Welcome to AiT/Planet Lar

Today at AiT/Planet Lar

July 25, 2007
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Ain't It Cool News has a pretty extensive interview with me up, where we talk about nearly every one of our comics (with even more information on each one in the "Worthwhile Reading" pull-down up-top, there). I had such a blast talking with Ambush Bug about everything that I had Mimi snap a picture of me for them to use that I swore I'd never have taken. People would always ask me when I would put on the suit, and I'd always answer that I'm the publisher, it's silly, Stan Lee never dressed up as Spider-man, so it's just not happening.

But like Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster, and unicorns and leprechauns, there's a snapshot we'd never thought we'd see. Click it to enjoy.

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Another fine review for The Black Diamond, this time from Tom Spurgeon: "Despite a love for action movies' way of looking at the world so deep and abiding he would happily give one a ride to the airport at 3:30 in the morning, Young showed in his Astronauts in Trouble work that he has the structure gene that a lot of mainstream American comic book writers would kill for."

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See you at booth #2001.

July 24, 2007
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"Clearly, these are people who appreciate the beauties of a big ol' monster foot coming down on some fleeing unfortunates," quips Blogcritics' Bill Sherman about Monster Attack Network. "Written by The Highwaymen team, Marc Bernadin & Adam Freeman – and drawn with a heavy predilection for the big black brush stroke by new-to-me Nima Sorat – M.A.N. is a comic book tribute to monster rampage movies. Set on the wealthy tropical isle of Lapuata, the book follows the workings of a group of men and women hired to fend off the island's periodic monster attacks, a fairly regular occurrence that island inhabitants see as part of the price for living in a global economic powerhouse.

"Where the monsters come from is never explained, nor does it need to be. It's the Monster Attack Network's job to chase off each attacking creature (rarely, we're told, killing 'em), then rebuild ('And repave. And re-upholster. And re-spackle. And re-wallpaper') each trashed-out area. From the very first monster attack depicted – a flying beastie named Gygax that we only get to see as a shadow and a giant eye peering into an office building – it's clear M.A.N. has found a need and filled it."

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Good ol' Greg Burgas, writing for the CBR's "Comics Should Be Good" blog, writes a love-letter to the present crop of good funnybooks and calls out nine AiT books as indicative of the quality and breadth-of-subject available in comic book form on the shelves today. Only DC has more books on the list, so for an independent publishing house of our size, that really is quite an impressive showing. In the comment section, Greg takes a barb chiding him for a dearth of kids' comics available, and, while not exactly making him bulletproof of the criticism, could at least have donned himself a Kevlar vest against it by mentioning our Jax Epoch volumes and the three best-selling Electric Girl trades, as well. Boy, we really do have something for everyone, don't we? Thanks for the mentions, Greg!

July 23, 2007
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Ah, San Diego.

If anyone wants to talk to me, I'll be at the AiT compound at the aptly-named booth #2001 for pretty much the whole dang show. Wednesday night, my pal

Guy Vardaman is showing up, where we will no doubt talk about those props we're building and the kids we're having. I'll be psyched to show him The Black Diamond #3. Jared Guenther can't make it down, so he has me buying him zombies at Sideshow, and Rick Austin got nominated for an Emmy for the William Shatner Roast on the SciFi Channel that he produced. If Wil Wheaton comes by and buys an Astronauts in Trouble hardcover, that'll be quite an ST trifecta.

Mimi's actually going to let me take a laptop to the show, so maybe I'll be able to blog from the floor... but chances are I'll just lose my voice by Friday like I always do and it's already 50/50 that I'll have to go get Josh and Ash out of a jail in Tijuana.

Look out, San Diego.

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