MARS ATTACKS IDW!

IDW Publishing has revealed the cover for the upcoming MARS ATTACKS POPEYE comic book along with others in the Mars Attacks... line. Mars Attacks Popeye is written by Martin (Halloween Legion) Powell with art by Terry (The Phantom) Beatty. Mars Attacks Popeye will be in stores January 2013 from IDW.

PRESS RELEASE:

IDW has released the details on their upcoming crossover event between Topps' MARS ATTACKS property and... well, pretty much every license under the IDW banner.

Spread out over five weeks in January, the full list of planned one-shots includes:

MARS ATTACKS POPEYE by Martin Powell, Terry Beatty, and Tom Ziuko
MARS ATTACKS KISS by Chris Ryall, Alan Robinson, and Tom Ziuko
MARS ATTACKS THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS by Erik Burnham and Jose Holder
MARS ATTACKS TRANSFORMERS by Shane McCarthy and Matt Frank
and
MARS ATTACKS ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS by Chris Ryall, Andy Kuhn, and John Rauch

IDW Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer Chris Ryall is the brains behind the event, and had this to say about it:

"The 'Mars Attacks' property is a bit more insane than most of the licenses we have. There's lots of good carnage in there, so we thought it'd be fun if we could spin that into some of our other books that are more respectful properties. Normally in 'Transformers' you don't get the level of insanity of a 'Mars Attacks' comic. We thought it'd be fun to mash that all together.

I wanted 'Mars Attacks' to fit into these universes by the rules already established in these books. So if there's a Popeye story, the Martians can only cause as much damage as you'd see in an old Popeye strip or a Fleischer cartoon. It's not going to be quite as over-the-top violent as John Layman's 'Mars Attacks' comic. It'll fit well into the Popeye universe. So every issue is a stand-alone story, and they roll out chronologically by era. Popeye comes first and takes place further back in the timeline around the 1930s."

You can learn more about IDW and their books at www.idwpublishing.com.

Words and Art: Finding the Right Blend in Comic Book Scriptwriting

This week's roundtable at New Pulp Author Sean Taylor’s Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action Blog focuses specifically on comic book scriptwriting. Sean posted the top three questions he hears often at conventions or from those wanting to start writing comics or looking to turn an indie movie or small press novel into a graphic novel.

Sean assembled a collection of comic book writers (many familiar to New Pulp readers) together to find out what they had to say. The writers include:
Jim Beard (Ghostbusters Con-Volution, Star Wars Tales, Hawkman Secret Files)
Mike Bullock (Lions, Tigers, and Bears, The Phantom)
Erik Burnham (Ghostbusters, TMNT Splinter, A-Team)
Percival Constantine (Femforce, Kagemono, All-Star Pulp Comics)
Ron Fortier (The Green Hornet, Popeye, Street Fighter)
Dan Jurgens (Superman, Booster Gold, Teen Titans, Captain America)
Roland Mann (Cat and Mouse, Ex-Mutants, Switchblade)
John Jackson Miller (Star Wars Knight Errant, Iron Man, Mass Effect)
Michael Avon Oeming (The Victories, Powers, Thor, Red Sonja)
Bobby Nash (Lance Star: Sky Ranger, Fuzzy Bunnies from Hell, Domino Lady vs. The Mummy)
Jenny Reed (Around the World in 80 Days, Charles Darwin)
Janet Stone Wade (Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa)

You can read their answers now at http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2012/10/words-and-art-finding-right-blend-in.html