Show Notes

On this episode of Word Balloon Fred Van Lente discusses the IDW release of The Comic Book History Of Comics, written by Fred and drawn by Ryan Dunlavey. The talk leads to the debate about fine artist Roy Lichtenstein’s pop art paintings that were based on real comic book panels. Were these painting fine art celebrating design, like Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Can paintings, or outright plagiarism of comic artists like Mike Sekowsky and Russ Heath? Van Lente is also part of the Valiant Comics revival, writing Archer and Armstrong coming out in August. We also talk about Fred’s upcoming Hulk work, on the Hulk: Season One graphic novel with Tom Fowler, to this month’s Hulk Smash #5 with Mike Oeming.

Then the team behind Vertigo’s new war OGN Shooters, writers Eric Trautmann, Brandon Jerwa, and artist Steve Lieber join us to talk about the complicated life of a corporate contract soldier working for the US in current foreign conflicts. It’s a very personal story for Trautmann, who based the story on his brother-in-law Dave. The trio talks about the book, and discusses their other recent projects including Jerwa’s comic book film documentary, his and Trautmann’s Dynamite books like Flash Gordon and Vamperella, and Lieber talks about the piracy experience he and Jeff Parker had with their Oni press mini series Underground.