Tag Archives: jim rugg

Fantagraphics announces two new projects with Ed Piskor

Fantagraphics has announced two new books from Ed PiskorHip Hop Family Tree: The Omnibus releasing October 2023 and Red Room: Crypto Killaz! with issue #1 releasing May 2023.

Red Room: Crypto Killaz!, the next chapter in Ed Piskor’s infamous series. Mistress Pentagram and the Red Room Players return in this all-new, four-issue miniseries. With variant covers by comics celebrities like Peach Momoko and Jim Rugg, splatterpunk has never looked so good!

Hip Hop Family Tree has been a global phenomenon and perennial bestseller since the first (of four) volumes was published in 2013, spawning multiple printings, fourteen comic books, and the author’s wildly popular YouTube comics channel, Cartoonist Kayfabe (with fellow cartoonist Jim Rugg). Yet the series has never been collected under one cover. Until now. Fantagraphics is excited to announce the tenth anniversary omnibus collection of Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor. This omnibus of the New York Times best-selling series includes over 140 pages of extras, all under one cover for the first time!

Hip Hop Family Tree: The Omnibus is a massively impressive tome that includes the original 360-page series with over 140 pages of extra material: a cover gallery of every HHFT book and comic book cover and back cover Piskor has ever created, pages from the HHFT comic book series that have never been collected, new annotations of the entire series by Piskor, and much more.

Hip Hop Family Tree is the entertaining, encyclopedic history of the formative years of the music genre that changed global culture. Piskor’s cartooning crackles like Kirby and takes you from the parks and rec rooms of the South Bronx to the night clubs, recording studios, and radio stations where the scene started to boom, capturing the flavor of late 1970s New York City in panels bursting with obsessively authentic detail. With a vigorous and engaging Ken Burns-meets-Stan Lee approach, the battles and rivalries, the technical innovations, the triumphs and failures are all thoroughly researched and lovingly depicted. Like the acclaimed hip hop documentaries Style Wars and ScratchHip Hop Family Tree is an essential cultural chronicle and a must for hip hop fans, pop-culture addicts, and anyone who wants to know how it went down back in the day.

Discover the history of hip hop in graphic novel form!

Sarah Andersen, Frank Cho, Todd Dezago, Kevin Maguire, Joe Prado, and Jim Rugg are coming to Baltimore Comic Con

The 2023 Baltimore Comic-Con will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on September 8-10, 2023. The Baltimore Comic-Con welcomes comic guests Sarah Andersen, Frank Cho, Todd Dezago, Kevin Maguire, Joe Prado, and Jim RuggTickets are available now.

Sarah Andersen is a 30-year-old cartoonist and illustrator. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014 and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. Her semi-autobiographical comic strip, Sarah’s Scribbles, finds the humor in living as an introvert with beloved pets and the continual struggles with waking up in the morning, being productive, and dealing with social situations. She likes coffee, cats, and covens.

Ringo Award winner and Harvey and Eisner Award nominee Frank Cho launched his career as a comic strip artist at the University of Maryland-College Park student newspaper, penning University2, which was the predecessor of his creator-owned syndicated strip and comic series, Liberty Meadows. His body of work also includes Marvel Comics’ New AvengersMighty AvengersShanna the She-DevilNew Ultimates, and X-Men: Schism, as well as Jungle Girl for Dynamite Entertainment. His recent work can be seen on covers from DC’s Harley Quinn.

Todd Dezago is a writer best known for his work in comics. He has written for Marvel, DC Comics, Image, Dark Horse, Scout Comics, and others. His credits include scripting the adventures of Spider-ManX-Factor, the X-Men, the AvengersMarvel Super Hero Squad, the Justice LeagueFlashImpulseBatman, and Young Justice. Todd co-created the high-adventure fantasy title, Tellos, with Mike Wieringo and The Perhapanauts with Craig Rousseau.

Kevin Maguire is an artist who is known for his work on Justice League InternationalMan Of SteelAdventures Of Captain AmericaBatman ConfidentialDefenders, and so many more it would just seem like bragging. You probably know him as the guy who draws goofy facial expressions. In his spare time, he enjoys yoga, IMAX films, and tweeting.

Joe Prado’s first and foremost passion is COMICS!

Joe started his career back in the early 90s working as a professional comic-book artist and illustrator on the Brazilian market. During that period, he produced hundreds of fantasy, horror, super-heroes, and sci-fi illustrations and comics for a myriad of publishers, books, and magazines.

He’s also known as the co-creator of the comic book mini-series UFO Team, with the writer Marcelo Cassaro.

In 2004, he started to produce comics for the US market. Among his credits are Action ComicsSupermanGreen LanternBirds of PreyRann/Thanagar WarTeen TitansThe WarlordRed SonjaThe Phantom, and many others.

