FOG! Chats With MIDNIGHTER Writer STEVE ORLANDO #DCYOU - AT FORCES OF GEEK

Today launches the New #DCYou continuity and one of the books debuting is Midnighter.

Midnighter was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch in 1998 as part of Stormwatch. He’s been featured in The Authority as well as a short lived mini Grifter & Midnighter and his own series before being a part of the DC’s New 52Stormwatch and Grayson books.

Steve Orlando (Undertow, Image Comics) reintroduces Lucas Trent and his alter-ego in the latest from DC Comics and is here to tell us about what it means to have an openly gay male superhero hit the shelves!

FOG!: Fans of The Authority and Stormwatch might know Midnighter, and of course we’ve seen him in Graysonrecently fighting Spyral. But really, Who is this guy?

Steve Orlando: He’s a fighter! Midnighter has been engineered to be the greatest, and he’s a weapon, a sword. That’s part of his core. But he’s found a way to make it into a positive, and he fights for those that don’t have anyone to listen to them, or fight for them. 

Midnighter is a community character, on the street, connecting with the people he helps and making himself available to even more people. When he saves you, you can become part of his Network, bringing situations to his attention, and helping him bring the Midnighter experience to even more people.

He’s the clenched fist that’s on your side when maybe no one else will hear you. Midnighter’s past was stolen, and in its place he was programmed to be a fighting machine.  And he doesn’t want anyone else to go what he went through. He’s fighting to make sure no one else has to become another Midnighter.

Midnighter is the guy that is puts the fear into the fear mongers.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

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MIGHTY Q&A: STEVE ORLANDO GOES FOR A DEEP DIVE WITH IMAGE’S UNDERTOW AT 13TH DIMENSION

Steve Orlando and Artyom Trakhanov’s Undertow takes a new look at the Atlanteans — and Steve invites us below for a taste of the salty brine before the launch this Wednesday, Feb. 19.

By CLAY N. FERNO

Clay N. Ferno: How long have you been working on this concept?

Steve Orlando: Undertow has been coming together in one way or another for almost four years. From early development as an underwater police procedural, it grew into something more, something less rooted in Dick Wolf story structures and more launched out of Jules Verne adventure. Artyom and I bounced around two years ago with some short stories, and when I told him what I was thinking about for a longer story, he was instantly sold on my strange fish people.

This is a very different world in which the Atlanteans are exploring the world on land as explorers. It does not look like surface humans are using tools yet. And the Atlanteans are as advanced as space explorers. Did I catch that right?

The feral humans actually can use tools, but that’s about as sophisticated as they get. Atlantis, though, is far more advanced. It’s almost like the spark that jumpstarted our evolution maybe sparked somewhere else. Being under water, there’re some things they just don’t have that we have, and some things they have that we wouldn’t think of. It’s maybe not taking place during human development, but maybe in place of it. The humans have developed in a different way. They kept evolving and specializing physically, with different coats and furs for different climates, but they never quite developed higher consciousness.

[READ MORE at 13thDIMENSION.COM]

TRIPLE SHOT DIGITAL: Comixology Submit Presents DEMETER #1, THE KITCHEN WITCH #1, TIME SAMPLERS #1

Here at the digital ComiXology Submit camp we confront the dirty sea in Becky Cloonan’s Demeter, protect the secret family ingredient with the help of a witch and tune in to some time travel, man!

The leader in the digital comics space opened up the platform to indie creators back in March of this year.

Writers and artists now have the chance to publish comics or graphic novels on the browser, tablet or phone using the Guided View technology. Comixology curates the submissions and soon the comic is put into panel by panel production for the viewer. The comics appear right on the digital store alongside all of the major publisher’s books. 

Demeter #1
Written and drawn by: Becky Cloonan

Price: $0.99
Imprint: Ink and Thunder
Digital Release Date: 6/19/13
Age Rating: 15+ Only 
BUY IT HERE
 
Becky Cloonan (Buffy, Batman, Strange Tales) delivers Demeter, part of her one-shot short story series.

This is a richly illustrated romantic tale in one issue of a maiden in a lighthouse and her passionate love affair with Colin. The sea does not forget the debts owed to her, and seeks to take back from Anna that which is most precious to her.

Amazing art coupled with the tale that reads like classic literature makes for astounding comics.

Hard copies can be purchased at Becky’s new webstore with options that include silkscreen covers and sketch editions.

The Kitchen Witch #1
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Olivia Pelaez
Price: $0.99
Page Count: 27 Pages
Imprint: 215 Ink
Digital Release Date: 5/29/13
Age Rating: All ages
BUY IT HERE

Kevin feels a little neglected as his father, chef Bennett Gordon, prepares to open a new restaurant.

The restaurant Traddodiad is guarded by kindly witch Lovis at night as the kitchen is also a fantastical landscape where creativity comes from.

Kevin and Lovis pursue The Gremlin King in the Traddodiad realm to track down Gordon’s secret ingredient.

The Kitchen Witch is great fun for an all ages book, for fans of cooking reality TV and The Wizard of Oz.

TIME SAMPLERS #1
Writers: Thomas Gorence, Erik Koconis, David Pinckney

 Artists: Nicolas Colacitti, Christopher Hanchey 
Price: $2.99
Page Count: 37 Pages
Imprint: Paranoid American
Digital Release Date: 5/29/13
Age Rating: 15+ Only
BUY IT HERE

Time Samplers is a fun adventure title based on psychedelic time travel.

In order for the two main characters Cal and Lex to make a copy of the past and investigate Alexander Graham Bell’s illuminati time crimes, they must also dose on heavy DMT.

To be honest the storytelling in issue #1 has a lot going on that could use some simplification, but this is still a fun Butterfly Effect time travel tale. 

[READ MORE at FORCES OF GEEK]