Today at the RevolutiONIze Comics Panel, Oni Press talked with five of their creators about current and upcoming projects. The panel consisted of The Sixth Gun creative team Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt and Bill Crabtree. Also on the panel was the talented Helheim artist Joëlle Jones ans Swamp Thing writer Charles Soule.
Oni Press’s Editor in Chief, James Lucas Jones, started right away with Bunn, Hurtt, and Crabtree. “We’ve been dying to let The Sixth Gun fans know what’s going on with the newly greenlit pilot on NBC. The pilot begins shooting March 18th and a few cast members have already been announced. Laura Ramsey (The Ruins) will be playing the female lead character, Becky Montcrief. Other cast members recently added are W. Earl Brown (Deadwood) playing General Hume, Graham McTavish (The Hobbit) in the role of Silas Hedgepeth, and Aldis Hodge (Leverage) as Agent Mercer.”
The Sixth Gun pilot is written by Ryan Condal (Hercules: The Thracian Wars), directed by Jeffrey Reiner, and produced by Carlton Cuse (Lost).
When asked what it feels like to have your comic book turned into a TV pilot, The Sixth Gun team couldn’t be more ecstatic. “This has been a big part of my life’s work and I couldn’t be more humbled and overjoyed to see this series picked up,” said Bunn. Hurtt added, “I’m very excited at the prospect of seeing our work brought to life and equally excited by the creative folks involved in this venture! Their enthusiasm and grasp of the world we’ve created is humbling!”
Colorist Bill Crabtree said, “Being on this journey with these two goofballs has been more than fun and I hope to see this show picked up for a season.” Hurtt added, “I just want thank all of our fans who bought our books, came to shows to say hello, and told their friends about The Sixth Gun. Without our fans, this dream of being a comic book artist would not be real.”
Then Jones moved to the next segment of the panel by showing the recently released book trailer for Helheim and asked some questions of creators Cullen Bunn and Joëlle Jones.
An ancient undead viking who’s basically a mashup of Frankenstein and Conan? Where do I sign up?” Jones said. He went on to talk with the creators about how they were introduced and what the readers should expect from Helheim.
“There will be lots and lots of blood. Seeing Joëlle bring Helheim to life has been amazing, to say the least. The art is like nothing I have ever seen and fans will not be disappointed,” Bunn added.
“Helheim isn’t like anything I have worked on with Oni Press, so getting a chance to try something new, and branch out into the horror genre has been very exciting,” said Joëlle.
“The hero of the story, Rikard, dies in battle, but in Helheim there is no rest, even for the dead. It’s a truly dark story, rife with witches and betrayal and even more blood. Blood everywhere,” said James Lucas Jones.
Helheim goes on sale March 6th.
Finally, Jones turned the discussion to new announcements and over to Charles Soule. “We are proud to announce that coming this fall, we are launching a new comic book series with Charles Soule and Alberto Alburquerque, called Letter 44.”
Jones went on to say “Letter 44 is a new sci-fi series that asks ‘How would people act when faced with a true threat?’ It begins with the newly inaugurated President Blades sitting down in the Oval Office, reading the letter left to him by the outgoing president. That letter is simply addressed to ’44’.”
“The contents of that letter? Seven years ago NASA discovered some sort of construction project out in the asteroid belt. No one on Earth knows what it is, and the outgoing President sent astronauts up there to investigate. As the story opens, they’re about 6 months away,” added Charles Soule.
“This is a story I’ve been working on for several years, and I’m very excited to see it come to fruition. Alberto’s very conscious of the technical details of the spacecraft and other sci-fi elements, as well as the Earth-based stuff. His work is amazing, and I couldn’t be happier with the look of the book.”
Letter 44 goes on sale this October.
SHE CAN SOLVE ANY MYSTERY BUT HER OWN!
