More Cyborg!

My CYBORG special is not one, but SIX issues, and the second issue (on sale in JUNE), is available for pre-order now. Below is the solicit, which neglects to mention there’s a hell of a reveal on the last page of his issue for long time Cyborg fans.

DC SPECIAL: CYBORG #2
Written by Mark Sable
Art and cover by Ken Lashley & Jonathan Glapion
Vic Stone has sworn that he'll never let anyone undergo the horrific process that transformed him into Cyborg. Now it appears he's on a nationwide rampage taking out S.T.A.R. Labs. Are not one, but TWO teams of Titans enough to stop this madness?
On sale June 18 • 2 of 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

PLEDGE NIGHT!

This Saturday at 8:00PM, March 29th, Meltdown Comics here in LA is hosting “Pledge Night!”, the official college-themed release party for HAZED (as well as Brian Lynch and Dave Crosland’s “Everybody’s Dead”, an hysterical book about the last fraternity on earth during a zombie invasion).

HAZED artist Robbi Rodriguez will be there, Jim Mahfood and Dave Crosland will be doing live art to the beat of DJ Expo.

And oh yeah…OPEN BAR courtesy of official sponsor Asahi Beer.

Meltdown (7522 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90047) is not only within stumbling distance of my apartment, it’s one of the cooler stores and party venues in LA (their Y: The Last Man Party was amazing). Which means it’s suitable for taking your non-comic fan friends and significant others.

Get Ready For Cyborg!

Who is Cyborg?

He’s the most popular superhero never to have his own series. Until now.

Why should you care?

Because starting May 21st, D.C. Comics is publishing the first ever solo series starring The Greatest Teen Titan of Them All, and I’m writing it.

But seriously, dude, who is Cyborg. I’ve never read a comic book before.

Where do I start? Before the horrific accident (or was it?) that transformed Victor Stone into Cyborg, he was an Olympic class athlete and a genius with an IQ above 160, torn. An African-American torn between his gang-member friends and the (then) emerging black middle class that his family represented. He was rife with conflict even before he had Molybdenum steel grafted to what was left of his maimed, scarred body.

Once he became Cyborg, both power and pathos were added to the mix. With an indestructible body and limbs capable of transforming into an assortment of weapons, he’s physically more than a match for most of the Justice League, let alone their villains. And because he’s half-machine, he still carries around the whole Ben Grimm/Thing angst about whether he’s a man or monster.

The analogy I like to use is that if the Teen Titans are DC’s X-Men (their group of young, edgy characters), he’s their Wolverine.

Follow my logic here. The New Teen Titans were created at about the same time as The All New, All Different X-Men. While others might have been content to keep the Titans a book of sidekicks like Robin and Kid Flash, creators Marv Wolfman and George Perez decided to create new characters. African Americans like Cyborg, women like Raven and…well, orange aliens with big breasts like Starfire.

Okay, I get it, he was a revolutionary character. But the revolution was never televised. What makes you think he’s interesting NOW?

When you read a superhero comic, we’re always being asked to suspend out disbelief. But for me, I’ve always had a nagging question. In a world with not just super-heroes but super science…why can’t everyone have a goddamn flying car?

A lot of creators have sought to answer that question. In Grant Morrison’s Fantastic Four run, he said posited that each of Reed Richard’s devices was a work of art that couldn’t be mimicked. In Warren Ellis’ Planetary, he answered that question by creating an evil FF analogue who purposefully kept their secrets to themselves so they alone could have the power. In GROUNDED, I just made the argument that superhero parents were selfish and self-absorbed.

The idea for my Cyborg run came by asking a more pointed question. In a world where Vic stone can lose his limbs and have them replaced by cybernetic weaponry, why don’t ordinary humans, particularly soldiers in this time of war, have access to Vic’s technology?

If I asked these questions, then certainly they must have occurred to greatest fictional minds in the DC universe…and possibly the more devious ones. Without giving too much away, Cyborg series is about what happens when someone uses Vic’s technology in a way that anathema to who he is and what he stands for.

Wow, that sounds deep. No, really. But I want to see him punch things.

Don’t worry, he punches lots of things. Fan favorite supervillains. “The Phantom Limbs”…an all new characters I’ve created who share Cyborg’s technology and may or may not be on Vic’s side. And not one, but TWO groups of teen Titans.

Oh yeah, and he also punches himself. Chew on that one for a while.

Okay, okay, you had me at African-American Cyborg. Where and how do I get this book?

You can pre-order it now at your local comics shop (comic shop locator link?) from March PREVIEWS. It’s called DC Special: Cyborg, and the order code (I think) is MAR08 135.

Prepare To Be Hazed!

Two years ago you were GROUNDED. Now…prepare to be HAZED!

