So, I’ve been teasing you all with a big announcement for a couple of weeks. I was hoping for more fanfare, but since some of you folks are already on the edge of your seats, and some of you already read the Diamond catalog, I’ll go ahead and spill.
As of last week, I’m officially drawing a DC comics back-up feature called The Coven, appear in the Teen Titans series. The Coven is about three teenage characters from the DC universe with off-the-charts magical abilities, and, of course, huge amounts of angst. The series is already solicited through Diamond Distribution, and should appear on the shelves of your local comic shops in August. I hear my pencils are the talk of the art department at the DC office. Unfortunately, I can’t post them or tell you any more about the series until next week, when hot young writer Rex Ogle and I will be interviewed on DC’s blog. But I’ll be sure to cross-post.
For those of you worried that I’m going to be swallowed up by the DC machine, rest assured that I will remain predominately an indy artist, devoted to my personal projects. But a guy has to pay the bills somehow. And frankly, I’m not above taking a few mainstream fans with me to the dark side.
Stay tuned for more info!
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Posted on 3 March '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 6 Comments.
Here’s a little taste of the Good Neighbors Vol. 3, the last chapter in the series. Enjoy.
PS: That little bit of big news in on the way. Stay tuned.
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Posted on 25 February '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 3 Comments.
Babs Gordon will always have a place in my heart. I always hear the Batgirl theme song in my head whenever I see her, nd think about Yvonne Craig in her sparkly purple suit. Oh, and Yvonne had fabulous hair. She was our Audrey Hepburn. We won’t see the like of her again soon.
Stay tuned for some big news.
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Posted on 17 February '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 13 Comments.
Croc is one of those Bat-villians that, if you’re not careful, can turn the modern, post-Miller Dark Knight back into the goofy fifties Caped Crusader who flies around the galaxy in a bat-rocket. Or worse, into the postmodern incarnation who refers to himself as “the Gaddamn Batman”, and seems to be the belligerent, testosterone-pumped version of the fifties Batman, fighting hulk-sized sewer mutants and extra-terrestrial death gods.
Yet as Chip Kidd so eloquently put it, the Batman’s greatest appeal is that he can endure so many reinventions without breaking. Everybody has a different take, from the early creepy Bat-Man of Bob Kane, to Bill Finger’s Caped Crusader with kid side-kick, to the dorky pointy-eared Buck Rogers of the fifties, to Marv Wolfman and Neal Adams’ Dark Knight Detective, to Miller’s gritty street monster and beyond… and they’re all the true Batman.
My personal favorite take exists in a world that, if not possible, is not patently impossible. It’s a world without magic or science fiction, without Lazarus pits or aliens in red capes. And certainly no giant mutated crocodile men with super strength.
And so my Killer Croc is not the big green monster of the current comics and videogames. He’s just a guy who won the circus freakshow lottery, suffering from ichthyosis, AND gigantism, AND a harelip. The odds of someone getting so many rare disorders is probably next to impossible, but only for the given value of impossible. He COULD happen. And that’s how I like my Batman. He’s impossible, but only because he’s never happened…
..yet.
Once again, I’m indebted to Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s ‘Batman: the Animated Series’ for a much less outrageous, much more believable monster, with potential for very human pathos.
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Posted on 11 February '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 1 Comment.
Working hard on Good Neighbors, Mouseguard, and a mystery project that I won’t announce till I get the full go-head. Here’s the latest Bat-Villain.
The Penguin often struck me as a victim of the Batman world’s narrow focus. All the villains have colorful and various styles and methods, but in the end, they all ended up being robbers, and the story plots all followed the same formula, with different palettes painted over it. One themed villain, 3-5 henchmen, one elaborate caper involving the robbery of an object in keeping with the villain’s theme, etc. Even the 90s cartoons stuck with this formula, though the prodigious talents of Paul Dini managed to find new meaning in the tired old tropes by granting each villain a theme-appropriate pathos.
Yet only in recent years has the formula started breaking up. Tim Burton’s version ran for mayor, which was a clever twist. But Burton, ever the stylist, felt the need to enhanced the visual aspects of the character to monstrous proportions, making a man who’s a bit short and homely with a funny walk into something barely human.
These days, the Penquin is Gotham’s premiere nightclub owner; a reasonably interesting change. Yet he’s still depicted as though he’s, well, a freaky Batman villain. And it seems to me that being short, big-nosed, and duck-footed doesn’t actually make you a freak, certainly not of the same caliber as the Joker. He’s not really a “new breed of criminal” engendered by the existence of Batman. But for a few belabored bird metaphors, the guy’s just a crook in a tux.
Anyway, my point is that I see the Penguin, potentially, as the Batman world’s answer to Goldfinger, so that’s how I approached him. He’s not a freakishly deformed outcast, just a short guy with a big nose trying to become the richest man in Gotham. It’s doesn’t have to be what he looks like that’s impressively horrible. It’s what he does to get rich that would make him a monster. He need not be all that different from any other mobster or ponzi-scheme crook. And wouldn’t it be nice to see Batman take down a guy like that? Why do they all have to be freaky outcasts? As a bit of an outcast myself, I take issue.
Oh, and the bird jokes are really tired. Is that the best we can do? His name is Penguin, because he looks like a penguin, AND he’s obsessed with birds? Really?
Really?
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Posted on 9 February '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 2 Comments.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ms. Harley Quinn.
I’m sure you’ll get along like a house on fire. There may be no survivors.
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Posted on 4 February '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 5 Comments.
I’ve based a lot of characters on David the years. Lucky for me that there are so many of him.
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Posted on 1 February '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 5 Comments.
My Poison Ivy. Not a drastic reinvention but not exactly canon. I’m curious to see what kind of reaction I get from this one.
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Posted on 28 January '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 6 Comments.
Today’s entertainment!
This is the first of a series of portraits of Batman characters. Check the gallery to see the Black and White version. Editors, better snap me up fast, ’cause I’m red hot.
And by the way, each piece will be for sale, starting with this 11″x14″ beauty. $120 plus shipping takes it.
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Posted on 27 January '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 1 Comment.
I’d like to thank the ever glamorous chronicler of the comic industry glitterati, Heidi McDonald, for posting about my latest scheme in her Publishers Weekly blog, The Beat.
I’d also like to thank Lan Pitts for passing my info on to the Batblog.
And most recently, thanks Robot 6 at Comicbookresources.com for posting about it as well. And especially for recreating my typos. I’m at your service for exclisice ntervieqs!
Seriously, I had no idea there was so much good will out there. Thanks, everyone.
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Posted on 25 January '10 by tednaifeh, under Blog Post. 1 Comment.
Comics creator Ted Naifeh is responsible for many dark, delicious worlds. He lives and works in San Francisco.
