frank gogol

NEWS

• Comics creators condemn news of Warren Ellis’s return to comics. Image gives a statement
• September 2021 Marvel solicitations: ‘Dark Ages’ rages and Inferno is here!
  • Marvel teases Spider-Man: Beyond, reveals it’ll be 3 times a month!
• Dark Horse announces Jeff Lemire’s ‘Mazebook’ for September 2021
• Dark Horse announces sci-fi one-shot ‘Children of the Plague’
• Dark Horse schedules ‘Last Flight Out’ for September 2021
• Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman launching Kids Love Chains Press with ‘Vanish’ as first title
• ‘The Department of Truth’ #1 sells out and gets sixth printing
• Marvel to offer NFT collecting via Veve Digital Collectibles App

Segment: Heroes Don't Do That - Do they though? Second Week: Do heroes binge watch Netflix?

Our Top Books of the Week

Dave:

1. Infinite Frontier #1 (Josh Williamson, Xermanico)
2. Home Sick Pilots #6 (Dan Watters, Caspar Wijngaard)

Nathan:

1. Home Sick Pilots #6 (Dan Watters, Caspar Wijngaard)
2. Stray Dogs #5 (Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner)

Standout KAPOW moment of the week:

Nathan - Batman/Superman #19

Dave - Infinite Frontier #1

TOP BOOKS FOR NEXT WEEK

1. Dave: Barbaric #1
2. Nathan: Barbaric #1

JUDGING BY THE COVER JR.

1. Dave: Autumnal #8 Chris Shehan
2. Nathan: Shang-Chi #2 (Michael Cho variant)

Segment: The Best Comics of 2021...so far!

Dave:

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

Strange Adventures 

Nathan: 

Specter Inspectors

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

The Swamp Thing

Segment: Interview: Frank Gogol Power Rangers Unlimited: Edge of Darkness #1. 

1. Frank, last time we spoke was November 2020, and I believe this project might have been around the corner. How long has Power Rangers Unlimited: Edge of Darkness been in the works?
2. Were you a fan at all of Power Rangers before taking on this project?
3. The Phantom Ranger has been a mystery to fans for over 20 years; did you feel any pressure in peeling back some of the character’s layers?
4. This issue features a familiar character, Rita, what was it like writing this version of the character?
5. I kind of love the concept of the Phantom Ranger and him being a space-knight since we’ve seen it work so well with the Mandolorian. That got me thinking, was there any novels, films, or TV that you love that have similar themes to this issue?
6. When writing an extra-sized issue like this, do you approach writing and plotting differently than the usual 20 page comic?
7. Do you have a favorite Power Ranger?
8. I loved the epic nature of this issue, let’s say a famous director and/or studio took on this project, who would you want producing?

Off Topic Top Shelf: Frank Gogol - Video games, Assassin Creed games open world action RPG

It was a big week for AIPT, as we’ve started a Patreon to help support and our writers! We have grown quite a bit over the years, but we are still privately owned with no financial investors. Patreon allows us to not only let you, the AIPT fan get in on the action, but also help us generate bigger and better articles. 

Visit our Patreon page to see the various tiers you can sign up for today to get in on the ground floor of AIPT Patreon. We hope to see you chatting with us in our Discord soon!

NEWS

• DC Comics lays off more off staff (short)
• DC Comics announces Marie Javins promoted to Editor in Chief
• IDW looking for new managing editor
• Truth & Justice launching digital-first anthology series in January
• Savage Dragon #253 getting congratulations Joe Biden/Harris cover
• Geiger coming in April 2021
• X-Men Legends coming this February
• Welcome back Wolverine!
• New sonic and visual graphic novel experience called Superstate
• Hollow Heart on the way from Vault in Feb 2021
• Kickstarters have pulled in 22 million in 2020

Our Top Books of the Week

Dave:

1. Detective Comics #1030, (W: Peter J. Tomasi, A: Bilquis Evely)
2. Excalibur #14 (W: Tini Howard, A: Phil Noto)

Forrest:

1. Warhammer 40k: Marneus Calgar #2 (W: Kieron Gillen, A: Jacen Burrows)
2. Power Rangers #1 (W: Ryan Parrott, A: Francesco Mortarino)

TOP BOOKS FOR NEXT WEEK

• Dave: Barbalien: Red Planet #1 (W: Jeff Lemire, A: Gabriel Hernández Walta)
• Forrest: Bang Volume 1 (W: Matt Kindt, A: Wilfredo Torres)

JUDGING BY THE COVER JR.

• Dave: X-Force #14 (Variant by Juan Ferreyra)
• Forrest: Marvel’s Voices 1 (Reprint) (Khary Randolph)

Segment: Interview - Frank Gogol talks  Dead End Kids: Suburban Job #1 which is out January 27, 2021 with artist Nenad Cvitcanin.

Off Topic Top Shelf: Gogol picks the new Miles Morales video game which he plays on PS4.

Welcome back to another spotlight interview. In this session, we talked with comic writer Frank Gogol.

Frank Gogol is a comic writer who if following up the hit series Dead End Kids with his latest creator-owned story, No Heroine. He is an alumnus of the Comic Experience program and also produced the Ringo Award nominated anthology Grief. All three of those books are published by Source Point Press.

No Heroine is a three issue mini-series on which he is working with Chris Madd on art, with colors by Shawna Madd and letters by Sean Rinehart.

We spoke to Frank in May, and below, is the result of that conversation.

We transcribed a big portion of this interview for you as well. You can find it on popculturesquad.com

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

NEWS

• Diamond stops paying vendors
• Marvel pauses work and publishing on 1/3rd of May and June releases
• Meanwhile, DC donates $250,000 to retailer charity
• Boom! Halts physical and digital single issues, will release trades
• DC releasing books digitally, exploring “multi-distributor” deal
• Marvel to halt digital release of new comics...for now
• Publishers have worked out temporary distribution method with ComicHub
• Nevermind about that ComicHub thing actually
• Bad Idea postpones launch
• LION FORGE LABS Closed, All Employees Laid Off

AIPT BOOKCLUB: Venom by Donny Cates/Stegman. We break down the ongoing run with these categories:

The Story So Far: 
What Works: 
What Doesn’t: 
Favorite Artistic Moment: 
Favorite Narrative Moment: 
Where We Think This is Going:

Segment: Frank Gogol Interview: Coming in June, NO HEROINE #1 Ringo Award-nominated writer Frank Gogol (Dead End Kids), father-daughter art team Criss Madd and colorist Shawna Madd, with letters by Sean Rinehart, and cover by Ahmed Raafat. (Gogol also wrote GRIEF, and Dead End Kids)

1. No Heroine is a story about addiction, a protagonist with a checkered past, and vampires, how did you get to this developed story and how long has it been in development?
2. It seems like American history has had a few different periods where vampires were hugely important in pop culture. Do you think it’s time for a another streak? Why?
3. We’ve seen vampire hunters take out the bloodsuckers in a variety of ways and No Heroine #1 offers up a few new ones. What goes into creative kills?
4. Frank, you seem to hustle a lot to get the word out on comics. What are some things you learned when it comes to getting the word out on your comics?
5. Talk about a unique time to be in the comics industry, how’s it looking out there from your perspective?
6. How impacted are you with conventions closing due to the pandemic?
7.  What is it about small town america that appeals to you in your stories? I understand Dead End Kids and now No Heroine seem to be set there.
8.  When you were little, what did you think you’d be when you grew up?

OFF TOPIC TOP SHELF: Gogol makes his picks which include Resident Evil, James Bond, and more.