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National Book Festival 2014: Vivek Tiwary & Kyle Baker

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Vivek Tiwary and Kyle Baker appeared at the 2014 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

Speaker Biography: Vivek Tiwary is an author, Broadway theater producer and founder of Tiwary Entertainment Group. Tiwary’s debut graphic novel, “The Fifth Beatle” (Dark Horse), tells the true story of Brian Epstein, the visionary manager behind the spotlight who led the Beatles to stardom. Despite his ambitious drive and pivotal role in mobilizing what would later become the most influential rock/pop band of all time, “The Fifth Beatle” reveals the brief life of Epstein, a tale of both triumph and tragedy. Tiwary portrays the story of a flawed and imperfect hero troubled by personal obstacles. “The Fifth Beatle” is written by Tiwary, with art illustrations by Andrew Robinson and Kyle Baker and lettering by Steve Dutro. It is a No. 1 New York Times best-seller and will be adapted into a feature film this year.

Speaker Biography: Cartoonist, writer and animator Kyle Baker has few peers in the field. He has won eight Eisner awards, five Harvey awards and five Glyph Comics awards. Baker’s breakthrough work, “Why I Hate Saturn,” won him his first Eisner in 1991. Baker was responsible for the revival of the Plastic Man comic series, and he has done the animation for several Looney Tunes projects. He is the illustrator of “The Fifth Beatle” (Dark Horse), a graphic novel about the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, written by Vivek Tiwary.

For transcript, captions, and more information.

The National Book Festival 2014 in Pictures

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On August 30 at the Washington Convention Center, the Library of Congress held the 2014 National Book Festival. The convention featured panels on graphic novels and such speakers as Raina Telgemeier, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Vivek Tiwary, Kyle Baker, Liza Donnelly, and Jeff Smith. Gene Luen Yang also spoke earlier in the day.

Here’s photos from the festival.

Preview: The Shadow Master Series Vol. 2 TP

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THE SHADOW MASTER SERIES VOL. 2 TP

Andy Helfer (w)
Kyle Baker, Marshall Rogers (a)
Kyle Baker (c)
FC • 202 pages • $24.99

Throughout the decades, The Shadow has served as a timeless agent of justice, bringing death and disaster to tyrants and criminals alike. During the decadent 1980s, this mysterious Master of Men faced perhaps his deadliest opponents yet: the Seven Deadly Finns, a crime family gripping New York City in a stranglehold. When The Shadow’s network of agents applies pressure to their vast operations, the Finn brothers push back, enlisting serial killers and terrorists into their ranks. The violence escalates, leading to an explosive confrontation atop the Empire State Building and a shock ending which no one — not even The Shadow — could know! This second volume of The Shadow Master Series collects the critically acclaimed “Seven Deadly Finns” storyline by Andrew Helfer and Kyle Baker, as well as Helfer and Marshall Rogers’ prologue “Harold Goes to Washington,” in which The Shadow races to save President Reagan from a most unlikely assassin!

ShadowMastersV2_Cover

Review: The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story

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The Fifth BeatleThe Fifth Beatle is the untold true story of Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who discovered and guided the Beatles—from their gigs in a tiny cellar in Liverpool to unprecedented international stardom. Yet more than merely the story of “The Man Who Made The Beatles,” The Fifth Beatle is an uplifting, tragic, and ultimately inspirational human story about the struggle to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Brian Epstein was homosexual when it was a felony to be so in the United Kingdom, Jewish at a time of anti-Semitism, and from Liverpool when it was considered just a dingy port town. He helped spread the Beatles’ message of love to the entire world, yet died painfully lonely at the young age of thirty-two, consumed by staggering ambition and the endless struggles that came with it.

