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Black Orchid (comic Book)
''Black Orchid'' is an American comic book written by Neil Gaiman with art by Dave McKean. It was published by DC Comics as a three-issue limited series from December 1988 to February 1989, and was later reprinted in trade paperback form. ''Black Orchid'' follows two girls, Flora and Suzy, who awaken in a greenhouse. Their journey to find out who they are leads them into contact with DC Universe figures like Batman and Swamp Thing, but also into conflict with criminal mastermind Lex Luthor, who seeks them for his own interests. Gaiman and McKean developed the series after meeting with Jenette Kahn, Dick Giordano, and Karen Berger in early 1987. The two pitched several ideas for series, but were ultimately assigned ''Black Orchid'' because all other characters they wanted to work on were in use at the time. They produced the series' concept within two days and won approval from DC Comics. DC nearly canceled the series due to fears it would fail commercially, but relented after Mc ...
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Dave McKean
David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture. McKean's projects include illustrating books by authors such as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Heston Blumenthal, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, and directed three feature films. Career Comics McKean first showed his work to editors at Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Continuity Comics when visiting New York City in 1986. McKean met writer Neil Gaiman and the pair collaborated on a short graphic novel of disturbing childhood memories, ''Violent Cases'', published in 1987. This was followed in 1988 by a '' Black Orchid'' miniseries and ''Hellblazer'' covers for DC Comics. In 1989, he illustrated the Batman graphic novel, '' Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth'', with writer Grant Morrison. Comics historian Les Daniels obse ...
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Sheldon Mayer
Sheldon Mayer (; April 1, 1917 – December 21, 1991) was an American comics artist, writer, and editor. One of the earliest employees of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications, Mayer produced almost all of his comics work for the company that would become known as DC Comics. He is among those credited with rescuing the unsold ''Superman'' comic strip from the rejection pile. Mayer was inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000. Mayer is not to be confused with fellow Golden Age comics professional Sheldon Moldoff. Early life and career Mayer was born in Harlem, New York, to a Jewish family. Sheldon Mayer's career in the days before comic books was a diverse one. He worked as writer and artist on "scores of titles" for a juvenile audience circa 1932–33, before joining the Fleischer animation studios as an "opaquer" in 1934, at the age of seventeen. He began working f ...
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Sandman (DC Comics)
The Sandman is the pseudonym of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. They have appeared in stories of various genres, including the pulp detective character Wesley Dodds, superheroes such as Garrett Sanford and Hector Hall, and mythic fantasy characters more commonly called by the name Dream. Named after the folklore character that is said to bring pleasant dreams to children, each has had some thematic connection to dreaming, and efforts have been made to tie them into a common continuity within the DC Universe. Fictional character biographies Wesley Dodds Wesley Dodds is the first DC Comics fictional character to bear the name of the Sandman. Attired in a green business suit, fedora, and gas mask, the Sandman uses a gun emitting a sleeping gas to sedate criminals. He starts out as a "mystery man", but eventually develops into a more standard superhero, becoming a founder of the Justice Society of America. He later uses sand and a blo ...
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John Constantine
John Constantine () is a fictional character who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Constantine first appeared in ''Swamp Thing'' #37 (June 1985), and was created by Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette, Rick Veitch, and John Totleben. The titular Hellblazer, October 20, 2014 Constantine is a working-class warlock, occult detective, and con man from Liverpool who is stationed in London. He is known for his endless cynicism, deadpan wit, ruthless cunning, and constant chain smoking, but he is also a passionate humanitarian driven by a heartfelt desire to do some good in his life. Originally a supporting character who played a pivotal role in the "American Gothic" ''Swamp Thing'' storyline, Constantine received his own comic in 1988. The musician Sting was a visual inspiration for the character. The ''Hellblazer'' series was the longest-running and most successful title of DC's Vertigo imprint. ''Empire'' ranked Constantine third in their 50 Greatest Comic Cha ...
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Violent Cases
''Violent Cases'' is a short graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean. It was McKean's first published work in comics. Though drawn by McKean in shades of blue, brown, and grey, when it was first published by Escape Books in 1987, it was printed in black-and-white. Later editions have been printed in colour. A narrator, who is drawn to look like Gaiman, tells of how, as a small child in Portsmouth, he was taken by his father to be treated by an osteopath who was once employed by Al Capone. The nature of the narrator's relationship with his father, the tales the osteopath told, and the disturbing events that followed, are partially obscured by the narrator's imperfect recall of things he was not old enough to understand at the time. The book won the 1988 Mekon Award for "Best British Work", presented by the Society of Strip Illustration. It was nominated for the 1992 Harvey Award for "Best Graphic Album: Previous Released Material". Further reading ...
