Check out the review of X-Files #1 on Variety…

The X-Files #1 (WildStorm, 32 pages, color $3.50) is good enough to be mistaken for a stand-alone episode from one of the long-running show’s good years. Writer Frank Spotnitz — who was a writer, producer and exec producer on eight of the show’s nine seasons and co-writer this summer’s feature film — successfully recreates the show’s classic feel even as there’s no indication of when this story took place in relation to the series or the movie. The art by Brian Denham helps immeasurably with excellent likenesses and the kind of clarity in storytelling that’s often missing from this kind of project. Grade: B

Friday night I’ll be at the hotel next to the con to attend the Heroes4Heroes Live Art charity auction.

Lots of comic pros in attendance will produce some wicked cool artwork to be auctioned off.

The money raised goes to send troops overseas comics and pop culture stuff to keep them motivated and entertained.

It’s a great cause and one which I feel very close to as a former Marine!

Come on out! I hope to see you there.

If you are going to be at the show stop by and see me at Artists Alley table KK-13. I’ll be drawing original art, doing some sketch caps, signing prints, and I have signature cards for $1. I know the show is crazy expensive, and if you come up short on cash, come over to my spot and get yourself some fine looking prints for a huge savings!

I’m going to be on the WILDSTORM BREWING panel with Jim Lee and a host of other artists on Saturday Night at 6:30 in Room 8. Come down and check out the panel, and hear all the latest X-Files comic news and more from Wildstorm. They’ll be talking Gears Of War, Lost Boys, Wildcats, etc.

If you want to commission a piece of art before the show I am opening a sketch/sketch cap list for Comic Con. I have only 20 slots for pre-orders. I will also be taking a limited amount of requests at Comic Con. It will be first come first serve. If you come by the show I’ll be doing quick-hit, 5-minute sketches for just $5 bucks during the show. These are on specially made sketch-cards that measure 5.5 x 8.5.

So, if you are going to be attending and would like a sketch and/or sketch cap, please feel free to send any request or question to art@briandenham.com

All communication will be through email. Please do NOT send any emails to any other email address or through Myspace. This is to keep the requests organized and fair to all. Once received I will follow up with an email confirmation.

Hope to see you guys there! Bring your X-Files #0 to get signed, it ships that week!

Years later I was fortunate to meet Mike at a con, and he was just a guy. A pal to everyone he met. A few years later, in 2000 I was just recovering from surgery for a tumor on my drawing hand, and was invited to come work out the kinks at Top Cow. This was right after Mike’s 1st operation. He was already recovering pretty well and was getting around on crutches. He told us in the bullpen about his operation, and the skiing accident that led to the discovery of his cancer, with all the mirth and dignity anyone could hope for in that situation. we all felt for Mike but he was not one to take that sympathy. It happened…shit happens…move on and keep moving. That was his attitude. It helped me through my recovery, it helped fortify me for my future.

Mike’s like that. He inspires. He blazes and we just watch in awe. A few years later I was able to do a creator owned comic called Killbox, about my fellow Marines. While I served in the Marines and met many heroic people, I have never met anyone like Mike. My dedication in Killbox #3 reads “Dedicated to Michael Turner, comic book artist, visionary, and the bravest man I’ve ever known.”

To paraphrase one of Mike’s favorite movies… “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long – and you have burned so very, very brightly, Mike”

And he could still kick your ass at foosball hopping on one leg leaning on the sticks.

Goodbye, Mike

• by Jeffrey Renaud, Staff Writer

Hard at work finishing the visual and sound effects on “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” Frank Spotnitz, the co-writer and co-executive producer of the highly anticipated sequel, slipped away from the editing room for a few minutes to speak with CBR News about his upcoming Wildstorm comic book special illustrated by Brian Denham, due in stores July 23.

Spotnitz told CBR News, “We’re working on a very compressed schedule to complete the film. But it’s very exciting.”

Exciting, yes. But it’s also cramping his style a bit too.

“It’s really fun but I wish I didn’t have this movie distracting me from writing comic books,” laughed Spotnitz. “I never tried my hand at this before obviously, and it’s really nice actually.”