I should start off to say I became a fan of the Beatles later in life and didn’t know at all who Brian Epstein was, so I went into the graphic novel pretty blank in what I could expect and what the story would be about. Writer Vivek Tiwary has put together a masterful and touching story that takes us through history with a narrative that’s not completely shackled by it. And by doing so, he gives us a graphic novel that’s a lesson in business, perseverance and an amazing human interest story that’s tragic and uplifting at the same time. It’s a story of what one person can make happen when they’re determined to do so and that anyone can dream big.

Tiwary pulls off an amazing balance that digs into Epstein’s personal life, mixing it with his experience managing the Beatles. Throughout it tugs at your heart strings while also showing off the excitement of the time and how amazing the Beatles were. While the story makes sure to point out the outsider status Epstein was in his personal life, it at no point becomes preachy, instead it fills you with a sadness over what he must have gone through. It’s a fantastic mix creating an entertaining and insightful historical account.

Joining Tiwary for the graphic novel is Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker on art and both just add to the package contributing amazing art to a story that’s taken too long to tell. The combination of it all is mesmerizing and creates one of the best graphic novels of the year. The choices in color and art style is well thought out adding to the understanding of the time and narrative. It’s truly an amazing thing that’ll have you linger on each page staring at the art long after you’ve finished reading the words.

Both heartbreaking and uplifting, The Fifth Beatle not only reveals an important, unsung chapter in the history of the Beatles—but it will inspire anyone who’s ever dared to believe in a dream. Brian Epstein’s story has been a long time coming, but this is so good, it’s been well worth the wait. This will go down as a must read graphic novel for it’s style and narrative, but also as a must read for Beatles history.

Story: Vivek J. Tiwary Art: Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker
Story: 9.75 Art: 9.75 Overall: 9.75 Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

The Fifth Beatle Debuts In Italy in Rolling Stone Magazine!

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Thanks to a collaboration between Dark Horse Comics and Panini Comics, the world premiere of the long-awaited graphic novel written by Vivek J. Tiwary, drawn by Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker and dedicated to the manager of the Beatles, Brian Epstein, is arriving in Italy. The Fifth Beatle is the latest addition to the prestigious 9L Panini catalogue and will be released in Italy in partnership with Rolling Stone Italy to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the magazine.

With this joint venture between Panini Comics and Rolling Stone, The Fifth Beatle will be first made available at newsstands in Italy at the beginning of November, three weeks before it is released in other territories. A special Italian version of The Fifth Beatle will be sold bundled with the tenth anniversary special edition of Rolling Stone Italy – the Italian version of the most popular music magazine in the world.

The Fifth Beatle follows the Liverpool quartet from obscurity to the release of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the album that marked a watershed in the history of rock music and established The Beatles as true cultural icons. But The Fifth Beatle is above all the story of a visionary– Brian Epstein, the man who, with his intuitions, led the Fab Four to unprecedented international stardom. A life of triumphs and tragedies, ambitions and fears – Epstein suffered to hide his homosexuality from the world – friendship and loneliness, until his premature death at the age of 32. It is a story full of dreams and music, the greatest music of all time

The Fifth Beatle will be available outside of Italy on November 19th in a hardcover, oversized library format for $19.99. In addition, both a collector’s edition and limited edition hardcover of this groundbreaking graphic novel will also be available, featuring a wraparound, textured cover and a section of bonus materials including Beatles and Brian Epstein memorabilia, artist sketches, and alternate covers, for $49.99 and $99.99.

The Fifth Beatle To Be Published In Three Stunning Editions!

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Ever since its announcement last fall, there has been buzz about The Fifth Beatle. Written by multiple Tony Award–winning producer Vivek J. Tiwary, The Fifth Beatle, chronicling the life of the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, will officially be released on November 19.

The Fifth Beatle, from M Press Books, a division of Dark Horse Comics, recounts the untold true story of Epstein, the visionary manager who discovered and guided the Beatles to unprecedented international stardom—yet died painfully lonely at the young age of thirty-two. More than merely the story of “The Man Who Made the Beatles,” The Fifth Beatle is an uplifting, tragic, and ultimately inspirational human story about the desire to leave behind a legacy, amidst the struggle to overcome crushing personal obstacles and insurmountable odds.

