Robert Kirkman's Blog, page 29

Final Trailer for Dinner Party and Where to Watch it At Sundance!

DINNER PARTY VR is officially at Sundance this week! We’re so proud of this VR Experience and we can’t wait for everyone to see it. In case you’ve missed all the hubbub, DINNER PARTY is a VR experience we’ve created with RYOT Films, Telexist, Circle of Confusion, and Thunder Studios and supported by Technicolor and the Sundance Institute. Written by Charlotte Stoudt (Homeland, Open Secret) and Laura Wexler (Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America) and directed by Angel Manuel Soto (Bashir’s Dream, La Granja), DINNER PARTY is the story of the first widely publicized report of an alien abduction in America.

Below we’ve got the final trailer for Dinner Party for you to whet your appetite along with a full list of where you can see DINNER PARTY if you’re visiting the Sundance Film Festival.

DINNER PARTY SUNDANCE 2017 SCHEDULE:




Friday Jan 19

3:00-5:00 PM | Premiere Public Screening with Q&A: The Box at the Ray

8:00-9:30 PM | VR Bar at the Music Café

Saturday Jan 20

8:30-10:30 PM | VR Bar at the Music Café

Tuesday Jan 23

3:00-4:30 PM | Public Screening with Q&A: The Box at the Ray

Wedesday Jan 24

5:00-6:30 PM | Public Screening with Q&A: The Box at the Ray

Thursday Jan 25

5:00-6:30 PM | Public Screening with Q&A: The Box at the Ray

8:30-10:30 PM | VR Bar at the Music Café

Friday Jan 26

7:30-9:00 PM | Public Screening with Q&A: The Box at the Ray

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Skybound Diamond Gem Award Winners

The winners for the 2017 Diamond Comic Distribution Gem Awards have been announced! This year, Skybound took home two of the top prizes! The Diamond Gem Awards are recognized within the comic book industry as the pinnacle of sales achievement for publishers, vendors, industry executives, and creators. Each year, winners are selected by comic book specialty retailers to recognize the efforts of those who create the comics, graphic novels and pop-culture products that have been instrumental in helping the industry grow over the past year.

This year, a certain little Texas vampire tale took home “Best New Comic Book Series.” That’s right, our very own REDNECK from Donny Cates, Lisandro Estherren, Dee Cunniffe & Joe Sabino took home the coveted gem award. The other big Skybound winner this year was THE WALKING DEAD: HERE’S NEGAN taking home the award for “Best Reprint TP or HC of the Year.” Congrats to Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn & Dave Stewart!

If you haven’t check out either of these books head on over to the Skybound store and find out what everyone’s talking about. REDNECK VOL 01: Deep In The Heart & THE WALKING DEAD: HERE’S NEGAN HC are available now! Congrats again to our awesome creators!!

  

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Advice from James Asmus for Aspiring Writers!

James Asmus is a comedian, writer, recent Portland-transplant and comic book man! That’s not just one thing, that’s a whole lot of things! So naturally, to cover it all, we had to sit him down for an episode of the Skybound Insider. 

Asmus is a Harvey-nominated writer and has had a prolific run on Marvel’s X-Men, as well as writing for Valiant and Image. At Skybound, he is a writer on one of our newest series Evolution, as well as Thief of Thieves! He even had a stint as a writer on IDW’s My Little Pony. WHO DOESN’T LOVE MY LITTLE PONY?

This man has a whole plethora of stories to tell us. And he has great advice for aspiring writers.

Before wading into the comic book world, James was a playwright and actor! He even has a theatre degree! He’s got credits from sketch comedy troupes and has been affiliated with theatres like The Annoyance. Truly, we’re talking to a real Drama King over here. 

We’re so thankful James is in Portland now, because it makes our trips up there all the more special! We hope you enjoy some colorful story-telling from a real stand-up guy. (See what we did there?)

 

For more interviews, features, fan videos, etc – check us out on YOUTUBE. WE MAKE SO MANY VIDEOS!

