Three Generations of Comic Authors at NYCC '14

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Interviews

Published on Saturday, 18 October 2014 00:05

Written by Renzo Adler

With attendance numbers at over a hundred thousand, New York Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center is an event that is so massive that it’s easy to get completely swept up and miss some of the finer details. But we at Film Festival Traveler wanted to take the time to give you some one-on-one with some great minds from the world of comics, both old and new and we are presenting a series of video interviews with some of the talented people that make events like NY Comic Con worth going to.

From drawing friend’s D&D characters in high school, to working in advertising, to creating comics online, Megan Levens’ artistic trajectory has been a self made one. Her art combines clean linework with an eye for the horrific in her comic Madame Frankenstein, written by Jamie S. Rich (Cut Your Hair) for Image Comics. Madame Frankenstein combines 1930’s style with a tale of obsession and flesh, as the myth of Pygmalion meets Mary Shelley by way of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Having cut her teeth on her semi-autobiographical webcomic,  Somewhere In Between, Levens’ Madame Frankenstein and her upcoming Ares & Aphrodite for Oni Press reinterpret classical myths in a thoroughly modern way.

Paul Pope has made a career for himself as both an avant-garde artist on the fringes and someone trying to get more kids into reading comics. Born in Philadelphia and having a strongly European aesthetic to his comics, Pope actually got his start in comics in Japan, working for publisher Kodansha and allegedly cranking out over 15 pages a week. His early works like Escapo (which was recently reprinted in a new colored edition) and THB got his kinetic style noticed, landing him work with DC and making Batman Year 100. But dissatisfied with DC’s unwillingness to let him helm a story aimed at a younger audiences, Pope set off to create his own series of graphic novels for young readers with Battling Boy, The Death of Haggard West and The Rise of Aurora West from First Second Books.

Possessing a dynamic style rooted American aesthetics of the 1950s, Howard Chaykin is the quintessential New York comic author. Having got his break into comics with the help of Gil Kane and Neal Adams at DC, Chaykin has created a comics with themes of noir, sci-fi, action, fantasy, eroticism, crime, and sometimes combining all of the above. Chaykin came into renown in the 1980’s with his contributions to Heavy Metal, his take on the pulp hero The Shadow for DC, and his own sci-fi political satire, American Flagg!. Currently Chaykin is working with Fantastic Four and Sex Criminals scribe Matt Fraction on Satellite Sam for Image Comics.

You can follow Renzo on Twitter @RenzoAdler or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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