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Oni Press Brings Back Courtney Crumrin, Dishes Out More Black Metal

Posted 10/28/11 5:00 pm EST by Brigid Alverson in New York Comic Con, Oni Press

Just in time for Halloween, Oni Press has announced that it will be bringing back Ted Naifeh’s Courtney Crumrin—in color!

“It’s our 15-year anniversary, and we want to do a combination of old and new things,” said Oni’s marketing director Cory Casoni, introducing the new Courtney Crumrin books at the Oni Press panel at New York Comic Con. The series will in April with a new edition of Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things, and Naifeh will be doing new Courtney Crumrin monthly comics beginning in the spring.

Courtney Crumrin is a girl with magical powers who lives and travels with her mysterious Uncle Aloysius. “I like to call her Harry Potter with gumption, because she is willing to feed her enemies to trolls,” said Casoni. “The beauty of Courtney is that she doesn’t always do well at the things she does, and she uses magic inappropriately until she learns the ropes.” Read More...

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Oni's "Power Lunch" Is A "Young Superman Book" With A Twist

Posted 10/26/11 10:53 am EST by Alex Zalben in Comic Books, Comics For Kids, Oni Press

"...this is clearly a young Superman book with a twist."

Do you like Superman? Wish he was in high school, easily readable by all ages, and had a good message about watching what you eat? The welcome to Power Lunch, the new (hopefully ongoing) series by J. Torres and Dean Trippe; a delightfully creative and earnest graphic novel that should be given out in lunch rooms along with every well balanced meal.

The book kicks off with a kid named Joey heading to school, and finding out from the OLD weird kid – Jerome – that he, Joey is the NEW weird kid at the school. This gets backed up pretty nicely by the fact that Joey only eats white food, and claims to have superpowers… A Fact he ends up backing up a little bit later.

Okay, spoiler time, because there’s no way to talk about the book without mentioning the central conceit: whenever Joey eats colored foods, he gets a different power. For trail mix, super speed. For bubble gum, super jumping. You get the idea.

Over the course of the tightly written book, Joey and Jerome deal with a bully named Bug, learn how to be friends, and explore Joey’s powers. That’s pretty much it! Except at the same time, the simplicity belies a complex amount of thought that’s gone into each brightly rendered panel. Read More...

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Advance Review: Black Metal, Book 2 - The False Brother

Posted 9/23/11 5:30 pm EST by Alex Zalben in Comic Books, Oni Press, Reviews

Black Metal, by writer Rick Spears and artist Chuck BB, is one of my favorite comics ever. For those of you who have no idea what Black Metal is, here’s the recap: two metal playing brothers discover that they are two halves of a demon known as The Roth. They head down to Hell to discover their destiny, and basically live out the cover artwork of every metal album, ever. It is – in case this isn’t clear already – awesome.

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Scott Pilgrim's Bryan Lee O'Malley Goes Back for 'Seconds' in 2013

Posted 7/21/11 12:26 pm EST by Alex Zalben in Comic Books, News, Oni Press

Since the conclusion of his best-selling SCOTT PILGRIM series, fans of writer/artist Bryan Lee O’Malley have been wondering one thing: “why is he so mean to me on Twitter?” But the second biggest question that has wracked fans brains is, “What’s next?”

Sensing that the comic book buying public would probably not stop asking that any time soon – particularly because I remember asking O’Malley this same question probably about five years ago, before SCOTT PILGRIM was close to finished, and he was sick of it then – there’s finally news on that front. In 2013, Villard – Random House’s graphic novel imprint – will publish his next graphic novel, titled SECONDS.

…And that’s pretty much all we know. O’Malley tweeted (somewhat less meanly) a picture back in June that stated outline #4 of SECONDS was done in May-June 2011. But other than that, virtually no info is available. We can hazard a guess, though, so here goes: Read More...

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Oni Press Review: The Sixth Gun #12

Posted 6/29/11 4:23 pm EST by Alex Zalben in Comic Books, Oni Press

There’s only one thought that ran through my head as a perused a preview copy of Oni’s horror western The Sixth Gun #12: why haven’t I been reading this the past twelve months?

Okay, so actually, there were a couple of thoughts, but they all boil down to the fact that The Sixth Gun is an eminently enjoyable, rollicking ride their the Old West that will work for fans of comics like High Moon and Jonah Hex – and fans of the CW’s Supernatural should be picking this up in droves. And in case it isn’t clear, despite not having read the previous eleven issues (which I’ll definitely be going back and doing right after this review is done), its incredibly easy to jump right in and enjoy this issue – mostly due to Cullen Bunn’s inviting structure and dialogue, as well as Brian Hurtt and Bill Crabtree’s cinematic pacing.

