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WORK TITLE: Art Ops., Vol. 1: How to Start a Riot
WORK NOTES: with Michael Allred
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BIRTHDATE:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Simon * http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=40188 * http://www.unwinnable.com/2012/12/05/fabulous-killjoys/ * http://www.cbr.com/fabulous-killjoys-co-writer-shaun-simon-flies-solo-with-neverboy/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Comic book writer, musician. Writes for Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics/Vertigo. Played keyboard for bands Pencey Prep and My Chemical Romance.
WRITINGS
Contributor of stories to comics anthologies, including The Vertigo Quarterly: CMYK.
SIDELIGHTS
Shaun Simon is an American comic book writer and a musician. In the comics world, he wrote the Dark Horse Comics series The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys with Gerard Way of the band My Chemical Romance, Neverboy, and Art Ops. In his musical career, Simon is the former keyboardist for the New Jersey band Pencey Prep, which he founded with Frank Iero and John McGuire. Later he played with Way in his band. He also writes flash fiction, for which his story “Snowman” won the Predators and Editors readers’ poll.
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
Simon published the series, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys with artist Gerard Way. The comic acts as a sequel to Way’s album, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” and a follow up to Way’s breakout comic series, Umbrella Academy. Writing online at Comics Alternative, Kenneth Kimbrough declared: “Killjoys reads just fine without any knowledge of the album itself, because most of the important details come out through dialogue and flashback. Instead, Killjoys suffers from storytelling that can at times be too straightforward, often forcing metaphors that don’t hold up to multiple readings.”
In the story, a group of rebels called the Killjoys stood up against the Better Living Industries (BLI), a ruthless megacorporation that rules Battery City like a totalitarian police force. Years ago, all the Killjoys died in the struggle, except for one Girl to carry on the fight. Now, a new generation of teenage copycat Killjoys joins the Girl and the fight lives on. The story is told from three points of view: the Girl, a robot prostitute named Blue trying to escape Battery City, and Korse, a member of BLI’s elite police force. “We go back and forth, telling their stories and struggles in this world. It’s about how the society affects these three people in their situations,” explained Simon in an interview with Ian Gonzales on the Unwinnable Web site. Reviewing the final installments of the story, Marykate Jasper said in Comic Reviews Comment: “With a lot of plot to tie up in not a great deal of pages, this ferociously paced issue provides more than its fair share of story. Racing to the finish line, True Lives offers a satisfying climax but can’t always compensate for the previous lack of build-up.”
Art Ops
Simon’s 2016 Art Ops: How to Start a Riot collects issues #1-5 of the ongoing Vertigo series from DC comics. Reggie Riot is a stoned slacker who’s a disappointment to his high-culture mother, an art expert and member of a secret government agency called Art Operatives. The agency protects valuable paintings which are actually alive. When the Mona Lisa is threatened, she becomes personified, is removed from her painting, and is whisked to the suburbs to hide. Then the entire Art Ops agency vanishes without a trace. It’s up to Reggie to protect the Mona Lisa and rescue his mother. He’s aided by a Batman-like masked sidekick and a 1980s style punk girl. He also has to contend with his arm, which is made out of art that is trying to control his body.
While Simon “has some fun personifying works of art by Picasso and Warhol,” the comic’s jumbled art by Michael Allred can’t make the pedestrian script as witty or thrilling at the book’s concept deserves, according to a writer in Publishers Weekly. On the other hand, Ryan Claringbole commented in Library Journal: “The illustrations are great, combining punk embellishments with 1960s pop images,” even though the story wears thin.
Neverboy
In 2015, Simon and artist Tyler Jenkins published Neverboy, from Dark Horse Comics. Neverboy is a little boy’s imaginary friend who wants to remain in the real world after the boy tragically dies. Neverboy has discovered that by taking drugs, he can stay in the real world and interact with people. Meanwhile, real life person and struggling artist, Julian Drag, wants nothing more than to be imaginary and slip away into a magical world. When Neverboy and Julian meet, chaos ensues.
On the PopMatters Web site, Gregory L. Reece commented: “Simon and Jenkins tell a tight little story that begs to be read twice, that holds a mystery not yet revealed. It grabs you from moment one.” Reece added that the story is “a family drama, where small talk about the daily details of life are always tinged with desperation.” According to a reviewer online at Comics Bastards, despite a slow start spending time getting to know the main characters, “when the issue pops off, it really pops off and it’s only because of the way it’s structured that these big payoffs matter. That and if it all seems to work too easily it’s just because that’s how well constructed the story and world are.”
In an interview with Mark Stack in Comics Bulletin, Simon explained where the concept for Neverboy came from: “I started thinking about what would happen to [my daughter’s] imaginary friend when she doesn’t need her anymore. That led to, what if this imaginary friend wanted to stay in the real world and wanted to live a ‘normal’ life.” In writing the subject matter, Simon explained: “I love surrealism. I love abstracts. Comics wise, the stuff that really got me interested in writing were books like Milligan’s Shade the Changing Man, Gaiman’s Sandman, and Morrison’s Doom Patrol.”
Simon is one of the contributors to the 2015 The Vertigo Quarterly: CMYK. Named for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black spectrum used in comic book coloring, the anthology series gathers fiction from dozens of great comics writers and artists. Simon and artist Tony Atkins present two con artists who own a funeral home and kill old people just to stay in business. “One of them is a bit more into the art of killing rather than the money of business, being referred to as ‘The Banksy of Murder’ …let your mind do the walking on that analogy. It’s a gloriously strong start to what continues on as a striking anthology,” said Bree Ogden online at Bloody Disgusting! Other stories in the collection feature alien worlds, demons, new beginnings, despair, and liberation.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly July 4, 2016, review of Art Ops: How to Start a Riot, p. 50.
Xpress Reviews, May 27, 2016, Claringbole, Ryan, review of Art Ops: How to Start a Riot.
ONLINE
Bloody Disgusting!, http://bloody-disgusting.com (April 30, 2014), review of CMYK.
CBR, http://www.cbr.com (June 1, 2014), review of The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys; (January 30, 2015), review of Neverboy; (February 11, 2015), review of Art Ops.
Comic Bastards, https://comicbastards.com (March 4, 2015), review of Neverboy; (July 27, 2016), review of Art Ops.
Comics Alternative, http://comicsalternative.com (May 14, 2014), review of The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.
Metaphors and Moonlight, http://blog.kristenburns.com (October 6, 2016), review of Art Ops.
Multiversity Comics, http://www.multiversitycomics.com (January 2, 2014), review of The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys.
Paste, https://www.pastemagazine.com (April 30, 2014), review of CMYK.
Popmatters, http://www.popmatters.com (March 10, 2015), review of Neverboy.*
LC control no.: n 2015000464
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Simon, Shaun
Found in: The true lives of the fabulous Killjoys, 2014: t.p.
(script, Shaun Simon)
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Shaun Simon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shaun Simon is an American comics writer. He wrote The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys with Gerard Way for Dark Horse Comics as well as writing Neverboy, also for Dark Horse.
Career
Shaun Simon is the former keyboardist for the New Jersey band Pencey Prep, which he founded with Frank Iero and John McGuire. Following the band's break-up in 2002, he accompanied Way's band My Chemical Romance on tour. It was while on tour that many of the ideas for Killjoys comic book took shape.[1] At the 2012 New York Comic Con, it was announced that a first look at the series would be released on 2013's Free Comic Book Day.[2] The series will be drawn by artist Becky Cloonan and edited by Sierra Hahn.[citation needed]
Simon has also worked outside the comics medium and was the winner of the Predators and Editors readers poll for his flash fiction story "Snowman".[3]
The Fabulous Life of Shaun Simon
By Ian Gonzales • December 5th, 2012
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I’m just going to get this out of the way right now – Shaun Simon and I have been friends for a long time. We first met outside of John “Hambone” McGuire’s house circa 1998 or 1999. We smoked a lot of cigarettes and I found out he was a big fan of post hardcore band At The Drive-In. My first impression of him was that he spat a lot. He still does, actually, but his proclivities towards using the ground we all walk on as his personal spittoon is far from what encompasses Shaun Simon.
