From the Editor's Desk: Hungry like a zombie? Part I

Writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred of i,ZOMBIE fame (on sale next Wednesday!) expose their black, white and gray matter in a q & a with editor, Shelly Bond.

So grab a shovel, crack a skull and dig in!

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FIRST COMIC:

Read -

M: The MAD MOD issue of Teen Titans.

C: I honestly don't remember the first comic I read. It seems like they were *always* around. But I was hooked by the time I was eight, when I bought a mass-market paperback collection of Superman stories at a school book fair.

Bought -

M: I remember paying actual money for NEW GODS #8.

C: Probably the first comics I bought for myself were the DC Blue Ribbon Digests that were ubiquitous at supermarket checkout lines in the late 70s. I used to carry the Batman one that came out in 1979 with me *everywhere* (and got in trouble more than a few times for sneaking it into church).

Bagged –

C: I went through a bag-and-board phase that didn't wear off until I was in my 20s. I think the first issue that I went out of my way to "preserve" was Uncanny X-Men 151.

M: Never. The few I bagged never got read again so I never locked in to the whole Bag and board thing. They still lay around everywhere
vulnerable to thrashing.

Cherished -

C: If my house were to catch fire, the first things I'd grab would probably be my boxes of Alan Moore's comics. Probably unnecessary, since I've read and reread them so many times that I've committed them to memory, but I'm sentimental like that.

M: The childhood faves are a blur of mad love, I'd have to say Love and Rockets became my first mature romance with a comic


FIRST TIME YOU
:

Stole something from a sibling –

M: My big brother’s Legion comics. True.

C: My kid brother's copy of Michael Fleisher's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPERMAN. It was justified, though. He got it as a gift from a family friend, and would never have appreciated it like I did.

FAVORITE:

Album of all time that is the soundtrack for your life -

M: My favorite album of all time changes every day. But today it would be David Bowie's Diamond Dogs

C: I'm lucky if my "favorite" lasts a whole day, but at the moment it's probably David Bowie's HUNKY DORY.

Book -

M: Catcher in The Rye

C: At this very moment? Not a single book, but a *series* of books, Kage Baker's "Company" novels.

Movie –

C: Infinitely variable, but I'll go with Brad Bird's INCREDIBLES.

M: A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

TV show –

M: BATMAN, THE MONKEES, or LOST

C: LOST, without a doubt. Best. Show. Ever.

Comic book -

M: I, ZOMBIE

C: I'm with Mike on this one. (Though Paul Grist's WEIRD WORLD OF JACK STAFF is a close second.)

I, ZOMBIE Prequel

Last week I posted the cover to I, ZOMBIE issue #1 by Mike Allred here and the variant by Darwyn Cooke here.

And, if you recall, back in October we published THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY HALLOWEEN ANNUAL which included a 7 page prequel to the upcoming new series I, ZOMBIE. Well, that was a long time ago. Rather than having to dig through your long box to find the issue and re-read it before you pick up issue #1 this May, we're posting it in its entirety in this very blog post.

Enjoy!

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San Diego Comic Con media highlights

Highlights from the past week:

MARKETPLACE/American Public Media spoke with Josh Dysart about his Eisner Award Nominated series UNKNOWN SOLDIER. Listen and then watch the video.

CBR covered both the Vertigo Ongoing Series/Crime Panel and the Vertigo Panel from San Diego Comic Con.

IGN covered the FABLES panel and all of the exciting announcements from San Diego Comic Con.

While the exclusive one-sheet handed out at the FABLES panel that foreshadows future FABLES events can be seen on IGN, Robot 6/CBR, and COMICS ALLIANCE.

And CBR spoke with Chris Roberson and Mike Allred about their new series I, ZOMBIE.

Vertigo: View of the Future panel highlights

Two Graphic Novels were announced at today’s panel:

From Mat Johnson, award winning novelist and author of the highly acclaimed Vertigo graphic novel INCOGNEGRO, and artist Simon Gane comes DARK RAIN, an uncompromising portrait of the life and death of the American city. Johnson uses the setting of New Orleans and the aftermath of hurricane Katrina intertwined with a suspenseful bank heist to explore social issues with a page-turning plot.

Sam, a 20-something living in Seattle, wakes up one morning to a world where things are out of control—the stock market has crashed, there’s a bird-flu epidemic in Asia and radioactive material has gone missing in Russia. Next, Sam wakes up and the world is fine. REVOLVER, written and illustrated by Eisner Award nominated Matt Kindt, is a tale of two realities and how they both test Sam’s limits until he makes a move that changes his path forever.

And Vertigo rolled out more details on I, ZOMBIE the upcoming new series that was originally announced here on Graphic Content last week:

Written by Chris Roberson and with art by Michael Allred, I, ZOMBIE is the story of Gwendolyn “Gwen” Dylan a 20-something gravedigger in an eco-friendly cemetery. Once a week she must eat a human brain to keep from losing her memories, but in the process she becomes consumed with the thoughts and personality of the dead person until she eats the next one. With a posse of vampires who play paintball, a smitten weredog, a swinging 60s ghost and a sexy but demented mummy, Gwen ‘zombie girl detective’ sets out to fulfill the dead person’s last request, solve a crime, or right a wrong.

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And here are the covers to the new 6 issue mini-series JOE THE BARBARIAN (sorry, I mistakenly wrote 3 issue last week) and CINDERELLA: From Fabletown With Love:

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For those of you who couldn’t make it to the show or if you missed any of the DC COMICS panels, or, you just want to relive the experience again, you can find photos, podcasts from the panels, and other information, here.

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