Have you gotten your copy of Nightwatchmen yet?   It’s the second team-up between writers Adam Freeman & Marc Bernardin, and artist Javi Fernandez.  'Nightwatchmen' tells the story of an aging, corrupt police detective who finds hope in a homeless man who has begun acting out his own vigilante justice.

Check out this great interview with Marc and Adam from our friends at Comic Book Resources!

Did you know Kickstart Comics has a Facebook and Twitter?

It’s the best place to stay up to date with current news and announcements about our comics, films and TV shows!

Be sure to "Like" us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter!

Don’t miss the premiere TONIGHT of our animated feature Abominable Christmas on Cartoon Network!  With the voices of Jane Lynch, Emilio Estevez, Matthew Lillard, Ariel Winter and Ray Liotta as the Abominable Snowman.

Comix Portal: Kickstart’s ‘Knowbodys’

Pulled from: www.scifipulse.net

I usually hate family dramas. The father is stupid, the mom is often whiny and the kids are always much smarter than any adult in the show. Thankfully, Kickstart has a very cool and fun title that bucks all those trends masterfully.

It’s called Knowbodys, and here’s the description: “Derk and Betty Knowbody struggle to be loving parents by day while at night they regulate the world of the supernatural. From keeping the Hell Hound next door at bay to talking depressing Poltergeists into finding their inner anger, Derk and Betty are the best.  But when a high profile case moves their whole family to New Orleans, they will find not only their family, but the very fabric between life and death endangered.”

You’d never know that this is Matt Maeillaro‘s first comic script because the characters shine brightly and the pacing is quick and engaging. Of course, fans will know Maeillaro from his work on Space Ghost Coast To Coast, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021. He has a wry, quirky wit that is fun to listen to (and now read).

My favorite person in the title is Derk, the father of the bunch. His wit is so dry and his desire to dive in and fix the problems is so appealing that I wouldn’t have minded having him as my own Dad (if I had to choose someone else than my father). He’s clearly the leader of the family, and he’s usually the one who knows what to do next. When the final battle is about to happen, he leaps in to resolve the situation.

Still, he knows when to step back. One of my favorite things he says takes place when he lets his wife charge into their home to take on the baddies. He tells his son, “Mom is code for heavy artillery.”

Betty takes Derk with a huge grain of salt, also having fun with her husband. At one point when asked where the family is going, she responds, “A place called a restaurant. Maybe your father has heard of them.” The tone of the book is such that these jabs are not nasty in nature, but fun. Given the way comics struggle at times to communicate nuance, this is quite a accomplishment. I also liked that both parents genuinely care for their kids and each other, struggling with their “job” while providing for their children.

While I’m on that subject, the kids are, well, kids! What a welcome change that is!

Even the various supernatural beings have unique personalities, distinguishing one from another. Nice job!

Laced in among the characters is an interesting mystery that challenges the Knowbodys to both solve and resolve. It’s a fun, yet danger-laced story that concludes with an interesting change in the family structure.

The art by Jesus Redondo Roman is clear and dynamic, perfect for the story. It has something of a Dick Giordano or John Romito Jr. feel to it.

If you’re looking for an intelligent, entertaining supernatural story, be sure to pick up Knowbodys! It’ll grab you from the first page until they ride off into the sunset! It’s not to be missed!

You can listen to my recent interview with Maeillero during my Wayne’s Comics podcast by going to the sfp-now.com website. We talk about how he created the script for the book as well as his other projects, so don’t miss it!

Our friends at Kickstart have a new graphic novel in stores today, and this one is of special interest to me.  KNOWBODYS is written by none other than Aqua Teen Hunger Force creator Matt Maiellaro.  I got to interview him about the book late last year, which is easily one of the coolest things that’s happened to me in my Internet career.  Now, it’s finally out.  And here’s the thing – it’s not what you expect.