Spotnitz said when Topps Comics was producing its 42-issue run of “The X-Files” during the heyday of the cult television series in the late nineties, it never crossed his mind to write one himself. “Back then, I was so completely consumed by the [television] series,” explained Spotnitz. “I barely had time to read the comics, let alone write one, so this is a real pleasure. I still don’t have that much time but I have more time then when I was doing the series.”

The filmmaker said while he’s new to the medium as a creator, he has become an instant fan of what working in comics means creatively. “I know I am not the first person, nor the last person, to say this, but [comics] is so different than doing television or a movie because you don’t have to go through all of the layers,” explained Spotnitz. “It’s just you and your editor. It’s very pure. And it keeps you connected to what you love about the process instead having to deal with all of the politics that inevitably surround filmmaking.”

Asked how the comic book spinoff came to land at Wildstorm, Spotnitz acknowledged he had a little help from his friends. “It’s interesting,” he said. “We were talking about re-launching X-Files as a comic book series or a graphic novel series and the people at Fox were trying to figure out what to do and I just said, ‘I am going to call some of my friends and see what they think.’ And I called Brian K. Vaughan and I called Brad Meltzer and both of them ended up pointing me to Wildstorm.

“So I actually contacted Wildstorm and said, ‘Hey, do you guys want to do X-Files?’ And they said, ‘yes.’ I actually thought there would be some corporate conflict because they are part of DC, which is part of Time Warner and we are a part of 20th Century Fox, which is part of News Corp and I didn’t know if these corporations got along. But it ended up not being a problem and it’s been great.”

Unlike the movie sequel, set six years after the final episode of “X-Files” aired in 2002, the comic book returns to the scene of the crime, smack dab in the heart of the television series’ storyline. “My thought was that it made more sense to set the comic series in, I hate to use the word but, the classic period of the X-Files,” explained Spotnitz. “Mulder and Scully are both still at the F.B.I. working in Mulder’s basement office. The Lone Gunmen are around. Skinner is around. It’s the heart of what everybody knows and loves about the X-Files.

“It would just be too difficult to address how fluid the world of the X-Files is at this time. So it just made easier to set it in the past.”

Spotnitz revelead the special scheduled for July is a stand-alone, ‘monster of the week’ story set somewhere between Season 2 and Season 5. “It’s in classic X-Files mode. Mulder the believer. Scully the sceptic. And scary,” said Spotnitz. “It’s simpler than an episode would be because it’s shorter than the length of an episode. It’s fun to be back in that world and have Mulder and Scully investigating a new case. It’s a different mode than the mode of the movie, which is set six years after the series ended. They are both in very different places in their lives in 2008 then they were when the TV series was going on.

“It’s like revisiting Holmes and Watson when they were at the peak of their adventures, as well.”

Spotnitz sums up the major difference between writing comics and writing for TV or film with one word: precision. “It’s being very precise with dialogue, saying less and showing more, which I love to do,” said Spotnitz. “There is a reason why comic books translate so well to the big screen. It’s because they are cinematic and it’s telling stories with pictures instead of words. And I love that. The challenge is saying things so succinctly that they fit. You don’t have tons and tons of dialogue. I have to say it hasn’t been painful at all. It’s been really enjoyable. It’s just finding the time to do it.”

And if the idea of X-Files returning to comics isn’t enough for you, Spotnitz said wait until you see the artwork by Brian Denham. “It’s so beautiful. I was just blown away when I saw the first couple of pages that he’d done,” teased Spotnitz. “They came to me as a file on my computer. And I just opened them up and it was like, ‘my God, this is gorgeous.’ I just can’t wait to see it in print.”

Spotnitz has signed up to write three specials for Wildstorm in the coming months, and while the first one is a stand-alone, the second and third will tie-in more directly with the X-Files mythos of aliens arriving, and eventually invading, Earth. “The idea now is to make stand-alone specials but the next ones that I am going to write tie into the mythology of the show not in a way that changes the path but deepens it a little bit,” said Spotnitz.

And while an ongoing series is not likely at this point, Spotnitz said there are lots of X-Files remaining to be solved. “I think I’d like to keep doing them,” said Spotnitz. “As my time allows and then bring in other writers to do them. That’s my hope that we can make this a vital enterprise.”

