NYCC 08: THE ONI PRESS PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Chris Mautner

Eschewing the usual panel format, Oni Editor In Chief James Lucas Jones brought a bit of trivia to Friday’s “Oni Press Presents: Stumped!” panel, asking attendees to answer questions about various Oni books and characters, as well as assorted pop culture trivia, up to and including the name of the hotel featured in The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.

The event was not an attempt to gauge the depth of feeling your average comics fan has for the Oni imprint (or various Nickelodeon shows for that matter) but to provide a unique way to take a look at what books the company has planned for release for the coming year.

First up was Jones himself, talking about The Return of King Doug a fantasy-adventure comedy written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland and drawn by Nick Hunter Park.

Jones described the book as “a humorous send-up of the Narnia-type fantasy epics” about “a young boy asked to save a mythical world and what happens when it doesn’t got the way it’s supposed to.” Even though the book will not be out until May of next year, it is already on the Hollywood fast track to be made into a film starring Ben Stiller.

Next up was Matthew Loax (Sidescrollers), talking about his new book, Salt Water Taffy. The book is an all-ages story about two young brothers going on a summer vacation to a “nowhere-port town” on the coast of Maine. Once there, the boys encounter a host of supernatural creatures, including a giant lobster that appears in the first volume. Loax said he plans for this to be a continuing series, with the second volume hopefully coming out by the end of the year, “depending upon the weather.”

Jones next heralded the return of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen series, illustrated by Maintenance artist Robbie Rodriguez. Jones mentioned Tek has suffered through a sporadic shipping schedule, which he said was due to the writer’s strike, which kept Colbert from working on the series. Jones said the book will restart in June with a new printing of #1 and #2, while #3 will be out in July, with #4 and #5 coming out in September and October.

Artist Rick Lacy then took the microphone to talk about his new project, Labor Days. Written by Philip Gellat (who had to miss NYCC to attend his sister’s wedding) , Lacy described the book based off of the twelve labors of Hercules, but “if Hercules were a British slacker.” The story, which has its own production blog (labordayscomic.blogspot.com), will be a two-volume work, with the first volume hitting stores in October.

Oni’s new marketing director Cory Casoni stepped up to the podium to talk about Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s series The Damned. The new Damned mini-series, “Prodigal Sons,” has just started, and Casoni stressed that knowledge of the previous trade was not a prerequisite to enjoying the new storyline.

Next up was Ray Fawkes, writer for the summer graphic novel Apocalipstix. The book, which features art by Cameron Stewart, is about an all-girl rock band that survives Armageddon but decides not to cancel their tour, instead playing across the country for whatever type of people, or monsters decide to show up. Fawkes said two volumes were already written and that there was the potential for a third. The first volume will be on sale in July.

Jones returned again to talk about the ongoing series Resurrection, by Marc Guggenheim and David Dumeer. Focusing on the aftermath of a devastating alien invasion, the series examines how the human race picks up the pieces and attempts to rebuild. Jones noted the fourth issue came out on sale this week.

Andy Parks (Capote in Kansas) then came forward to talk about his upcoming August one-shot Uncle Slam Fights Back. Saying it was the first creator-owned thing he did, he described Uncle Slam as “if Captain America were deranged and had a little robot dog sidekick.” The book is set at the GOP convention and features a battle royale between “a robotic amalgam of Jesus, Uncle Sam and Ronald Regan fighting an illegal immigrant, a homosexual and a terrorist, with Uncle Slam caught in the middle.”

“That,” Parks added, “should be a lot of fun to write.

Finally, Vasilis Lolos then came forward to talk about the second volume of his acclaimed book Last Call, which hopefully will be out in time for the San Diego Comic-Con. Lolos promised readers would find out what happened to the character s that disappeared in the first volume and how their actions affect the future of the other characters. “And also what’s up with the killings on the train and who does them. But I’m not going to tell you that.”

Return to the New York Comic Con 2008 mini-site...

[ShinAkuma666]

Will there be more Maintenance ? I love that title ! Theres 2 tpb out and its pure fun, great stuff, comedy and action, great art, excellent all around.

Here is a link to the first free 32 pages of Volume 1:


http://www.onipress.com/preview.php?...7&pid=142&pg=1


And I will pick up the Ressurection TPB once its out, it looks great with an excellent premise and art.

[Stalzer2002]

Man, still no word on when Stumptown is coming out? We've been waiting a long time and we still don't even have a release date.

[Althalus]

No word on more Blue Monday, Strangetown, Northwest Passage or Love as a Foreign Language?


~Althalus

[rockieman]

I was hoping for info on Stumptown.