It’s not an Aqua Teen-style orgy of non-sequiturs and over-the-top violence.  There are no elaborately worded insults or pointless cruelty.  Instead, it’s a story about a family.  Granted, the family in question is a family of paranormal investigators who are the last line of defense against the destruction of all life on Earth, but a family nonetheless.  Tonally, it’s very much different from ATHF / AUPS1, but it’s funny and sometimes even touching.

Derk and Betty Knowbody are paranormal investigators, but not in the Mulder/Scully sense.  They work for an organization that regulates the spirit world – not just arresting fugitive poltergeists, but serving unruly werewolves with noise complaints and busting unlicensed street sorcerers.  (The mundane facets of the supernatural are probably the closest connection to Aqua Teen – Vampire Landlord Markula would have fit right in here.)  Their organization, The Practice, relocates the couple and their unwitting children toNew   Orleans and almost immediately sends the Knowbodys in pursuit of a madman named Sylbert Raven.

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Aqua Teen Hunger Force co-creator Matt Maiellaro

Danger Academy Cartoon In Development For US Television

Danger Academy is a comic book by the familiar team of Tony Lee and Dan Boultwood for Kickstart. It’s been featured om Bleeding Cool a few times, just not on the right hand side of the site.

It’s here today because I understand that Kickstart are developing Danger Academy with a Hollywood writer/producer for American television. And that concepts are being created right now.

Danger Academy is a spy school, for the children of super spies of every nationality and loyalty. The good guys and the bad guys. Harry Potter meets James Bond, if you must. Here’s a preview of the comic.

Fresh from Kickstart, from the Bleeding Cool favourite team of Tony Lee and Dan Boultwood, comes Danger Academy. Harry Potter-meets-James Bond, that kind of thing, with a certain subtle family tree of international espionage.

The first book is out in December, but here’s a sizeable preview to whet your appetite.

Say, Brella couldn’t possibly be the dughter of one John Steed could she?



Our friends at Kickstart Comics have been putting out some excellent graphic novels over the last year.  I’ve been excited about each of their new releases, but when I found out about the upcoming KNOWBODYS (out in October), I freaked out a little.  See, it’s written by Matt Maiellaro, co-creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  I’ve frequently gone on record with my love of ATHF (and its new incarnation as Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1), so I was really excited to see what he had brewing over at Kickstart.

I got to read a preview copy, and I loved it.  It’s the story of a husband-and-wife team of paranormal investigators, trying to save the world while not letting the kids know what they really do for a living.  There will be a full review later, but for now, I’ll just say that it’s a lot of fun.  It’s very funny, but in a different way than you might expect.  And it’s a story where the stakes are high and there are actual heroes, which is as far from the Aqua Teens as you can get.  It’s surprising and it’s really great.

And just to make things even better, I got to interview Matt Maiellaro.  (Yes, I totally freaked out.)  We talked about KNOWBODYS, Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, andAmerica’s next favorite character.  He is, unsurprisingly, a very funny guy.

You’ve been working in TV for a long time now – what brought you to comics?  Was KNOWBODYS created specifically to be a graphic novel, or did you initially think of it in terms of a TV series?

KNOWBODYS  was an idea I had for a movie a few years back.  In the original idea, the Knowbodys were created to track down a series of mutants that had escaped a secret bio-weapons lab.  The Knowbodys had powers – but not efficient ones – more like, stupid ones.  I pitched it around a tiny bit and then put it on the shelf.  Kickstart caught wind of the idea through a friend of mine and they called, wanting to make it into a graphic novel.  Since I had never written a graphic novel, I said yes immediately.  As the project developed we ended up changing some elements to give it a more grounded tone:  we added ghosts, goblins, ghouls, the Mothman, werewolves – all the ingredients of a well-grounded story.   I wanted to add a Tree-Shark but held back on that knowing it would make its own great story up the road “Shriek of the Tree-Shark.”  So yes, it was a television series turned into a comic.

How did you come to work with artist Jesus Redondo?  Was the script finished before you had an artist, or did his style influence the way you told the story?  (And did you have any idea Sylbert Raven was going to look that disturbing?)