On Wednesday, March 5, the comic world changes forever. On that day, HAZED, my masterwork, will be unleashed upon a largely unsuspecting public. Expect rioting to ensue.

A satiric graphic novel about sororities and eating disorders illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez, some have compared it to the films “Heathers” and “Mean Girls”. I find these comparisons to be shamefully inadequate. My work is incomparable.

Just where did this work of genius come from, you might ask? As many of you know, I attended Duke University as an undergraduate. Duke is known the home of the greatest college basketball program of all time, as well as the most infamous lacrosse team. It is also known as the “Harvard of the South”, on par with or better than many Ivy League schools.

But from the minute I set foot on campus, I found myself asking the following question: how is it that the some of the smartest women in the country, who have so much going for them besides their looks, decide to revolve their entire identity around their sexual desirability the second a frat boy asked looked their way?

HAZED is my politically incorrect answer to that question, in comic book form. I know I’m going to take a lot of hits on this, a male writer not just writing about issues like date rape and eating, but writing about them in an over-the-top comedy. But, as one reviewer put it, I’m not making fun of these issues; I’m making fun of the “people and societal pressures behind them.” That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Keep that in mind when you’re reading about girls circling each other’s fat, or purging so often that their dorm drains are clogged with vomit. Also keep this in mind: when I set out to write this book years ago, I used a lot of artistic license. I took the worst urban legends about sorority life and exaggerated them further. And yet sadly, often my imagination was matched, if not exceeded, by stories told to me by sorority sisters. Nothing hurts so much as the truth.

All hyperbole aside, this is a boundary pushing book. At the same time, I’d like to think it’s also hysterically funny, not least of which because of Robbi’s art. I think his cartoonish characters help soften the darkness of my writing, while at the same time he pushed the comedy to the very edge of good taste (Robbi’s favorite three words: abortion sight gag). This is “Animal House” with girls. How could that NOT be fun?

I hope you all will pick up the book this week. Whether you are repulsed, convulsing on the floor with laughter, or both, I’d love to hear what you think (there’s a comment’s section here, as well as a Mark Sable message board). I’m ready for anything. I hope you are.

Why You Should Buy FEARLESS

This week, the fourth and final issue of FEARLESS, my mini-series co-written by Dave Roth with art by PJ Holden (2000AD), hits comic stores everywhere.

If you’re coming to this site because you’ve read about my work on CYBORG, HAZED or GROUNDED, you may not know what FEARLESS is all about. FEARLESS is the tale of a vigilante who is dependent on an anti-fear drug, which he needs not only to wage his one man war on crime, but to function as a human being as well. The story starts when someone cuts off his drug supply, and things get worse from there

If that Hollywood log line doesn’t sell you, here are some reasons to check it out:

ORIGINALITY: At the risk of being immodest, it’s one of the few original superhero ideas to come along. While I think execution trumps concept, if you start from someplace no one’s been before you’ve got a leg up on the competition.

MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: In this age of decompression, you rarely get a complete story in four 22 page issues, let alone one. The shortest issue of Fearless is 28 pages, the first and last are 32 pages each. Do the math, and you are getting about five or six issues worth of story for the price of four. And that’s not including wonderful pin-ups by the likes of Rafael Albuquerque (BLUE BEETLE).

PJ HOLDEN & “THE FEAR EFFECT”: Artist PJ Holden kicked some major ass on this book. He’s not just a hired hand, but co-creator. His costume design alone is worth the price of admission. But what really makes this book sing is how he and colorist Nick Filardi (POWERS…as well as every creator owned book I’ve done) handles the sequences where our protagonist runs out of the drug. We don’t just see fear kick in, we FEEL it. Vertigo kicks in as leaping off a one story brownstone in a suit of impregnable battle armor becomes a death defying free fall from a skyscraper. Pathetic henchmen become more muscular, better armed, more numerous. The arch villain becomes, a mere mortal, becomes truly terrifying…it’s as if the protagonist is creates his own Jekyll and Hyde in his mind.

If all that doesn’t sway you, this will: the entire first issue is available FOR FREE on Newsarama.

Check it out, let us know what you think. And if you like it, let Image know what you think…while this is a complete, self contained story, we’ve got more FEARLESS stories we’re just itching to tell. And nothing will help that like strong sales and letters, e-mails and board posts telling a publisher you haven’t had enough of our anti-hero yet.

WONDERCON: A Creator's Perspective

What did I miss at fill-in-the-blank-con? That’s what everyone seems to ask when I get back from attending a comic book convention. If you are looking for pr from the big companies’ panels, sites like Newsarama and Comic book resources do it far better than I can. If you are looking for gossip, there’s Lying in the Gutters. But I thought it would be more interesting to discuss what it’s like to attend a convention from a creator’s perspective. Don’t worry; I’ll try to throw in a little news and gossip as well.

