, so FWIW, here’s what we’ve seen. This will be dull for most of you but spellbinding to data nerds like myself, trust me.
On average, visitors spend 3... more
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One of our forum members, Max, found himself intrigued by an iPad comics app called DeepComix, which (this is hard to explain, bear with me) uses a series of parallax-view layers to give dimension to its pages. If that makes as little sense as I fear it does, look at how Max experimented with this... more
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Okay, now it’s heating UP.
THIS is what gets me charged. THIS is why Thrillbent exists. To show what digital comics can do and to pass along to others what we learn as we go. This is one of my proudest moments yet:
I’ve been praising Yves “Balak” Bigerel’s talents from the start. Far as I’m... more
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Hi! Lori here. I feel you should know that Mark, John Rogers, Peter Krause and Thrillbent all got written up in a terrific New York Times article entitled "In New Digital Comics, Each Tap Holds a Surprise.? Check it out!
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(Actually, I loathe the use of the word “piracy” in the context of filesharing, but a good headline is supposed to be short and punchy, so.)
It came as no surprise to me that, about 24 hours after we posted the first installment of INSUFFERABLE over at Thrillbent, the pages had been downloaded,... more
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Insufferable Week Four is now up at Thrillbent. Check it out, tell your friends. By now, it should be becoming obvious that one of the creative decisions Peter Krause and I made about the series is a veritable gift to our letterer, Troy Peteri–because we didn’t want either Nocturnus or Galahad to... more
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…and the continual search to balance both perfectly.
The second installment of INSUFFERABLE went up a half-hour ago at Thrillbent, and as I look over it, in the midst of marveling at the craftsmanship of Pete, Nolan and Troy, I’m reminded of all the stuff we didn’t know months ago when we produced... more
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Thrillbent launched yesterday at noon EST, and it was a crazy exciting day for the entire team. Ann Hess, in particular–who’s been doing all the heavy lifting on the website build, design, and maintenance–deserves a huge round of applause, as does our own Lori Matsumoto. Not bad for a launch, not... more
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THRILLBENT IS LIVE!
How do you engage this brave new world of comics?!
Go to http://www.thrillbent.com/
Click on the title you want to read.
Turn the pages with your arrow keys. Just like pages. Left and right.*
Done.
…
Well, that was anticlimactic.
*******************************
Which is, of... more
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THRILLBENT is live as of noon EST today–meaning now! And, on a personal note, it couldn’t have been done without the support of my family (Christy, Grace and Rob) and certainly not without Lori Matsumoto riding herd on everyone and everything. And John Rogers pushing me off the cliff. Thanks to all... more
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Somewhere, somehow, in the middle of 850 new Dark Knight trailer posts, the web has a really good interview with Thrillbent partner John Rogers on comicbook.com:
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In the spirit of trying to learn and be receptive rather than hidebound and ranty, I have a question for all creative types: where do you draw the line on using certain words/images/phrases that could be inflammatory?
I ask because a couple of times over the past few weeks, I’ve been brought to... more
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And now, after all of yesterday’s analysis of how you can make chapters work in eight to ten screens, you’ll find on May 1 that you have every right to say to me, “So then how come the first chapter of Insufferable clocks in at 23 screens?” This is why, and it’s a reflection of my long-held... more
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One of the earliest decisions made regarding THRILLBENT was that it would feature serialized stories. That seemed like a no-brainer; after all, I’ve been writing serial fiction all my adult life. Easy transition, right?
Ha.
When it comes to story installments, all my storytelling rhythms are set to... more
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Jeremy Rock is a crazy-talented young artist I worked with at BOOM! Studios when I was EIC. His style is expressive but not unrealistic, he has storytelling chops, and he has that clean linestyle that I’m personally very fond of, like Steve Dillon and Dave Gibbons. When I decided to do “Luther” as... more
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Thanks to my lovely better half Christina, here’s the audio from the C2E2 announcement of Thrillbent. It’s an hour-eight, so it may take a bazillion years to download, but it’s worth it just to hear Peter Krause’s dulcet tones.
Thrillbent at C2E2!
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Man, wotta show.
The great folks at C2E2 (easily one of the best-run shows I’ve ever been to) slotted the Thrillbent announcement in as best they could given how late I came to them with it. That meant a 7:45 Friday night panel that, of course, started late because of some previous panel running... more
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Hi! Lori here. Mark delivered his big announcement at C2E2 earlier today: On May 1, he and writer-producer extraordinaire John Rogers will launch Thrillbent, their new digital comics website. Mark will post much more about it here when he returns from Chicago so until then, check out this dandy... more
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Off to Chicago for C2E2 this weekend, where I’ll be making a big announcement and revealing details Friday evening about my next step in digital-comics publishing. Check the comics websites or come back here Monday morning for more.
