Categories
"COPRA" "ZEGAS"

Best of 2012

So the new year has finally come and upon reflection, 2012 wasn’t so bad after all! I’ve been a [micro?] publisher for over a year now and have launched a new title: COPRA. Here’s a brief look back on the recent nods.

Tucker Stone included my comics – Copra, Zegas & Deathzone! – in his sharp, personal Best Of list for The Comics Journal. Tucker has been more than instrumental in getting me through those first few Copra issues by saving me from comic book cabin fever. Big thanks to Matt Seneca and Abhay Khosla, too.

Comics Alliance braved a massive look back in 5 parts, and Copra made the cut in Part 4 a.k.a. The Hellboy Memorial Awards. Major thanks to Dylan Todd, Chris Sims, Caleb Goellner, and Joseph Hughes for their continued support.

Comic Book Resources had a multi part list of their own, and my comics snuck in there thanks to Timothy Callahan and Sonia Harris. Timothy also  gave us his own Ten Best in his CBR column When Worlds Collide.

I T E M S !

Alec Berry, in his new position at CBR, gave Copra a nice critical write up, which echoed his overview in his podcast, The Chemical Box, co-hosted by Joey Aulisio (Chemical Box contributor Shawn Starr also reviewed Copra).

Jim Rugg and Ian Harker, their respective shout outs were much appreciated. I also spoke to Seth Jacob a little and Terrence Stasse Moreau broke it down, which is really a gross understatement considering all the thought and work behind his posts.

T H A N K S !

To all the new readers who hopped on board this last year! Oh, and Annie Koyama, Zack Soto, Adrian Johnson and Chuck Forsman have been nothing but super cool from the get go.

The biggest thanks go to Kat Roberts, who acts as the Copra Press house editor by proxy and a one-woman army of patience and inspiration.

Last but not least, Bryan Galatis and Erik Mallo have lent their talents to making those fun short video clips every time a new issue comes out. Here’s the latest.

And just for good measure, here’s the trailer for the previous issue, which didn’t grace – no pun intended – this blog all month.

I’m deeply touched and inspired to keep on doing my Copra thing thanks to all your awesome feedback. All you readers have been really great and I’m very excited to keep making comic books for you to read. Here’s to 2013.

–Fiffe

Categories
"COPRA"

Back To Press: Copra Links, Reprints & Sell Outs!

I’ve sold out of Copra #1! Don’t worry, newcomers, I have a reprint underway. Second printing of #1 should be at my doorstep in a matter of a couple of weeks. I’ll re-list it and make a huge stink.

Thanks to Chris Sims, the Comics Alliance’s Holiday Gift Guide featured the Copra subscription. The CA staff has by and large been supportive, so this nod is really appreciated.

Over at Comic Book Resources, Ryan Ingram interviewed me about my superhero influences and my work habits.

Finally, and on the fringes of the world of Copra, Terrence Stasse has been writing several insightful breakdowns of my comics over at Dirty Fractals.

That’s it for this week, or until I have some Copra #3 action happening. Have a happy holiday, folks, I’ll be seeing you soon.

–Fiffe

Categories
"COPRA"

C O P R A # 2

COPRA #2 is here and it’s ready to go! This time around, the cast grows, the plot thickens, and the action continues (catch up with #1 if you haven’t already). But before you check out the preview pages below, a few things:

– Overseas Readers! I’m closing in on getting some COPRA comics in some London shops. It may ultimately be a quarterly affair but whatever happens, you’ll be the first to know!

– Reviews and Links! This has been an awesome and supportive month for COPRA. Reader response has been nothing short of flattering, and it’s been gathering some amazing reviews from Comics Alliance, The Comics Journal, The Chemical Box, Comics Book Resources, and Comics Bulletin.

– Conventions! I’ll have a table at the Locust Moon Festival this upcoming Sunday December 16th in Philadelphia. For details & directions, visit their blog or their FB page.

Enough yapping. Here are some pages…

There you have it! Second issue’s here and I’m just warming up. COPRA continues to be a 24 page, full color monthly comic, so stay tuned. I have tons more characters, stories and choreographed mayhem to employ. See you in thirty.

 

–Fiffe

Categories
"COPRA"

C O P R A # 1

COPRA #1 is finally here and on sale!

This is my latest project, a new series featuring a slew of new characters I’ve written, drawn & published. COPRA is a 24 page, full color action comic – numbered and limited to 400 copies – that will be serialized monthly. That’s right, every month you’ll have a new issue of COPRA waiting for you.

Let’s see, how to best describe what COPRA actually is… Well, for starters, it’s the unholy marriage between my Zegas style and my Suicide Squad love letter Deathzone! 

Or you can click on the individual pages and see for yourself:

I am beyond excited for this. It’s a massive undertaking and so far it’s been nothing but a blast.

COPRA is making its official debut at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this Saturday (table U36) , but you can still order it directly from me.

Pick it up and let me know what you think, then I’ll see you right back here next month!

–Fiffe

Categories
"COPRA"

C O P R A # 1 debuts at BCGF ’12

COPRA #1 will make its debut at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this Saturday, November 10 (noon-7p.m.). It’s my newest comic book, and we’ll be selling it upstairs next to the Jack Kirby Museum, so stop by  and check it out!

Categories
"ZEGAS"

Best American Comics 2012 notable: ZEGAS #1

Zegas #1 was listed as a notable in the Best American Comics 2012! The book series is edited by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden with a rotating slot for guest editor every year. This time around, Françoise Mouly did the honors. I’m in fine company, and it’s quite the honor.

