Superstar Brazilian artists — and twin brothers — Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon are signing at the Portland Things From Another World at 2916 NE Broadway Portland, OR 97232 May 22 from 7 to 10 p.m. Meet the multiple Eisner Award-winning talents behind B.P.R.D. Vampire, Casanova, Daytripper, The Umbrella Academy, and more!

Enjoy free food and beer (those 21+ with valid I.D.) and enter our raffle to win an original sketch by Fábio Moon (pictured here)!

Gabriel Bá rose to fame as artist for the Eisner Award-winning series The Umbrella Academy. Fábio Moon delighted fans worldwide with Sugarshock, an Eisner Award-winning one-shot written by Joss Whedon. The brothers have also lent their talents to Casanova, with writer Matt Fraction, B.P.R.D. 1947, with Mike Mignola and Josh Dysart, and B.P.R.D. Vampire, with Mike Mignola. Their creator-owned series, Daytripper, won the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet two of the most acclaimed artists in comics–and win a piece of original art. We’ll have a wide variety of books by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon available for purchase, so RSVP for this signing now!

RSVP TO OUR GABRIEL BÁ AND FÁBIO MOON SIGNING ON FACEBOOK

Are you coming to our signing? Post your comments below!

24 Hour Comics is an event where illustrators and artists have 24 hours to create a comic, including the story, finished art, lettering, color, paste-up, and proofreading. The Portland Edition is part of a two week-long event called The Wild, a series of events that takes on the world of artists, makers, writers, and cultural iconoclasts who juice up Portland’s awesomeness. The Wild takes place May 11-25 and is sponsored by the Portland Mercury, WebVisions, and more!

The Portland TFAW will stay open the entire 24 hours to host this exciting event — which takes place from 10 am May 18 to 10 am May 19 — but will close the register to sales after 7 pm. Make sure to stop by to see comics created right before your eyes all night long!

RSVP TO 24 HOUR COMICS PORTLAND EDITION ON FACEBOOK

Do you think you could create an entire comic book in 24 hours? Post your comments below!

Joe from Saint James, NY is the first of this month’s winners. Here’s his review of the Zero Killer N&D TPB:

I picked this TPB up as a DOD, because the story sounded intriguing. I was not disappointed, the book has extra bonus documentation between chapters explaining more about the world the protagonist, Zero, lives in. An alternate reality to modern day NY, where atomic fallout and wars have taken their toll on the country and world in general. I put the book down once and read it in about 2 hours ’cause i found it that interesting. For a nick & dent deal of the day or for a low price i would say pick it up and add it to your collection. It’s worth a read.

Our second winner is David from Toronto, ON. David had this to say about the MIB 3 Agent G Bishoujo Statue:

Beautifully designed sculpt and design. Sexy and alluring. The best part: storage under the “sidewalk” for the extra pieces she comes with (Different right arm with weapon and her black sunglasses). Too many statues do not have this feature in the base.

Last but not least, there’s Lauren, from North Little Rock, AR, who’s review for Hawkeye My Life As Weapon Vol. 1 TPB really spoke to us.

This book is very entertaining. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Clint Barton/Hawkeye. The man cannot seem to stay out of trouble!

Thanks so much to everyone who wrote reviews last month. You’re helping people decide what to get (or what to avoid) next.

So submit your reviews and help your fellow collectors, and us, sort out the “HOT” from the “NOT”! Who knows, you may be one of next month’s winners.

HOW TO SUBMIT A PRODUCT REVIEW:
It’s simple! Just visit any product page and look for this:

Click on it and our product review form will appear in a popup. Just fill out the pertinent information and submit your review, and you’re done! We’ll take a look at your review and get it up on the product page soon thereafter!

There’s also a really easy way for you to call up everything you’ve ever ordered from us and review it. Simply log in to your account and go into the Order History Section. Next to each item, you’ll see a “Review it!” link.

Questions? Comments? Let us know below!

