Free Comic Book Day! This is the fourth entry in a multi-part series highlighting what Bay Area comic stores are doing on Free Comic Book Day (May 7). There’s a lot going on!
The Escapist, 3090 Claremont Ave in Berkeley, is the most recent entrant in Free Comic Book Day festivities. The comic book shop will feature a signing with E is for Extinction artist Ramon Villalobos. The Stockton-based artist worked with Chris Burnham on the Secret Wars tie-in. It was a follow-up to Grant Morrison’s controversial run on X-Men which saw the introduction of “secondary mutations” and the X-Men becoming superstar idols. Artistically, Villalobos was a perfect fit for the title because his work stylistically exists in the same family as Frank Quitely, who was Morrison’s original artist for the X-Men title. It goes without saying when Burnham is wearing his illustrator cap he’s also a family member. I guess Quitely would be the Dad and maybe Burnham would be the older brother. Or maybe Quitely is the Mom? I don’t want to gender people for the sake of an analogy. They could all be brothers like in The Brady Bunch. Would that make Morrison a weird Mr. Brady? He doesn’t draw so that doesn’t make much sense. This could use some work. I’ll get back to you next time I have an opportunity to write about Quitely, Burnham, or Villalobos.
The next exciting project for Villalobos will be Nighthawk. The artist is handling the pencils for a story by David Walker. According to solicits, Nighthawk finds himself on the trail of a serial killer taking out Chicago’s power elite. The title drops on May 25.
In addition to a signing by Villalobos visitors can get stick figures drawn by Meggie Renn and pick-up the Escapist’s Free Comic Book Day Comic #4.