I walk into Shaun’s home, intent on starting the interview but he stops me. “You gotta see this, man.” He proceeds to turn on the TV. There is a woman who looked like my 4th grade social studies teacher talking about bootleg designer handbags. He then stopps it and switches to a program about tucked away bed and breakfasts in Maine.
“What is this?” I ask.
“Wealth TV,” he says, laughing. “It’s so low budget! It looks like it’s shot on your iPhone.”
The Silver Age is what interests me the most, honestly. The wackiness and the craziness – throwing around these ideas like it’s nothing, I love that stuff.
We continue to watch for about 10 minutes, perusing Wealth TV’s on demand menu. Every bit has all the production quality of a Power Rangers episode but with none of the kitsch. This led us on a tangent in which we come up with our own TV show, “Fucking Luxury.” In the series, we’d pick up random strangers on the street and see just how luxuriously they could live on whatever money they had in their wallets. It’s a million dollar idea. Don’t steal it.
This is how a typical conversation with Shaun goes. On the outside, he’s a family man with a regular job. Once you get to know him though, the layers begin to peel and Shaun becomes a sort of mad scientist of ideas.
To the comics business at large, Shaun is a newcomer. His first published comic book work will be in May’s Dark Horse Comics Free Comic Book Day Special. In June, the first issue of The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys hits the stands. Gerard Way is co-writing and Becky Cloonan is drawing both the special and the series. That’s some damn fine company to be in! Shaun’s path to comics, like a lot of people in comics, is its own unique blend of determination and happenstance.
“I was into comics when I was little. I never read them, but I liked looking at the pictures. I loved the idea of putting a mask on and becoming someone else. In the majority of my childhood pictures I always have on some sort of costume, ” Shaun tells me as we sipped coffee at his kitchen table. “I had a bunch of my dad’s old comics from when he was younger – Incredible Hulk, Justice League of America and Amazing Spider-Man – mid to late 1960s books. The Silver Age is what interests me the most, honestly. The wackiness and the craziness – throwing around these ideas like it’s nothing, I love that stuff.”
We take a trip to Shaun’s local comic book shop. While we perused the new books on the stand, Shaun points me to The Zaucer of Zilk from IDW and 2000 AD. “That’s Brendan McCarthy doing this crazy psychedelic stuff, it’s great.” He then perused the shelves and snagged Saga Volume 1 and Multiple Warheads # 1.
Shaun wasn’t always pointing out books like Zaucer of Zilk. Like as lot of us, there was a time when Shaun fell out of comics for a few years. “I phased out of [comics] for a while. I did the whole skateboarding thing through high school.” Indeed, it was only about two years after our first meeting that Shaun started to get back into the comic book game.
Shaun used to play in a band with Unwinnable’s, John “Hambone” McGuire. Being that New Jersey’s music scene is pretty small, it was only natural that Shaun would eventually succumb to the comic book talk of Hambone, his future co-creator and numerous other kids in the scene. That, and going on tour with My Chemical Romance, reignited his interest in comics.
When he got back into comics, the first thing he read was Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and Dave Mazzeuchelli. “It was awesome! And from there it was Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen and that whole 80s group of greatness. And then I found Grant Morrison. Doom Patrol, to me, was kinda like a gateway drug because it opened the doors to everything that was going on at Vertigo at that time – Peter Millligan, who I love, and his Shade The Changing Man and Enigma and Neil Gaiman’s work -that whole 90s Vertigo groove was what really inspired me to want to do comics. And Jack Kirby! He was so ahead of his time. He took these outlandish concepts and brought them to such a ground level playing field. He made everything work. I’m really glad they ended up doing those reprints a few years back”
Batman, especially Year One and Dark Knight Returns, always bring people back into the fold. I ask Shaun where he could see himself in the comic field after Killjoys. “I’m doing comics because it’s something I really want to do and love to do. I have a day job that I like and that pays the bills. I never want to look at comics as a job. I know it’s not appropriate to say because it is a lot of work. Creators put in a lot of time and energy into making comics. Whether it be time spent in your own head, zoned out from the rest of reality, or spent behind a computer or pencil, it is a ton of work. But I never want to think of comics as just paycheck because at the end of the day there are a million different ways to put food on the table but there is nothing like comics. I really love the idea of doing my own stories with my own characters-just doing my own thing. I also love that with today’s comics industry that you can do your own stuff and also do established characters. If I could make a living writing comics, I’d drop my day job in a heartbeat.”
“I met a lot of the Dark Horse crew at New York Comic Con and they all feel like one big family. Everyone there, from Sierra Hahn, our editor on Killjoys, to Scott Allie, the editor in chief, has been so supportive of us and this book. They really care about their creators and the fictional characters and worlds we throw at them. I really like their vibe.”
We continue to talk about influences and get to talking about Evan Dorkin. “I got to meet him at NYCC. I never met him before, but we sat down and I just took everything he said in. That dude is incredible. His timing is so perfect. I could sit on the floor all night and just listen to him talk, you know? Meeting him is what made me want to read his stuff ’cause he’s an incredible person.” This led Shaun to pick up Milk & Cheese for the first time.
And thus, we begin talking about the collaboration. Announced at San Diego Comic Con 2009, Killjoys has transformed quite a bit in the last three years. “Killjoys starts off in a very different place than it originally started. It started as a love letter to all the books that Gerard and I were very influenced by, like the 90s Vertigo stuff. It started off on a very ground level, almost slice of life kind of book,” Shaun said. “But the characters we came up with and the themes and the story started to influence Gerard on the record he was writing at the time and he started playing me a lot of these songs that they were writing. I said, ‘dude, you realize you’re writing the Killjoys record, right?’ and he said, ‘yeah, that’s what I kinda thought.’ So we talked about it and we came to the conclusion that it would be great if they did the album and did the comic afterwards.”
In that time, My Chemical Romance released their record, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and within the album and the two accompanying music videos “Na Na Na” and “Sing,” the world of the Killjoys began to take a visual shape.
“MCR went off and did the videos and design work and that wound up influencing the comic. We’re keeping the same themes and a lot of the characters (however the band is not actually in the book). The whole feel and vibe are still there, it’s just a different story now. Our original comic influenced the record and now the record is influencing the comic. It’s a cool progression.”
All one has to do is look at the promo image released at NYCC to see how the two influenced each other. The domino and vampire masked figures in the promo image shares a kinship with music videos.
“There are three stories in Killjoys,” Shaun tells me. “We’re going to cut back and forth between them. There’s a lot of story to tell in a six issue miniseries so we’re packing this thing full. It’s a lot of work for Becky, and she is nailing it!”
The world of the Killjoys is centered on Battery City, which is run by Better Living Industries (often referred to as BLI). “It’s a very character driven book and it’s telling the story of these three people in very different situations in this world. There’s a character in the desert (outside of the city), there’s a character who lives in a real shitty part of the city and there’s a character that works for BLI,” he says. “We go back and forth, telling their stories and struggles in this world. It’s about how the society affects these three people in their situations.”
The beautiful thing about comics is their ability to tell almost any kind of story the creative team wants to tell. “When I read a comic,“ Shaun says, “I’m a sucker for great pacing. I like cutting back and forth. I don’t like to stay stagnant and in one place for too long, so there are a lot of 2-3 page scenes and it’s constantly moving to keep the pace up. It’s hard, but it’s a lot of fun to do. We’re always moving around.”
Shaun’s journey with The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys has been going on for a few years now, but it hasn’t kicked into high gear yet. Shaun, Gerard, Becky and the fine team at Dark Horse have done a lot of great work on this series.
“I think after all these years from the comic to the record to the comic again – this is the story we had to tell. You know how they say ‘the story writes itself?’ This is how the story came to us and this is the story we had to tell. There are heavy parts and light parts. Hopefully we do a good job giving you a good story.”