Need more? We’ve got an extended trailer for Silence & Co., below, as well as a pulse-pounding, 84-page preview (WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE)!

Hitman Alexander Maranzano feels trapped by the criminal life and family obligations he has always known. Pressed into service by the shadowy Silence & Co. to fulfill a contract, what starts out as just another job quickly turns into a deadly race for answers.

From the dusty streets of Marrakesh to the lush jungles of Colombia and back to New York City, Alex’s search for revenge and the truth triggers a series of events that alter everything he has ever known.

Greg Hatcher of Comics Should Be Good! on CBR says, “. . . Mr. Benshemesh knows how to spin a tale; the writing is as crisp and spare as a story like this calls for, and he keeps things moving along at a good clip with plenty of twists and turns along the way.”

Action-movie junkies and lovers of classic films like The Godfather and Scarface will love Silence & Co. — and the journey Alex Maranzano takes to find the truth, no matter what the consequences, or the body count.

PRE-ORDER SILENCE & CO. AND SAVE 20%

Are you looking forward to Silence & Co.? What are some of your favorite crime comics? Post your comments below!

When a woman named Lizzie Hexam shows up and questions whether he’s the real son of Wilson Taylor, Tom’s world explodes, with half his “fans” believing he’s a fraud, and the other half believing he’s the living incarnation of the Tommy Taylor character come to save the world. Framed for multiple murders and on the run, joined by Lizzie and journalist Richie Savoy, Tom is suddenly thrust into a world where stories literally come to life, and he’s pursued by a mysterious cabal who wants to control what people read — and believe — at any cost.

Unwritten explores the sheer power of stories — and of readers’ beliefs — making it an intense, engrossing read. To make things even more interesting, Unwritten is traveling to the world of Fables, another Vertigo superstar, starting with Unwritten #50 this June. Plus, September marks the arrival of the original hardcover graphic novel, Unwritten: Tommy Taylor & The Ship That Sank Twice, the graphic novel “adaptation” of the first Tommy Taylor book!

We chatted with Fables writer Bill Willingham last month, and now we’ve had the opportunity to interview Unwritten co-creators Mike Carey and Peter Gross. Read below for a fascinating look into the past, future, and present of Unwritten, as well as a four-page peek into Unwritten #48, available now!

TFAW: Unwritten is such a multi-layered, surprising series. How did it come together, and how much did you have planned out when it debuted?

Mike Carey: Thank you! Well the gestation process was really a very strange one. After we wound up on Lucifer, Peter and I really wanted to do another book together, and we pitched a whole lot of ideas to Shelly Bond, our editor, but for one reason or another none of them made it through the triage process. And then after a while we stopped pitching because other stuff intervened. Peter went off and did American Jesus, I did Crossing Midnight and my Marvel stuff.

And then we met up again at San Diego Comic-Con in (I think) 2009, and Vertigo editor Pornsak Pichetshote was there too. We got a dialogue going, and we carried it on after we all went home from the Con. But basically Peter had one idea and I had another, and we weren’t sure which one we wanted to develop. “Put them together,” Pornsak suggested, “and see what happens.” We did, and what happened was The Unwritten.

Peter Gross: My idea was about a kid whose father wrote a famous book using the kid as the main character, and then disappeared afterwards, leaving the kid with the awful fallout of being famous and abandoned. Mike’s idea was about a guy who is given a magic horn that if you blow it, the world changes. When we started merging them together, we basically had the opening scene of The Unwritten!

And from there we planned out what we wanted the book to be about, and came up with the ending and the main stepping stones along the way. As we’ve developed and executed it more, those beats have altered and some characters have been added, made more important, or even determined their own paths, but the ending has remained (in our heads) essentially the same as what we planned at the start.

TFAW: What was it that most interested you about the character of Tom Taylor?

