Eric Shanower's Blog, page 10

Non-electric Barbarella

Barbarella #12 published by Dynamite is now available. One of its five alternate covers features my artwork. This new Barbarella mini-series is based squarely on Jean-Claude Forest's original space heroine and not on the movie version starring Jane Fonda.

Pin-up style art isn't my typical sort of project, but I was happy to accept the challenge. There were sixty cover images for this mini-series, each by a different artist. Barbarella posing with a ray-gun seems to have been many artists' first impulse. The editor instructed me NOT to show Barbarella posed with a ray-gun—he'd had enough of that.

The character Barbarella is famous for falling into one sexual situation after another, so I wanted my cover to be sexy, yet not exploitative. I hope my final image conveys that Barbarella is happy to be where she is.

Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower. All right reserved.

Whatever Happened to Mara Jade?

Recently released is a new edition of one of the few Star Wars projects I've been involved in. Marvel Comics just published this collection of comics adaptations of Timothy Zahn's trilogy of Star Wars novels. Included is a Star Wars mini-series I inked—The Last Command.

Dark Horse Comics was the original publisher of the project. But now that the Disney corporation owns both Marvel Comics and the Star Wars franchise, I guess Disney has taken over all Star Wars publishing. Thus the Marvel imprint.

I inked issues 2-5 of the six-issue series over the pencils of Edvin Biukovic. After the job was over I met Eddie at a San Diego Comic Con where we had a signing together at the Dark Horse Comics booth. Eddie was a popular cartoonist in the late 1990s and his star was rising. Unfortunately he died from brain cancer within a year or two after we finished The Last Command.

Eddie drew Princess Amidala in one issue of The Last Command. That issue was the character's first public appearance. The Phantom Menace, the motion picture that introduced the character, had yet to be released at the time. Eddie got in hot water from the higher-ups for that, but he was proud of what he'd done. I remember inking the character, not realizing that she was of any significance—not caring, either. All I was concerned with was meeting the tight deadline on that issue.

As I understand it, the character Mara Jade was created by the author Timothy Zahn, who wrote the novel The Last Command was based on. I haven't paid much attention to The Last Command since it was first published about twenty years ago. But I still remember Mara Jade being an important part of it. My sense is that Mara Jade was really popular at the time and people were hoping she'd be introduced into the movies. As far as I know that didn't happen. Does anyone else still remember Mara Jade?

Mike Baron wrote the script for The Last Command. I don't remember having any interaction with Mike while I was inking the project, but I was happy to be collaborating with him again. He wrote the comic book series Nexus. One of my earliest professional jobs as a cartoonist was inking Nexus for nearly a year, an experience I was happy for then and am still glad to have had. Mike is probably the comic book writer whose projects I've worked on more than any other—except myself, of course.

If you're a Star Wars fan, you probably want to get this collection. As well as the three mini-series—Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command—it collects all the covers, the introductions to the original graphic novel collections, and various other extras.

Return to Key West

The annual Key West Literary Seminar runs from January 10-13, 2019, in Key West, Florida. The theme of the seminar this year is "Under the Influence: Archetype & Adaptation from Homer to the Multiplex." I guess that's why the seminar invited me to be a speaker this time.

I'll make a presentation about Age of Bronze, have a public conversation with some of the other guests, and do a book signing. For details click here to go to the Key West Literary Seminar website.

One reason I'm looking forward to attending the Key West Literary Seminar is that I was born in Key West, left when I was six months old, and have never been back. Of course, I don't remember living there and I understand that everything has changed since then, but I still want to see Key West again.

J. R. Brinkley and the Final Verdict

The Resistible Rise of J. R. Brinkley, written and directed by Edward Einhorn, closed FringeNYC, the New York City Fringe festival, on October 28. I drew the backdrop images. Click the links below for a couple final reviews of the show:

blogcritics review  New York Theatre Wire review
Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower. All right reserved.Photo courtesy of production.