“Fabulous Killjoys” Co-Writer Shaun Simon Flies Solo with “Neverboy”
01.29.2015
by Cardner Clark in Comic News Comment
“Fabulous Killjoys” Co-Writer Shaun Simon Flies Solo with “Neverboy”
Shaun Simon first hit the comics scene as co-writer of “The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” with Gerard Way in 2013. Now the musician-turned-comics scribe is back, and this time, he’s riding the writer’s chair solo for “Neverboy,” due out from Dark Horse Comics on March 4. With art by “Peter Panzerfaust” co-creator Tyler Jenkins, and colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick, “Neverboy” explores the borders between reality and the imaginary world.
CBR News spoke with Simon about the origins of “Neverboy,” which comes in part from his real-life experiences, the era and creators whose work influenced the series and what its been like writing a comic on his own for the first time.
CBR News: “Neverboy” has kind of a unique, crazy premise. Where did the initial idea originate?
Shaun Simon: “Neverboy” is about a former imaginary friend turned drug addict. It follows his journey as he’s trying to live in a world that he isn’t supposed to be in. I guess that’s the one line pitch.
I think the idea came from, in a way, society. Seeing a lot of my friends, and even me to an extent, taking all these drugs just to get through the day. Sometimes people abuse them and it gives people a false sense of reality. “Neverboy” is like that, to the extreme, where you’re relying on drugs and medication so much that you forget who you are sometimes. You know, it’s not saying that drugs and stuff aren’t good at all when people use them; I mean, I used them myself for a while. This is an extreme case of that; it’s someone abusing that to be somewhere he isn’t supposed to be and to live this false sense of reality that he’s created for himself.
So does the story deal with real world addiction?
It does. It’s not very heavy, not in a heavy-handed way. It’s more about his own personal story and his own particular case. It’s not saying drugs are bad; it’s not a D.A.R.E. ad, you know? [Laughs] I think it’s more just about him.
You’ve said ’90s Vertigo comics are a big influence on your work, and it seems like there’s some “Sandman” that comes through in “Neverboy,” and the idea of becoming a real boy seems like a “Pinocchio” reference. Are those fair to call influences on “Neverboy?” Are there other things that influenced your writing?
I think so, even if it’s subconsciously. I’m a big fan of 90’s comics, and 90’s Vertigo comics. Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan. That was stuff that inspired me to want to write comics myself and I think that all those guys are a big influence on me whether I notice it or not. I think subconsciously it’s there, and then “Pinocchio.” It’s funny because my wife said that when I was first telling her about the story a few years ago. She said, “Oh yeah, this is like a real fucked up ‘Pinocchio.'” And I guess so. It’s not really where it came from, but yeah, you could say that.
This isn’t your first comics project — you co-wrote “Killjoys” with Gerard Way — but it’s the first one you’re writing solo. What’s been different or more challenging in being the only writer?
You don’t have anyone to fall back on. Not that I couldn’t get my friends’ opinions on stuff, which I do. It’s just that it’s my story, so if I fuck up, it’s all on me. That’s the real big thing, that it’s all coming from you. You’re not collaborating with another writer, coming up with scenes and lines and dialogue.
Do you plan to keep writing on more projects by yourself?
Yeah, absolutely. I have other stuff in the works right now that hasn’t been announced yet, but there’s definitely other stuff coming.
What has it been like working with Tyler Jenkins and Kelly Fitzpatrick?
They’re awesome. They’re super nice people. I saw Tyler’s work on “Peter Panzerfaust.” I hadn’t seen it before, and at the time we were looking for an artist for “Neverboy.” I was like, this guy might be really awesome. That book takes place in World War II and it’s a totally different vibe than “Neverboy,” but I saw it and I really wanted to get in touch with him to see if he would be interested. I felt like he would be awesome.
Tyler is the one who brought Kelly, who was coloring some of his stuff, and she is just fantastic. We all talk, and they’re just great people and it’s all collaboration. People bring ideas and this and that. It’s kind of how comics should work, I would imagine. I don’t know too much about other stuff, but this is how I picture it working. It’s been really fun to do.
In addition to writing comics, you’ve done some prose writing and you’ve worked in music. What’s different or the same about making comics compared to other types of art?
I think with comics and stories and writing, there’s so much you have to think about, compared to music. And I’m sure a musician would probably say the opposite, but there’s so much little detail in it. You have to make sure, if you want to see something in issue four, you have to plant it in issue one. There’s a lot to it. Writing is an art in itself and sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes something will fuck you up but I think that’s true for any kind of creative person. You get so involved in something and it just eats away at you and it can drive you crazy. But then you’ll figure it out and it’s the greatest thing in the world. I think that’s true for all creators.
Did you ever have an imaginary friend?
I never did, no. But my daughter does. It’s cool, because I just sit there and watch her sometimes, and she’s having these whole conversations and play sessions with this thing that’s not even there. But maybe it is — how do I know? [Laughs] Maybe I just don’t see it, you know? But no, I never had one myself. I kind of wish I did.
Well, now you have Neverboy.
Exactly. “Neverboy” is my imaginary friend.
Is there anything else about “Neverboy” or any other upcoming projects that you wanted to talk about?
There’s nothing I can say right now about anything else, but Gerard Way did a variant cover for issue one; we just got that from him, and it looks amazing. Our cover artist, Conor Nolan, is an amazing artist. “Neverboy” is one of his first comics gigs; I know he also did a couple covers for “Hellraiser.” He is a fantastic artist. I met him at a “Killjoys” signing last year or two years ago, and his stuff is fantastic. Our covers are incredible. Everyone on the team is awesome, and I wish we could keep going with it.
“Neverboy” debuts from Dark Horse on March 4.
Shaun Simon is a musician and comics writer. With Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, he is writing the Dark Horse Comics series The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. He also wrote a short story in the VERTIGO: CYAN anthology. ART OPS is his first series.
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Interview: Shaun Simon Dishes on ‘Neverboy’
Mark Stack
January 30, 2015
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Neverboy is Shaun Simon, Tyler Jenkins, and Kelly Fitzpatrick’s upcoming miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. The series, written by Simon, is about an imaginary friend that became real and struggles to stay that way. The first issue is due out in comic shops and available through Dark Horse’s digital store March 4th.
Mark Stack for Comics Bulletin: Could you explain just a bit of the premise behind Neverboy?
Shaun Simon: It’s about a former imaginary friend who wanted to stay in the real world after the child that created him tragically died. The way he does this is through drugs and story starts when he is almost out of them.
I never had an imaginary friend growing up but my daughter does. I started thinking about what would happen to her imaginary friend when she doesn’t need her anymore. That led to, what if this imaginary friend wanted to stay in the real world and wanted to live a “normal” life.
Neverboy #1 cover by Conor Nolan
That sounds like a story that deals pretty heavily with the metaphysical. Have you always been interested in stories that walk the boundary of reality and imagination?
Absolutely. I love surrealism. I love abstracts. Comics wise, the stuff that really got me interested in writing were books like Milligan’s Shade the Changing Man, Gaiman’s Sandman, and Morrison’s Doom Patrol. The boundless creativity and energy of those books had a huge impact on me. But that’s not to say the grittier, real life stuff like Watchmen didn’t though. I think what you’ll find in Neverboy is a balance between the two. Neverboy is someone with very real problems–he’s a dad and a husband and wants to keep things that way but, when the drugs wear off, his reality sets in. And his reality is that he’s not real and maybe nothing in his life is.
You mentioned that Neverboy has real problems (being a father and a husband). Is that something that you can relate to at this point in your life? Have you found the writing to be cathartic in that way?
I can definitely relate. I have three young kids and a wife of my own. I’ve never thought of it as being cathartic, I guess it can be. I’ve always looked at it like that scene in What About Bob? where he fakes a heart attack because, if he fakes it, it’s not happening in reality. So, if I write this fiction, it won’t happen in real life, right? Hahaha.
How long has this idea been gestating with you?
It’s been a few years now. Neverboy originally was part of something larger but after developing him, his story felt like it needed to be told on its own.
What changed to make Neverboy’s story something smaller, more self-contained?
His story stood out. He became this character I could really relate to and felt it would get lost alongside anyone else’s. I started coming up with these scenes–putting him in situations and giving him choices that would radically alter his life. It became a story about creativity, art, and life that I felt needed to be told on its own.
Speaking of creativity and art, how has it been working with Tyler Jenkins on this book?