Categories
Art & Illustration

Travis Bickle On The Riviera

That there’s the image for the new podcast in town, Travis Bickle on the Riviera, with hosts Tucker Stone and Sean Witzke. It’s about movies, cinema, film, actors, actresses, directors, Hollywood… you name it, it’s on there.

Check it out on iTunes or at The Factual Opinion.

Categories
Music Is Involved Sometimes I Like Stuff

On Today’s Show

It’s not uncommon to find me going through podcast after podcast these days. If it has a person with recording capabilities and they’ve pressed record, I’m your man. If you emit sounds and then you file those sounds under “opinions”, then go ahead and slap a clever title on it; I’m probably the right guy for you. Comics, music, comedy, whatever, I’ll take it. But there’s one that rules them all. The one to beat is Gelmania.

“You ain’t worth nothing but the money in your pocket and the articles written about you. That’s where it starts and that’s where it stops. Don’t think for a second that you are like me… [I’m an artist].” – Hustle, Brett Gelman

My main source for this stuff is Earwolf: How Did This Get Made?, Who Carted?, Improv4Humans, Comedy Bang Bang… they’ve all provided hundreds of hours of enjoyment.

You know who else makes with the podcasts? Tucker Stone*. He’s knee deep in it and loving it. I mentioned to Tucker how pathetic I felt when I recently read a couple of 70s horror comic books and immediately felt the need to post about it, a hunger to document and expose this totally quiet and tiny moment of genuine pleasure and make a– a thing about it. As if I had to validate my sense of place in the world by appropriating some crappy little images and pumping them into an empty, fleeting beat in time, simultaneously failing to absorb true value and reflecting cultural emptiness.

House of Mystery #245, September, 1976. There’s a story called A Talent For Murder in there. David V. Reed was hacking it out under the name Coram Nobis, but artist Leopoldo Duranona is the clear winner on this one. Wait, the art is better than the writing? In a comic book? WHAT… a fucking shocker.

There was another story in that issue that took two writers (one of them a lawyer), but  it was drawn by Alex Niño, which automatically catapults it to greatness.

Haunted #31, January, 1977. I do indeed like the late Tom Sutton. So much so that I clipped an interesting bit of history from his TCJ interview. His Planet of the Apes spread is a classic, an unbelievable effort, and I loved his short story in a Daredevil annual. But I really like the slapped together experiments he used to write and draw for Charlton. Check this page out… it’s like a Trevor Von Eeden pages trying to do 70s Toth, except it’s between the two. I’m a fan of low budget risk taking in comics.

Oh, you, too? You also like the the more unique low budget attempts in comics? Well, I recently hosted Dennis Fujitake Week, where I wrote a few brief notes and scanned a whole lot of material featuring this amazing, underrated fanzine-artist-turned pro. Like I mention in one of the posts, I’m so taken by this late 70s era of comic book fandom (which Fujitake fully represents, I think), and I know it’s borderline obnoxious to dwell on the past in that fetishistic way, a past I was clearly not a part of, but I can’t help notice the visceral excitement on these smelly pieces of newsprint. That shit just looked more fun than anything.

Enough about comics. Here’s another obsession: Ferrante and Teicher’s Denizens of the Deep album, which is the only music on repeat around here. I thought it’d be easier to find any clips of this rare album online, so I’ve put up a couple of examples:

Underwater Reflections

Manatees And Dolphins

I did find this video which shows the duo masterfully playing and manipulating their pianos to achieve those specific sounds. Ferrante and Teicher are mostly known as schmaltzy lounge composers, but there was a brief period of groundbreaking brilliance that cannot be shared enough.

Ah, music. Music! I’ve been fantasizing about playing drums in a band again. I have a very specific sound that I want to help make, though, something out of a TJ Hooker scene change, dirty but full of chops. I want to make music that will make me wish I was back in 1980 NYC getting blown somewhere in Time Square. A mid-life crisis can wait, I want this now. Or at least until I finish writing and drawing some comic books.

–Fiffe

*Be sure to check out my upcoming podcast with Tucker called Truth Telling In Mark Making. Catch it!

Categories
Sometimes I Like Stuff

I would love to write about Breyfogle’s depiction of movement…

… but I’ve been writing less and less about comics recently, a slightly deliberate position mostly due to time spent making them. I’m left with very little time to work on that massive Tim Gula or Chris Wozniak retrospective that I’d write in a heartbeat.

I still do like looking at things – I’m only human – and so I’ve been slowly cataloging art and artists via my Tumblr.

 

 

 

That was Tim Hamilton, Klaus Janson, Alberto Breccia and Alex Niño… a few of the favorite pieces I’ve posted, and the perfect excuses to get back to work.

More writings and drawings soon!

–Fiffe

Categories
Art & Illustration

Doctor Strange & An Interview


Here’s a recent Doctor Strange drawing I made specifically for a brand spanking new blog: the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Reduxe Edition and it’s dedicated to the title of the same name. From the crew that brought us Relaunched, a diverse bunch of cartoonists aim to present their versions of the original profiles. Mark Gruenwald would be proud.

Doctor Stange was created and designed by Steve Ditko and the original drawing that mine was loosely based off of was pencilled by Paul Smith.

In other news, I was recently interviewed by Martyn Pedler over at Booklsut in regards to my bootleg/love letter/fan fic Suicide Squad comic [see previous post for details]. It’s a brief piece, underpinned by Pedler’s own frustrations with ethical negotiation when reading modern mainstream comics. Read it, it’s interesting.

Oh, yeah, and here’s  a Squad related sketch I did for Zack Smith at this past Heroes Con.

–Fiffe