MC: I guess for me it’s that I like heroes who start off completely clueless and out of their depth and have to grow into the role. Nothing turns me off quicker than a James Bond-like protagonist who’s always got exactly the skill set he needs to survive. Tom, when we first meet him, seems to have no skill set at all — but he does have the “literary GPS” that his dad drummed into him, and that turns out to be relevant. Apart from that he’s a babe in the woods. But gradually he pulls it together and manages to survive, against all the odds.

PG: I think for me it was the challenge of dealing with the reluctant hero. That’s actually the sort of character I oftentimes find frustrating and unsatisfying. And I think at times, to be honest, Tom can be frustrating, especially because he’s a character caught up in a lot of big story ideas — within the pages of the series, and within our intent. So Tom’s challenge is to find his humanity in all that.

TFAW: What do you think is the biggest change Tom Taylor has undergone during this series — besides learning to believe in magic doorknobs and such?

MC: He becomes someone who’s capable of compassion. The Tom of the early issues is really all about himself — very selfish, quite self-pitying, more than a little obnoxious. Then when Cosi and Leon Chadron die right in front of him in issue #8, he starts to realize what responsibility is. Which is why, when Lizzie starts to fall apart, he responds in the way he does. He’s prepared to risk himself to help her, not because of the whole romantic/sexual thing between them, which hasn’t happened yet, but because he feels responsible for what his father has done to her on his account.

PG: Not only is Tom a reluctant hero, but he’s also a very reserved one. He was terribly hurt as a kid, and there wasn’t anyone in his life to open up to about it. So he’s very reserved and doesn’t reveal himself. But I think more and more, we find out the reasons for that, and he’s able to open up more. But it’s a long slow process for him. And I think it’s all very tied up in the role his father has tried to design for him. But on one level, Tom’s story will always be about becoming more human.

TFAW: One of the main themes of Unwritten is the power of words, and of readers’ beliefs. They can influence reality, and literally change one into a different person! How do you see this relating to “real life”?

MC: Peter and I talk about this side of the story all the time, and I think we both see it as the single most important thing we’re saying. And weirdly, it’s Pullman who gets to voice it most clearly, in the very next issue. We don’t actually live in the real world, although we generally think we do. We live in ideas and situations that we build for ourselves — stories about the world, overlapping, sometimes contradicting, but empowering in the sense that the stories allow us to function. They provide meaning, and without meaning we’re just deterministic ping pong balls. We react, blindly, to external circumstances.

So yes, I think it’s true that we live in a narrative of our lives. And therefore the construction of that narrative becomes very, very important. People will constantly offer you stories that you can choose to buy into. Big government is killing you. Immigrants are swamping our country and destroying our values. Jews are evil, or Muslims or Communists or gays are evil. You have nothing to lose but your chains. Jesus will save your soul. These propositions furnish your world. You effectively choose to live in the world where they’re true. And obviously there’s a much wider set of propositions that’s just about you. The story of your life becomes your life.

PG: I think, more and more, as we worked on this book we’ve learned of other examples of how our lives are based on narrative — both biologically, and culturally. But the underlying principle of that is that narrative is always a lie we tell ourselves. At their core, all stories are lies, and all storytellers are liars. Not sure where to go with that, but I guess we’ll find out by the end of The Unwritten!

TFAW: Peter, there’s a big focus on the power of words, but you also have the challenge of presenting this visually to the reader–what are the easiest and most difficult parts of illustrating Unwritten?

PG: The most challenging is trying to find ways to illustrate “books” in comics and still have it feel like a book. The opening scene of the series is an example of that. Mike wrote the whole Tommy Taylor [interlude] as prose, and we were going to have it just as text, but I was worried it might turn off some readers. So I did it as a mixture of text and visuals that became our way of doing a book. A similar thing happens with finding ways to show web pages, TV, and other more modern ways that information gets delivered in the digital age.

The easiest part is . . . actually, none of it is easy — but the funnest part is when we divert to other story styles and I get to bring in wildly different artists to do “finishes” over my layouts to give the chapters a distinct and separate look.

TFAW: In the current story arc, we finally get some answers about Pauly Bruckner. Is this going to be the finale of this character?