This marks the first full-length graphic novel painted by Andrew C. Robinson. The book also features a special section paying homage to the 1960s Beatles cartoons, lovingly drawn by multiple Eisner and Harvey Award–winning cartoonist Kyle Baker.

Tiwary is also set to write and produce a feature-film adaptation of his graphic novel. Tiwary has signed a deal with Sony/ATV (who control the Lennon/McCartney music catalog) which gives him unprecedented access to Beatles songs for the film.

There will be three editions of the graphic novel.

The standard hardcover edition will be available for $19.99 in an oversized library format. A collector’s-edition hardcover of this groundbreaking graphic novel will also be available, featuring a wraparound, textured cover and a section of bonus materials including Beatles and Brian Epstein memorabilia, artist sketches, and alternate covers, for $49.99.

The limited edition (1,500 copies) features a tip-in sheet signed by creators Vivek J. Tiwary, Andrew C. Robinson, and Kyle Baker, along with a twenty-four-page bonus section including rare Beatles and Brian Epstein memorabilia and behind-the-scenes sketches, a unique, textured cover, and a special slipcase, for $99.99.

Tiwary will be signing limited prints of The Fifth Beatle at BookExpo America in New York City this Saturday, June 8th at the Dark Horse booth #1003 at 11 a.m.

Additionally both Tiwary and artist Andrew Robinson will be delivering a panel presentation at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC on June 9th titled: Comics of the Fab Four: The Fifth Beatle and Beyond. The panel begins promptly at 11:30 a.m.

“The Beatles will be bigger than Elvis!”—Brian Epstein, 1961

The Fifth Beatle © 2012 Tiwary Entertainment Group Ltd.

NYCC 2012 – Vivek J. Tiwary To Write & Produce Feature Film Adaptation of the Graphic Novel The Fifth Beatle

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Award-winning producer and writer, Vivek J. Tiwary, is set to write and produce a feature film adaptation of his upcoming graphic novel, The Fifth Beatle, which chronicles the life of The Beatles little-known manager, Brian Epstein. As Paul McCartney said, “If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian.” This groundbreaking project also marks the first time a feature film about the band has ever secured rights to include Beatles songs.

Tiwary has signed a deal with Sony/ATV (who control the Lennon/McCartney music catalog) which gives him unprecedented access to Beatles songs for the film.

The graphic novel, The Fifth Beatle, is being written by Tiwary and drawn by artist Andrew Robinson with additional contributions by multiple Eisner and Harvey award-winning artist Kyle Baker. It is slated to be published in 2013. Both Robinson and Tiwary will attend the upcoming New York Comic Con from October 10th-14th to present the graphic novel and meet fans. Artwork from the novel will be exclusively displayed online.

On Wednesday, October 10 at 7pm, Tiwary and Robinson will appear on the panel “A Celebration of Pop Music Comics” at Jim Hanley’s Universe store. They will then sign exclusive artwork from THE FIFTH BEATLE at New York Comic Con’s Dark Horse booth at the Javitz Center on Friday, October 12th at 5pm.

The Fifth Beatle from M Press Books, a division of Dark Horse Comics, recounts the untold true story of Epstein, the brilliant visionary who discovered The Beatles and helped guide the band to international stardom as their manager, securing their first record deal at a time when no one else was interested, and successfully bringing them to the world stage with a scale and scope no music impresario had ever attempted.

Epstein’s boast—“The Beatles will be bigger than Elvis!”— seemed absurd in 1961, but proved humbly prophetic by 1967. When he died at the age of 32, he was an extremely successful artist manager and entertainment impresario, but a painfully lonely young man.  The film will deal with Epstein’s struggles with his sexuality and religion, while desperately trying to fit into the “Fab Four’s” world.

Rocketeer Adventures Vol. 2 #1 Coming in March!