Tyler is amazing. He’s really gets this book and has made it his own. Every page we get in from him is better than the last and he’s not afraid to try new things. I love that about him. He also draws one hell of a city. Tyler also recommended Kelly Fitzpatrick on colors, they have worked together before and her work is stunning. If nothing else, this book is gorgeous to look at with those two.
Exclusive: Neverboy #3 cover
Neverboy #3 cover
When you’re working on something like this, something that can become so personal, how did it feel to pitch the book? Was there a lot of anxiety in the process?
There really wasn’t and I think because it was who I was pitching it to. Sierra Hahn is an amazing editor who puts characters first. I felt totally comfortable with bringing these characters to her. She only made them better.
Was there anything that really changed during the pitching process that you hadn’t anticipated?
There was and it was a pretty major change. The “bad guy” of the book was someone totally different at first. It was only through writing it that the real antagonist made himself known. That’s the interesting thing about writing, it surprises you and takes you places you don’t expect.
What do you want prospective readers to know about Neverboy that they can’t find out in the solicit text?
Neverboy is someone we all can relate to. He’s someone who is taking the easy way out and will realize the easy way isn’t the right way. Making things right again will be the hardest thing he’s ever had to do.
It’s a story of abusing creativity and imagination and what the consequences of that are.
Art Ops, Vol. 1: How to Start a Riot
263.27 (July 4, 2016): p50.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Art Ops, Vol. 1: How to Start a Riot
Shaun Simon and Michael Allred. Vertigo, $14.99 trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-4012-5687-6
Scuzzy New York City punk Reggie Riot is a great disappointment to his cocktail-party mother. Unbeknownst to Reggie, she actually runs the Art Operatives, a secret organization dedicated to policing the surprisingly blurry lines between art and reality. Reggie, along with a black-masked Batman-like sidekick and an artnerd mall girl, gets sucked into their clandestine activities when the entire Art Ops squad goes missing; somebody's got to protect the Mona Lisa, now disguised as a rather homely looking human walking the streets of New York. Writer Simon (The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoy) has some fun personifying works of art by Picasso and Warhol. However, the colorful but often jumbled art by Allred (Madman) never pushes the pedestrian script into anything nearly as witty or thrilling as the concept deserves. June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Art Ops, Vol. 1: How to Start a Riot." Publishers Weekly, 4 July 2016, p. 50. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA457302907&it=r&asid=bcdb5eb616e6f60d9f445269a13e53e2. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A457302907
Simon, Shaun & Michael Allred & others. Art Ops. Vol. 1: How To Start a Riot
Ryan Claringbole
(May 27, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Simon, Shaun (text) & Michael Allred & others (illus.). Art Ops. Vol. 1: How To Start a Riot. Vertigo. May 2016. 144p. ISBN 9781401256876. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9781401269364. SF
Writer Simon (coauthor, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys) and artists Michael Allred (cocreator, iZombie), Matt Brundage (The Spirit: The New Adventures), and Laura Allred present a trippy take on a supersecret government group whose job is to protect works of art because the creations themselves are alive. The book opens with the Art Operatives pulling Mona Lisa from her painting and putting her into protective custody. From there things get weird. As one might expect from a comic about the art world, the illustrations are great, combining punk embellishments with 1960s pop images. The main story is of Reggie Riot, disgruntled son of Art Ops leader Jones, forced to keep the mission going by sneaking Mona Lisa to the 'burbs. Getting guidance from The Body, the only original Art Ops member left, Reggie (with the aid of his arm made out of art that's trying to take over his body) tries to stop a terrorist from destroying the beauty in all major items of creative expression.
Verdict The story, especially Reggie's pseudopunk attitude, wears thin, but the visuals keep readers engaged up to the cliff-hanger at the end. For fans of DC's Vertigo titles, punk art, and David Cronenberg films.--Ryan Claringbole, Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, Madison
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Claringbole, Ryan
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Claringbole, Ryan. "Simon, Shaun & Michael Allred & others. Art Ops. Vol. 1: How To Start a Riot." Xpress Reviews, 27 May 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA458871360&it=r&asid=86a22549994fa4e340b19ac1938c8f1f. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A458871360
Review: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
Posted on May 14, 2014 by Admin
by Kenneth Kimbrough
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys – Gerard Way, Shaun Simon, and Becky Cloonan (Dark Horse Books)
Becky Cloonan, Gerard Way, and Shaun Simon’s The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is somewhat of a comics oddity. On one hand, it’s the long-awaited follow up to Way’s breakout comic series, Umbrella Academy; on the other, it serves as a sequel to Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, the final album from Gerard Way’s other major project, My Chemical Romance, a somewhat prominent pop punk band from the early 2000s. Killjoys1Although this cross-media incorporation may seem daunting to some readers, Killjoys reads just fine without any knowledge of the album itself, because most of the important details come out through dialogue and flashback. Instead, Killjoys suffers from storytelling that can at times be too straightforward, often forcing metaphors that don’t hold up to multiple readings.
Let me explain. The comic’s narrative is split among three central characters, all struggling against the oppressive Better Life Industries (BLI) corporation, which exerts complete control over the protagonists through a nightmarish totalitarian police force. Perhaps the most prominent of the three stories is that of “the girl,” the young woman who inspired a group of stylish rebels — the eponymous Killjoys — to stand up against BLI, which ultimately led to their own execution. Years after the Killjoys’ death, the girl finds herself among a new generation of copycat Killjoys, teenagers inspired by the martyred heroes to dress like hipsters and act out against authority. Following numerous attacks from BLI’s police force, the girl attempts to rally the teenagers to action once and for all. Alongside this narrative is that of a robot prostitute, Blue, as she attempts to buy a new battery for her dying lover, Red (also a robot prostitute). Finding herself poor and at the mercy of a soulless, bureaucratic government, Blue tries to escape Battery City — the story’s main setting — to find a new life for herself and her lover. Sprinkled into this plot are also hints of a robot religion centering around a machine god named Destroya. Finally, the third narrative follows Korse, the top Scarecrow — the most elite of BLI’s elite police force — who is also the man who murdered the original Killjoys, as he tries to hide from his employers the fact that he has grown soft after developing feelings for someone. As a side note, this character bears a striking resemblance to Way’s main influence, Grant Morrison, who portrayed the character in a music video.
Although these plots may sound intricate, they’re actually fairly straightforward and even somewhat predictable (which, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing). However, like the pop punk album that preceded it, Killjoys is mostly flash with little substance. There are underlying themes about oppression generated through rigid conformism, but there’s very little beyond that. And any other mysteries about the world are almost instantly answered. What are those weird body bags in the opening panels? They’re body bags for executed rebels. What are the draculoids? They’re undead humans controlled through creepy masks. Why do the new Killjoys dress the way they do? They just think it looks cool. What is the Phoenix Witch? She’s a lady in feathers and a hockey mask who can also turn into a bird.
Killjoys3
Although the book is certainly weird, most of the points of difference between our world and the fictional world are explained away, often very simply. There’s rarely a sense of mystery that gives readers the notion that the world is larger than what’s shown. This combined with the straightforward plot makes Killjoys into something of a simplistic read. That’s not to say that Killjoys isn’t a good comic. It’s certainly better than most. But I would have loved it at fifteen, when the idea of rebelling just seemed natural. Now that I’m older, the story reads as sound and fury that doesn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said by books like Beta-Testing the Apocalypse or stories out of 2000 AD.
However, that’s not to say that the book isn’t worth reading. In fact, the art is where the book excels. In the hands of any other artist, I probably would have passed on Killjoys after the first issue. But Becky Cloonan instills the fictional world with so much life that it’s difficult to pull yourself away. For those unfamiliar with Cloonan’s work, she has a very soft style with heavy lines. Her characters generally have large eyes and handsome features. And in a book where lasers are constantly firing, Cloonan does an excellent job keeping the action clear and interesting. Each character is designed to be recognizable, and that serves as one of the book’s greatest strengths. And without Dan Jackson’s bold coloring, Killjoys would definitely lack its youthful energy. I especially love the stark contrast between BLI’s monochromatic police state and the Killjoys’ flamboyant hair and clothing.
