Tag Archives: calexit

Proceeds from Calexit to Fund the Become The Government SuperPAC

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Superheroes are synonymous with comic books, while SuperPACs are ingrained in the current political landscape, and now there’s an unlikely crossover between the two worlds in the works. Matteo Pizzolo, the writer of Calexit and the co-founder of Black Mask Studios, is starting a SuperPAC called Become The Government to support first-time candidates from non-partisan backgrounds in the 2018 midterm elections. Pizzolo will contribute his writing royalties from the acclaimed ongoing Calexit comic book series to support Become The Government. Last week the first issue of the series by Pizzolo and artist Amancay Nahuelpan was released with a print run of 25,000. Within 24 hours, the book had sold out at the distribution level and at most major comic book retailers, prompting publisher Black Mask Studios to immediately initiate a second printing.

In Calexit, the citizens of California struggle to seize power back from an autocratic government. The ongoing series tells the story of Jamil, a 25-year old courier (aka smuggler), and Zora, a 27-year old leader in the Pacific Coast Sister Cities Resistance, who escape together from a prison camp in Occupied Los Angeles, where martial law has been in place for the past year —  ever since America’s demagogue President signed an executive order to deport all immigrants, and California responded by proclaiming itself a Sanctuary State. Each issue of Calexit will also include non-fiction material about local sustainability and grassroots campaigning for 2018 elections.

Become The Government will be an independent-expenditure-only political action committee focused on supporting first-time candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. The group, which will select candidates to support but will not donate directly to them nor coordinate directly with their campaigns, intends to advocate for candidates who bring fresh new ideas, perspectives, and experiences to the position.

Black Mask Studios Rushes Calexit #1 Back to Press For a Second Printing Featuring a New Cover by Soo Lee

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The first issue of the controversial dystopian thriller Calexit comic book series by writer Matteo Pizzolo and artist Amancay Nahuelpan has sold out and publisher Black Mask Studios is going back to press for a second printing, ahead of the release of issue 2. The second printing of Calexit #1 will feature a new cover by Soo Lee and will be on sale on August 16.

In Calexit, the citizens of California will struggle to seize power back from an autocratic government. The ongoing series tells the story of Jamil, a 25-year old courier (aka smuggler), and Zora, a 27-year old leader in the Pacific Coast Sister Cities Resistance, who escape together from a prison camp in Occupied Los Angeles, where martial law has been in place for the past year —  ever since America’s demagogue President signed an executive order to deport all immigrants, and California responded by proclaiming itself a Sanctuary State. Each issue of Calexit will also include non-fiction material about local sustainability and grassroots campaigning for 2018 elections.

Black Mask Studios will be exhibiting at San Diego Comic Con this coming week at Booth #2104 and selling a San Diego Comic Con exclusive cover by Winston Smith the iconic artist whose work graced the album covers of The Dead Kennedys. The Los Angeles based indie publisher has arranged the “Calexit: Change The World Tour” of comic stores to promote the new series this summer.

San Diego Comic Con exclusive cover by Winston Smith

2nd Printing cover by Soo Lee

Around the Tubes

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The weekend is almost here so who’s doing geeky things? We’re prepping for San Diego Comic-Cin with so much to do! Anyone seeing any movies? Sound off in the comments below! While you wait for the weekend to begin, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.

Around the Tubes

Newsarama – New The Batman Director Abandons Affleck/Johns Script For ‘New Story’ – Wait until the credits for the film…

 

Around the Tubes Reviews

Talking Comics – Bloodshot’s Day Off #1

CBR – Calexit #1

Talking Comics – Dark Days: The Casting #1

ICv2 – Golden Kamuy Vol. 1

The Spectator – Other Russias

CBR – Spider-Men II #1

Talking Comics – The Unsound #2

Around the Tubes

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It was new comic book day yesterday. What’d folks get? What’d you enjoy? Sound off in the comments below! While you think about that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.

Around the Tubes

DC Comics – DC Remembers Sam Glanzman (1924 – 2017) – Our thoughts are with his friends and family

NPR – Let’s Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics And Graphic Novels – This is a pretty great list.

Newsarama – DC’s Earth One Line Returns With Green Lantern – Looking forward to more Earth One graphic novels.

North Texas Daily – UNT comic book collection highlighted in summer exhibition – This is pretty cool to see.

