Behind Emmy Lines

Way back when, I talked about the Writer’s Strike through the lens of one of my favorite shows, Scrubs. While at the time I was discussing my own viewpoint, i decided to seek out members of the entertainment community to see what they thought. This was difficult due to the WGA’s media blackout, but after a few months I was able to talk to several members of Scrubs for an article in the Buzz.

Phyllis Williams has worked with Scrubs since the beginning. She is the make-up department head and in her spare time works on Haute-Zine, an online publication that focuses on beauty, fashion and entertainment for African-Americans.

The following is the interview I conducted with Ms. Williams about her work on the show and the Writer’s Strike. Read the rest of this entry »

Archaia Studios Press, the publisher that brought you Hybrid Bastards!, Misericordia and The Sisterhood continues to give us unique, creative titles as it continues to grow. One of the latest comics is Cursed Pirate Girl, a fairy tale about pirates and imagination, beautifully drawn by the writer, Jeremy Bastian.

Archaia was kind enough to arrange an interview with Mr. Bastian. Read the rest of this entry »

Hell Is Other Comics

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy is one of the strongest independent (not DC or Marvel) comic franchises in the past decade. And for good reason. While many of you may have seen the movie, Hellboy comics feature the same red-skinned son of demons, wise-cracking his way from supernatural mystery to supernatural mystery. Though the focus of comic miniseries, novels, short stories and one-shot issues, Hellboy’s world is full of heroes who have also gained their own spotlight, like the pulp adventurer Lobster Johnson, and Hellboy’s B.P.R.D. partners Liz Sherman and Abraham Sapien. Likewise, two straight-to DVD Hellboy movies have been released and the second Hellboy movie is due in theaters July 11th.

I was recently able to speak to Dark Horse Editor of Hellboy, Scott Allie, about the franchise. Read the rest of this entry »

The End League of an Extraordinary Gentleman

There are inherent problems with super heroes. The implications of preternatural beings and their cosmic abilities playing out in our world is problematic, but from a realistic look at these characters, questions arise about their plausibility and how a hero’s existence would alter our own. Rick Remender’s The End League is a comic that asks such questions by allergorically parodizing pre-existing hero archetypes and super imposing them on a dystopian landscape. So far this series is new, but shows lots of promise with its characters and their world.

Dark Horse was kind enough to allow me to speak to Mr. Remender about this series. Read the rest of this entry »

They aren’t comic’s only married creative team, but they’re one of the few. Working together on such titles as Albion, Wild Girl, and titles using other creative properties, Leah Moore and John Reppion continue to bring new ideas and unique interpretations of the medium.

Recently, Moore and Reppion took time to talk to me about their new crossover and their zombie series, Raise the Dead. Read the rest of this entry »

The Spy Who Killed Me

Spy fiction in the 50s and 60s was one of the more successful of pulp fictions with a popularity bolstered by movies and TV. Due to the success of the spy formula, what followed was a repetition of the existing archetypes, usually drawing exclusively from James Bond. Recently, spy thrillers have tried to remind consumers of the very human emotions and struggles that spies would experience as humans, not empty stock characters. While many writers continue to fall back on the badass Bauer or swashbuckling Bond characteristics, Chip Mosher’s Left on Mission deals with the implications of being a spy AND a real human.

Mr. Mosher took time to speak with me about his Broken Frontier nominated series. Read the rest of this entry »

Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise was a revolutionary series. A romance comic from an independent label, Abstract Studio, SiP showed what a writer could do. And now Moore has shifted his focus to a more “traditional” comic book.

Echo is a series about a photographer, Julie, who witnesses an explosion in the desert. Small pieces rain from the sky and fuse with her body. All this and an impending divorce are sure to dramatically change Julie’s life.

I was able to speak to Mr. Moore about Echo and his future run on Marvel’s Runaways. Read the rest of this entry »

The Secret World of David Mack

David Mack is an artist who has subtly reimagined the way comics can be told. He is best known for his series Kabuki, a cult classic in comics. He has also worked on the Marvel comics Alias (nothing to do with the show) and Daredevil. With Daredevil, he created the deaf assassin, Echo, who is now a member of the New Avengers. Next Wednesday, his art will be featured in New Avengers #39, an Echo centered story that guest stars Daredevil and ties into the Secret Invasion crossover.

Mr. Mack took time to speak with me about several of his projects, including New Avengers #39 and Kabuki: The Alchemy. Read the rest of this entry »

Why the Last Man?

As of last month, the 60 issue series Y: The Last Man ended. Written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Pia Guerra, this is the best comic you may not have heard of.

Yorick Brown is an English major with a crazy pet monkey, Ampersand. There is nothing special about them. That is, until every male on the planet dies, but Yorick and his male pet monkey. What follows is a quest across the world to understand what has happened and why Yorick was spared. This is an energetic series and flows like you’re watching a TV show.

I recently spoke with Pia Guerra about the series. Read the rest of this entry »

L For Lloyd

Many of us have seen the film V For Vendetta. Some don’t realize that it was a comic book before that. Written by Alan Moore, this dystopian/super hero book was illustrated by David Lloyd. I was able to speak to Mr. Lloyd about that comic, as well as his newer series, Kickback, published by Dark Horse.

Matt Knicl: What was your general reaction to the movie? Did you feel, like Alan Moore, that it was a “Bush-era fable” or did you think it stood on its own?

David Lloyd: I thought the movie was great, though not as good as the book. But it was a creditable effort, which I was happy to support to the best of my abilities in any way I could. I’ve nothing but praise for everyone involved in bringing the story to the screen and spreading it’s message.
The Wachowski’s definitely had their own agenda in writing the movie and it was evident in the movie itself - but I don’t think that was undermining to the universality of the central themes of the story. Way back in ‘ 88, Alan’s introduction to the DC Vendettas indicated that V was created in reaction to the fascistic tendencies of the Thatcher government, so a lot of people still think the original was a Thatcher-era fable. But this misconception hasn’t damaged the main message of the story, which has always - and will always - rise above the predominant political landscape in any period in which the story is told.

Read the rest of this entry »