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2000 AD (comics)
''2000 AD'' is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic magazine. As a comics anthology it serialises stories in each issue (known as "progs") and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. Since 2000 it has been published by Rebellion Developments. ''2000 AD'' is most noted for its ''Judge Dredd'' stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such as Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Grant Morrison, Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon, John Wagner, Alan Grant and Garth Ennis. Other series in ''2000 AD'' include ''Rogue Trooper'', '' Sláine'', ''Strontium Dog'', ''ABC Warriors'', ''Nemesis the Warlock'' and ''Nikolai Dante''. History ''2000 AD'' was initially published by IPC Magazines. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary, which was sold to Robert Maxwell in 1987 and then to Egmont UK in 1991. Fleetway continued to produce the title until 2 ...
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Alan Moore
Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and ''From Hell''. He is widely recognised among his peers and critics as one of the best comic book writers in the English language. Moore has occasionally used such pseudonyms as Curt Vile, Jill de Ray, Brilburn Logue, and Translucia Baboon; also, reprints of some of his work have been credited to The Original Writer when Moore requested that his name be removed. Moore started writing for British underground and alternative fanzines in the late 1970s before achieving success publishing comic strips in such magazines as '' 2000 AD'' and ''Warrior''. He was subsequently picked up by DC Comics as "the first comics writer living in Britain to do prominent work in America", where he worked on major characters such as Batman ('' Batman: The Killing Joke'') ...
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The Books Of Magic
''The Books of Magic'' is the title of a four-issue English-language comic book mini-series written by Neil Gaiman, published by DC Comics, and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo. Since its original publication, the mini-series has also been published in a single-volume collection under the Vertigo imprint with an introduction by author Roger Zelazny. It tells the story of a young boy who has the potential to become the world's greatest magician. Miniseries ''The Books of Magic'' began life when DC Comics decided to highlight some of their mystical characters across the range. They initially approached writer J. M. DeMatteis to script a prose book with illustrations from Jon J Muth, Kent Williams, Dave McKean and others, but when it reached the stage of confirming the artists' involvement, the suggested artists all declined to be involved. At that stage, DeMatteis also decided to step back, and DC instead approached popular writer Neil Gaiman and asked him to come ...
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Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of Book Publishing and Bookselling". With 51 issues a year, the emphasis today is on book reviews. The magazine was founded by bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ... Frederick Leypoldt in the late 1860s, and had various titles until Leypoldt settled on the name ''The Publishers' Weekly'' (with an apostrophe) in 1872. The publication was a compilation of information about newly published books, collected from publishers and from other sources by Leypoldt, for an audience of booksellers. By 1876, ''The Publishers' Weekly ...
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Batman (comic Book)
''Batman'' is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the DC Comics superhero Batman as its main protagonist. The character, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, first appeared in ''Detective Comics'' #27 (cover dated May 1939). Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication with a cover date of spring 1940. It was first advertised in early April 1940, one month after the first appearance of his new sidekick, Robin (character), Robin the Boy Wonder. Batman comics have proven to be popular since the 1940s. Though the ''Batman'' comic book was initially launched as a quarterly publication, it later became a bimonthly series through the late 1950s, after which it became a monthly publication and has remained so ever since. In September 2011, ''The New 52'' rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, the original ''Batman'' series ended and was relaunched with a new first issue. In 2016, DC Comics began a second relaunch of ...
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ComicsAlliance
ComicsAlliance was an American website dedicated to covering the comic book industry as well as comic-related media, and is owned by Townsquare Media. The site has been nominated for multiple awards including a 2015 Eisner Award win in the category Best Comics Periodical/Journalism. History ComicsAlliance was established in 2007 as part of an online network of sites owned by AOL, and run by editors-in-chief John Anderson and Chris Dooley. The site featured writing from critics including David Brothers, Andy Khouri, Caleb Goellner and Chris Sims. Laura Hudson became the editor-in-chief in 2009. In 2012 Hudson left the site, with former Vertigo Comics editor Joe Hughes later announced as the new editor-in-chief. On April 26, 2013, ComicsAlliance and the AOL Music properties were abruptly shut down. On June 2, 2013, AOL sold ComicsAlliance and several of the AOL Music blogs to Townsquare Media, with editors Joe Hughes, Andy Khouri, and Caleb Goellner remaining in position on the si ...
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Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedia, termed it "the world's first hypertext encyclopedia of toons" and stated, "The basic idea is to cover the entire spectrum of American cartoonery." Markstein began the project during 1999 with several earlier titles: he changed Don's Cartoon Encyberpedia (1999) to Don Markstein's Cartoonopedia (2000) after learning the word "Encyberpedia" had been trademarked. During 2001, he settled on his final title, noting, "Decided (after thinking about it for several weeks) to change the name of the site to Don Markstein's Toonopedia, rather than Cartoonopedia. Better rhythm in the name, plus 'toon' is probably a more apt word, in modern parlance, than 'cartoon', for what I'm doing." Comic strips Toonopedia author Donald David Markstein (March 21, ...
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