As I said in the opening, Killjoys isn’t necessarily a bad book. It’s a good book, but it lacks the depth that would propel it to being an excellent book. Cloonan’s art is definitely the strongest part here. But if you plan to pick it up because of Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, Umbrella Academy would probably be a better choice.
Review: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys #6
By Alice W. Castle | January 2nd, 2014
Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment
Look alive, sunshine. It’s all come to this. The ultimate finale. Detstroya has awoken, the Girl has come to Battery City and all hell is about to break loose.
Written by Gerard Way & Shaun Simon
Illustrated by Becky Cloonan
“Stupid children, they’ll never learn.”
It all ends here, boys and girls, so Killjoys, make some noise! The Phoenix Witch rises, Destroya lives, and Korse is on the loose! If Battery City isn’t razed to the ground by the end of this issue, then we’re all dead. Check your BLI-issued heart monitors and make sure you have a pulse. If you do, you need this raucous finale!
Sometimes it feels like there is an expectation for the ending of a story to shock the audience. For it to pull some last minute twist, sweep the rug out from under the audience’s feet, and reveal something that completely changes the way the rest of the story is viewed. However, not all stories require that and, more often than not, pulling an unnecessary twist at the last second can kill a story. With the last issue of “The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys”, Gerard Way and Shaun Simon don’t pull any tricks to force the ending to be shocking or memorable and instead rely on the connections to the characters built up over the previous issues to make the ending enjoyable. Along with artist Becky Cloonan, they take one of the most enjoyable comic series in recent memory and tie everything up to give it an incredibly satisfying ending.
With “The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys”, Gerard Way and Shaun Simon have taken a look at youth culture in the 21st century through the lens of a dystopia and here they give a cathartic conclusion in a way that only comics can deliver. The dystopia they have shown in the series takes the arrested development of the millenial generation, trapped in a world left desolate by their predecessors, and gives them laser blasters, loud rock music and giant robot with which to destroy their oppressors. Catharsis is the name of the game here, providing a lens through the which the frustrations of a generation can be acted out, and Way and Simon pull it off beautifully. From the stories of ascension, revenge and freedom all intertwined with the assault on Battery City, they have created a tapestry upon which an entire generation can project their fears and woes and come away with a sense of relief. And they did it with tight jeans, hair gel and rock music. This should hardly be surprising coming from the man who fronted My Chemical Romance, but what Gerard Way has created here has combined Rebel Without A Cause and On The Road with The Road Warrior and he’s used it to voice the frustration of a generation.
Yet, for as cathartic as it is to see the comeuppance of Battery City, Way and Simon play the conclusion of this series fairly straight. Everything they have built up to over the previous issues plays out exactly the way they said it would. This almost leads to a feeling of disappointment in how the issue really pulls no surprises, but ultimately that’s in favour of how satisfying it is as a conclusion to the story they have told. To reveal at the last second that Battery City was in fact run by a self-insert of Way himself or anything of the like would have been a disservice to the story. Ultimately, the satisfaction of the conclusion supersedes the need to have a last shocking reveal hammered in.
For as well told as the story is, this series would not have been the same without Becky Cloonan’s art. Cloonan has defined the look of the series and created a neon pop apocalypse that infused both eastern and western styles with a sci-fi twist. The juxtaposition of the raw, earthiness of the wastelands and the stark, almost antiseptic cleanliness of Battery City that appeared before is shattered by Destroya’s assault, infiltrating the monochromatic harshness with colour and life. Cloonan also manages to tell a lot of story in the final pages, wrapping up the story and giving every character a conclusion (with some being more open-ended than others) in relatively very little space. This issue could have extended into another just to allow more time for Cloonan to expand each character’s conclusion in the story. Nothing about Cloonan’s art feels rushed and, in fact, it’s just as good as ever, it just happens to be so good that I want more of it. As it stands, it’s a testament to Becky Cloonan’s strength as an artist that she can create such emotion in very simple images.
Continued below
This is a grand conclusion to an equally grand story that, while ultimately rather simple, stands as shoulder-to-shoulder with the great teenage disillusionment stories of the past. This is the rage of a generation focused through Gerard Way’s music and told as a story and it really works. The whole creative team, from Gerard Way and Shaun Simon to Becky Cloonan and even to Dan Jackson’s colours and Nate Piekos’ letters, have come together to tell a story that deserves to be recognised among the greats. If there is only one downside to “The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys” it’s there are enough ideas contained within pages to have kept this story going for much, much longer. Not many comics finish with me wanting even more, but this one did.
Final Verdict: 8.9
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6
01.06.2014
by Marykate Jasper in Comic Reviews Comment
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6
Story by
Gerard Way and Shaun Simon
Art by
Becky Cloonan
Colors by
Dan Jackson
Letters by
Nate Piekos
Cover by
Becky Cloonan and Gabriel Ba
Publisher
Dark Horse Comics
2013-12-31
Browse Similar Reviews
The finale of “The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” isn’t quite fabulous, but it’s definitely fierce. With a lot of plot to tie up in not a great deal of pages, this ferociously paced issue provides more than its fair share of story. Racing to the finish line, True Lives offers a satisfying climax but can’t always compensate for the previous lack of build-up.
Now, I would buy at least seven copies of “Becky Cloonan Illustrates the Indistinct White Light You See After Working at a Computer Too Long,” so I wasn’t exactly shocked that her work on a band of anarchic desert punks and their dystopian megalopolis utterly enthralled me. Her strong graphic style is perfect for a book with this much panache. Plus, she’s got a wonderful sense for the weird and funky, and this part future-city, part sci-fi-junkyard universe puts that skill to great use. Dan Jackson’s colors are also phenomenal. From the pulsing blue of Blue’s hair to the epic green of Battery City’s electricity-trapped souls, he paints a mix of gritty and garish that feels like a really awesome band’s first paying gig. Together, Cloonan and Jackson offer up pages you can look at again and again.
Way and Simon’ script, however, is a mixed bag. They tie their three storylines together compellingly, even though Blue, Korse and the Girl never have an intersecting arc. When writers can’t double-dip on storylines, that puts the impetus on them to make the most of each panel — especially in a final issue — and Way and Simon produce a neat plot that hits all the important points. It isn’t easy to cram that much in, but by keeping the storylines so independent, they’ve let the reader see much more of the world they’ve created. In a sci-fi romp like this, the world is half the fun, so it was smart of them to highlight it in all its facets.
Still, they continue to hit everything in broad strokes. There’s something’s commendable and adolescently charming about the obviousness of the series’ themes and the boldness with which it goes for them — very rock and roll. However, as a result, its revolutionary characters don’t feel motivated by specific, social needs; they speak in wide-ranging, not-quite-defined principles. Goals like “free them all” and “individuality” are certainly ideas that the reader can get behind, but it’s tough to create a sense of momentum heading toward those goals. It’s a real leap to tie the concrete steps that the characters take to the fulfillment of such abstract principles, whereas more grounded goals — overthrow a dictator, take out B.L.I.’s power source — would tie more clearly to concrete steps and increase the audience’s sense of the characters’ agency.
However, perhaps the characters aren’t really the point here. B.L.I. was always meant to fall, and the heirs to the original Killjoys were always meant to triumph. As a symbol-heavy, go-all-out series, True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is an easy-to-consume, joy-to-read treat.
Review: “The Vertigo Quarterly: CMYK.”
By Lonnie Nadler on April 30, 2014@Lon_Monster
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Vertigo has decided to melt our simple little minds with their new anthology concept, “The Vertigo Quarterly: CMYK.” This quarterly zine will feature an expansive range of talent with a wide range of story ideas. Save for the one thing they all have in common: a color. From Vertigo: “The four colors that are the basis of comics coloring serve as the jumping-off point for creators to push the boundaries of short graphic fiction in the new VERTIGO QUARTERLY: CMYK series. Starting with stunningly simple, bold covers, CMYK will defy all conventions of traditional comics anthologies. The unifying color could suggest a mood, a plot point, a coloring technique…” Go own this anthology. Every single story is solid gold. The art is unique to each tale and the juxtapositions from story to story will keep you flying high.
vertigoquarterly
WRITTEN BY: Various, Group Editor: Will Dennis
ART BY: Various
PUBLISHER: Vertigo
PRICE: $7.99
RELEASE: April 30, 2014
Both similar and yet so different from the pulpy material hidden between the covers of magazines such as “Creepy,” “Eerie,” and “Vampirella,” “VQ: CMYK” plays with our baser instincts, drives, and desires, but does so in shockingly vivid color, using the color in such an fundamental way. It spans genres from horror, to science fiction, to superhero, apocalyptic, fantasy, contemporary, and pulpy classics. It’s simply stunning. It’s a ridiculously unique concept, and by the end of the 80 pages, you feel like you’ve won the comics lottery.