In the meantime, for those of who you’ve not yet had the pleasure... more
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Reilly Brown is one of those guys I’m referring to whenever I admit that I’m not making these digital techniques up out of whole cloth–I’m standing on the shoulders of others. The Power Play digital comic he does with Kurt Christenson–
–is really well-done and comes highly recommended, and we... more
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The most frequently asked question I get from other writers about moving into digital comics isn’t about how to make any money doing it, though you’d think. (And we’ll be discussing that soon.) It’s “Jeezum Crow, how do you WRITE for that format?” And what’s both daunting and exciting is that we’... more
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Because Lori Matsumoto lives on seven minutes of sleep every 24 hours, the forums are up and running. I'm gonna get in there and lob some ideas out ASAP. Come join me.
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[Mark Waid here to introduce John Rogers, Without Whom. John’s been my partner/sidekick/leader/cheerleader these last three years as we’ve ventured into this arena. If you’re a TV viewer, you’ll know John as the mastermind/co-creator behind TNT’s LEVERAGE. If you’re a comics geek, you’ll know that... more
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…a guest-post from John Rogers, my partner in crime on digital. Coming later this morning, as soon as he sobers up.
Will dive more into the comments and responses next week–this week’s been all about prepping for May–but I’m itching to respond to Hibbs in particular, in a gentlemanly way. He’s a... more
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At Wondercon last month, Sam Humphries moderated a 50-minute panel/debate between myself and Chip Mosher of Comixology as we discussed the various pricing models of digital comics. (I’m the one who, for right or wrong, keeps screaming “ninety-nine cents!”) Though Chip and I are friends, it got... more
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In the previous post, I was using Muncie as an example of a town that ought to be able to support more comics shops than it does given that it's a college town (Ball State). As I'm well aware because I shop there, Alter Ego Comics is in Muncie, and store owner Jason is great and will order anything... more
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Some very harsh truths about comics’ current existence and its future burrowed their way into my thick head about three years ago, back when I was Editor-In-Chief of a comics publisher called BOOM! Studios. I learned a lot at that job about the current state of comics publishing–not just from BOOM... more
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Got back yesterday from the 2012 Gem City Comic Con, a great Dayton-area show run by a terrific and energetic young Nate Corddry lookalike named Jesse Noble. I endorse it unreservedly. Amazing show, lots of money drummed up for the Hero Initiative, well worth the trip for me.
And only one very... more
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Welcome to the blog relaunch. Enjoy the show.
If you’re just joining us, as many of you are, I’m Mark Waid, a very lucky writer whose 25-year career has depended exclusively on print–specifically, on comic books and graphic novels in their familiar paper format. I’ve had some very good years and a... more
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Hi. Mark Waid here. As promised if you were paying attention at WonderCon today during my spotlight panel, here’s a free PDF download of a short digital-comics story I did as proof-of-concept with the talented artist Jeremy Rock. It’s a little zombie story called “Luther”, and it’s a sample of... more
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I don’t…
…I…
…they seem to be making this out to be a more difficult decision than it really ought to be. Maybe I’m just puzzled that they seem determined that they absolutely must shoot SOMETHING. Is it just me?
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Happy New Year, comics, from me and my my henchwomen, Nadine and Tiffany.
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For those in and around the Los Angeles area, consider this an open invite to BOOM!’s annual Holiday Party this Friday night at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd at 8:00. I’ll be there, as will Michael Alan Nelson, Ross Richie, special celebrity guests, and the entire BOOM! crew. Don’t miss an... more
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In one image, the entire history of my relationship with women.
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“Or lynching.” (Speaking of “hands are tied” and all….)
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He has a cigarette machine built into his arm. That’s kind of the total opposite of crimefighting, in a way.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Steve Wacker, Part 2
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I don’t wanna know.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID – Steve Wacker, Part 1
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Previously in “Great Moments In Comics”: Jimmy Olsen blew up an entire mountain. And himself with it.
I can’t get away from this story. It’s just too rich not to milk. So, more. It’s all from SUPERMAN’S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #93, the first issue published after the Adam West BATMAN show proved to be a... more
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The only thing that keeps this from being the greatest Jimmy Olsen story ever is that it doesn’t end here. Let’s just pretend that it does.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Q&A Continued
-Check out Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale!
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - BOOM! Goes to the Dogs
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID – Mr. Terrific Fashion Sense
And Mr. Terrific himself…
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So in 1978, DC Comics included a Reader Survey in some of its books. (It was clearly a regional thing; I’d never seen one until BOOM! publisher Ross Richie stumbled across one in an old FIRESTORM at the Long Beach Comicon last weekend.)