Those other writers don’t include Brad Meltzer and Brian K. Vaughan just yet, Spotnitz said it would be worth the call to see if there is interest. “I’d be thrilled if they would [come on to write a special]. I haven’t asked them yet but I’d be delighted if both of them would. They’d be awesome. And I am going to make some calls to old X-Files compatriots too and see if I can rope any of them in, as well.”

“The X-Files Special” is scheduled for July 23, two days prior to the release of the movie, “The X-Files: I Want To Believe.”

THIS ARTICLE WAS TAKEN FROM WWW.COMICBOOKRESOURCES.COM

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Instead of making birthday wishes, I’ve decided that me and my family will start making birthday goals. Goals are more attainable than wishes and I want to teach my kids to set goals.

So my new goal, besides losing 40 pounds before my next birthday, is to get some more content up on this site. I’ll post at least once a week. Starting every Tuesday!

Let me know what info you want and I’ll start posting the blogs and tutorials again. I’ll get more art posted up here and I thought about doing a webcomic as well.

Should I post the webcomic here or on it’s own site?

Do you want this site to remain focused on tutorials or do you mind seeing other content like drawings, my comic pages and possibly a webcomic.

Thank you all for coming to my site for the tutorials and if you come because you like my art I appreciate your interest in my work! It means a lot to me.

Take care, I’ll see you soon!

Brian Denham

P.S  Besides my birthday it’s also the day the original Star Trek series left the airways in 1969, AND William Shatner filmed his final scene as Capt. Kirk on June 3rd during the making of Star Trek Generations.

I’m drawing the X-Files comic series and here’s the solicitation for the first issue! It’ll be on sale the week the movie is released and the same week as Comic Con! How awesome is that!

Order it already! It’s from Wildstorm/DC Comics!

THE X-FILES SPECIAL 0
Written by Frank Spotnitz
Art by Brian Denham
Photo cover
Variant cover by Brian Denham

The hit motion picture and television franchise returns to comics! With July’s release of the brand-new X-Files blockbuster, WildStorm joins Mulder and Scully in a previously untold story from the film’s cowriter and producer Frank Spotnitz! Don’t miss this supernatural epic so large it will leave you screaming for more!

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (with a photo cover), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Brian Denham). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

Retro-solicited; on sale July 23 • 40 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Scott mentioned that he does not sign his strips because when he was a child his Dad mentioned that it looked like bragging to do so. So Scott has never signed his strips. He also mentioned that Image had asked him to sign his covers but he felt like the people who bought the comic knew who drew it and there was no need to sign the covers. He also mentioned that it brought back images of the early 90′s where everyone was signing their covers, and how huge and out of control it got.

He brought up the fact that I used to sign covers with a big pocket image. And I agree that the Image days got out of control with the big signatures on the covers and it’s also the reason I don’t sign my covers anymore. I want the art to speak for itself.

There are a number of reasons that an artist should sign the covers, one main reason is it helps publicize your work as an artist, and hopefully it will build your audience as well. Sometimes I feel that i just want the number of people who like and appreciate my art to grow on it’s own without any publicity on my part. Another part of me can see the multitude of talented artists who felt this same way and don’t get their names out there, who still sit in the same position in their careers.

It can go both ways. Which do you prefer? Signed covers or not? Publicity or no?

Some of the things Scott really needed was an accurate brush design similar to what he had already, and the eraser function to work without distorting his clean line art. The methods we came up with to do that added a lot of time to each page. He draws his webcomic very fast and does not need an added couple of hours correcting lines that could be fixed easier in Photoshop.

When I complete a page there is a lot of extra details I put in with an added layer on top of the layers stack where I go in and add white highlights or random extra details or highlights or correct ink lines. He does not need to do any of that because he works in very clean ink lines. Photoshop delivers clean lines for him quickly and easily that is just too time-consuming in Illustrator where the remedy might be using the pen tool which takes a lot of finese.

So Kris, Scott and I learned that what each of us uses individually is the right program for each of us. Simple. Except Scott needs his line art in vector format. So he posted this video on PVPonline.com today hoping that someone may be out there in internet land with the idea or ability to help. I know enough about Illustrator to do what I do, but I don’t know enough to help him achieve the things he needs.

Maybe someone out there can help. If you have any ideas send them to Scott at his www.pvponline.com strip. Or post suggestions here in this thread.

Here’s the video…