Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Irving & Kushner's LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS: The Origins of American Comics coming May 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

powerHouse Books is pleased to announce the May 2012 release of

LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS:

The Origins of American Comics

Photographs by Seth Kushner

Text and interviews by Christopher Irving

Design by Eric Skillman

Some are mild mannered geeks, others mad geniuses or street-smart city dwellers driven to action. These are the men and women behind the masks and tights of America's most beloved superheroes. But these aren't the stories of the heroes' hidden alter egos or secret identities...these are the stories of their creators! Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics gives you the truth about the history of the American comic book—straight from the revolutionary artists and writers behind them.

From the founders of the popular comics website Graphic NYC—writer Christopher Irving and photographer Seth Kushner—comes the firsthand accounts of the comic book's story, from its birth in the late 1930s to its current renaissance on movie screens and digital readers everywhere. Kushner's evocative photography captures the subjects that Irving profiles in a hard-hitting narrative style derived from personal interviews with the legends of the art, all of which is accompanied by examples of their work in the form of original art, sketches, and final panels and covers. The creators profiled include Captain America creator Joe Simon, Marvel guru Stan Lee, Mad magazine's fold-out artist Al Jaffee, visionary illustrator Neal Adams (Batman), underground paragon Art Spiegelman (Maus), X-Men writer Chris Claremont, artist/writer/director Frank Miller (Sin City, 300), comic analyst Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), American Splendor's Harvey Pekar, painter Alex Ross (Kingdom Come), multitalented artist and designer Chris Ware (Acme Novelty Library), artist Jill Thompson (Sandman), and more.

Leaping Tall Buildings, like comics themselves, uses both words and images to tell the true story of the comic's birth and evolution in America. It is a comprehensive look at the medium unlike any other ever compiled covering high and low art, mass market work and niche innovations. It is the story of an art form and an insider's look at the creative process of the artists who bring our heroes to life.

For a preview of the book please visit: http://www.powerHouseBooks.com/leapingtallbuildingspreview.pdf

Christopher Irving is a pop culture historian with a concentration in the American comic book. A veteran of comics history and journalism magazines like Comics Buyers Guide and multiple Eisner Award-winning Comic Book Artist (where he served as Associate Editor), Irving combines new journalism with comics history to create personality essays on comic book creators. Leaping Tall Buildings is Irving's fifth book on comic books. Irving currently edits digital comics magazine The Drawn Word. www.thedrawnword.com

Seth Kushner's portrait photography has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, L'Uomo Vogue, The New Yorker and others. He was chosen by Photo District News magazine as one of their 30 under 30 in 1999 and is a two-time winner of their Photo Annual Competition. Seth's first book, The Brooklynites, (with Anthony LaSala) was published by powerHouse Books in 2007. Currently, Seth is working on CulturePOP Photocomix, and profiling real-life characters on ACT-I-VATE.com and WelcomeToTripCity.com. Seth resides in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York with his wife, son and way too many cameras and comics. www.SethKushner.com

Eric Skillman is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer, art director, and writer best known for his work with The Criterion Collection and his design blog Cozy Lummox. ericskillman.blogspot.com

Comics / Graphic Arts / Non-Fiction
Hardcover, 8 x 10 inches, 240 pages, 50 full-color photographs and 80 comic panels
ISBN: 978-1-57687-591-9, $35.00

For a preview of the book please visit:
http://www.powerHouseBooks.com/leapingtallbuildingspreview.pdf

High-res scans to your specification are available upon request; scanning from the book or lifting images from the mechanical file are strictly prohibited. Mandatory credit line: From Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics photographs by Seth Kushner, text and interviews by Christopher Irving, published by powerHouse Books.

For more information, please contact Nina Ventura, Publicist

powerHouse Books, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: 212-604-9074 x118, Fax: 212-366-5247, email: nina@powerHouseBooks.com

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Irving to launch The Drawn Word in March!

Coming out in March 2012 through Graphicly is The Drawn Word, Christopher Irving's new quarterly digital comics magazine. With contributions from past GNYC writers Jared Gniewek and Ben Granoff, DW also features some new faces, in the magazine Irving's been jonesing to do for about a decade.

While the 100 page magazine doesn't go on sale for another couple of months, you can check out a preview at the new site here.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Paul Levitz: The History of the Past and Future

Words: Christopher Irving

Pictures: Seth Kushner

“Look, I had one of the great jobs on the planet, and I enjoyed it thoroughly,” Paul Levitz leans back in an armchair. His office’s view of New York is panoramic behind him. “I wish all well to the people who have taken over the different pieces of the responsibility. I hope they have as much fun as I did, last as long if not longer. Try to leave the thing in a better shape then when you find it, and that’s what I tried to do. I generally think I pulled it off.”

Levitz has had an eventful and unique career: starting in the ‘70s as a fan-turned-professional, he rose in the ranks of DC Comics from Assistant Editor to President & Publisher, heralding and championing formats such as the graphic novel, pushing for creator’s rights while simultaneously going to bat for the founding contributors to DC’s history, and working to further an awareness of both DC Comics and the comic book industry itself.

Levitz hasn’t just seen the history, but also lived it.

RIP: Jerry Robinson

Just got word from Batman movie producer Michael Uslan on Facebook that the great Batman artist and editorial cartoonist Jerry Robinson just passed away.

Jerry was not only a gentleman, but also tough as nails when called for: he advocated for creator's rights throughout the years, either in his work as head of his own cartoon syndicate, or in the interest of his friends Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

And that's only the start of Jerry's accomplishments, the tip of the iceberg when considering his contributions as a creator and historian.

You will be missed, Jerry.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Alex Ross: Making the Old Guard New

Words: Christopher Irving
Pictures: Seth Kushner

“The best thing I love about making comics is that even when I complain about working for DC and Marvel, most of the things I do for them is what I’ve seen in my mind’s eye,” Alex Ross says. “I’ve been able to use their characters and make them match my own crude interpretations… and obviously much more important things that were absolute freedom in my eyes. My creative instincts and concepts have largely been honored by the deals I’ve gotten in comics, and independent publishers offer even more freedom. There’s absolute artistic fulfillment that I get from comic books. This is what I’ve wanted to do since I was four, and I don’t have regrets on the career path that I took.”

Ross is sitting in Miller’s Pub in his home city of Chicago. After getting over what a tall man Ross is, his impeccable politeness shines through, betraying his Mid-Western roots. Ross bears the distinction of being perhaps the first painter in comics to openly celebrate the superhero in his work, treating the long underwear set with the same attention as a Norman Rockwell. Because of that, Ross is unprecedented in an industry whose finer artists ignored the superhero, primarily for other genres.