Jesus was recommended to me via Samantha at Kickstart.  I like how he gave the book a unique, timeless, style.  Jesus lives in Spain, doesn’t speak English, and I’m not sure if he’s ever been to New Orleans but he sure nailed it.  I saw pencils of the characters in the beginning and I felt like he was hitting the mark pretty well, so I forgot about the drawing part while I was writing the script.  So no, he didn’t influence how I wrote but I strangely found myself listening to more and more Flamenco music.

How did you approach writing KNOWBODYS as opposed to the way you write Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1?  Is it harder to write a story where you don’t have the option of, say, killing everybody and bringing them back next week?

Here is what it’s like to write Aqua Unit:  10am.  “What if Meatwad made friends with a giant, inflatable gorilla who was secretly out to sacrifice Frylock to the original Planet of the Apes film print?”  “That’s good, let’s write it.” 12noon – done.  Record it tomorrow.  Move on to next episode.  Total anti-television and anti-storytelling, yet fun.  With KNOWBODYS, I wanted to graduate to real storytelling and have the reader embark on an emotional journey with characters that they cared about.

Speaking of Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, I just have a couple of questions I’m dying to ask.  Why the relaunch?  For me, it’s worth it for the new theme music alone, but what caused the title change?  Are you carrying the gag from “One Hundred” over into the real world?

We had to relaunch it under a new title because the ratings were so huge and we were starting to embarrass other shows on the network.  We thought a new title would curb the viewing audience but we discovered that our ratings were more enormous than ever.  As for the music, we reached out Josh Homme, who had done a voice on the show in the past, and he was game for creating a new theme.  We gave him the vibe of the new direction; 70’s style cop show and he turned in absolute gold.  For the end credit theme, we did a remix of his original instrumental stems from the open and I plugged in a Steinberger and shredded over the music.  Michael Kohler made the end-theme remix, he’s the genius sound designer behind all the shows and the movie.  We have to now change the title of the show each season.  What was the question?

There have been a couple of episodes that implied the end of the series.  (I’m thinking specifically of “The Last One”, and “The Last One Forever and Ever”.)  At the time, did anybody believe those actually were the last episodes, or do you just enjoy causing message board controversy?

We love causing controversy, as in the alleged fake bombs that shut down Boston.  We would run ads that would shut the show down every year just to give us something to giggle about.

This is probably a ridiculously nerdy question, but I have to do it.  When the show was called Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Frylock was the only one of the main characters who never died during an episode.  And now that it’s Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, he’s died several times.  Was that a conscious change with the new incarnation?

Hurt the ones that don’t deserve it?  I don’t know.  Maybe we haven’t persecuted Frylock enough, or maybe we’ve persecuted Shake, Meatwad and Carl too much.  The audience loves it when we turn a 180 and destroy what has never been destroyed.  It’s like showing Al Gore the video footage of snow in Burbank last year; it’s unexpected.

Back to your new book, I was really surprised by the tone of KNOWBODYS – While I think fans of your TV work will really enjoy it, I was surprised by the idealism of the characters.  You have characters who really care about one another, and Derk and Betty spend the book risking their lives to do good.  On AUPS1 and your other shows, the lead characters are cynical, simple, or sometimes both.  Basically, Derk Knowbody is the exact opposite of Master Shake.  Along those lines, there’s the scene with the Hallowed Passage.  It’s just this lovely little moment before all the monster fighting.  To me, it seems like it establishes that there’s good in their world that makes it worth fighting for, and I find it really interesting.  Is there anything you want to say about that scene?

It’s a great moment in the story that defines Derk and Betty, especially Betty.  She is keeping her pregnancy a secret and is discovering what’s most important in her life, while Derk is enjoying the romance of passing souls and probably hoping they will all obey the laws of the supernatural world.

I love Gymjangle.  I realize that’s not a question.  I just feel it needs to be said.

I love Gymjangle too, thanks. America will love him in the movie as well.  I foresee a whole spin-off with Gym.

Wrapping things up, do you have anything you want to say about KNOWBODYS, and in particular, why people should be ordering it?