You never want to start an anthology off with a whimper, or even a slight roar. No, you want to start it off with an explosive blast, which is exactly what “VQ: CYAN” (“cyan” being this quarter’s color) does. Writer Shaun Simon takes us into the lives of two con artist funeral home owners who kill old people to stay in business. Only, one of them is a bit more into the art of killing rather than the money of business, being referred to as “The Banksy of Murder” …let your mind do the walking on that analogy. It’s a gloriously strong start to what continues on as a striking anthology.
Joe Keatinge delivers the most fucked up ride of a story that you’ll have to read it 37 times before you realize it’s only getting crazier. Remember that scene in “Trainspotting” when the dead baby is crawling on the ceiling? It’s that times 700. And if I were to tell you that writers Lee Garbett and Jock followed up Keatinge’s psychedelic fuck ride with a “Shaun of the Dead” style supernatural tale in which two ice cream men fight off a werewolf with lollies, you’d punch me in the face and say, “photo or it didn’t happen.” But it does, my friends. It does. And it’s glorious.
I’m not going to sit here and detail each short story within the anthology, but I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you all that the final story in “VQ: CYAN” brought a tear to my eye and tightened my chest cavity. I have a lot of emotions about that story and to close out the anthology this way was a bold move of sheer brilliance.
“VQ: CYAN” treats us to nine gluttonous tales of murder, depression, betrayal, taboo, self-loathing, failure, heartbreak, lovesickness, and psychosis. I think this anthology is what Sir Elton was talking about when he sang, “I guess that’s why they call it the blues.” This is… Cyan. And Cyan is letting your demons come out to frolic.
Review by – Bree Ogden
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Vertigo Quarterly: Cyan #1 Review
By Robert Tutton | April 30, 2014 | 10:00am
Books Reviews
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Vertigo Quarterly: Cyan #1 Review
Writers: Shaun Simon, Joe Keatinge, Lee Garbett, Jock, Amy Chu, Monty Nero, Chris Peter, Ana Koehler, Robert Rodi, James Tynion IV, Fabio Moon
Artists: Tony Akins, Ken Garing, Jock, Amy Chu, Alitha Martinez, Al Davison, Ana Koehler, Javier Fernandez, Martin Morazzo, Fabio Moon
Publisher: DC/Vertigo
Release Date: April 30, 2014
Vertigo jumps a few rungs up the ladder of abstraction for Cyan, the first of its new quarterly anthologies. For its unifying theme, the CMYK series looks to the color foundation of modern print comics: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Each issue will be dominated by one of those four colors, either visually or tonally.
Much like the anthology it inspires, the color cyan is vibrant and cool. But it represents different things to different people, and it’s an intriguing creative experiment to see where different creators take such a loose mandate. Some zero in on darkness and nocturnal cerulean hues, while others see the shade as vivid and electric, shocking life into a drab world. Shaun Simon and Tony Atkins play up the lack of warmth with a chilling psycho-killer story, while Joe Keatinge and Ken Garing spin a sci-fi tale about escaping the blues.
The vignettes span many different genres, lending a The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror feel. It’s fun not knowing what will follow the cerebral math thriller — will it be a monster story or a fairy tale? It’s hard to develop much characterization in so tight a space, but most of the stories do it pretty well, which is another reason the broad theme works. The characters in these short tales serve the motif, and it’s able to shine without a boatload of backstory. Yet, James Tynion’s love story, with it’s Aesopian ending and thematic layers, accomplishes both with ease.
Amid graphic novels and year-long story arcs, short fiction doesn’t get a ton of play in comics, which is a shame. Having said that, including one or two less stories in the collection to allow the others to run slightly longer would have been nice, but it’s by no means a deal breaker. Anthologies have their merits regardless of the theme that ties them all together, but Vertigo has forged a creative playground with Cyan and its chromatic successors. Clinging to tighter ideas wouldn’t allow the range of philosophical exploration that this book does.
Neverboy #1
01.30.2015
by Marykate Jasper in Comic Reviews Comment
Neverboy #1
Story by
Shaun Simon
Art by
Tyler Jenkins
Colors by
Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letters by
Nate Piekos
Cover by
Conor Nolan and Gerard Way
Publisher
Dark Horse Comics
2015-03-03
Browse Similar Reviews
“Neverboy” #1 delights with its high concept and wiry art, but it struggles to settle on an emotional core. Shaun Simon and Tyler Jenkins are wonderfully creative with this one and the issue is full of clever world building, but I didn’t have much investment in the protagonist’s problems. “Neverboy” is bursting with cool ideas, but it’ll need to tie those ideas to a more compelling narrative as it develops.
High-concept comics always have a tough assignment for the first issue: though most readers will pick up the book because they’re familiar with the pitch, the concept still has to be explained well enough in-text to feel like the meat of the story. It’s therefore forgivable that most of “Neverboy” #1 is a gradually unwinding reveal of the premise. A former imaginary friend has escaped to reality using drugs and his own imagination and what starts off seeming like a lived-in family story spirals into the sort of tale where rainbows attack. Neverboy’s untethering from reality takes place in bits and pieces before accumulating, and both Simon and Jenkins let the tension mount neatly.
Jenkins’ looser, more interpretive figure work slides easily into the fantastic, so he was a great choice for “Neverboy.” This really looks like a world where the imaginary is always dangerously close to invading. However, there’s an added graininess that still keeps it grounded in city life, and colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick does a great job damping things down with lots of neutrals and olives. She also handles the slow transition out of reality slyly and quietly. I barely noticed Neverboy’s hair changing color until it was nearly white.
Fitzpatrick does go full-on fantasy in a sequence from Neverboy’s past where he and his human friend Sam built a miniature solar system. The colors are gorgeous, with the sky colored like someone tie-dyed an image from the Hubble telescope, and the two-page spread is framed perfectly around an old tree in the backyard. When Jenkins draws the miniature planets dangling or cupped in the characters’ hands, it all looks evanescently lovely and utterly breakable. I could feel what Neverboy had lost when he lost his friend.
However, my enchantment with this sequence also points to the central problem of “Neverboy” #1: the central conflict isn’t tied to a strong emotional core. There are so many cool ideas here, but the central narrative doesn’t feel fleshed out yet. It’s revealed that Neverboy wants to stay with his imagined family, but there are forces that want to drag him away. This is a compelling conflict in theory, but none of the scenes in this issue really establish Neverboy’s love for his family or vice versa. The connection with Sam is the strongest one here, but it isn’t set up as the focus of the book.
In its opener, “Neverboy” looks amazing; the question here isn’t whether this team has enough creative energy to put forth a great series. Instead, the question is whether all these intriguing ideas can be tied to a strong, persuasive arc for the title character.
11.02.2015
by Marykate Jasper in Comic Reviews Comment
Art Ops #1
Story by
Shaun Simon
Art by
Michael Allred
Colors by
Laura Allred
Letters by
Todd Klein
Cover by
Mike Allred
Publisher
Vertigo
2015-10-28
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With a concept that’s more compelling than its characters, “Art Ops” #1 is a solid first issue that didn’t quite manage to hook me. Michael and Laura Allred are clearly enjoying themselves, presenting a world where art is real enough to sometimes escape its frames, and their quiet creativity in this book is delightful. Writer Shaun Simon knows how to pace a caper, and watching the title Ops agents at work was fun. However, Simon also spends much of the issue developing a non-Ops protagonist who really failed to draw me in. With so much space spent on him, issue #1 didn’t leave me craving more. Despite this, taken as a whole, “Art Ops” #1 has laid the groundwork for a diverting series.
