Official Website For Clay N. Ferno, Clay S. Fernald, Boston MA, USA
Website for writer Clay N. Ferno / Clay S, Fernald
We continue to support our indie creators trying to use Kickstarter and other platforms like Indiegogo to fund their comics.
A hustlin’ Josh Lucas sent us a tweet about his campaign, and sometimes that’s all it takes to get the ball rolling.
Plus the hard boiled crime super hero scratches a few of our itches.
Josh joins us today to talk about Moros.
[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]
COMICS
Our pal Ben Templesmith releases Squidder #1 from IDW for all of your tentacle needs! You remember him from 44 Flood Kickstarter, right? … The Supers may be saving our asses from harm but their blood may hold the cure for cancer. An undertaker is convinced to help out his delinquent brother to get superhuman DNA in Black Market #1 from Frank J. Barberie and Victor Santos at Boom! … “Trust me, I’m The Doctor”, Star Trek’s medical all-stars are in ST: Flesh and Stone one shot focussing on Starfleet Medical from McCoy to Crusher and EMH! … Picks this week from the All-New LeaguePodcast.com.
On top of that, he chose many different artists to tell the story, giving the book an anthology feel. We spoke to Faro about the book, the Kickstarter campaign and the secrets of Abraham Lincoln.
FOG!: Thanks for joining us today! Your pitch for Chronicles of Faro describes the book as James Bond meets Quantum Leap. Care to tell our readers what to expect?
Faro Kane: My two greatest influences growing up were James Bond movies that my father insisted I watch along with the obsession with time travel I gained from watching Quantum Leap. On Quantum Leap, the main character was a brilliant scientist who is able to leap into different people scattered throughout time. Each week he altered the lives of random people time and again, surviving death and love and confusion from having his mind meld with the people he’s “leaped” into.
While Dr. Sam Beckett changed minor history for the better, I always wondered how it would go down if someone altered a MAJOR event in time. While good would evolve, wouldn’t evil play the same game?
So I took the main character of FARO and gave him the persona of Professor Francis Kane, a 40 something instructor at The National Academy of Science (founded in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln) who destroys his career and sells his soul to achieve time travel.
The James Bond part comes in after time travel is achieved, where our older hero finds himself 20 years younger and the pawn of an elite circle of time traveling terrorists (like SPECTRE) I envision FARO as the James Bond, his sidekick MUZIO the MAULER as the Felix Leiter, Johnny Olives as Q and eventually the surviving Abe Lincoln as M.
[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]
Twenty years ago, the comic book industry’s top guns took their pen nibs, pouches, flowy capes and big eyes away from the Big Two and started Image Comics. Creator ownership and the comic book industry fundamentally changed that day when McFarlane, Larsen, Liefeld, Silvestri, Lee, Valentino, and Portacio took control of the business of comic books and the rights to their own characters.
Written and directed by Patrick Meany and produced by Seqart in association with Respect! Films, The Image Revolution interviews the guys, plus Sean Howe (Marvel Comics: The Untold Story), Image publisher Eric Stephenson, Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Nick Spencer (Morning Glories) and many more to tell the tale of the early ‘rock star’ days of Image Comics and takes us through today. With the success of The Walking Deadand Image Comics dominating the creator owned market and business model, the impossible dream became real.
We get another great inside the bullpen look from Respect! Films here, highly recommended for fans of these superstar creators but mostly for people of my comic book reading generation. The early ‘90s were an amazing time to be reading the books coming out from Marvel.
The split happened right before our eyes, and like many things no one was sure if it would work.
[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]
Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: The Last Man, TV’s Lost) and artist Marcos Martin (Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil) have quietly disrupted the comic book industry with a small crack in the wall.
Beyond the innovative distribution method they have devised with a ‘pay what you want’ donation system at Panel Syndicate site, the story itself is revolutionary.
Within the tablet-friendly landscape format with a DRM-free file formats lies a future tale where nothing is private. The Internet doesn’t exist. The ‘cloud’ has burst and everyone wears a mask. The cops of the future are The Fourth Estate - code word for the press.
You may not know about this sleeper hit, but if you wanted to, you can pay $0 to read it right now.
You’ll quickly find justification for leaving a donation (or not, that’s how they roll).
