Occupy Comics 3 NM Alan Moore Charlie Adlard Wallstreet Black Mask

Description

Features an eleven page text piece written by Alan Moore detailing the connection between comics and counterculture! OCCUPY COMICS #3 (BLACK MASK COMICS) This once-in-a-lifetime collaboration of more than 50 comics pros is a celebration of Occupy and a time-capsule of the movement’s themes. The organizers and creators are donating all their revenue after costs to Occupy-related efforts and initiatives. [(W) Alan Moore & Various (A) Joe Ruff & Various (CA) Charlie Adlard] The mainstream comics industry has spawned another alternative supergroup. 30 Days of Night creator Steve Niles and Epitaph Records owner and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz have banded together with Halo-8s Matt Pizzolo to form Black Mask Studios with the stated aim of disrupting the comics market. “It’s become this monopolized walled garden where you’re only allowed to grow two things: superheroes and movie treatments,” Pizzolo told Wired via e-mail. “We’re going to open new space outside the entrenched market where we can cultivate more subversive experimental and literary comics to reach broader audiences.” Inspired by the controversial but influential 1960s anarchists Up Against the Wall Motherf*****s and Edgar Allen Poe’s class-conscious gothic short “The Masque of the Red Death,” Black Mask Studios was teased Sunday during WonderCon’s spotlight panel on Niles, who serves as creative director. Pizzolo runs the biz as president, and Gurewitz’s Epitaph Records empowers the indie operation. Black Mask’s first order of business will be the benefit compilation Occupy Comics. Initiated last year by organizer Pizzolo’s Kickstarter project, Occupy Comics features visual and written contributions from Molly Crabapple, Mike Allred, Douglas Rushkoff and many more, including visionaries Alan Moore and David Lloyd, whose V For Vendetta has supplied the worldwide Occupy and Anonymous movements with their anti-fascist iconography and ideology. “We share that DIY approach; everything I know about business I learned in the New York hardcore scene.” “Comics and punk have a lot in common, being transgressive art forms with under-appreciated potential for social influence,” Gurewitz said in an e-mail to Wired. “Leveraging Matt’s brilliant Occupy Comics model with Black Mask Studios might be disruptive, in a really good way, for both artists and fans.” Black Mask plans to plumb its heavily internetworked fan base to release physical and digital comics, as well as merchandise. It’s also invested in evangelizing the cause of ethical ownership. After watching Ghost Rider co-creator Gary Friedrich lose a countersuit from Marvel Comics for a share of his flaming hellspawn’s two blockbuster films and DC Comics boot up Before Watchmen against the wishes of Watchmen co-creator Moore — who told Wired last year that he was finally offered its rights if he agreed to “dopey prequels and sequels” — Pizzolo, Gurewitz and Niles decided to take creators rights in their own hands. Niles even spearheaded a fundraiser to save Friedrich’s home. “I’m really excited about this project,” Niles told Wired via e-mail. “Since the advent of the direct market and the disappearance of the spinner rack, I’ve watched comics sales fall due to lack of exposure.” Pizzolo hopes that Black Mask can help reverse that process, or at least inject its hybrid physical and digital model with the type of challenging comics that seemed to ceaselessly replicate up until the turn of the 21st century. The fact that they’re a trio of what Pizzolo called “old punks” should help matters. “We share that DIY approach; everything I know about business I learned in the New York hardcore scene,” he explained. “We designed the company to be more creator-friendly than the majors, but less winner-take-all than the indies. We want to build a coalition where everyone can do their own thing but interests are aligned so we’re all in it together.” Occupy Comics #3 has a cover by Charlie Adlard and contributions by Molly Crabapple, Alan Moore, Joshua Dysart, Kelly Bruce, Caleb Monroe, Theo Ellsworth, Mark L. Miller, Brea Grant & Zane Grant, Jonathan Spies, Jenny Gonzalez-Blitz, Patrick Meaney, Eric Zawadzki, Allen Gladfelter, Salgood Sam, Kevin Colden, Matt Bors, Jerem Morrow, Swifty Lang, Frank Reynoso, Shannon Wheeler, and Eric Drooker.

0-45778022083

1st print. Near mint condition.