While you’re at it, join our Insiders Facebook group to get your question in the next interview – CLICK HERE!

Finally, check out some of our other Insiders Exclusives:

Valentine De Landro: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/insidersvalentine-de-landro/

Chip Zdarsky: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/chip-zdarsky/

Matt Fraction: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/matt-fraction/

Kelly Sue DeConnick: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/kelly-sue-deconnick/

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Invincible #144 Variant Cover Revealed!

As you well know by now, Robert Kirkman’s long running series, INVINCIBLE is nearing the end. We know, we know, it’s sad but true. INVINCIBLE #144, the last chapter of “The End of All Things” will be dropping at your local comic shop on Wednesday February 14th. That’s right, we’re giving you a very bittersweet Valentine’s gift. Today, though, we wanna show off the B cover for this final issue. This amazing throwback to issue #1 is drawn by original series artist and Invincible co-creator Cory Walker and colored by Nathan Fairbairn. Check out the cover below and make sure to tell your local comic shop to order you a copy or ten. And don’t forget to start speculating wildly as to what this could all mean in the comments below!

INVINCIBLE #144

STORY: ROBERT KIRKMAN

ART: RYAN OTTLEY, CORY WALKER & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN

COVER A: RYAN OTTLEY & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN

COVER B: CORY WALKER & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN

February 14th

56 PAGES | Full Color | Mature | $5.99

THE END OF ALL THINGS Part 12 of 12

Final issue. Everything since issue one has been building to this. Nothing can prepare you.

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Skybound Books Picks Up Simon Stålenhag’s THE ELECTRIC STATE

We’re very proud to announce that we’ve acquired the rights to the super successful Kickstarter Project, THE ELECTRIC STATE! The narrative art book from Simon Stålenhag tells the story of a teen runaway and her robot as they make their way through an alternate USA, a wasteland littered with the remains of a massive drone war and a high tech consumerist society in decline. As they approach the west coast, what awaits them?

Simon Stålenhag has made a name for himself in the last decade painting realistic Scandinavian landscapes of everyday life but dropping in stunning anachronistic high tech touches—robots, drones, power plants, etc. He brings these to life in two earlier books: TALES FROM THE LOOP and THINGS FROM THE FLOOD. We are beyond excited to have THE ELECTRIC STATE be one of our first Skybound Books projects.

Stay tuned for more information on a wide release this fall and also a possible film adaptation from The Russo Brothers!

 



 



 



 

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This Week’s Comics: Evolution #3

Hey, hey, folks! Hope you had a great weekend. Ready to get a load of some new comics? We’re bringing you EVOLUTION #3 in this week’s comics! Take a peek at a preview below and get ready to get your spooky on with the next chapter of our insane body horror tale. Pick up EVOLUTION #3 on comiXology or at your local comic shop Wednesday and let us know what you think. Have a great week!

EVOLUTION #3

STORY: JAMES ASMUS, JOSEPH KEATINGE, CHRISTOPHER SEBELA & JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

ART/COVER: JOE INFURNARI & JORDAN BOYD

JANUARY 17

32 PAGES | Full Color | Mature | $3.99

Abe is the only one who seems to notice mankind’s evolutionary leap. Meanwhile, Claire and Rochelle relive a sinister night in the Hollywood Hills, and Hannah disobeys the church in the pursuit of answers…

    

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Announcing Our New Comic: Crude

CRUDE is a book for right now. It’s a book that feels like it could only be done at this moment in history and only with this creative team. And it’s a book unlike anything we’ve ever done here at Skybound. Granted, we’ve done crime stories and stories about father and sons and so on, but nothing that touches on themes that are so relevant and so important to so many people in this country and beyond.