PG: No! Pauly is a character who was not planned from the start, and he’s the character who has most demanded more scenes and a greater role in the story. He’s our wildcard factor, and we never quite know where he’s going with things.

MC: Absolutely! Pauly is along for the duration, and still has a very important part to play. Every book needs a sweary rabbit!

TFAW: Pauly has become such a compelling character — absolutely repugnant, totally self centered. He literally thinks everything is about him. Does he represent something to you guys? Is he a stand-in for something?

MC: If Tom is the clueless hero, Pauly is the villain hero — our Richard the Third. Like you say, he’s a monster, but he works really well as a viewpoint character. We did the monster as Everyman in Lucifer — and there’s a sense in which Pauly is like Gaudium in Lucifer, except that at rock bottom he’s a tragic figure. He tortures himself by assuming that every place he finds himself is unbearable. Willowbank Wood, when you think about it, would have been heaven for some people, but for Pauly it’s Hell. And now we meet Pauly in Hell and we think, you know, maybe this is how it’s always going to be for you. You make your own weather.

PG: Pauly is Mike, if Mike was American and not a polite British fellow!

MC: I’m gonna take that as a joke.

PG: Well there was a smiley face and all . . .

TFAW: Richie has had such a character arc — a journalist who glommed onto Tom, then became a vampire, then rejected Tom to go live his own story. What’s next for him?

MC: The next time we see Richie, those two aspects of his character — journalist and vampire — are both going to be crucial. He’s in a very extreme situation, trying to avert a catastrophe or at least slow it down. But he’s got to go against type in some ways, and do some things that don’t sit right with him. Because he does have a conscience, even though he tries to hide it. I tend to see Richie as an idealist who’s pretending to be a cynic.

TFAW: Lizzie is another character who has undergone a huge shift — from a troubled orphan girl to a brainwashed Dickens character, programmed to help and love Tom — and that’s before she died! Can she and Tom ever have a relationship as equals?

PG: Both Lizzie and Richie exist partially because they have to. Tom’s father has created pathways of story that Tom’s life slips into to build on the power of the Tommy Taylor stories. Tommy Taylor, boy wizard, had his companions Peter and Sue, so Tom Taylor attracts his own companions, Richie and Lizzie, to fulfill those roles. So the challenge for them, just like it is for Tom, is to hold on to their humanity and not get swept up into the greater currents that Wilson Taylor has set into motion.

TFAW: What can you tell us about Unwritten Fables, the next arc?

MC: It’s a stage in Tom’s odyssey in which he finally comes face to face with some unwelcome truths about the fictional characters he’s been meeting, and maybe to some extent about his own nature — and the backdrop in which he makes these discoveries is the Fables Homelands. Sort of. But with a very scary twist. Because the Fables side of this equation is a crisis that we had every reason to think was over and done with, and it comes live again in a really alarming way. I think there are big narrative payoffs for readers of both series.

TFAW: An Unwritten-Fables event seems like a perfect fit — both center on the power of stories and belief. How did the idea germinate?

PG: Bill Willingham was a big supporter of The Unwritten from the start, and kept saying he wanted to do a crossover or something shared. But as close as the two books are in concept, they each take a different approach to the subject of stories and characters from stories. Ours is that the stories happen, and then characters might appear because of the stories. Bill’s is that the characters were real, and the stories came from their actions.

Those are two pretty opposed ideas, and it wasn’t until we got to a point in our story that those ideas sort of demanded attention, that doing a shared arc with Fables finally became a possibility. The nice thing is that this isn’t just a throwaway event designed to boost sales — it’s an essential story tipping point for us. If we couldn’t do this story with the Fables characters, we’d still have to do the story somehow.

MC: Although it wouldn’t have been nearly so much fun. Using the Fables cast has been pretty much pure pleasure.

TFAW: What is your favorite thing about Fables?