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Official Press Release

ROCKETEER ADVENTURES Vol. 2 #1 Coming in March!

IDW to release second all-new anthology of Dave Stevens’ beloved character

[Rocketeer Adventures Vol. 2 #1 Cover]San Diego, CA (January 24, 2012) – The second all-new, all-fantastic Rocketeer Adventures series launches into stores in March! Each extra-long issue—boasting 25 pages of story and art— will feature covers by Darwyn Cooke and Dave Stevens. The first issue’s line-up includes Peter David, Marc Guggenheim, Sandy Plunkett, Stan Sakai, and Bill Sienkiewicz, with Arthur Adams supplying a pin-up.

“The Rocketeer takes us back to another time,” said series editor Scott Dunbier, “one stuffed to the brim with heroism and thrilling adventures. Some might call these stories old-fashioned—and what’s wrong with that?”

Other contributors to the series include Kyle Baker, J. Scott Campbell, Eric Canete, Paul Dini, Michael Golden, Dave Johnson, David Lapham, John Paul Leon, Bill Morrison, Louise Simonson, Walter Simonson, Chris Sprouse, Tom Taylor, Matt Wagner, Colin Wilson, and more. Rocketeer Adventures is in the current issue of Diamond Previews.

As with the first series, a portion of the profits from Rocketeer Adventures will be donated to the Hairy Cell Leukemia research. Dave Stevens, the creator of The Rocketeer, died of the disease in 2008 at the age of 52.

ROCKETEER ADVENTURES VOL. 2 #1 ($3.99, 32 pages; full color) will be available in March 2012. Diamond order code: JAN12 0408.

Visit IDWPublishing.com to sign up for updates and learn more about the company and its top-selling books.

About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE, Paramount’s Star Trek; HBO’s True Blood; the BBC’s DOCTOR WHO; Toho’s Godzilla; and comics and trade collections based on novels by worldwide bestselling author, James Patterson. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints; Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio.

IDW’s original horror series, 30 Days of Night, was launched as a major motion picture in October 2007 by Sony Pictures and was the #1 film in its first week of release. More information about the company can be found at IDWPublishing.com.

Catching Up on Reviews, Part 10 — Deadpool

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Deadpool #33 (Marvel) – Without a doubt, Deadpool is the most over-exposed character in Marvel comics — maybe all comics — and it is seriously harming the quality of the work related to his name. His main series is still the best thing going with his name on it, but that isn’t saying much as most of the other related series are bad or terrible. This issue starts a story with Deadpool fighting the living moon Id while falling in love with some alien-cow thing or whatever. It’s not terrible, but it is pointless.

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7

Deadpool #33.1 (Marvel) – Marvel seems to have decided to have Deadpool appear in a comic with everyone in their catalog, regardless of the lack of quality of those characters. This issue has him battling the Wrecker, who is one of the better characters they match him up with, but the art isn’t anything of value and the story isn’t great.

Story: 7 Art: 6 Overall: 6.5

Deadpool #34 (Marvel) – Back to the story of Deadpool vs. Id in space, seemingly an attempt to cash in on the “popularity” of Deadpool’s space tails in Deadpool Corps. The art isn’t terrible, but there are too many images here that should never have been drawn.

Story: 6.25 Art: 7 Overall: 6.75

Deadpool #35 (Marvel) – Carlo Barberi’s art is the best part about the series at this point, but that isn’t meant to be high praise. Luckily, the Id storyline ends with this issue.

Story: 6 Art: 7 Overall: 6.5

Deadpool #36 (Marvel) – Taskmaster is totally wasted here and the only really good joke here is a Leeroy Jenkins reference.

Story: 7 Art: 6 Overall: 6.5

Deadpool #37 (Marvel) – The concept is interesting, Deadpool attempts to commit suicide by Hulk, but it isn’t well-developed and the art is subpar.