In 2009 he began his 11-years partnership with the amazing artist, Ivan Reis on Blackest Night, which led them to Brightest Day, and then their world-renowned run on Aquaman and Justice League, all four series with the star-writer Geoff Johns.

After that, Joe worked on books such as MultiversityCyborgJustice League of AmericaThe TerrificsBatmanDetective ComicsWonder WomanGeigerJokerNightwing, and many others.

Joe is also the recipient of two Inkwell Awards. In 2016, he won the Inkwell Award for “Favorite Inker” and, in 2018, for “Props – Talent Who Deserves More Attention”, being nominated for the prestigious awards several times. In 2021, he became an Official Ambassador for the Inkwell Awards.

In 2020, Joe became one of the teachers of the on-line studies of the world-renowned art school, Joe Kubert School for Cartooning.

20 years ago, Joe started to work as an agent on the very first Brazilian comics agency, Art&Comics International, and that’s when he found his second biggest passion, helping artists.

Joe was also the co-founder of Chiaroscuro Studios, which he left early in 2022 to create and spearhead Prado’s Art & Design Studios, representing dozens of comic-book artists in the American and European Markets.

Jim Rugg is a writer, artist, designer, illustrator, and YouTuber. His comics include Hulk Grand DesignStreet AngelThe PLAIN JanesAfrodisiac, and Supermag. Honors include Eisner and Ignatz Awards and AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers selection. He is the co-host of YouTube’s popular comics channel — Cartoonist Kayfabe.


This year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Sarah Andersen (Sarah’s Scribbles), Marty Baumann (Pixar artist), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Jon Bogdanove (The Death of Superman), Judy Bogdanove (Steel Annual), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Amy Chu (KISS: The End), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Abby Denson (Uniquely Japan), Todd Dezago (The Perhapanauts), Garth Ennis (The Boys), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Mike Grell (Jon Sable), Gene Ha (Mae), Tony Harris (The Whistling Skull), Mike Hawthorne (Deadpool), Greg Hildebrandt (Star Wars), Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer), Matthew Loux (Prunella and the Cursed Skull Ring), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Laura Martin (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons), Adriana Melo (Action Comics), Pop Mhan (Gears of War 3), Ed Piskor (Red Room: Trigger Warnings), Joe Prado (Superman), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts), Jim Rugg (Hulk Grand Design), Andy Runton (Owly), Louise Simonson (The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special), Walter Simonson (Thor), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), and John Workman (Wild Things).

Celebrate 30 Years of Prophet with Prophet #1 Remastered in July

Rob Liefeld and Image Comics have teamed up to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Prophet with an a remastered version of Prophet #1 drawn by an all-star roster of comic book talent from past and present. Image is pleased to reveal an extended preview from this exciting upcoming release. 

John Prophet first debuted in July 1992 in the pages of Youngblood #2, written and drawn by Rob Liefeld. The character became an instant hit with audiences and created a demand that he star in his own showcase series featuring art by Dan Panosian from stories and layouts by Liefeld. 

Prophet Remastered #1 features art by Philip Tan, Kenneth Roccafort, Clay Mann, Viktor Bogdonavic, V. Ken Marion, Marat Mychaels, Dan Fraga, Karl Altstaetter, Dan Panosian, Cory Hamscher, Thomas Hedglen, Tom Scioli, Jim Rugg, Ed Piskor, Robert Willis, Raymond Leonard, Ale Garza, Ryan Kincaid, and the legendary Liefeld himself.

In October 2021 it was announced that Jake Gyllenhaal will play John Prophet in a movie version of Prophet with Sam Hargrave directing and a script from Marc Guggenheim. Liefeld will serve as Executive Producer with Jeff Robinov of Studio 8. 

Prophet #1 Remastered (Diamond Code MAY220066) will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, July 20. 

Hulk: Grand Design Gets Posters from Jim Rugg, Ed Piskor, and Mondo

Today, Mondo is offering three new posters for Hulk: Grand Design by cartoonists Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor.

First up Mondo has Jim’s brilliant cover to Issue #1, “Monster,” featuring the massive mug of the green goliath. This may or may not be life size to the actual Hulk, when on your wall.

Additionally, Mondo will also have an Original Art variant based on a high res scan of Jim’s original pencils and inks for the cover.

Next up, Mondo will also have Ed’s brilliant variant cover – a beautiful homage to Todd McFarlane’s iconic cover for Hulk #340

These posters will be available on Thursday, April 14 at 11AM CT on The Drop at mondoshop.com.