MC: I love the feeling you get from Fables that nobody is safe and anything can happen. It’s like the fairy tales and folk tales that are part of its source material — it portrays a world where the worst outcome can always come to pass, and where life and happiness are precarious. That’s part of what makes it such an exciting read.

And of course I love the vivid, evolving characters — my all-time favorites being the Thirteenth Floor witches.

PG: I like the powerful simplicity of what Bill brought together. I think it was Fables that led the way with all the fairy tale-based movies and TV shows out there now. And I love that after 125 or so issues, it’s still compelling and readable. It’s one of the few comics that continue to catch my jaded interest and that I make sure to keep up on.

TFAW: Bill Willingham mentioned that he begged to write parts of the story, because, I quote, “I’ll never get a chance to handle certain characters in this way again. One hopes.” Care to shed a little light on that?

MC: We go to some very dark places with this story, and we see some harrowing things. More than that, I think, we get to see good people making bad choices because all the good choices are gone. If we do it right, parts of it will hurt.

PG: Bill and Bucky had a lot of input into the story, and there were some things they talked about that they had wanted to do with Fables until the stories went off in another direction. Because of the nature of fiction in The Unwritten, we are able to go in some of those other directions.

TFAW: What else are you reading right now?

MC: The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. Very, very clever stuff. Too clever for its own good, sometimes, but man it’s a great read.

PG: I haven’t been able to read anything in a while because I draw most every minute of the day. But I’ve been slowly listening to audiobooks of Game of Thrones!

TFAW: What else do you have coming up that you’re excited about?

MC: I’ve got a novel coming out in January of 2014 that I’m very proud of. It’s sort of a retelling of the myth of Pandora in a post-apocalyptic future. And my superhero series, Suicide Risk, is debuting over at BOOM! Studios.

Oh, and I just got the green light to go to script on a movie version of one of my own novels, which is really exciting.

PG: I’m excited about our graphic novel adaptation of Wilson Taylor’s famous first novel, Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice, coming out in the fall of 2013!

MC: Yeah, and that . . .

Our sincere thanks to Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and Vertigo Comics for an excellent interview. Pre-order Unwritten #50 and Unwritten: Tommy Taylor & The Ship That Sank Twice and save 20%!

PRE-ORDER UNWRITTEN #50 AND SAVE 20%

BROWSE ALL VERTIGO COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

Are you a fan of Unwritten or Fables? Post your comments below!

About the Book:
Heroes are dying, and cops are dying twofold. Humanity is underpowered in the face of their onslaught, and people are suffering untold casualties trying to stem the flow.

After barely surviving a super-powered bank heist gone horribly wrong, beat cop Leo Winters vowed to try and find a way to stop them.

Following a lead, he discovered two lowlifes who seemed to be able to grant a person powers . . . for the right price. Thing is: you don’t get to choose which power. It’s seemingly random, a crap-shoot, a risk.

Will Leo decide to take that risk? And why is it that even the heroes in this world eventually break . . . bad?

Enter to Win:
Publisher BOOM! Studios is sending us eight copies of Suicide Risk #1 signed by writer Mike Carey, and you have three ways to enter to win! We’ll be giving away four signed copies to customers who order Suicide Risk #1 and/or #2 by June 5! Plus, stay tuned: we’ll also be holding contests on Facebook and Twitter this week. General Contest Rules apply.

In the meantime, check out our four-page preview of Suicide Risk #1, below!

PRE-ORDER SUICIDE RISK AND SAVE 20%

About the Book:
Heroes are dying, and cops are dying twofold. Humanity is underpowered in the face of their onslaught, and people are suffering untold casualties trying to stem the flow.

After barely surviving a super-powered bank heist gone horribly wrong, beat cop Leo Winters vowed to try and find a way to stop them.

Following a lead, he discovered two lowlifes who seemed to be able to grant a person powers . . . for the right price. Thing is: you don’t get to choose which power. It’s seemingly random, a crap-shoot, a risk.

Will Leo decide to take that risk? And why is it that even the heroes in this world eventually break . . . bad?

