Tag Archives: philip bond

ITHACON 47 reveals its guest lineup

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Ithacon

ITHACON has revealed the many guests coming to the convention taking place on April 27th and 28th. They’ve already announced that Shelly Bond will be participating, but there are a number of other industry giants holding panels and manning booths from start to close.

Known to some as “Weezie,” Louise Simonson will be joining ITHACON and speaking on panels such as The Legacy of Superman, alongside other special guest Roger Stern.

Simonson is best known for her work on ”X-Factor”, ”New Mutants”, and ”Superman: The Man of Steel”, as well as ”Steel”. Walt Simonson, Louise’s husband and creator credited for rejuvenating the Thor series, brings to ITHACON his experience working on Marvel Comics like The Mighty Thor and X-Factor —the latter being a joint project with Louise.

Mike Gold is an American comics writer, editor and publisher. He worked as Group Editor and Director of Editorial Development at DC Comics, and co-founded both First Comics, and the National Runaway Switchboard for which he was also the Director of Communications. Gold will be joining Shelly Bond and Tom Peyer on a panel to discuss their time as editors in the industry.

J.G. Hertzler is best-known for playing Chancellor Martok on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Alcalde Ignacio De Soto in Zorro. Hertzler has an incredible amount of industry experience, ranging from guest appearances on numerous TV shows, to lending his voice for video games and film characters, and even audio book recordings for Barsk: The Elephant Graveyard, and its sequel.

Philip Bond originally worked in the British alternative comic scene, first publishing the ‘Atomtan’ series. He’s known for Bond went on to draw for the seminal Deadline magazine, and created a few titles there before having selections of his work featured at DC/Vertigo and ultimately transitioning to work fully in the US, with his wife Shelly Bond.

Roger Stern co-published a popular fanzine publication, Contemporary Pictorial Literature back in the 1970s that led to the formation of Charlton Bullseye magazine. For ten years, he was the senior writer of the Superman titles for DC Comics. Now, he’s known for his writing contributions for radio, television, and the stage —creating scripts for everything from sketch comedy to flash-animation. Stern has written hundreds of stories about such diverse characters as Green Lantern, Supergirl, Starman, the Atom, and the Justice League for DC Comics; and Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and the Avengers for Marvel.

Also joining the convention is Chris Condon: the writer of ongoing Image Comics series THAT TEXAS BLOOD with artist J acob Phillips, along with its Wild West spinoff, THE ENFIELD GANGMASSACRE that was selected as one of the best comics of 2023 by The Hollywood Reporter, The Comics Journal, CBR, and The Comics Beat. He has also written for DC, Marvel, Z2, AfterShock, Mad Cave and Dark Horse.

Lastly, Emmy and Ringo-award winner Dean Haspiel will also be in attendance this year. Not only did he create Billy Dogma and The Red Hook, he also illustrated for HBO’s Bored To Death, is a Yaddo fellow, a playwright, and helped pioneer personal webcomics. His published work includes writing and drawing for Marvel, DC/Vertigo, Archie, Image, and Webtoon on comics such as The Fox, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Deadpool, Superman, Batman ’66, Wonder Woman, and Godzilla.

Titan Comics announces the Phoo Action: Deluxe Edition!

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Titan Comics has announced special Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions for the cult classic Phoo Action. Prepare to immerse yourself in this definitive collection created by Mat Wakeham and Jamie Hewlett. This ‘Silver Jubilee’ collection encompasses artwork, comics, stories, scripts, storyboards, and a vast assortment of behind-the-scenes material from the franchise. Meticulously designed to offer thrilling adventure and immersive engagement, with luxurious production values tailored for fans and collectors alike. The Deluxe Edition will be hitting stores on October 29, 2024.
 
The superstar crime-fighting duo of Terry Phoo and Whitey Action burst onto the scene in ‘Get the Freebies’, a serialised comic strip created by Jamie Hewlett which ran for a year in British style and pop culture magazine The Face in 1996. The strip detailed the exploits of the anarchist duo as they battled side-by-side to combat their notorious foes, ‘The Freebies’ – a group of outrageous mutants wreaking havoc in the streets of London. With Mat Wakeham on board, the rebellious comic then became the cult sensation Phoo Action, which manifested into a 2008 BBC TV pilot starring Eddie Shin, Jamie Winston, and the late Carl Weathers, directed by Euros Lyn. 
 
The Phoo Action adventures now culminate in an ultimate, all-new clash with fan-favourite characters returning to defeat the most ferocious unseen villains yet!  Fans will finally get their long-awaited look behind the scenes of the elusive and much-loved project. A must-have for collectors, the hardback, Deluxe Edition comes with extra features including three exclusive art prints, original scripts on specially printed paper stock, exciting gatefolds, and a sleek slipcase to present Phoo Action’s design and narrative mastery in all its intended glory.
 