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WonderCon 2011: Oni Press Preview

Posted 4/8/11 1:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in Announcements, Comic Book Conventions, Oni Press, WonderCon

Last weekend’s Oni Press panel at WonderCon briefly became the Tyler Crook Appreciation Panel as new work was shown off by the soon-to-be prolific artist of Petrograd and Dark Horse’s B.P.R.D.

But let’s rewind a bit: attending the panel were Crook, along with writer/artist Brian Hurtt (The Sixth Gun), and nerdcore rapper Eugene Ahn (aka Adam Warrock), with Oni Sales and Marketing Director Cory Casoni moderating.

The panel kicked off with Casoni and Ahn talking about the latter’s recently released free to download "Oni Press Mixtape." Ahn credits the origins of the mixtape with the constant, joking harassment by Oni editor Charlie Chu for the rapper to do something with the publisher involving his music. Ahn has been familiar with the Oni family of creators for a while, with many of them participating in Ahn and blogger/humorist Chris Sims’ podcast "War Rocket Ajax."

Ahn’s participation in the podcast has come to an end in recent months with his recent tour in support of his still-fledgling music career. In fact, until last year, Ahn was a lawyer practicing out of New York before he decided to pursue his music full time after the release of his first full-length album, The War for Infinity. Both Infinity and the Oni Press Mixtape meld Ahn’s passion for both sample-heavy hip hop and comics. Specifically, with Oni, the rapper has tailored each track to a specific title from the publisher’s catalog. Read More...

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Ray Fawkes, 18 People, and 'One Soul'

Posted 4/4/11 7:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in C2E2, Comic Books, Interviews, Oni Press

To hear it from the Oni Press PR, Ray Fawkes’ July OGN One Soul is something of an ambitious undertaking for not only the writer/artist but the publisher. The 176-page hardcover—written and illustrated by Fawkes and designed by Superspy creator Matt Kindt—is a journey through history spread among a disparate cast, visualized through a series of double-page spreads. Fawkes describes the story as that of “18 peoples’ lives, from birth ‘til death, told simultaneously.”

Fawkes is the writer and artist behind the Vertigo miniseries Mnemovore, illustrated by Hans Rodinoff, as well as a contributor to anthology collections like Flux and the recent X-Men: To Serve and Protect.

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ECCC 2011: The Oni Press Panel

Posted 3/8/11 10:48 am EST by Charles Webb in Announcements, Comic Book Conventions, Emerald City Comicon, Oni Press

If there was one panel that wasn’t about to hold back the announcements, it was Oni Press and the raft of 2011 titles on display during their presentation. Joining Director of Sales and Cory Casoni onstage were writer Greg Rucka (Stumptown, Queen and Country), artists Steve Rolston (Ghost Projekt), Brian Hurtt (The Sixth Gun), Ray Fawkes (Posessions), Sarah Oleksyk (Ivy), and color artist Bill Crabtree (Invincible, The Sixth Gun).

Casoni kicked off the presentation with the announcement that lawyer by day, nerd rapper by night Eugene WarRock has a free Oni Press Mixtape available for download on his site.

Next up, he showed a slide with the cover of the collected edition of Joe Harris and Steve Rolston’s supernatural weapons of mass destruction story, Ghost Projekt, which just hit shelves last week sporting a glow-in-the-dark cover. Rolston talked about using his clean, almost cartoony style to catch readers off-guard just before the story becomes really and truly gruesome. Casoni and Rolston also credited colorist Dean Trippe for his work on the book in realizing the muted tones of post-Soviet Russia.

After that, the discussion moved on to Sarah Oleksyk’s Ivy, a slice-of-life drama about the titular teen who tries escaping from her problems, only to realize most of them are in her own head. Interesting fact: Ivy was actually a Russ Manning-nominated webcomic before getting the print treatment.

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The (Yellow Brick Road) To Emerald City Comicon: Kracklefest, James Marsters, Boom! Studios, and more!

Posted 3/1/11 2:38 pm EST by Valerie Gallaher in Boom Studios, Emerald City Comicon, Music, Oni Press

If you're in Seattle for Emerald City Comicon this weekend, why not buy a ticket for Kracklefest on Saturday March 5th? Playing at the Hard Rock Cafe will be of coures "nerd rock" band Kirby Krackle, as well as Adam WarRock and H2Awesome. James Marsters (Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as well as countless other roles) will also be performing a rare solo performance on Saturday night at Hard Rock -- and buying a ticket to his show automatically gets you into Kracklefest! Don't forget to see Marsters at ECCC this weekend as well, along with fellow "Buffy" alums Nicholas Brendon and Claire Kramer!