Hulk: Grand Design Screenprinted Poster

Artwork by Jim Rugg.
$60
Edition size: 200

Hulk: Grand Design Screenprinted Poster

Hulk: Grand Design Screenprinted Poster Original Art Variant

Artwork by Jim Rugg.
$65
Edition size: 95

Hulk: Grand Design Screenprinted Poster Original Art Variant

Hulk: Grand Design (Piskor) Screenprinted Poster

Artwork by Ed Piskor
$60
Edition size: 200

Hulk: Grand Design (Piskor) Screenprinted Poster

Preview: Hulk: Grand Design Monster #1

Hulk: Grand Design Monster #1

(W) Jim Rugg (A/CA) Jim Rugg
RATED T
In Shops: Mar 30, 2022
SRP: $5.99

The acclaimed Grand Design franchise continues! Writer/artist Jim Rugg follows in the tradition of Ed Piskor and Tom Scioli by unfurling the full saga of THE INCREDIBLE HULK, from the very beginning to the present! Witness the biggest moments in the Hulk’s history through the eyes of a single visionary storyteller!

Hulk: Grand Design Monster #1

Preview: Hulk: Grand Design Monster #1

Hulk: Grand Design Monster #1

(W) Jim Rugg (A/CA) Jim Rugg
RATED T
In Shops: Mar 30, 2022
SRP: $5.99

The acclaimed Grand Design franchise continues! Writer/artist Jim Rugg follows in the tradition of Ed Piskor and Tom Scioli by unfurling the full saga of THE INCREDIBLE HULK, from the very beginning to the present! Witness the biggest moments in the Hulk’s history through the eyes of a single visionary storyteller!

Hulk: Grand Design Monster #1

Indie Stars Cook, Kemple, Moore, Piskor, Rugg, and Simpson Come to Baltimore

Baltimore Comic Con 2022

The Baltimore Comic-Con lights up the Inner Harbor this October 28-30, 2022 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con prides itself on the breadth and depth of our comics guests, and are happy to feature creators with great indie comics cred in 2022: Katie Cook, Chris Kemple, Terry Moore, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Don SimpsonTickets are on sale now!

Katie Cook is the creator of the comic Nothing Special on LineWebtoon, an all-ages adventure about a girl, a boy with fairy wings and a dead Radish. It’s her favorite thing and you should read it. Katie also wrote and drew the webcomic Gronk: A Monster’s Story, which lost several awards but is still delightful. Katie spent several years as one of the primary writers on IDW’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and has also done projects with Marvel, BOOM! Studios, and more (sorry for referring to some of you publishers as “and more”). She’s also illustrated several Star Wars children’s books for Disney LucasFilm Press and created artwork for the Disney Wonderground Gallery. Artist and writer! Double threat!

Chris Kemple is one of the contributors to the digital comics effort, Artist Alley Comics. After graduating with a BFA in Painting and Drawing from East Carolina University, Kemple worked as an assistant at Artamus Studios with Richard Case, Mike Wieringo, Jeff Parker, Casey Jones, and Scott Hampton, among others. Currently a teacher and freelance artist, Chris was a founding member of and texture artist and 3D object modeler at video game development studio, Red Storm Entertainment.

Indy powerhouse, Terry Moore, began his career in comics with the critically acclaimed epic series, Strangers in Paradise, the compelling love story between three unlikely friends who find themselves bound together by their pasts. The long-running series garnered many awards, including the coveted Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story and the National Cartoonists Society Comic Book Division Reuben Award. Strangers in Paradise has been translated into twenty-one languages and is as popular today as when it was first published in 1993. Terry marked twenty-five years of Strangers in Paradise with new stories in a ten issue limited series, Strangers in Paradise XXV.

Moore has created many award winning series, including Motor Girl, the story of a wounded warrior and her imaginary best friend, Rachel Rising, a horror comic with a ten-year old serial killer named Zoe, Echo, a science fiction thriller, and Five Years, which brings together characters from all of his series in one heart-stopping story. Terry has also published a How To Draw book as well as a yearly Sketchbook. He has just finished his latest series, Serial, where he brings Zoe back to hunt down the killer of her longtime friend.

The recipient of numerous industry awards worldwide, Moore continues to create strong female characters in extraordinary stories that touch the hearts of readers around the world.

In addition to publishing work under his own label, Abstract Studio, Moore has worked for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, BOOM! Studios, and other major publishers throughout his twenty-nine year career.

Ed Piskor has been cartooning professionally in print form since 2005, starting off drawing American Splendor comics written by Harvey Pekar. The duo continued working together on two graphic novels, Macedonia and The Beats. Ed began self-publishing Wizzywig after developing a huge interest in the history of hacking and phone phreaking. His New York Times Best-Selling series Hip Hop Family Tree, which was originally serialized on Boing Boing, has gone back to print numerous times, and won the 2015 Eisner Award for “Best Reality-Based Work.” X-Men Grand Design, for Marvel, was released in 2017-2019 to wide acclaim and his current series, Red Room is his publisher, Fantagraphics’ best-selling comic in their history.