Enter to Win:
Publisher BOOM! Studios is sending us eight copies of Suicide Risk #1 signed by writer Mike Carey, and you have three ways to enter to win! We’ll be giving away four signed copies to customers who order Suicide Risk #1 and/or #2 by June 5! Plus, stay tuned: we’ll also be holding contests on Facebook and Twitter this week. General Contest Rules apply.

In the meantime, check out our four-page preview of Suicide Risk #1, below!

PRE-ORDER SUICIDE RISK AND SAVE 20%

Looking for cool stuff to do next weekend? We’ve got two amazing events April 26 at the Portland TFAW, and we wanted to make sure you know all about them. It’s going to be an unforgettable night leading into Stumptown Comics Fest, the Northwest’s largest creator-focused comic convention!

First, from 5 to 7 p.m., we’re excited to host a signing for multiple Eisner Award-winning writer Bill Willingham, creator of Vertigo’s immensely popular Fables series and a special guest brought to us by Stumptown Comics Fest. We’ve stocked up on Fables comics and graphic novels, so come pick some up and get them signed! Plus, enjoy free food and beer — we’re firing up the grill at 5 p.m. for hamburgers, hot dogs, and veggie options.

Then, at 7 p.m. we’re segueing into the Stumptown Comics Fest Kickoff Party! This is the official start of Stumptown Comics Fest, taking place April 27 and 28 at the Oregon Convention Center. Meet guests of the Fest, mingle with Portland’s comics community, and enjoy exciting entertainment:

• Free food and beer (for those 21+)! Come enjoy burgers, dogs, and more.
• Music by Jeff “Switch” Sorenson (Dangerous Kids) & Bobby Roberts (Welcome to That Whole Thing).
• Video games from Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade.
• Prizes from Portland Retro Gaming Expo, Dark Horse, OryCon, Ground Kontrol, Wonder Northwest, and more!
• A greenscreen to pose in front of to commemorate the event, with background art supplied by Stumptown guests like Erika Moen, Sina Grace, Jon McNaught, and more!

You thought we were done? We’re just getting started! You can also visit Things From Another World at Stumptown Comics Fest at Booth #F01 April 27 and 28. Come say hi, and save 20% on all graphic novels! We’ve got a lot of the newest and most popular books for this special convention, so stop by!

RSVP FOR OUR BILL WILLINGHAM SIGNING ON FACEBOOK
RSVP FOR OUR STUMPTOWN COMICS FEST KICKOFF PARTY
RSVP FOR OUR STUMPTOWN COMIC FEST BOOTH

Are you planning on going to Stumptown? What are you looking forward to? Post your comments below!

The exciting new crime series follows a character named Weaver, as he plays a dangerous game of international intrigue where the rules keep changing, the players are hidden, and the first thing he stands to lose is his life.

We had the chance to talk with Diggle and series artist Aaron Campbell about Uncanny, which hits the shelves on June 26 from Dynamite Entertainment. Check it out below, as well as our four-page preview!

TFAW.com: Without tipping your cards too much, can you tell us a little bit about your newest series, Uncanny?

Andy Diggle: It’s a crime thriller with just a hint of the paranormal. Weaver is a professional con man, gambler and thief-for-hire who possesses a special ability. He can steal a victim’s knowledge, skills, and abilities for a short time — their ability to crack a safe, hack a computer, practice taekwondo, or whatever else he needs to complete his mission. But the clock is always ticking. He has to finish the job before his time runs out and he loses his stolen skill-set. Then he’s in trouble.

TFAW.com: Weaver sounds like a really unique and interesting character. How long has this idea been percolating? What was the final piece to fall in line so that you could tell this story?

Diggle: Nick Barrucci approached me last year with a view to being part of Dynamite’s fledgling Crime Line, and I jumped at the chance. It’s exactly the kind of project I’d been looking for. When I first started developing the story, Weaver had a different name, and was more of a small-time loser. Making him more of a self-confident con-man type, and opening up the scale of the story, was when it really started to come to life for me. I realized he’d been conning himself. He’s spent his whole life running away, and we join him at the point in his life where he finally finds something to run towards. Even if it is trying to kill him.