 

Around the Tubes Reviews

Newsarama – Calexit#1

CBR – Dark Days: The Casting #1

Newsarama – Dark Days: The Casting #1

Comic Attack – Harbinger Renegade #5

Newsarama – War for the Planet of the Apes #1

Review: Calexit #1

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Calexit #1 is a powerful, visceral, sometimes funny and sometimes hauntingly realistic piece of speculative fiction from the badass creative team of Matteo Pizzolo, Amancay Nahuelpan, and Tyler Boss. The premise is that California has seceded from the United States when Donald Trump has signed a law to deport all immigrants, but there ended up being a civil war between the liberal urban areas and the conservative rural areas. (I used to live in northern L.A. County whose current representative is a Republican taking NRA money.) Throw in Trump himself visiting and being a dictator on the state and cutting off electricity and water in an area that is prone to drought, and it’s a real powder keg. The combination of gut punching action as only the artist of the madcap Clandestino and Young Terrorists can pull off and real life political themes makes Calexit an entertaining and thought provoking read. If you’re a Trump supporter, the first page will have you tweeting about “snowflakes” from a bot account within 5 seconds.

Instead of staid, boring exposition, Pizzolo and Nahuelpan use humor, current events, pop culture, and plain human connection to build the world of Calexit. Jamil is a courier/smuggler/Han Solo type, who is set up to be the series co-protagonist and also sells anti-depressants to National Guard members because even their healthcare sucks in a universe where AHCA seems to be a thing. His breezy observations about the soldier guarding a statue from a D.W. Griffith film, the fact that superheroes don’t punch fascists any more, and his roasting of his client Steve Bannon look-alike (Complete with neck rolls) Eddie the Chimp add color to Calexit and its ideas without weighing down the story. Not everyone is a frontline fighter during times of revolution, and Jamil is just an ordinary guy with a malfunctioning A.I. personal assistant, who wants to survive by not pissing too many people off. Of course, this all changes with his “mission” on the final page. Jamil’s jokes and kind of moral compass of never selling weapons (But humans head are okay.) make him a character that is easy to latch onto.

Calexit #1 is yet another virtuoso turn for artist Amancay Nahuelpan following his work on Young Terrorists and Clandestino. He has a Quitely-esque eye for detail in perfectly capturing an upscale neighborhood near Hollywood and the famous El Capitan Theater that he promptly destroys in a hail of unexpected gunfire. His depiction of the main bad guy as evil Steve Jobs is kind of a coup, and the glasses and turtle neck complement his long, self-serving monologues. Nahuelpan is both a craftsman and a demolition man when it comes to his art, and Tyler Boss is a worthy partner in crime with his faded out greys for both bad guys in the issue and wistful sepias for the California desert. Some of the comic is set near Hollywood, but there’s no La La Land or even Lynchian glamor to palette just another hot as balls, dry, three digit Southern California day.

Even though it’s set in a dystopia, Calexit has its triumphant moments. It’s a hopeful comic, not a defeatist one as proud as the logo of the Mulholland Resistance that seriously needs to be made into a laptop sticker or T-shirt. It is meticulously crafted in worldbuilding, background art, and color choices by Matteo Pizzolo, Amancay Nahuelpan, and Tyler Boss and is a comic that pokes fun at summer blockbusters while having many “Viva la Resistance” kind of moments and directly opposing Trump’s cool regime and terrible treatment of anyone who isn’t a rich, Christian white man.

Story: Matteo Pizzolo Art: Amancay Nahuelpan Colors: Tyler Boss
Story: 9.0 Art: 10 Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy

Black Mask Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Preview: Calexit #1

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CALEXIT #1

Written by: Matteo Pizzolo
Illustrated by: Amancay Nahuelpan
Colored by: Tyler Boss
Lettered by: Jim Campbell
In Stores: July 12th

What if a fascist, autocratic President took over the United States?

And what if that President lost California, the sixth largest economy on Earth, by nearly 2-to-1…a margin of almost 3 1/2 million votes?

What if the day after that President took power, the largest mass demonstration in history occurred, and the state with the largest turnout was California.

And then, the following week, two of the largest international airports in the world, California’s LAX and SFO, were blockaded by protesters?

What if California refused to be ruled?