Reprinted for the first time in English, the original comics are remastered and re-lettered, alongside brand-new, Silver Jubilee art by Hewlett himself. Dive deeper into the world of Phoo Action with a foreword by British music, culture, and entertainment journalist, broadcaster, and author, Miranda Sawyer; lost Hewlett and Wakeham comic pages; and an all-new prose story written by Wakeham and beautifully illustrated by Philip Bond. With over 90 pages of unseen preparatory art, as well as creature, set, and costume design and a complete written history, this compilation is a must-have for enthusiasts seeking the ultimate Phoo Action experience.

Titan will also be releasing a very limited hardback, Super Deluxe Edition, available this Summer, featuring a tip-in sheet signed by Jamie Hewlett and Mat Wakeham, with a cloth spine, silver gilded page edging, foil and spot UV finishing, along with five art prints, and three embroidered patches, all collected in a stunning clamshell case.
 
Phoo Action: Deluxe Edition (464pp, HC, $99.99, 9781787743458) is on sale at bookstores, comic shops and digital services from October 29, 2024. Pre-order now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million and Forbidden Planet for UK.

Z2 Comics and Jamie Hewlett Resurrect the Gorillaz Co-Founder’s Anarchic Comic in New Art Book, Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee

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Following the releases of The Gorillaz Almanac and The Gorillaz Art Book, Z2 Comics will once more collaborate with artist and design luminary Jamie Hewlett with Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee, a new oversized art book featuring the comic and show that serve as the kinetic missing link between Tank Girl and Gorillaz. 

Written and curated by Phoo Action co-author Mat Wakeham and featuring original designs by Hewlett, the book will present the full trajectory of what would become the cult sensation—from the Get the Freebies comic strip first presented in UK magazine The Face from 1996 to 1997, to the 2008 Phoo Action BBC pilot and beyond. 

Meticulously assembled by Wakeham with forewords that serve as an oral history of the evolving project, Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee shows the origins of Whitey Action, a cynical teen and potty-mouthed heroine, alongside Terry Phoo, a hapless kung-fu super cop. Born from counter-culture superhero chic and hyperactive pre-millennial angloism, the comic features the pair waging a two-person war against the mutant Freebies gang—led by an outlandish, hysterical crime boss with a basketball for a head.

For the first time, this book will collect the entirety of the 12-part Get the Freebies comic in English, alongside a cover piece from Hewlett—the first new official comic art of Terry and Whitey to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee will also include a never-before-seen introductory comic to a planned second season that was never produced, with a prose novel from Wakeham detailing the rest of the chapters. The novel will feature original illustrations from iconic comic artist Philip Bond. A treasure trove of unseen development and character artwork from Hewlett presents a definitive and exhaustive timeline of this underground masterpiece. 

Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee will come in a standard hardcover and deluxe hardcover with a clamshell cover. The deluxe hardcover will come with enamel pins, magnets, and embroidered patches. Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee will release in early Winter.

Preview: Eve Stranger Vol. 1

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Eve Stranger Vol. 1

(W) David Barnett (A/CA) Philip Bond
In Shops: Jul 15, 2020
Final Orders Due: Jun 22, 2020
SRP: $17.99

You have unlimited funds, a jet-set lifestyle, and extraordinary abilities. So what happens when you develop a sneaking suspicion you’re working for the bad guys? Meet Eve Stranger, amnesiac for hire. Eve wakes up in a hotel room without knowing who she is or how she got there. Beside her is a teddy bear, a credit card, a briefcase of cash, a used syringe, and a letter in her own handwriting that explains her next mission. She’s living week by week, undertaking different, seemingly impossible tasks on behalf of a mystery benefactor. Her bloodstream is flooded with nanobombs, and the contents of the syringe deactivates them for one week and also wipes her memory. Because every Friday morning she wakes up with a clean slate and a new job, from black ops action/adventure hero to personal shopper, scuba treasure hunter to space station saboteur.

Eve Stranger Vol. 1

Preview: Eve Stranger Vol. 1

Posted on by

Eve Stranger Vol. 1

(W) David Barnett (A/CA) Philip Bond
In Shops: Jul 15, 2020
Final Orders Due: Jun 22, 2020
SRP: $17.99

You have unlimited funds, a jet-set lifestyle, and extraordinary abilities. So what happens when you develop a sneaking suspicion you’re working for the bad guys? Meet Eve Stranger, amnesiac for hire. Eve wakes up in a hotel room without knowing who she is or how she got there. Beside her is a teddy bear, a credit card, a briefcase of cash, a used syringe, and a letter in her own handwriting that explains her next mission. She’s living week by week, undertaking different, seemingly impossible tasks on behalf of a mystery benefactor. Her bloodstream is flooded with nanobombs, and the contents of the syringe deactivates them for one week and also wipes her memory. Because every Friday morning she wakes up with a clean slate and a new job, from black ops action/adventure hero to personal shopper, scuba treasure hunter to space station saboteur.