TFAW.com: You’re no stranger to the crime genre, having written books like Snapshot, Six Guns, Rat Catcher, and The Losers. How has this series challenged you creatively compared to previous projects?

Diggle: I guess the biggest challenge when working in a specific genre is not to fall into cliché. There are certain tropes and conventions that crime fans might expect, so you have to steer around those traps, or invert them. That’s one of the benefits of having this subtle supernatural angle to the book–you can use it to hook out the clichés and spin them off into new and unexpected directions.

TFAW.com: How many issues do you have planned at this point? Does this series have a distinct end?

Diggle: I have the first six issues all mapped out, and we’re all hoping so see it continue long term. The first story introduces us to Weaver and his abilities, and opens up a whole new world for him. We can spend as long as we want exploring that world.

TFAW.com: You’re working on several books at once. Can you tell us a bit about how you move between projects?

Diggle: It’s a bit of a juggling act. In addition to Uncanny, I’m currently writing Doctor Who for IDW and Thief of Thieves with Robert Kirkman at Skybound, plus developing some new projects which I can’t really talk about just yet — including a second crime title at Dynamite. The key to keeping it all running smoothly is to lock down the story outline well in advance. Once the publisher approves it, they can just let you get on with it, and you can hit a steady rhythm of writing an issue a week. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for rewrites, though, so you pretty much have to get it right first time.

TFAW.com: How did Aaron Campbell come to work on the series? How has he been as a collaborator?

Diggle: Aaron’s been doing great work on Dynamite’s The Shadow, so it made a lot of sense for him to jump onto Uncanny, which has a similarly noirish feel, albeit contemporary. He’s been a pleasure to work with. I always try to strike up a correspondence with the artists I’m working with — usually we’re on different continents — and Aaron’s been a gent. He sends me his thumbnail layouts before he goes to pencils, which helps me iron out any kinks in my scripting before they make it onto the page.

TFAW.com: Hi Aaron! How involved were you with the character design process for Uncanny?

Campbell: Save for one small caveat, the Weaver you’ll see in the book was all my design based on Andy’s written description of him. The covers had already been completed, which I had not seen yet. So when I designed the character I drew him with very dark hair, while on the covers he is depicted with lighter hair. So I lightened his hair. Not a particularly interesting story, is it?

TFAW.com: Ha! No it’s always interesting knowing those little details. Can you take us through your process? After you get the script, how do you get your head in the game?

Campbell: Well, assuming that my head ever has the opportunity to come out of the game, I would imagine that my process isn’t too different from anyone else whose style is based more on realism. I start with layouts, though typically I don’t do them all at once. I break the book in chunks based on the different locations in the script and focus on them one at a time. Once I get approval on that set of layouts, I’ll design the space and shoot my photo reference. I then do my pencils digitally, print them out blueline, and ink over the digital print. Something new I’m doing for this book, though, is working at a Golden Age scale. My original pages measure 14.25″ x 22″. I’m really liking it, too. I can get in there with big tools and really work the page over with much more of a fluid line.

TFAW.com: You’ve worked on a bunch of Dynamite books, from Dark Shadows and Sherlock Holmes to pulp books like Green Hornet and The Shadow. Has Uncanny posed any unique challenges compared to your other work?

Campbell: For the first time ever I’m working in the here and now. I get to hang up my trenchcoats and fedoras and put away my classic car models. And I no longer have to pore through research trying to reconstruct what some place might have looked like back in the 1930s. Not that I wouldn’t want to do more period work in the future, but it’s quite a relief actually to take a break from it.

TFAW.com: How’s it been working with the folks at Dynamite, Andy?

Diggle: Blissfully stress-free, I’m happy to say. They pay me well and on time, and they don’t mess around with the story. What more could a writer wish for?