When I attend a con, my goals are usually this: sell as many copies of my books as I can, and network with as many editors and creators as possible. All this while trying to resist (often futilely) the urge to spend the proceeds of the weekend on comics, action figures etc. and avoid getting sick from being in a poorly ventilated convention center handling germ infested dollar bills.

I rarely have time to attend any of the panels. In fact, I usually find out any news when I get back to wherever I’m crashing that night and check the internet. I did pop in this weekend to the DC Nation panel to see if Dan DiDio would announce my top-secret dream project for DC. He didn’t, but he told me that should be announced sometime this week. All I can say is what he told me, which is that it stars one of his favorite DCU villains. In other words, I better not screw it up.

I also popped in on the BOOM! Studio presentation, deftly run by VP of Marketing/Left on Mission writer Chip Mosher. Again, to see if my name was mentioned. I was asked my BOOM! EIC Mark Waid to do a short story for BOOM!’s Cthulhu Tales anthology, and said yes despite the fact he stole artist Paul Azaceta from me to do Potter’s Field. I’m also in talks with them to do a bigger project…but again, sworn to secrecy.

While I was generally good at avoiding spending money, I did buy two pieces of original art from Ale Garza, who drew the issue of Supergirl #19 that I co-wrote with Joe Kelly. I’m proud of those pages because, whether or not it’s still canon, they are the first appearance of “The Phantoms”, which I helped create. They are the original inhabitants of The Phantom Zone. I’m surprised in more than a half century no one ever thought of who lived in the Zone before.

There were of course some cool meetings and sightings:

• Someone dressed as Darth Nihilis (if you listen to Howard Stern you should get that reference).
  
• My buddies Jim Mahfood and Dave Crosland, with whom I’m going to be doing a really cool HAZED signing event at Meltdown Comics in LA later this month (more on that soon).
• Early Sandman artist Mike Dringenberg. I got to learn that “Death” was based in part on a schizophrenic Goth dominatrix from Salt Lake City (where they are in sorely needed). Speaking of Neil Gaiman characters based on real people, I should mention I’m doing an adaptation of a song by Tori Amos (the inspiration for “Delirium”) in this summer’s Comic Book Tattoo book.
  

But most of the WonderCon involved me sitting at my Artist’s Alley table. I think I had the best placement in terms of surrounding talent out of any con, between American Flagg’s Howard Chaykin and Astro City’s Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson.

Still…sitting at and artist’s alley table can be hard work if you’re not a writer. You can’t sketch, and worse, there’s that deflating feeling every time someone comes up and says, wow, that’s a beautiful looking book, and you have to tell them that, in fact, you didn’t draw it. Assuming that as a writer, you only write what’s in the word balloons, they usually walk away disappointed.

Luckily, I had HAZED artist Robbi Rodriguez as my wingman. Besides making inappropriate jokes about how I was able to get him as cheap labor because he’s Mexican (not true, although I did pick him up randomly at Home Depot), Robbi was nice enough to do free sketches for anyone who bought HAZED, which rumor has it he will do at Wizard World LA and New York Comic-Con if you stop by my table at either.

And HAZED (along with GROUNDED and FEARLESS) is really what WonderCon, or any con, is about. Considering the book wasn’t out yet (it’s out this Wednesday the 27^th, along with the fourth and final issue of FEARLESS), it got a great reception – we pretty much sold out. Lots of compliments on the cover that Kristyn Ferretti designed. Ditto for Robbi’s work…no disrespect to Maintenance but I think this is the best work he’s done (Nick Filardi’s grey tones didn’t hurt) As far as the words inside, the best praise I got was from Mia MacHatton and Lee Atchison of Sequential Tart. Speaking of which, Lee did a great interview with me here.

Actually…saying cons are about the work is only half true. It’s about the fans. I’ve been doing this professionally for about three years now, and the magic of someone saying they like a book I’ve worked on, let alone want to buy a copy, let alone want it SIGNED hasn’t worn off on me. My favorite story from this end involves a professor at the University of Oregon (go Ducks!) who is using Grounded as a textbook for a class he’s teaching. I’m hoping to have more about that here when I get in touch with him.

All in all, an extremely successful convention. Got to interact with without exception incredibly nice fans of Fearless and Grounded, and enjoy a great reception for the mini-debut of Hazed. And managed to (mostly) stay action figure and convention bug free.

Convention Schedule (So Far!)

Robbi Rodriguez and I are currently at WonderCon signing HAZED and FEARLESS (well, Robbi won't be signing Fearless unless he learns how to forge PJ's signature in the next few days).

Also definite:

Wizard World LA (with Robbi and Dave Roth)
NY Comicon (with Paul, PJ Holden and Robbi probably rotating)
San Diego (everyone?)

I can't wait to give you my WonderCon report! Stay tuned!