[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]
COMICS
“Hooked on a feeling…”, Oh man, Guardians of the Galaxy is gonna be so good! Star Lord (played by Chris Pratt) stars in his own book Legendary Star Lord #1 written by newly minted exclusive Marvel writer Sam Humphries (The Ultimates, Uncanny X-Force). … Continuing the tradition of Zero Issues for these books, Magnus: Robot Fighter #0 hits stands starring Leeja: Human Hunter! … Your move, creep! If you weren’t satisfied with the Robocop Reboot last summer, this is the book for you! Joshua Williamson writes what happens after Murphy and Lewis clean up Old Detroit in Robocop 2014 #1. Picks from the all new LeaguePodcast.com Dot Now!
COMICS!
Colt City is having a rash of murders and our pulp hero Black Beetle is the only one that can stop them! The followup series Black Beetle: Necrologue #1 starts today from Francesco Francavilla. Pick up many copies, this will sell out! … IDW combines Ben 10, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls and Dexter’s Laboratory into one Cartoon Network Super Secret Crisis War #1! The Crossover that should never be (guest starring Ed, Edd and Eddy! … Master Alan Davis writes and draws the green Banner Monster in Savage Hulk #1! … Picks from the All-New LeaguePodcast.com!
COMICS
Bringing the characters of The Bard to Life, Kill Shakespeare: The Mask of Night #1 takes the action onto the water, a great companion piece to the new IDW game of the same name! …The weird wonderful talking drug addled space gun and cyber punk adventure concludes as Butch and Gun defend Repo city in Ballistic #5. … The Phonogram / Young Avengers team of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie are back with a new creator owned project THE WICKED + THE DIVINE telling the tale of Gods reincarnating as teenagers—the ultimate pop-stars! Picks from the new LeaguePodcast.com.
Starting this Friday and and ending on Independence Day, ImprovBoston is giving us an original sketch comedy revue show with musical guests and even a few songs. Celebrating all the shaving bumps and concealed warts of this nation of ours — Comedy, America— takes ImprovBoston’s holiday themed sketch comedy series from the Old West to Disney and of course American presidents. Comedy writer and director of the show Allen McRae joins us to talk ceremonial turkey.
Who are you and what are you doing?
My name is Allen McRae. I am the head writer and director of Comedy, America — an all new sketch comedy revue being presented every Friday in June and also on the Fourth of July at ImprovBoston in Central Sq., Cambridge.
How long have you been doing stuff at ImprovBoston?
For about six or seven years now. I lived in New York for a little while when I got out of college, doing comedy there. When I moved back to Boston I did comedy at this place called The Tribe. When they closed down, I started doing comedy at ImprovBoston. I took a couple of years off because I was in a band, as you know (The Tin Thistles!).
[READ MORE AT DIGBOSTON.COM]
Bret and I met over the weekend at the strangest place, a crafts fair in his hometown of Worcester, MA, just minutes after a fender bender outside, and in a room with local Celtic punk bands playing amidst tables loaded with cupcakes, taxidermy, necklaces and pins.
Naturally, I gravitated to the comic book artist there and looked at his book, Sherlock Holmes and the Painful Predicament of Alice Faulkner and enjoyed his portfolio of drawings. There was a steampunk Batgirl in his signature style as well as Sherlock Holmes vs. the deadly Daleks.
His new book takes on Alice in Wonderland and puts her Alice where she should be, a strong hero and her adventures after she returns home. Bret’s Indiegogo campaign runs until June 20th.
FOG!: Thanks for joining us, Bret! What’s new in Wonderland?
Bret M. Herholz: Thank you Clay! Quite a lot has happened actually!
The story I’ve written picks up whereAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland left off.
We come to find out that all of Alice’s adventures weren’t all just a dream. The Queen of Hearts found a way to break through to Alice’s reality and her army has taken over the world.
Alice manages to escape with the help of some of the friends she has made in her adventures down the rabbit hole such as the Mad Hatter, March Hare and White Rabbit. The bulk of the story takes place six years later with a now 16 year old Alice continuing her fight against the Queen of Hearts.
[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]
COMICS
Archie comics are Undead! When Sabrina resurrects Hot Dog with a spooky spell, she kicks off a zombie outbreak! Amazing art by Francesco Francavilla on this Walking Dead meets Riverdale trade paperback, Afterlife with Archie Vol. 1. …Trekkies rejoice, Harlan Ellison’s Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever #1 gets the originally intended version of the teleplay from IDW in comic form. …Master Kazuo Koike returns with an all new version of New Lone Wolf and Cub Vol. 1, continuing the classic samurai title. Picks this week from League Podcast.com.