I want to say that KNOWBODYS embraces a global value, which is; pay attention to what is most important in your life.   And one more thing; if you visit New Orleans, you are being watched.



By EJ Feddes On December 26, 2011

It’s been quite a year for our friends at Kickstart Comics, and they have one more release coming out this year.  Danger Academy comes out this Wednesday, and it’s a great way to wrap up 2011.  Just to give you a taste, it is a book which includes a supporting character named “Doc Violent” who leads a group of ninja librarians.  That, it should go without saying, is awesome.

 Danger Academy is an action-comedy set at a boarding school for children of spies.  It’s Hogwart’s with jet-boots and robots instead of talking owls.  (Sample lesson:  “When severing the carotid artery, it’s best to aim for an upward motion…”)  It stars John, who is essentially the son of a female version of James Bond, after he’s forcibly transferred toSpychesterAcademy.  And as you can tell from the name

 “SpychesterAcademy” (and “Doc Violent”, for that matter), it’s very much tongue-in-cheek.  (My favorite joke is the role call.  All of the students are re-named “Smith” to preserve anonymity.  The role call scene practically writes itself from there.)

 It’s a really solid blend of action and comedy.  Early on, John’s rivalry with Ernest is established.  Ernest is the son of Danger Academy’s version of Blofeld, and he’s unrelentingly nasty.  (And I just now realized that Blofeld’s first name was actually “Ernst”.  Hee!)  Of course, there’s some bad blood between John and Ernest from the very beginning.  But it goes beyond simple bullying, as Ernest is still affiliated with his father’s organization S.M.A.S.H. (“Secret Militaristic Agency of Sadistic Hatred”) this results in an attack on Spychester with surprisingly devastating consequences, and the Spychester students set out for revenge.

 There’s something kind of reminiscent of The Venture Bros. in Danger Academy – the style and the setting are very different, but the way they embrace the ridiculous genre tropes and then look at the relatable details behind them is similar.  For me, that’s a winning formula.  And I will always laugh when somebody shouts out what they’re doing in a fight – a favorite move in Danger Academy is for various characters to announce “Judo Chop!” while, you know, judo chopping.  Cracks me up every time.

 The action scenes are really exciting – the art by Dan Boultwood is more cartoony than anything we’ve seen from Kickstart so far, and I love it.  There’s a strong sense of motion, and an exaggerated dynamic quality that’s tremendously appealing.  It almost looks like a storyboard for a cartoon.  The characters are really well-designed, too.  They’re just detailed enough to be easily distinguishable without looking too busy. 

 Writer and creator Tony Lee has done a lot of work for various publishers over the last few years, and his scripts have always been clever.  He’s come up with such a great premise here, one with seemingly endless possibilities.  And if fact, though you get a complete story, Danger Academy is the only Kickstart book so far to end with a “To Be Continued…”.  I’d certainly love another volume of Danger Academy, so I hope that’s a real teaser and not just a nod to the way James Bond movies used to end (“James Bond will return in….”). 

 There’s so much fun here, and when we suddenly learn how high the stakes are, it’s a shock.  Not everybody survives the assault on Spychester, and it’s an effective dramatic moment in what had been a mostly light-hearted story up to that point.  That said, it’s tastefully handled, and shouldn’t traumatize younger readers.  Kickstart has done a fantastic job of aiming books at different audiences, and this one is completely appropriate for kids and preteens, while still being fun for folks like me.  That’s a tough balance to find, but it was only after I was done that I realized how kid-appropriate it was. 

 And what kid wouldn’t love Doc Violent and the ninja librarians?  (“Since he’s been in charge, we’ve never had a late book back.”)

 I was looking forward to Danger Academy on the strength of the concept and my familiarity with Tony Lee’s work, and I was not disappointed.  It’s funny, exciting, occasionally ridiculous, and it boasts some really appealing art.  (I can’t tell you how much I love the way Boultwood draws punching.)  It’s a great way to end a year of fine work.