Yoshitaka Amano Interview

My latest Newsarama interview is online today. I talked with Yoshitaka Amano about his newest book release: Mateki the Magic Flute, an adaptation of the famous opera, published in the U.S. by Radical Books.

Newsarama: The story of the Magic Flute is a famous one. Why is this story important and special to you to adapt to a graphic novel?

Yoshitaka Amano: The story itself is so well known, I don’t think I need to repeat it here. What actually attracted me most is the music Mozart wrote. Even though I knew the story from the accompanied texts, just listening to music gave me an inspiration of making it more like a ballet sequence, without words but the movements of images.

NRAMA: Which characters in the story were the most fun to adapt?

YA: I enjoyed creating The Queen of the Night. In the music, she felt like something out of this world, shapeless and mysterious. It reminded me of some Japanese “Nou” characters that appear from the world beyond this life. (Editor’s Note: Nou or Noh 能 is a significant form of classic Japanese drama surviving from the 14th century)

NRAMA: Which sequence gave you the hardest time conceiving and illustrating?

YA: I didn’t have any particular difficulty in creating images, but when I think of it as an actual animation, I’d like to make it into a very dynamic work and that might be challenging.

Read the rest of it on Newsarama.
Read more!

Herculean Homages

Is it a swipe if you're homaging yourself, in a way -and character- someone has already homaged you earlier that year?

Meet mr Jim Steranko. He is an unquestionable talented creator and a comics, famous for his bold compositions, his striking covers and creating a standard that artists have adhered to and often homaged for decades even to this day!

Exhibit A:

King Size Hulk Special #1/v.1 Annual #1 (October 1968, Marvel Comics)

Cover artist: Jim Steranko. The original cover that set the trend. Hulk dominating the cover from edge to edge, straining to hold the weight of his own name/logo like a monstrous Atlas. The massive feat is accentuated by the cracking of the ground/letters that Hulk is standing on. The title is made of solid rock, crumbling away as Hulk with his enormous strength clasps at it with his arms. A very claustrophobic cover that has stood the test of time, very evident by the amount of homages to it even in the last decade:



Exhibit B:

The Incredible Hulk v.2 #34 (November 2001, Marvel Comics)

Cover Artist: Kaare Andrews. Kicking off the then celebrated run by writer Bruce Jones, Kaare makes a tribute to the Steranko original, keeping the same composition but using a painted/computer illustrated technique.



Exhibit C:

Incredible Hulk Herc(ules) #113 (February 2008, Marvel Comics)

Cover Artist: Arthur Adams. With the closing of World War Hulk, Bruce Banner is in custody, there's a new monthly (adjectiveless) Hulk title launching, and the Incredible Hulk title is passed over to classic Marvel hero Hercules. To commemorate the first issue of the name switch, Arthur Adams cleverly homages Hercules (a Greek demi-god like Atlas himself) bulking under the weight of the Hulk's title which he has now inherited, with his own name sprayed on top of it.


Exhibit D:

Hercules #2 (announced June 2008, Radical Comics)

Cover Artist: Jim Steranko. Coming full circle, Steranko returns to comics and cover artwork with the new ongoing Hercules series from Radical Comics, following the adventures of Hercules - now a warlord leader of a mercenary team- in Ancient Greece after the completion of the Twelve Tasks. Steranko replaces the hulk of his classic cover with the new Radical Hercules.


Any more homages to the original that I've missed? Reply below :)
Read more!

My First Newsarama Interview!

Nothing like some self-hype to get our day started!

I did an interview with Barry Levine - the publisher of Radical Comics- for Newsarama. It was an amazing experience, and makes for a great read as Barry goes in great detail about Radical's publishing plans. You can read the full interview here.
Read more!