Jim Rugg is a writer, artist, designer, illustrator, and YouTuber. His comics include Hulk Grand DesignStreet AngelThe PLAIN JanesAfrodisiac, and Supermag. Honors include Eisner and Ignatz Awards and AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers selection. He is the co-host of YouTube’s popular comics channel — Cartoonist Kayfabe.

Don Simpson is best known as the creator of the satirical superhero series Megaton Man for Kitchen Sink Press and Image Comics, the science fiction saga Border Worlds (collected by Dover in 2017), and Marvel’s one-shot CRAZY! reboot (2019). A veteran of the 80s-90s indy movement, Don worked for every major comic book imprint in the late twentieth century, including Mirage Studios (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Image Comics (Splitting ImageThe Savage Dragon vs. Megaton Man1963), Fantagraphics (King Kong), and DC (WastelandFlash AnnualSecret OriginsAction Comics Weekly). Under his Fiasco Comics imprint, Don self-published 17 issues of Bizarre Heroes, a universe of characters surrounding the cast of Megaton Man. More recently, Don has been authoring his weekly prose novel, The Ms. Megaton Man Maxi-Series, at msmegatonman.blogspot.com, a sober but wry sci-fi take on his imaginative universe. Most recently, Don teamed up with William Messner-Loebs, Jason Moore, and Tom Orzechowski on Victory Folks—The Golden Age Public Domain Supergroup in the newly-released YEET! Presents #50 in 2022. Don is excited to be a guest at Baltimore Comic-Con for the very first time this year!


2022 GUESTS

Confirmed guests for this year’s show include: John Beatty (Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Brett Breeding (Superman), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Kevin Cuffe (Metalshark Bro), Kristina Deak-Linsner (Roses for the Dead), Bob Frantz (Metalshark Bro), Gene Ha (Mae, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Mike Hawthorne (Happiness Will Follow), Greg Hildebrandt (Star Wars), Klaus Janson (Daredevil, Friday and Saturday only), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Alien), Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man), Joseph Michael Linsner (Red Sonja), Howard Mackie (Ghost Rider), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Shawn McManus (Sandman, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Frank Miller (Sin City, Friday and Saturday only), Bill Morrison (The Simpsons), Trevor Mueller (Albert the Alien), Richard Pace (Second Coming, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Andrew Pepoy (Simone & Ajax), Khoi Pham (Teen Titans), Ed Piskor (Red Room: Trigger Warnings), Afua Richardson (Omni), Jon Romita, Jr. (Amazing Spider-Man), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Jim Rugg (Hulk Grand Design), Louise Simonson (X-Men Legends), Walter Simonson (Ragnarok), Don Simpson (Megaton Man), Mark Waid (Superman: Red and Blue), Emily S. Whitten (The Underfoot), Keith Williams (Thor the Worthy), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).

Dark Horse To Publish Geof Darrow’s Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin

This year, Dark Horse Comics will publish Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin, an all-new, seven part comic book series of action-packed intellectual drama by award-winning Geof Darrow and Eisner award-winning colorist Dave Stewart. The latest installment in the Eisner-Award-winning Shaolin Cowboy series is set in Phase 4 of the SCU, where the Shaolin Cowboy finds his parenting skills being tested when he is forced to homeschool during a pandemic of unparalleled violence, in a story torn from yesterday’s viral twitter feeds. Can he get a kung fu grip on the situation before a horde of .45 loving human monsters and not so human monsters send him to the ICU? Only guns, swords, and flying guillotines will tell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For nearly twenty years, Darrow’s been creating stories for the Shaolin Cowboy that are chock full of monsters, carnage, copses, and chainsaws. For the latest, epic Shaolin Cowboy series, some of the biggest names in comics will provide variant covers:

  • issue #1: Mike Mignola
  • issue #1: Alice Darrow
  • issue #2: Frank Quitely
  • issue #2: Ed Piskor
  • issue #3: Stan Sakai
  • issue #3: Steve Skroce
  • issue #4: Duncan Fegredo
  • issue #4: Jim Rugg
  • issue #5: Katsuya Terada
  • issue #6: James Harren
  • issue #7: Tsui Hark

Dark Horse Comics will publish Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin issue 1 on May 18, 2022.

Jim Rugg Explores 60 Years of Hulk with Hulk: Grand Design

The acclaimed Grand Design series continues next month! Writer and artist Jim Rugg will follow in the tradition of Ed Piskor and Tom Scioli by unfurling the full saga of The Incredible Hulk, from the very beginning to the present in Hulk: Grand Design! Just in time for the iconic character’s 60th anniversary, witness the biggest moments in the Hulk’s history through the eyes of a single visionary storyteller!

Experience the first chapter of Hulk: Grand Design when Hulk: Grand Design – Monster #1 arrives on March 30.

Hulk: Grand Design – Monster #1
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