This is such a fun concept to see visualized, and it’s the sort of strangeness that only comics could capture. From humans with Pollack-inspired paint-splatter arms to Mona Lisa at a supermarket, the visuals are as weird and winking as one could hope for. However, in the hands of the Allreds, it never feels too wacky or clownish. They have a wonderful way of making the bizarre-o look downright mellow, and there’s a casual cool to even their most outlandish designs. As a result, “Art Ops” isn’t too big on spectacle; instead, I felt like I was peering into an undiscovered, off-kilter world, where everything is just slightly stranger and hipper than our own.
Plot-wise, Simon keeps everything at a brisk, caper-like clip. While the Art Ops are bent on saving rather than stealing art, Simon cleverly borrows from the conventions and pace of great heist movies, and it keeps the issue moving nicely. The hops between scenes read smoothly, the suspense is built well and the surprises drop smartly.
However, “Art Ops” spends a lot of time developing its protagonist, Reggie, but it doesn’t manage to make him compelling. His rejection of his “homo neglectus” mother and her help reads as juvenile rather than justified — though, to be fair, it’s possible that it’s meant to. Reggie complains a lot about his mother’s workaholic neglect, but — on the page — she only ever shows competence and caring. That contrast could be intentional. Unfortunately, the death of Reggie’s girlfriend Jess also doesn’t land, and it doesn’t feel intentional. The scene is more fridge-y than anything, particularly since the reader doesn’t even know Jess’s name until one panel before her death. (In contrast, Jess addresses Reggie by name three times in the same span.) The use of “she” and “her” in the captions — “I believed my story was with hers” and “She should have stayed home” — has a poetic rhythm, but — rather than reading like poetry — it reads like a reminder that Jess could have been any woman, with any name, since she isn’t a character in her own right. She’s a tool for Reggie’s development. (This could be remedied in later issues, but it stands for now.)
At the end of its first issue, “Art Ops” #1 has one of the legs of a solid foundation. The creative team executes well on its concept. Given some more time to develop its characters, it could make them just as memorable as the visuals and ideas at play here.
Review: Neverboy #1 (Dark Horse)
March 4, 2015
After talking to Shaun Simon at New York Comic Con I became very interested in Neverboy, his and Tyler Jenkins latest series from Dark Horse Comics. The premise is fairly easy to sum up if you already have read or know anything about the book. To me though, that doesn’t really tell you anything other than giving you a hype line. I’ll still give you the hype line because that would be a dick move not to at this point, but I’m going to also tell you a bit about the issue. The story follows an imaginary character that’s found a way to stay in the real world and interact with people by taking drugs. I know, I know… you’re sold already. In fact let’s be honest for a second, who the fuck wouldn’t be sold already?
Neverboy #1 opens in a hospital with our title character filling out some medical paperwork or rather copying other people’s paperwork because he’s just killing time. There’s a great interaction between him and a little girl that I won’t spoil, but it gives a lot of insight into his world and mindset. Eventually he scores some drugs from a patient that comes in and he’s off.
Neverboy-#1Meanwhile we meet his wife… yes his wife. She’s walking home and a building gets a makeover out of nowhere. A man runs out calling for Mrs. Neverboy informing her that her order is ready. She obviously hasn’t ordered any food, but it adds a layer of mystery to the story. This is a great and subtle red flag for the reader which isn’t easy missed, but Simon makes sure to distract you by having Mrs. Neverboy (I don’t know what else to call her) see another mom from her son’s school and try to get her attention. She’s completely ignored though and wouldn’t you know it their son Ben goes through the same thing at school when the other kids accidently break his toy.
If you haven’t figured it out already I won’t be telling you what’s going on because it is part of the charm of the first issue. I’ll admit the story moves a little slow, but I think that it’s actually a methodical movement as it gets to the ending and we get more exposure to the world and why Neverboy stayed in the real world. It’s deep. It’s filled with emotion and instantly makes you feel for Neverboy’s situation. Let’s just say that he’s the first character you’ll want to take drugs.
There’s a story within the story and on its own it’s touching, but then Simon adds this great moment at the conclusion of it. What sells the moment though is the artwork from Jenkins. It’s actually really great to see Jenkins on something other than Peter Panzerfaust, because as good as that series is, it’s structured in the real world. Here Jenkins gets to go a little nuts and with the help of Kelly Fitzpatrick they do just that. I can’t say how, but trust me there’s a scene in which things get crazy and both Jenkins and Fitzpatrick get to shine.
Jenkins art is a great choice for this series because his style plays to both worlds. It’s gritty and packed-full of details making it realistic, but then also playful and exaggerated making the imaginary world feel just as real. The last thing I'll say about the art is... pay attention. There's a lot of visual cues to pick up on so look close.
I think I can spot what’s going to be an obvious complaint about this book and it’s going to be that not much happens. Which is half true as we really spend a lot of time getting to know our main character. But when the issue pops off, it really pops off and it’s only because of the way it’s structured that these big payoffs matter. That and if it all seems to work too easily it’s just because that’s how well constructed the story and world are. Simon does a tremendous job of world building for a first issue and I will be back for more.
Score: 4/5
Review: Art Ops Vol. 1
July 27, 2016
Art Ops is a comic that opens with the theft of the Mona Lisa. A group of secret art police break into the Louvre and steal the Mona Lisa before something much worse can possibly happen to it. Only they aren’t stealing the painting—they’re stealing the person inside the painting. How you react to reading the above summary will tell you all you really need to know about whether or not you’ll like this book.
I find it easy to forget sometimes that Vertigo is still around and publishing comics. Maybe it’s because of all the rumors floating a few years back that they were shutting down or maybe because the days of Sandman, Swamp Thing or Preacher were a long time ago. Art Ops, however, is a comic that feels like a Vertigo book down to its core with a concept that sounds ripped straight from Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol or The Invisibles.
Art Ops vol 1Art can be a very dangerous thing and that’s where the Art Ops come in. They operate in the shadows, policing art, keeping it in the frames and hiding away any of the more lethal works. So what happens when they all suddenly disappear? What do we do when there’s no one to protect us from art?
The responsibility falls on the only remaining members left: Reggie, the Art Ops leader’s bratty son with an invincible arm that looks like an exploding Jackson Pollock painting, the Body, a character ripped straight from a comic book, and a woman who has spent the last few decades eternally dancing in a music video that tried to bring forth an alien invasion. They’re tasked with protecting the Mona Lisa from an escaped cubist painting bent on taking famous works of art and infecting them with a disease that will finally prove to the world that art is a living, changing thing.
If this is sounding a little too conceptual for your tastes, don’t worry. Art Ops manages to balance its high concept with something that feels undeniably comic book. At one point a diseased Statue of Liberty starts attacking the streets of New York City, wreaking havoc, while the evil cubist painting cackles like Rita Repulsa in a loft apartment, corrupting more works of art into Power Ranger villains.
The writer, Shaun Simon, does a really impressive job working these heady ideas and making them fit so easily into a character-driven adventure. Art Ops bends this surreal premise around characters that can be likeable and characters that are so frustrating you just want to scream and tell them to grow up. Only in this story, they actually do.
The comic still doesn’t quite figure its way around many of problems that plagued its spiritual predecessors. Often the pace meanders in ways that don’t feel natural and has a protagonist that can be cloyingly rebellious. For any dips that happen with the writing, however, it’s still bolstered by the incredible artwork and color-work by Michael Allred, Matt Brundage and Laura Allred that keeps the story still immensely fun to simply look at.
Art Ops is, I think, doing a really cool thing by visually illustrating a tension that’s going on around us with how we engage with the world of fine arts. When we see the original Art Ops group, they’re always seen wearing fancy clothing or attending high-class events. Visually, they’re coded very much like the wealthy elite and in function they work similarly too. The fine arts only really survive through museums and art galleries because of the rich who fund them and buy the works of art to donate to these places. In a way, they’re the people who protect and preserve art and—while that’s inherently a good—decide which art they do this with. The leader of the Art Ops even describes their group’s philosophy with: “Art, like society, needs rules and regulations.”