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| Review by Clay N Ferno |
Director Bryan Singer is back for an epic cross-time caper with X-Men: Days of Future Past. The latest Marvel Comics summer blockbuster merges the casts of the previous X-Men films and offers a glimpse at a not-so pleasant future.
Drawing inspiration from the comic book storyline of the same name, mutants in the future are forced to wear inhibitor collars or fear being eliminated by robotic Sentinels.
There are differences in the stories, however.
The movie doesn’t take direct cues from the famous storyline, rather it deftly adapts plot points from each of the other X-Men movies (Including Matthew Vaughn’s 2011 X-Men: First Class) to weave in and out of possible timelines. Are you a fan of Doctor Who and The Wolverine?
Singer delivers with this all-star cast and intelligent storytelling.
The movie opens on the future, as Bishop (Omar Sy), Blink (Fan Bingbing), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Kitty (Ellen Page) and Ice Man (Shawn Ashmore) fight off Sentinels. Our new brand of Sentinels are unlike any you have seen in the comics, more T-1000 than robot, with the ability to change form to fight the mutant enemy.
Before long, we’re treated to a meet up in China where surviving X-Men meet up with the old guard of X-Men: Storm, Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto. Actors Barry, Jackman, Stewart and McKellen are of course all reprising their signature X-Men roles.
Divergent from the comic storyline, Kitty has a new skill whereby she is able to send someone’s consciousness back into the past (reserved in the comics for Rachel Summers). In order to escape their current fate, someone must go back in time to stop the Sentinels from being invented. Wolverine takes Kitty’s place this time because of his healing factor and the fact that he doesn’t look all that different!
[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]
“To me, it’s all one story. Because life is a single story”
— Chris Claremont
To prepare for the cross-time caper that is Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, we were treated to a preview of Comics in Focus: Chris Claremont’s X-Men. The documentary produced by Patrick Meaney forRespect! Films and the Sequart Research & Literacy Organization includes interviews with Chris Claremont, and other instrumental professionals involved in the Claremont Era of X-Men including Len Wein, Louise Simonson, Ann Nocenti and Jim Shooter.
After Stan and Jack’s X-Men run, Roy Thomas and Neal Adams attempted to revive the book before it devolved into reprints and remained a essentially a third tier book. May 1975’s Giant Size X-Men #1 was the shot in the arm the series needed to continue to prosper.
Written by Len Wein and drawn by Dave Cockrum, the success of the book prompted a renewal of sorts with former Marvel intern Chris Claremont starting writing chores on the book in August of 1975.
The new international team of mutants would have their life stories told by Claremont, Cockrum, John Byrne and Terry Austin for years to come.
[READ MORE at FORCES OF GEEK]
COMICS
Rise of the Magi #1 is a story of Asa, who controls the gates between our world and his where magic rules the land. Written by Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri - this “Harry Potter meets The Usual Suspects” is sure to be a hit! … The Flash trailer has everyone running around like crazy and with the drug the help of a drug in MPH #1 from Mark Millar, teens in Detroit are using it to collect loot! … Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman invades Invincible in issue #111. Things are getting DARK in Mark Grayson’s world thanks to Robot! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.
COMICS
Superman’s deadliest foe, Doomsday is back in the New 52, and writer Scott Lobdell promises tons of smashing action in the Superman: DOOMED #1 event! …Mark Millar’s take on a retired Flash Gordon a la the Dark Knight in Starlight #3 is the must read comic event of the year. Genius level stuff, sure to be optioned for a flick! … Star Mage #2 is the opposite of our last pick in many ways, young Darien is also the chosen one! …Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.
Another nerd holiday came and went, and unlike the usual December comedown, we ain’t sick of our presents after coming down from a sugar high!
Free Comic Book Day, the first Saturday in May offers an opportunity for fans and more importantly retailers to focus on what really matters, comic books!
Most stores will set up some kind of event or discount for coming by to get the free goods, while the publishers get their hooks in to greedy fans everywhere with honest-to-goodness free product!
If you are lucky, when in the shops today, there may be some leftover goods to grope.