The questions were the usual sort of demographic-gathering... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID – Professor Waid
-As promised, the insanity that is the Kryptonian calendar!
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Don’t worry. He survives.
By circling Saturn and coming back home.
True.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - 15 Questions in 15(ish) Minutes
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This week, I’m being sincere: this is my favorite page of comic art I’ve seen all year.
From last week’s POWER GIRL #5, art by Amanda Connor:
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I don’t even know where to start.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - APAcalypse
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Subcategory: When artists, writers, AND colorists are all working at cross-purposes:
Hint: the key words are “gloved hands.”
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Secret Identities, 2 of 2
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“Mass hysteria!” — Peter Venkman, 1984.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Secret Identities, 1 of 2
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Batman’s broken heart:
Wait. It gets better.
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I don’t consider myself to be unusually squeamish…
…but if I had seen this when I was five, I would have wept the bitter, stinging tears of a vaporized childhood.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Marv Wolfman 2 of 2
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Romance comics.
So wholesome.
So innocent.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Marv Wolfman 1 of 2
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…my friend and creative partner, Mike Wieringo, was taken from us all way, way too early.
Miss you, pal, more than you’ll ever know.
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Bucky and a friend try to disguise themselves as the Red Skull:
Unsurprisingly, it does not go well.
This is from 1941’s YOUNG ALLIES #1. I could sustain an entire blog on this one comic book.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Fortress Lad's Lament
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The panel that launched a thousand Grant Morrison scripts:
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Want To See a Magic Trick?
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Can’t decide whether you’d rather read a story about bears or a story about ghosts?
I HAVE GOOD NEWS.
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KCRW, maybe the best-known, most well-respected indy station in America, has a weekly Guest DJ slot where they have famous folks come in and talk about their favorite music. Some of their guests include David Lynch, Tony Hawk, Tracy Ullman, Paul Feig…and, today, me. I’m really, really proud of... more
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Thrilling, I tell you.
Thrilling.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Herding Electric Sheep
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Y Kant Superman Read?
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - The Raven
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Tell me you don’t want to read this story RIGHT NOW. Go ahead. Tell me.
You are a LIAR.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - The Ongoing Conversation
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Subcategory–Favorite Things Green Arrow Just Happens To Carry Around In His Quiver:
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Sorry to bring the room down, but it seems worth noting that it was fifty years ago today that TV’s first Superman, actor George Reeves, was found dead of a gunshot wound in his own home.
His death was ruled as a suicide, though to this day, some very smart and informed people, far from... more
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Greatest Title for a Hulk story EVER:
To be fair, it is only a Hostess ad. And Twinkies save the day. But the title makes me laugh out loud every time. “This Monster–THIS DECISION!”
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One of the life lessons I will apparently never learn is that it never, ever pays to mix it up on the web.
Last Friday morning, I was awakened by an early phone call. A friend of mine–let’s call him/her “Pat,” just to keep her/him out of this mess–was calling to tell me that industry rumormonger... more
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Earth-2 discovered by Flash. Don’t look at me like that, I don’t make this stuff up.
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This is, hands down, the best cover I’ve seen on a comic for a while, maybe all year: DC’s THE SPIRIT #29 drawn by Paul Rivoche. It’s a master class in everything a cover should be, and I’m going to be using it as an example of “how to do it right” for perhaps the rest of my life. Let’s walk... more
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Yes, I realize I have very…specific interests, but there is nothing, nothing, nothing I love more than–or delights me as much as–finding out things about Superman than I didn’t know before. In fact, I’m not even sure I knew that was possible at this point. But I’ve just spent the last three days... more
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Subcategory: Perfectly innocent ads. From the Charlton comics of summer 1985:
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - My Good Friend, Jack Daniel's
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Barcelona is a marvelous city. I’m here at the Hotel Catalana attending the nearby 27th International Barcelona Comics Fair. It makes San Diego Comicon look small. Last year, they had over 120,000 guests. This year, they hope for more. They are good people.
I’m here with Jim Lee, Diego Olmos and... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Enter the Bat!
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I would bet you everything I own that the sound effect was added by the editor, not the writer. I loved Julius Schwartz like a grandfather, but he was not a fan of the more subtle moments.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - KCRW-a-Go-Go
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Dream on, pal.
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Hitting newsstands exactly 70 years ago today, May 18, 1939:
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Scripting
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Danger: Criminal masterminds at work.
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It’s not that I don’t have anything to say about the craft of comics this week–it’s that I’m too busy writing them to get my thoughts together, so thanks for your patience as I try to wrap up scripting THE UNKNOWN.