CRUDE is the story of former-assassin Piotr Petrovich Bilibin getting to know the son whose true life he didn’t understand. Oh, he tried to love his son, Kiril, but fear of himself drove him to keep Kiril at a distance. When it came time for Kiril to come out, he assumed Piotr would never understand, so he sought freedom in desolate refinery city of Blackstone. He died there, forcing Piotr to retrace the son’s footsteps and investigate. But Blackstone is controlled by the massive oil refining company Petropinnacle, who employed Piotr’s son when he died. Caught in a turf war between corporations, organized crime, and an upstart worker’s revolution that might’ve known his son, Piotr has no choice but to fight through the chaos to avenge his son…and maybe, finally, discover who he truly was.

CRUDE wouldn’t be possible without the staggering talent of Steve Orlando. I’ve known Steve for awhile and it’s always been my hope that we could work together. I never dreamed I’d finally get that chance on a book this good. With CRUDE, Steve has created something that feels both personal and worldly. To see how he writes the internal struggle of Piotr dealing with the loss of his son is something to behold. It’s nothing short of incredible. And enough cannot be said about the art team on this book. Garry Brown, Lee Loughride and Thomas Mauer are putting on an absolute clinic in comic making within these pages. Creating the grimy world of Blackstone, they manage to make it feel like a living, breathing organism that could swallow us up at any time. And filling the world with a cast of characters, they’ve created some of the most memorable characters I’ve worked on in recent memory. This book is truly, truly great.

CRUDE #1 goes on sale April 11th. If you’d like to follow Piotr’s journey of revenge and acceptance, make sure to go to your local comic shop and preorder it. Until then, please enjoy this short preview of the first issue. Thank you.

Jon Moisan

Editor, Skybound Entertainment

CRUDE #1

STORY: STEVE ORLANDO

ART/COVER: GARRY BROWN & LEE LOUGHRIDGE

APRIL 11

32 PAGES | Full Color | Mature | $3.99

NEW SERIES

Killers once feared Piotr Petrovich. Now, they’ve sent his son home to him, in a body bag. Haunted by his failures, Piotr journeys across Russia to learn what type of man his son really was while hunting the bastards who killed him. And once Piotr finds them, they will learn to fear him once more…

GLAAD Media Award-nominated writer Steve Orlando (Virgil, Midnighter) and artist Garry Brown (Black Road) deliver an emotional, bone-shattering account of murder, masculinity and mayhem.

  

  

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The Origins of Chip Zdarsky Revealed!

Chip Zdarsky, Todd Diamond, and Steve Murray. What do all of these names have in common? Well, they’re all the same guy! And guess what, we got to interview these men! I mean, this guy!

Born as Steve Murray, the writer/artist started his career working for National Post on a column titled Extremely Bad Advice where he offered, you guessed it, pretty bad advice! Along with working on The Ampersand which is the paper’s pop-culture section, and our personal favorite, Tear Jerk, where he watched movies to see if they could actually make him cry (most did).

But even before working for the paper, Steve began to create his own projects under the name Chip Zdarsky.

Which, if you want to hear more about how he came up with the name, you’ll have to watch (winky face). Simultaneously, Chip developed a few indie projects such as Monster Cops and Prison Funnies along with collaborating on Fierce and Rumble Royale from Dark Horse Comics.

In 2013, Chip and writer Matt Fraction teamed up to create the wildly hilarious and sexy comic aptly titled: Sex Criminals.

The book was a great success (even though they were skeptical at the time) and landed Number 1 on Time Magazine’s list of Top Ten Comics of 2013. And in 2014, won an Eisner Award for Best New Series!

Following the success of Sex Criminals, Zdarsky was signed up to write the first series arc of the newly relaunched Jughead comic AND to resurrect Howard the Duck for Marvel! Sure enough, our man Chip knocked it out of the park with Howard and was then offered to revamp another beloved property in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man to run alongside The Amazing Spider-Man series by Dan Slott.

Chip has A LOT to say in the realm of comics and satire so do yourself a favor, click play on that little blue button down there. (There’s a sideways triangle on it, you’ll see it)

Follow Chip Zdarsky – @zdarsky

For more interviews, features, fan videos, etc – check us out on YOUTUBE.

While you’re at it, join our Insiders Facebook group to get your question in the next interview – HERE!