This week’s Cosmic Treadmill merges with Triple Shot to take a look at our Saturday grab bag and also every title available for free on the ComiXology platform in honor of Free Comic Book Day!
[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]
COMICS
With all the hub-bub about Peter coming back we almost forgot about the other Spider-Man, Miles Morales! Luckily Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man #1 reminds us with a new #1, putting Miles back in the suit and against one of Spidey’s big villains! …Mike Carey and Salvador Larocca (Invincible Iron Man) follow up the events of Battle of the Atom with Marvel’s first Original Graphic Novel in a long time, X-Men: No More Humans! … Can rival X-Men come together to find out why all the humans have disappeared? … Your favorite ride at Disney gets a backstory! No lines for this, but there should be, with Brian Q. Miller (Batgirl) and Kelley Jones (Batman) giving you the story of Space Mountain finally! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.
Posted May 2, 2014
Since tomorrow is the annual nerdgasm known as Free Comic Book Day, we decided to tab local comic book expert Clay Fernald (AKA Clay N. Ferno) about which local shops should be hit up for the best events. Obviously, as the host of League Podcast and chief scribe of all things comics, Fernald had a tough time choosing only five joints to pimp out, so he recommends using the store locator to select the best spots for freebies around your area. But, if you’re feeling adventurous and want to meet some of the city’s best graphic novel talent and swipe some gratis page-turners, they’ve got the hookup to make this year’s event the Best. Free Comic Book Day. Ever.
| 1. | New England Comics 316 Harvard St., Brookline |
| 2. | Jetpack Comics 37 N. Main St., Rochester, NH |
COMICS
He’s Back! Swinging his way through Manhattan, conveniently in time for a new movie! Amazing Spider-Man #1 stars Peter Parker and his damn luck - will this be a Superior book? Let’s see! … Valiant jumps forward to 4001 AD for the return of the legendary Japanese warrior ghost of Japan in Rai #1 by Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain. … Buddy Bradley from ‘Hate’ comics returns from indie legend Peter Bagge with 20 pages of new material. What’s Buddy gonna do raising his family in the local dump in Buddy Buys a Dump! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.
Last week saw the debut of JC De La Torre and Ray Dillon’s Star Mage from IDW. We caught up with JC for a MIGHTY Q&A about his influences, the Kickstarter process and merging a classic war-in-space tale with magic to give us an identifiable teenage hero!
Clay N. Ferno: Thanks for joining us, JC! Care to tell us how you got from Kickstarter to IDW with Star Mage? It seems like the response so far is spectacular!
JC De La Torre: Thanks so much for having me. It was such an interesting process to get to where we are now. The story of Star Mage actually started out as a novella that I was dissatisfied with. It just didn’t feel like it was coming together as I hoped. I happened to be reading an IDW Doctor Who comic and that dim light bulb of mine had a momentary flicker and I realized that Darien’s story belonged in a visual medium — what better place than with comics?
I started doing research and whatnot. I knew I wanted high quality artwork and I can barely manage stick figures — so I needed to hire an artist. I went through several potentials before realizing that if I truly want the best art, I needed to pay for a pro. I found Ray Dillon and he was exactly what I was looking for. I paid for the first issue out of my own pocket but to continue the series we were going to need some help, so we turned to Kickstarter. If our Kickstarter failed, Star Mage would have been DOA. It was thanks to those supporters, my defenders of the realm as I like to call them, we kept the lights on and allowed us to continue to develop the series.
IDW knew of the project thanks to Ray, who had previously done work with them and got some of the artwork of Issue #1 in front of Chris Ryall of IDW. There were a ton of starts and stops in the first year and a half developing Issue #1. There were days where it truly seemed like we’d never finish — but IDW stood by us through and through. When we finished Issue #1 and realized due to his demanding schedule Ray wouldn’t be able to finish the series, they trusted me to find another artist of the same caliber. Franco Cespedes took over and once we got our first three issues in the can, the IDW machine began churning.
Response to Issue #1 has been overwhelming. We’re very close to a sell-out of our initial run and we just had a signing at Heroes’ Haven Comics in Tampa where the line was out the door, the store sold out of their copies and we actually had to dip into our convention stock to be able to support the masses. The reviews have been mostly positive so it appears to really be well liked.
It’s very exciting.
[READ MORE at 13th DIMENSION.COM]