In place of my usual weekly lecture, I will instead refer you to the most invaluable... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - The First Issue
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I’m pretty sure this is not how to act on a date.
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Artist, please draw more attention to the severed head.”
Probably my favorite part of the editorial job–not co-plotting with writers, not copyediting scripts, not having the interns Google me all day–is working out covers. Part of that is because I’m a particularly visually minded editor, but... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Free For All #2
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Favorite Legion of Substitute Heroes member? Easy. Fire Lad. Why?
Because he was the one who was already wearing his costume even before he unexpectedly got super-powers.
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Adaptations
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Slowest.
News day.
Imaginable.
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Hitting newsstands exactly 70 years ago today, April 18, 1939:
(Thanks, Mike’s Amazing World of DC Comics!)
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You want your weekly dose of counsel and advice on being in a creative medium? Really? Is that what you want? Fine. Here: spend the sixty lousy bucks on Quicken and be done with it. Don’t just throw all your receipts and 1099s into a big drawer and expect to be able to neatly and effortlessly... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Waid 101
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Man, what rotten luck.
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Drawn & Quarterly announced this morning that October marks the release of a collection of one of my favorite, least-remembered comics series: Thirteen Going On Eighteen by John Stanley. One of the more successful Dell Comics runs of the 1960s, Thirteen is (a) an absolute riot of (b) brilliant... more
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A sister post to last week’s about how to energize your plots by letting the characters make unexpected choices. Fair warning–this post is (a) short and (b) generally more applicable to writers of serial fiction than of stand-alone stories, novels, screenplays, etc.–but maybe there’s still... more
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Waid: “Someday, I want to get around to doing a compilation of all the times Luthor pretended to go straight.”
Peyer: “There isn’t a book big enough to hold it.”
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Wherever you were yesterday at about 10:00 a.m. PST, if you heard the distant sound of a scream, that was me. I’d gone to bed the previous night having finished the most recent script for IRREDEEMABLE and feeling very good about it–
–and then I sat down the next morning to polish it and realized... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - The Unknown
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…and this is the height of geekdom, forgive me…
…but fifty years ago today, on March 31st, 1959, the world was first introduced to Supergirl, Bat-Mite, and the Space Museum. So, Happy Birthday to three of my favorite things in comics.
That is all.
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Tonight is the night of March 31st.
Be careful out there tomorrow.
Anything could happen.
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Re\Visioned: Activision – Kaboom
And then there was the time I got to work with Dave Foley and Ed Begley, Jr….kinda. A couple of years ago, with not a little chiming in from Tom Peyer, I wrote this five-minute cartoon for Activision. It’s now up on YouTube. In retrospect, it’s about a minute too... more
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Note the eyepatch.
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The Incredibles #1 came out yesterday. Artist Marcio Takara made me look good. As usual. And I’m pleased that it seems well-received. I mention this not to plug my own work (though nothing makes Ross happier), but to brag about how I am roiling with only a little bit of bitter jealousy that The... more
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Writing this one on the plane from La Guardia to LAX, so it may or not be posted by Wednesday depending upon how late the flight gets in.
In 1990, having recently departed my editorial position at DC Comics, I went to work for Archie Comics in Mamaroneck, NY as an assistant editor/proofreader/... more
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All aboard.
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There used to be a Triangle Rule in comics. I first heard it from one of my mentors, the brilliant writer/cartoonist William Messner-Loebs. I’ve repeated it many times since, and God only knows who first articulated it, but it supposed this:
There were three qualifications for making good in... more
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Special Exhibition Tonight at the Metropolis Museum of Art: FAMOUS FARM ANIMALS OF HISTORY.
Name TWO.
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Straight up, I will tell you that with the craptacularly unproductive week I have just had, I don’t feel qualified today to give anyone advice on how to count to ten, much less how to do comics. Still, I will soldier on, however briefly.
The old school of thought was that having an eye-catching,... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Free For All #1
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BOOM! co-founder and creator of the TV series EUREKA (comics on sale monthly from BOOM!) points out to me that there were no fewer than eight (!) EUREKA actors in WATCHMEN. Three were non-speaking roles (Mike Carpenter and Clint Carlton, both stunt doubles on EUREKA, played Nite Owl I and Young... more
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Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the least fearsome criminals in all of Gotham City: the Yellow Sweater Gang.