Story: 7 Art: 6 Overall: 6.5

Deadpool #38 (Marvel) – How many issues does it take to play out a simplistic plot? And how overwrought can the art be for a Hulk-related story? Read this issue to find out the answers to these and other questions you didn’t know needed answering.

Story: 6 Art: 6 Overall: 6

Deadpool #39 (Marvel) – Three issues, that’s how long you can stretch out a Hulk-related simplistic plot.

Story: 6 Art: 6 Overall: 6

Deadpool #40 (Marvel) – Barberi’s back to at least improve the art a bit, but the story isn’t that great and really seems to take Deadpool in an unfamiliar and unwelcome (and unfunny) direction.

Story: 6 Art: 7 Overall: 6.5

Deadpool Annual # (Marvel) – I’m not a huge fan of Juan Doe’s art here, but it isn’t terrible. The story is an interesting continuation of the Spider-Man-Hulk cross-dimensional team-up, but it’s far from essential reading.

Story: 7.5 Art: 6.5 Overall: 7

Deadpool & Cable #26 (Marvel) – I guess this is meant to be a tribute to the history between Deadpool and Cable in the wake of Cable’s “death.” It doesn’t work.

Story: 6 Art: 5 Overall: 5.5

Deadpool Corps #10 (Marvel) – If you thought the Deadpool-Hulk team-up was drawn out, this pointless storyline with the Deadpool Corps saving or ripping off or whatever it is they’re doing on the planet of blue Avatar people is drawn out even longer. For no reason.

Story: 6 Art: 7 Overall: 6.5

Deadpool Corps #11 (Marvel) – One cool exploding villain scene and some more-than-adequate art is about all this issue has to offer.

Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75

Deadpool Corps #12 (Marvel) – I should give this one a higher grade simply because it’s the last issue of this waste of a series. But I can’t.

Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75

Deadpool Family #1 (Marvel) – If you thought that the Deadpool Corps were bad when they were together, this issue breaks them up into their own individual stories. It’s worse than it sounds. When the highlight of the issue is zombie Headpool kissing Lady Deadpool (yes, zombie self-incest) with graphic gore and lots of tongue, you know you are in lots and lots of trouble. Quite possibly the worst comic from Marvel of the year.

Story: 2 Art: 4 Overall: 3

Deadpool MAX #5 (Marvel) – To be quickly followed up with possibly the worst ongoing Marvel series of the year. I will give Kyle Baker some credit for his art, which is stylized and, at times, not unpleasant (occasionally verging on great, but not too often). I can’t, however, give any credit to David Lapham, who continually does tasteless and unfunny MAX things in these comics so he can achieve the MAX guidelines or something. It bores me at its best. This issue is about as good as it gets (which isn’t a compliment), with a tale of a female Taskmaster who apparently trained Deadpool or some such thing.

Story: 5 Art: 6 Overall: 5.5

Deadpool MAX #6 (Marvel) – This one manages to repeatedly insult not only the mentally ill — in extreme and unfunny ways — but also to include some of the most racist depictions of Arabs I’ve ever seen. Shame on Marvel.

Story: 1 Art: 1 Overall: 1

Deadpool MAX #7 (Marvel) – This issue is slightly better, in that it only manages to make fun of the mentally ill and leaves out Arabs. The art is still bad and the jokes are even worse. There are no redeeming qualities to most of the issues in this series.

Story: 1 Art: 2 Overall: 1.5

Deadpool MAX #8 (Marvel) – Ah, there are the racist Arab characters we missed in issue #7!

Story: 2 Art: 1 Overall: 1.5

Deadpool MAX #9 (Marvel) – Just when you thought that Kyle Baker’s art couldn’t get any worse, he’s replaced with Shawn Crystal’s art, which is worse. This issue decides to place anti-Arab and anti-mentally ill sentiment with blatant sexism. Yeah, that’s funny.

Story: 1 Art: 1 Overall: 1

Deadpool MAX #10 (Marvel) – Baker’s back and his art is better than it has been in a while. Offensiveness is replaced in this issue by boredom.