Eve Stranger Vol. 1

Preview: Eve Stranger #5 (of 5)

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Eve Stranger #5 (of 5)

(W) David Barnett (A) Liz Prince (A/CA) Philip Bond
In Shops: Mar 25, 2020
SRP: $3.99

After her crisis of faith, Eve wants out of the job. But how can she do that, when she has nanobombs in her blood and her life -literally and physically!-depends on completing every mission to earn the deactivating serum? Her latest mission takes her back to Iceland, her home turf, and this time it’s extra personal. Eve might be down, but she’s not out… can she see this through with a little help from some very strange friends? Find out in the explosive conclusion to EVE STRANGER: RETROGRADE.

Eve Stranger #5 (of 5)

Preview: Eve Stranger #3

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Eve Stranger #3

David Barnett (w) • Philip Bond (a & c)

Eve’s latest need-to-know mission takes her to Prague, the Bohemian capital, where a giant ape is terrorizing the historic city. But that’s all right, because everyone’s favorite amnesiac-for-hire has finally scored a jetpack. As Jimmy Mac, Eve’s lovelorn clean-up crew, tries to get her attention, Eve learns that this monkey business might somehow give her answers about her forgotten past. Plus a backup feature starring Eve Stranger, social correspondent of The Convivial Times, by Liz Prince (Tomboy).

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Eve Stranger #3

Preview: Eve Stranger #2

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Eve Stranger #2

David Barnett (w) • Philip Bond (a & c)

Eve Stranger can do anything thanks to the nanotech that she has to inject every week to stay alive… anything except remember who she is or where she’s been. Her talents sold by the shadowy E.V.E. Project to the highest bidder, Eve’s latest mission finds her on the run in Pamplona, Spain. High-octane adventure, weird science, and doomed romance meet the jet-set in “Retrograde”!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Eve Stranger #2

Review: Eve Stranger #1

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Eve Stranger #1

The premise of David Barnett, Philip Bond, and Eva de la Cruz’s Eve Stranger #1 is basically “What if Jason Bourne was a girl with blue hair?” There’s also a little bit of Luc Besson’s “tiny girl assassin with one name kicks ass” in its DNA. This first issue follows the amnesiac Eve as she goes forward with her first “mission” that involves traveling to hotels, saving kids from human traffickers, and lots of sad, but cute childhood flashbacks. With occasional digressions to show how Eve’s blood is basically a commodity, Barnett keeps the plotting linear, yet mysterious like Eve Stranger’s past. And it’s all contradicted by his and Liz Prince’s backup story, which seems like a joke/cheeky political satire, but is it?

The real highlight of Eve Stranger #1 is Philip Bond’s artwork complemented by bright pops of blue and yellow from Eva de la Cruz to add intrigue and action to the hum drum of modern living. Bond worked on Deadline in the 1990s with Jamie Hewlett of Tank Girl and Gorillaz and collaborated on Grant Morrison classics like Kill Your Boyfriend and Invisibles. His style is a hybrid between the smooth lines of Frank Quitely and Hewlett’s cartoon anarchy. It works well for a slick spy caper with just the hint of attitude as Eve isn’t a monosyllabic Bourne or Terminator and beams with glee when she buys yet another Rolls Royce motorcycle.

Bond has a real gift for crafting cool action moments like when Eve kicks the room service attendant right in the tray after lazing in bed for the previous few pages or the bit of gunplay that goes down later in the issue. But he and David Barnett don’t skimp on the emotion creating a connection between Eve and her real (?) dad that continues throughout the comic. Any time, Eve sees a child, there is a flashback to her childhood with her dad and a group of kids that were probably trained to be assassins too. It’s a quick visual reminder that Eve is a teenager and not just a weapon, and the use of Herge Tintin eyes on the kid characters allows for the reader to identify with them..

And the teenage part especially shines in Barnett and Prince’s backup story to Eve Stranger #1 whose ending leads into the beginning of the issue and gets a wee bit meta with references to other Black Crown stories. It’s a sweet story about Eve as a girl reporter, who because she can only observe events and can’t interfere, has to wait for sexy shirtless fireman to rescue her elderly neighbor’s cat. Prince has a cute, humorous art style with big gestures and faces that lulls you into a false sense of security while Barnett makes the connection to the main story.

Eve Stranger #1’s story is a tad derivative of the action movies that I mentioned in the first paragraph, but David Barnett and Philip Bond seem to be just as concerned with their protagonist’s emotion and quest for autonomy as showing her doing cool things. Plus the art and colors are stylish, distinct, and the opposite of house style, which has been one of the strengths of the Black Crown imprint as a whole.

Story: David Barnett Art: Philip Bond
Colors: Eva de la Cruz Letters: Jane Heir
Backup Art: Liz Prince
Story:7 Art: 9 Overall: 7.7 Recommendation: Read

IDW/Black Crown provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Preview: Eve Stranger #1

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Eve Stranger #1

David Barnett (w) • Philip Bond (a & c)

You have unlimited funds, a jet-set lifestyle, and extraordinary abilities. And your bloodstream is filled with nanobombs. The contents of a syringe will deactivate them for a week and also wipe your memory. So what happens when you develop a sneaking suspicion that you’re actually working for the bad guys? EVE STRANGER, amnesiac-for-hire.

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Eve Stranger #1
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