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On the whole, I’m very pleased with WATCHMEN the movie. It reminded me a lot of BRAZIL–not because of the 1985 connection or because it was just as long, but because WATCHMEN was a wholly immersive experience. We made a BOOM! outing of it and everyone went, so if you weren’t at our offices today... more
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Attended a talk last night with Ross Richie and Chip Mosher at L.A.’s Skirball Center to hear the legendary Jerry Robinson speak about his career. It was great to hear the creator of the Joker talk about Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Siegel and Shuster, and a host of other comics legends. Kudos to... more
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When I was working at a company called Crossgen back in 2001, I was stuck writing a book called Sigil. I didn’t start it; it was inherited. It was about a two-fisted, ex-military, blue-collar guy named Sam who traveled the galaxy and fought aliens. I forget why. I do remember it wasn’t a very... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Irredeemable
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September 9, 1994. No, I didn’t remove any balloons. I didn’t touch this, my hand to God.
I don’t think I ever read another newspaper comic strip after this.
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At MegaCon today, so not much time to blog, but:
On the subject of the Black Art of Comic Book Punctuation, it turns out Comicraft’s Nate Piekos has it pretty much covered in this excellent post. We’re not 100% in agreement–as an editor, I hate hate hate hate seeing a question mark amplified with... more
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Losing two of the next five days to cross-country flights, but no complaints from me. I’m on my way to the Orlando MegaCon this week, and while (like most of you) I’ve come to hate flying, it’s worth it: MegaCon has become one of the largest and best-run comics/anime/sf conventions in this country... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - The Incredibles
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It’s the “Featuring” blurb that just kills me. Next issue: “I Make The Handcuffs!” WHO WAS BUYING THESE COMICS?
Edited to add: What hell time is it? One-thirty-o’clock?
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There are some folks who have been very kind to mention this blog on their sites, and since I’m fans of them all, I want to share some links with you (here, at least until our webmaster sets up a links sidebar for me. It’s not just my being polite; it’s that this will hopefully lead you to some... more
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Following up on some of last week’s post about The Job of a Comic Book Editor….
I made several big presumptions and (at least) one ill-phrased comment, all of which sparked worthwhile discussion not only here but also on the forums over at boom-studios.com and in person over drinks. These points... more
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15 MINUTES WITH WAID - Inside POTTER'S FIELD
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I don’t even think this one needs a caption.
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Look, SOMEONE’s got to get this stuff out of the hands of the writers and artists and to press.
Comics editors, rumors to the contrary, are some of my favorite people, and I’ve always admired the good ones. In fact, when I broke into comics in the mid-’80s, I did so as an editor, at DC; I had... more
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“Cuff him, boys!”
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Some totally random catchup items as we continue to wait for the podcasts to be edited, DAFNA.
(“Dafna” is either [1] “Dafna Pleban,” our editorial assistant, or [2] the acronym of a sophisticated Kryptonian missile defense system. Your choice.)
* 2009 New York Comicon this weekend. Unfortunately,... more
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Continuing the sample proposal from last week….
THE SERIES
ISSUE
ONE: We introduce Samantha, Wolf, the concept of the Hunter-Killer squad and the Ultra-Sapiens. We OPEN with the home life of Ellis and introduce him and his kindly parents as people we genuinely like and care about. But when Ellis... more
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The dream: to be able to write comics in 1957, when people were SO MUCH MORE EASILY ENTERTAINED.
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Normally there would be a much longer post here, but it's been quite a week, so for now, check out my interview on CBR about The Incredibles, and a keep eye out on this blog because we've got something special in the works!
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The difference between a pitch and the next stage of the development process—a proposal—is story. A proposal must demonstrate that your pitch has “legs” by providing a more specific outline of events, additional background on the characters, and some sample plots.
As with most every document in... more
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The word’s out as of today. With the inestimable help of artist Pete Krause, I’m launching my next BOOM! series in April: IRREDEEMABLE. It’s a complex story about a complex man, but the short take is this: How does a man go from being the world’s greatest superhero to its greatest supervillain?... more
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This is actually the OPPOSITE of suspense.
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Which days in the course of your lifetime were the most significant? Can you remember the exact dates, the circumstances, the hours of the events that changed your life? What were the moments at which you can look back and honestly say that everything was different forever after that? Like all of... more
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Over the past few weeks, my friend John Rogers (creator of the new Blue Beetle and creator of the TNT show LEVERAGE) has been kind enough to let me practice my blogging skills over at his terrific site, Kung Fu Monkey. I’ve been over there doing a weekly series on What I’ve Learned About Writing... more
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Hi, and welcome to Mark Waid’s blog.
If you’re here, I’m gonna presume you’re already passingly familiar with my resume, so here are the highlights: have written comics (like KINGDOM COME, FANTASTIC FOUR, EMPIRE and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN) for more than two decades; have been a publisher, an editor, a... more