Finally, check out some of our other Insiders Exclusives:

Matt Fraction: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/matt-fraction/

Kelly Sue DeConnick: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/kelly-sue-deconnick/

Emma Rios: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/emma-rios-interview/

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This Week’s Comics: Birthright #29, Extremity #10 & The Walking Dead #175

Happy New Year, Skybounders! Hope 2018 is treating you all super well so far. We’ve got a bunch of new comics coming your way this week, so let’s get to it. There’s an action packed issue of BIRTHRIGHT, a gut-wrenching issue of EXTREMITY and an exciting new story arc in THE WALKING DEAD. Check out previews of all three new issues below. Also, don’t forget, THE WALKING DEAD #175 has the first of our TWD 15th anniversary variants! ComiXology and your local comic shop are the places to head to pick up your copies. Let us know what you thought in the comments and happy reading!

BIRTHRIGHT #29

STORY: JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

ART/COVER: ANDREI BRESSAN & ADRIANO LUAS

DECEMBER 13

32 PAGES | Full Color | Teen+ | $3.99

There is a temple buried within a mountain that has never been written about or even dreamed of. Nothing can prepare the Rhodes family for the magic within… but desperate measures must be taken to shift the balance of power against Lore.

  

EXTREMITY #10

STORY/ART/COVER: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON

COLOR: MIKE SPICER

JANUARY 3

32 PAGES / FC / T+ / $3.99

Thea learns the hard way that peace never lasts.

    

THE WALKING DEAD #175

 

STORY: ROBERT KIRKMAN

ART: CHARLIE ADLARD, STEFANO GAUDIANO & CLIFF RATHBURN

COVER: CHARLIE ADLARD & DAVE STEWART

JANUARY 2

32 PAGES | Black & White | Mature | $3.99

NEW WORLD ORDER part 1 (of 6)

NEW FRIENDS. NEW ENEMIES. NEW THREATS. IT’S A WHOLE NEW WORLD.

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Matt Fraction on Sex Criminals & Writing for Comics vs TV!

Matt Fraction is one of our favorite genius weirdos in Portland, Oregon so naturally the last time we were there, we had to sit and have a chat with him! We stared deep down into his blue eyes (he stares directly into the lens in the beginning, ya can’t miss em), and got the skinny on Fraction’s start in comics, the success of his stories, and his advice for all y’all new writers out there.

Fraction is an Eisner Award-winning comic book writer, dad, and husband (in fact, he’s married to the amazingly talented Kelly Sue DeConnick!), which means he is not exactly swimming in time.

However, he sure is swimming in talent!

Fraction’s Hawkeye won the 2014 Will Eisner award for the best single-issue and his series with Chip Zdarsky, Sex Criminals, took home the 2014 Eisner award for Best New Series, the 2014 Harvey award for Best New Series, and was named TIME Magazine’s Best Comic of 2013. Seriously, this guy has chops. 

Fraction’s work frequently plays with commonly accepted norms, like his book Ody-C which is a gender-flipped colorful retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, done with Christian Ward.

He’s great at thinking from multiple perspectives and translating the diversity in his life straight to the page.

In addition to Hawkeye, his Marvel work includes The Invincible Iron Man, The Immortal Iron Fist, and Uncanny X-Men. At Image, he has Casanova (in addition to Sex Criminals). Not to mention the comics he wrote, drew, and distributed as a child (granted they were made of dot-matrix paper and yarn, comics nonetheless).

Our job is to make sure you get to hear the strongest voices in comics, and we think Fraction is exactly that. Strap in and listen up — Matt Fraction has a lot to say. 

Follow Matt Fraction – @mattfraction

For more interviews, features, fan videos, etc – check us out on YOUTUBE.

While you’re at it, join our Insiders Facebook group to get your question in the next interview – HERE!

Finally, check out some of our other Insiders Exclusives:

Joseph Keatinge: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/joseph-keatinge/

Evolution: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/evolution-interview/

Robin Lord Taylor: https://www.skybound.com/insiders/robin-lord-taylor-interview/

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