But, well, should it? Right now the wealthy have become the arbiters of art, deciding what art survives and what art is chosen to be accessible to the masses. In Art Ops, it’s revealed that there are secret bunkers all over the world where they’ve stashed art deemed “too dangerous” for public consumption. But should the rich—the perpetrators and benefactors of an oppressive status quo be the ones in charge of deciding what art is good for us?
The villain of the story isn’t a counter-point but, in her own way, wants to shake-up our standard of engaging with art at an arm’s length. She defiles the appearance of classic works to demonstrate that art isn’t static. She wants to convey that art is something that changes with time and our relationships and interpretations can change too. Of course, how she goes about it is wrong. She’s literally destroying statues and paintings then sending them on city-wide rampages.
The first trade collection of Art Ops hasn’t really proposed an answer to this tension but I think it is poised within a character. The protagonist, Reggie, has already rejected his mother’s perspective on a life driven by regulation and rules for art. He represents almost a punk attitude and, while I could write a whole essay here about the punk movement as a response to traditional art, I’ll just say Reggie looks primed to bridge the gap between the two contradicting forces at play.
Reggie’s journey for now is more about a gradual embrace into creating art via his invincible punch arm and I’m really excited to see what great works of art the Art Ops group literally beat into the ground next.
[su_box title="Score: 4/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]
Art Ops Vol. 1 Writer: Shaun Simon Artist: Michael Allred, Matt Brundage Colorist: Laura Allred Publisher: Vertigo Price: $14.99 Format: Collected Edition Graphic Novel
Graphic Novel Review: Art Ops Vol. 1 by Shaun Simon, Michael Allred, & Matt Brundage
06/10/2016 | Book Reviews, Books, Reading | 6 Comments
Graphic Novel Review: Art Ops Vol. 1 by Shaun Simon, Michael Allred, & Matt Brundage | books, reading, book reviews, graphic novel, fantasy
Reggie has never wanted anything to do with his mother's secret organization or the art they protect, but his graffiti arm, given to him on the night he first discovered art is actually alive, is a constant reminder and a constant burden. But when all the Art Ops agents disappear and art starts wreaking havoc, it's up to Reggie, a comic book superhero, an 80s music video star, and a teenager to fix things.
Graphic Novel Review: Art Ops Vol. 1 by Shaun Simon, Michael Allred, & Matt Brundage | books, reading, book reviews, graphic novel, fantasy
Title: Art Ops Vol. 1
Author: Matt Brundage, Michael Allred, Shaun Simon
Publisher: Vertigo
Series: Art Ops
Book Number: Volume 1 of TBA
Genre: Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Pages: 144
My Book Rating: 3.5 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon
Review:
*I received a free ecopy of this graphic novel via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*
So I just wanna start off this review by saying the main character in this graphic novel is part human, part graffiti. If that doesn’t get your attention, I don’t know what will. That’s like 80% of the reason I decided to read this.
Seriously, it was like:
– 80% the main character has graffiti for an arm
– 19% art by Michael Allred, the same artist who did iZombie
– 1% oh, yeah, I guess the story sounds good too, and since I took art classes for numerous years in middle and high school and always said I wanted to have a career that involved art (that never happened), I like to pretend I actually know anything about the topic even though in reality I’m actually one of those people who goes to art museums and says things like, “That’s just a black circle on a canvas. I could paint that myself.”
Ok that last part may have been a bit off topic, but this really was a fun, unique graphic novel, and you don’t need to know anything about art or famous artwork to enjoy it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about the actual premise of a secret team keeping famous works of art safe, but it turned out to be an action-packed storyline, and the characters kept it entertaining rather than serious or stuffy.
Speaking of which, Reggie was a hard character to like, but I found myself liking him anyway. He was really rough around the edges… and the middle—he cared more about drinking, drugs, and fighting than anything else really—but he’s had a tough life. He was still a good person underneath his roughness.
As for the artwork, of course that was amazing.
The only real problem I had was that I was a little confused sometimes about exactly what was going on. It could’ve been the ARC formatting, it could’ve been the way it was written, it could’ve been me, I’m not really sure, but it was usually just small things and thus not something that ruined the story.
So overall, Art Ops Vol. 1 was creative in it’s premise and beautifully illustrated, and it was fun seeing pieces of art come alive in the real world! I do plan to continue the series as I think I’ll get even more into it as I get to know the characters more.
Recommended For:
Anyone looking for a graphic novel with a unique premise, fans of Michael Allred's artwork or just art in general, and anyone who likes rough-around-the-edges characters.
'Neverboy #1' on How to Not Fade Away
by Gregory L. Reece
10 March 2015
Neverboy is a tight little story that begs to be read twice.
cover art
Neverboy #1
(Dark Horse)
US: May 2015
I’m a-gonna tell you how it’s gonna be.
You’re gonna give your love to me.
I wanna love you night and day.
You know my love a-not fide away.
A-well, you know my love a-not fade away.
—Buddy Holly and Norman Perry
Does this ever happen to you? You send out an email or post something on Facebook or Twitter. Then you wait for a response. Every few minutes you pick up your phone to look for a reply or a comment or a retweet. And sometimes nothing happens. The email never comes. The social media post just sits there. Your phone doesn’t chirp or beep or buzz or vibrate. Silence. It seems like no one even notices.
Or you’re waiting to see a doctor or to get a table at a busy restaurant. You put your name on the list; you signed in as neatly as you could. Then you wait. No one calls your name. You see people who were directly in front of you in line get taken back by the nurse. You see people who came in after you be escorted to a table. And you wait. It’s like you didn’t even sign in at all.
Neverboy, the new book from Dark Horse Comics by Shaun Simon and Tyler Jenkins, has given me a worried mind.
There’s this character, Neverboy, who has a name like a superhero – a thinky, high concept superhero. But he’s not a superhero. He’s just an imaginary friend, a childhood construct, a boy’s wish for a true companion – only without the boy. And Neverboy’s got troubles. Big troubles.
He’s fighting a losing battle, reduced to hanging out in emergency rooms, reduced to stealing from the overdosed and the dying. But, you see, he has to do it. The little pills are the only things that are holding him together, the only things that keep everything from fading away.
He has a wife. And he has a son. But they are just as imaginary as he is, just as see-through, shadowy, ephemeral. Just as easy to overlook.
Some days it’s like no one even notices them, like they’re not even there. Old friends walk by like they don’t recognize her. Kids bump into him, stumble over him. Their feet crush his toy plane but they don’t say they’re sorry; they act like they don’t even care.
“It was like I was invisible,” he says. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”
“She must have seen me,” she says. “I was calling her name and everything.”
And I know what that’s like, to go and come, to live and have lived, and to think that no difference was made, no mark was left. To think nobody ever saw me here at all.
So Neverboy has given me a worried mind.
They’re fading away, his wife and his child. Slipping into and then, finally, from his memory. And perhaps he will fade away as well, unnoticed one too many times.
The human condition. To watch our loved ones fade away, right before our very eyes. To ourselves fade away, right before theirs.
A worried mind.
I’m struck by this quirky, scruffy little book by Simon and Jenkins. Neverboy is like no imaginary friend I ever had, like no superhero I’ve ever seen. Simon and Jenkins tell a tight little story that begs to be read twice, that holds a mystery not yet revealed. It grabs you from moment one, with Neverboy peeking over the shoulder of a man in the emergency room, stealing his ailments and making them his own, writing them down on the endless forms that no one, no one, will ever read. And then it becomes a family drama, where small talk about the daily details of life are always tinged with desperation. And then it all goes to hell, is all swept away in a rainbow colored tidal wave. And Neverboy, all tall and angular, Neverboy, with a shock of brown-then-white-hair, is on the run.
And it’s giving me a worried mind.
Looking in the mirror and seeing brown hair turn to grey, looking in the mirror and barely recognizing, barely seeing, the reflection there. Taking the little pills that are the only things holding me together. It all moves too quickly. It all fades away.
But Neverboy, he’ll never give up. He’ll get them back. He’ll save the day. He’ll be noticed. He’ll not fade away.
Don’t you worry.
Neverboy #1