From the creators of YOUNG TERRORISTS, Matteo Pizzolo (GODKILLER) and Amancay Nahuelpan (CLANDESTINO), comes this tale of resisting oppression, punching Nazis, protecting each other, kicking ass, and demanding liberty for all.

Black Mask Studios Announces the “Calexit: Comics Change The World Tour”

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What if California refused to be ruled by a tyrannical President? Comic book readers will discover the answer to that question starting on July 12, 2017, when Black Mask Studios publishes the first issue of the eagerly anticipated comic book series Calexit a week before San Diego Comic Con 2017. The Los Angeles based indie publisher Black Mask is promoting the sure-to-be-controversial ongoing series by writer Matteo Pizzolo and artist Amancay Nahuelpan with The “Calexit: Comics Change The World Tour” of comic stores to promote the new series, the publisher announced today.

Pizzolo and Nahuelpan will be joined by other Black Mask Studios creators at Calexit: Comics Change The World Tour events throughout the year:

Calexit: Comics Change The World Tour Wave 1

  • 4 Color Fantasies, Rancho Cucamonga
  • Alakazam Comics, Irvine
  • Brian’s Comics, Petaluma
  • Cape & Cowl Comics, Oakland
  • Comickaze, San Diego
  • Comics Conspiracy, Sunnyvale
  • Comics Factory, Pasadena
  • Comix Experience, San Francisco
  • Escapist Comics, Berkeley
  • Golden Apple Comics, Hollywood
  • Hypno Comics, Ventura
  • Meltdown Comics, West Hollywood
  • Mission: Comics & Art, San Francisco
  • Njoy Comics & Games, Northridge
  • POP Comics, Anaheim
  • Pulp Fiction Comics, Long Beach
  • Pulp Fiction Comics, Culver City
  • A Shop Called Quest, Claremont
  • A Shop Called Quest, Downtown LA
  • A Shop Called Quest, Redding
  • Southern California Comics, San Diego
  • More locations to come

Wave 2 will be in Pacific Coast Sister Cities this summer, with signings in Tijuana, Oregon, and Washington State. Wave 3 will be a Red State Tour in the Fall.

In Calexit, the citizens of California will struggle to seize power back from an autocratic government. The ongoing series tells the story of Jamil, a 25-year old courier (aka smuggler), and Zora, a 27-year old leader in the Pacific Coast Sister Cities Resistance, who escape together from a prison camp in Occupied Los Angeles, where martial law has been in place for the past year —  ever since America’s demagogue President signed an executive order to deport all immigrants, and California responded by proclaiming itself a Sanctuary State. Each issue of Calexit will also include non-fiction material about local sustainability and grassroots campaigning for 2018 elections.

CalExit is Coming from Black Mask, Matteo Pizzolo, and Amancay Nahuelpan

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What if a fascist, autocratic President took over the United States? And what if that President lost California, the sixth largest economy on Earth, by nearly 2-to-1…a margin of almost 3 1/2 million votes? What if the day after that President took power, the largest mass demonstration in history occurred, and the state with the largest turnout was California. And then, the following week, two of the largest international airports in the world, California’s LAX and SFO, were blockaded by protesters? What if California refused to be ruled?

This is the world of CalExit, the new ongoing comic book series launching this May from Black Mask Studios. Together, writer Matteo Pizzolo and artist Amancay Nahuelpan, the creators of Young Terrorists, have created a timely title about resisting oppression, punching Nazis, protecting each other, kicking ass, and demanding liberty for all.

In CalExit, the citizens of California will struggle to seize power back from an autocratic government. The ongoing series tells the story of Jamil, a 25-year old courier (aka smuggler), and Zora, a 27-year old leader in the Pacific Coast Sister Cities Resistance, who escape together from a prison camp in Occupied Los Angeles, where martial law has been in place for the past year — ever since America’s demagogue President signed an executive order to deport all immigrants, and California responded by proclaiming itself a Sanctuary State. Each issue of CalExit will also include non-fiction material about local sustainability and grassroots campaigning for 2018 elections.

The first issue of CalExit will be available from Black Mask Studios in May 2017.

CalExit is the real world secession movement that involves first a citizen’s initiative in 2018 and then 2019 referendum. Yes California, a leading organization behind the movement, has ties with “anti-globalist” Russian groups and received funding from the Kremlin leading to speculation it is a part of a destabilization movement.

calexit-1 calexit-2

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