TFAW.com: What’s your favorite part about working in the comic book industry, Aaron?

Campbell: There are so many great things about working in the comics industry that it’s hard to pick a favorite. For one thing, I get to do what I love to do. I get to work from home. I get to go to awesome cons and meet great fans and become friends with amazing creators. It’s really a dream career.

TFAW.com: When you picture the person reading Uncanny, what other books would you say they’re reading right now?

Diggle: Comics-wise, they’d probably be into Garth Ennis, Ed Brubaker, Jason Aaron, and Greg Rucka. That’s good company to be in.

TFAW.com: What are the favorite comics that you’re reading right now?

Diggle: I’m not reading a lot of monthly titles these days — I have a stack of trades still waiting to be read, and I haven’t even cracked open my Marvel Unlimited account yet. It’s mostly indy genre books that draw my interest – Fatale, Manhattan Projects, Saga. I was a big fan of Thief of Thieves even before I was invited to join the team, so that was a real thrill. I don’t read a lot of spandex these days, but Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye is fantastic — and pretty much spandex-free, now that I think of it. It reads more like a smart, postmodern crime book than a superhero comic. Highly recommended.

Campbell: Right now I’m reading Fatale, Andy’s other book Snapshot, Hellboy, Hawkeye, and that’s about all I have time for. And I can go on for a very long time about all the artists that inspire me. But if I’m just talking about people who were working today, Sean Phillips, Jock, Tommy Lee Edwards, David Aja, and JH Williams are a definitely on the short list of artists I’ve been paying a lot of attention to lately.

TFAW.com: What else are you excited about/what other projects do you have coming up?

Diggle: The final issue of our creator-owned thriller Snapshot is out in May, which is incredibly exciting for me and Jock. The first three issues have done better than we ever hoped, and I can’t wait to see the trade. I’m also developing another Crime Line book at Dynamite over the next few weeks. It’s about sex, power, and crime, so that should be good, not-so-clean fun. I’m also developing an action thriller for another publisher, which I can’t talk about just yet. Plus I’m writing a new creator-owned miniseries this summer. So I’m crazy busy — and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Campbell: I really don’t have much time to devote to any other projects right now, but there’s a possibility that you might be seeing more of me on Dynamite covers this year. I’m also very excited for the con season and will be attending HeroesCon this year for the first time. So if you’re in Charlotte in June, come by!

We want to thank Andy Diggle and Aaron Campbell for taking time out their busy schedules for this interview! Make sure to pre-order your copy of Uncanny #1 by April 30 to save 35% off the first issue as part of this month’s featured discounts!

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What do you think about Uncanny? Going to add it to your pull list? We’re definitely on board. Please post your comments below.

The cover of Marvel’s Cable & X-Force #7 says it all: Daddy’s home! Since being taken over by the Phoenix Force and killing Charles Xavier, Cyclops has been a vigilante and an overall loose cannon — not to mention the most interesting he’s been in years! We’re looking forward to this family reunion. Want to catch up on this fantastic series? You’re in luck: we have every issue of Cable & X-Force in stock at 10% off!

Next, everyone goes a little mad sometimes . . . MAD Magazine, that is! This week, DC Comics releases several MAD Variant covers that make great collector’s items at a reasonable price: just $8.99! Wonder Woman #19 (MAD Variant Edition), pictured below, is our favorite. Make sure to pre-order more MAD Magazine DC variants and save 20%.

Love Darth Vader? The highly anticipated debut issue of Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin is out this week from Dark Horse Comics. Eight assassins hired to murder Darth Vader — eight assassins dead. Now the man who enlisted them seeks a ninth assassin. What will happen next? Plus, the fourth printing of Brian Wood’s incredibly popular Star Wars #1 is out this week — order it today!

Browse our Arriving This Week page now to see the latest and greatest comics, graphic novels, statues, toys, and more!

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What new comics are you looking forward to this week? Post your comments below.