It's a big one, everybody. This week is Off Panel's double-sized holofoil, acetate edition 50th episode (with a Gambit hologram on the cover), and David's longest tenured comic friend Brandon Burpee joins the show to talk about a little bit of everything. They talk their favorite anniversary comics, what made them so awesome, why they went away, their thoughts on Captain America: Civil War, Geoff Johns' ascension at DC's film wing, their Rebirth and Civil War II excitement levels, the leak of the DC Universe Rebirth special, thoughts on major sites leaning into spoilers, how comic sites have changed in their seven years talking about comics, and then the show closes with Brandon turning the tables and interviewing David about a variety of subjects.
Today digital comics service ComiXology made a major announcement: ComiXology Unlimited is here, offering a wide variety of comics for $5.99 a month. Lots of information was getting out there and the conversation was all over the place, but what's real wasn't necessarily. So to change that, we got on the phone with ComiXology's CEO and co-founder David Steinberger to talk about Unlimited, why they named it that, their intent with this product, how it could help new and casual readers, peak comics, the selection on Unlimited, the tightrope walk of making this product a success without eating away at the rest of ComiXology, the behavior of ComiXology readers, the impact of in-app purchasing going away, how they're promoting the product, and what his hopes and dreams for Unlimited are.
Nick Dragotta, the artist and co-creator of East of West and one of the people behind the new comic creator grant Creators for Creators, joins the show this week to talk about what he's up to these days. Dragotta talks about the genesis of Creators for Creators, what the appeal of the project was for him, how East of West came together, how putting together a creator-owned book helped keep him in comics, the process he and Jonathan Hickman use on East of West, character acting, pace of storytelling, how the book's schedule works, the impact of Frank Martin and Rus Wooton on the book, character design, photo reference, where the book is headed, and more.
Skottie Young returns to the show this week, as the superstar cartoonist comes on to talk about his Image series, I Hate Fairyland. In this episode, Skottie talks his love of being a cartoonist, how he approaches creating the book, the value of figuring out the best way to tell his story on the fly, the importance of humor books staying nimble, the pros and cons of being young forever, how much of the book he figures out in the art stage, the fine line between adding too many pages to a book and restricting yourself too much, how The Good Wife explains how he's handling the transition into the next arc of the book, David's theory about the throne rooms of evil rulers, having freedom to go anywhere with his book and a whole lot more. It's a great chat with one of the biggest creators in comics about the power of comic book storytelling.
In the final episode of Off Panel from this year's Emerald City ComiCon, the co-creators of the upcoming Isola from Image Comics and part of the team behind DC's Gotham Academy - Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl - talk their creative partnership and what their new book is all about. They talk their longtime friendship, mutual interests, how they work together, how Isola's been developed,where inspiration for the project struck, interest in stories that mesh the natural world with the developed world, creative freedom,what made Image the right fit for the book, how they picked the format of the book, the influence the video game Dark Souls has on Isola, the give and take of how they work, what the Image Expo experience was like, and more. Their book isn't coming for a while now, but this conversation will give you plenty of reasons to be excited for it.
Important note: Karl speaks first, Brenden second, just in case you're wondering who is who.
In this week's special episode from Emerald City ComiCon, artist Wes Craig joins the show to talk about his art and work on Deadly Class at Image Comics with Rick Remender. He talks about the convention experience, how he and Remender bring the book to life, his process, his personal connection to the story, character acting, the way he brings motion onto the page, the difference between his approach on various projects, how he brings color into his own work, how the schedule impacts his work and much more. It's a great talk with, in my opinion, the best artist working in comics today.