Publishers' Weekly Praises A Thousand Ships

The new color edition of A Thousand Ships got some nice words from reviewer Tom Batten in the November 2018 issue of Publishers' Weekly. Batten's final verdict is:

"Filled with enough political machinations and symbolically laden visions of a war-torn future to sate the appetite of all graphic novels readers as well as Game of Thrones fans longing for fresh content with a scholarly attention to detail and keen psychological insight."

Talk about saying a lot with as few words as possible. This guy could write comics.

And to illustrate the "war-torn future" that Publishers' Weekly mentions, here's yet another sample of artwork from A Thousand Ships, featuring the beautiful coloring of John Dallaire.

 Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower.Color copyright © 2018 John Dallaire.All rights reserved.Age of Bronze and the likenesses of its prominent characters are trademarks of Eric Shanower.

Great Big Beautiful Age of Bronze

Jamie and Shiri of The Great Big Beautiful Podcast interviewed me recently about the new color edition of A Thousand Ships, about Age of Bronze in general, and about the rest of my career. It was a fun interview and I hope you'll enjoy listening to it at the link here.

And here's another sample page of artwork from the new color edition of A Thousand Ships, featuring coloring by John Dallaire.


Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower.Color copyright © 2018 John Dallaire.All rights reserved.Age of Bronze and the likenesses of its prominent characters are trademarks of Eric Shanower.

The Reviews Roll In - J. R. Brinkley

Photo by Edward Einhorn.Edward Einhorn's play The Resistible Rise of J. R. Brinkley is currently running at FringeNYC, the New York Fringe Festival.

Reviews of the show praise the piece. You can read them here:

Brinkley review by Stage Biz

Brinkley review by Theatre Is Easy

I especially like the rave review by Jacquelyn Claire of Stage Biz. She calls my backdrops "stunning."

If you want to see this biting satire, act quickly. The link for tickets is at my previous post here.

Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower. All right reserved.

Trumpery Cure for Impotence

Got a problem with male functionality? See Dr. J. R. Brinkley. He'll insert goat testicles into you!

Surely, you say, no one would be stupid enough to buy into this trumped up impotence cure. But back in the good ol' 20th century US of A, people did. And on the strength of his popularity Brinkley ran for public office.

Edward Einhorn's newest play The Resistible Rise of J. R. Brinkley brings you the true story of the charlatan who performed this bizarre, stupid, and ineffective impotence cure and achieved a level of success difficult to believe.

Well, maybe not so difficult. Trumped up trumpery even more bizarre, stupid, and ineffective is trumpeted these days, too. And people buy it.

But anyway, I designed and drew the images projected as backdrops for The Resistible Rise of J. R. Brinkley, which runs October 12-28 as part of FringeNYC, this year's New York Fringe festival.

For details on the play, click here.

To purchase tickets, click here.

Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower. All right reserved.

Experience Pulp Culture

On October 26 and 27 come attend the Pulp Culture Comic Arts Festival and Symposium 2018 at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. I'll be speaking Saturday, October 27, on a panel about Classical Mythology in comics, along with panelists Glynnis Fawkes and Guy Hedreen. I'll also have a table in the exhibition hall where I'll be signing autographs and you can say hi and find plenty of Age of Bronze comics and graphic novels.

One of my favorite cartoonists, Jaime Hernandez, is a keynote speaker on Friday, October 26. My plane arrives a couple hours before he's scheduled to go on. I sure hope I have a chance to catch most of his speech.

For details on the festival click this link.

For a schedule of panels click this link.

For a guide to the exhibition hall click this link.

Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower. All right reserved.

Take a Dip with Aquaman

The current Back Issue magazine, no. 108, is devoted to the character Aquaman. It sports a cover I drew, featuring the king of the ocean. Inside many articles discuss the differing treatments of Aquaman throughout the years.

Aquaman swam across my drawing table a couple times in the 1980s, when I drew the Secret Origin of the Justice League of America and I inked Curt Swan's pencils for The Legend of Aquaman Special, and once in the '90s, when I inked an Adam Hughes Aquaman cover. John Trumbull interviewed me for an article inside the magazine.

Back Issue is published by TwoMorrows and is available in print now at your local comic store and digitally online from the publisher at this link.

Copyright © 2018 Eric Shanower. All right reserved.