Story: 2 Art: 4 Overall: 3

Deadpool Team-Up #885 (Marvel) – Deadpool and Hellcow. Yep. That’s one of the dumbest ideas ever. At least it’s better than MAX.

Story: 3 Art: 6 Overall: 4.5

Deadpool Team-Up #884 (Marvel) – Deadpool and the Watcher in what is supposed to be a comedic adventure. I think. That’s what I pick up from the comic art.

Story: 2 Art: 6 Overall: 4

Deadpool Team-Up #883 (Marvel) – Deadpool, Herald of Galactus. Well, it can’t be worse than the rest of these recent issues. It also can’t be much better. I really used to like Deadpool. Now I’m not so sure anymore.

Story: 4 Art: 7 Overall: 5.5

Are All Marvel MAX Comics As Bad As Deadpool MAX?

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I’ve never read any of the MAX comics before, so I’m not familiar with the line. I am a big fan of Deadpool, though, so when they came out with Deadpool Max this year, I figured I’d give it a shot. So I read the first issue, which I reviewed here, and I thought it might just be the worst thing I’ve ever read from Marvel. Issue #2 isn’t much better.

The best thing about the issue is the art by Kyle Baker. That’s not to say it’s good. Most of it is subpar and I don’t like the style at all. The backgrounds and flashback sequences are very minimalist with little detail. The foreground characters are maybe overly detailed and they strike me as very messy and busy. It’s not terrible, but it’s not very good either.

The rest of the comic is terrible. The plot is something directly out of a b-list horror movie. There is a mental hospital where an evil doctor is using patients with mental illness to lure people to the hospital so their organs can be harvested and sold on the black market. Deadpool is one of the people lured to the hospital and, not really a spoiler if you read Deadpool stuff, he stops the evil doctor using extreme violence (which is graphically depicted).

So that makes for a bad comic, but it doesn’t turn into a terrible comic until you bring in some of the other factors. There is a scantily-clad (and sometimes naked) female patient who uses sex to lure people to the hospital. When Deadpool meets her, he thinks she’s a psychiatrist who is helping him out, but each time she says something clinical, his mind replaces her words with sexual come-ons. The “twist” is that he later finds out that he isn’t imagining things and that she really is saying these explicitly sexual references and she is dying to have sex with the scarred and misshappen Deadpool. After Deadpool has sex with the mentally-ill woman, we find out that part of her illness is that she’s a nymphomaniac, something the evil doctor takes advantage of in order to lure new victims. Later, Deadpool realizes that he, himself, isn’t crazy, but that the woman is, so he dumps her, despite her love for him, because of her mental illness, leaving her in the hospital in a hail of insults while he goes back out to his job in the real world killing people for fun and money.

This doesn’t even get into the subplots about child abuse, spouse abuse, parental abandonment, homosexuality as a veiled mental illness, the use of words like “nigger, spic, dyke, kike, gook and homo” coming from one of the “good guys,” and Deadpool leaving his friend (a different friend) behind to be tortured or worse as he leaves the hospital.

So is the point of MAX comics to find every possible way to be offensive and cram it all into the same comic? I’m not sure the world needs comics like that. If the idea is to be able to tell stories that aren’t limited by the normal confines of comic book standards and censorship, then that’s a great idea. This certainly isn’t that, though, and it makes me wonder if MAX comics are worth the paper they are printed on. I’ve read two MAX issues to date and so far, I’m thinking they aren’t.

Plot: The overall story is a horror-movie cliche and it’s done poorly. The details make it much worse. Rating: 1.0

Art: As I mentioned before, it’s not terrible, but it’s not very good, either. Rating: 4.0

Overall: At this rate, I guess I’m still reading Deadpool MAX just for the purposes of being able to write bad reviews of the terrible content. Overall rating: 2.5

Recommendation: Do NOT buy. Protest would be a better recommendation.

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