Second 24Seven Anthology Goes International

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on April 17, 2007 Sign up now!

by Heidi MacDonald, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 4/17/2007

In a year when anthologies like Flight and Kramer's Ergot defined the alternative side of comics, last year's robot-themed 24Seven was a place for more mainstream creators to mingle. After a successful first outing, editor/writer Ivan Brandon is putting together a second 24Seven volume for August. The 200 page anthology includes science fiction-tinged tales by creators such as Ashley Wood, Gene Ha, Adam Hughes, Jason Aaron, Dave Johnson and Will Pfeiffer. The anthology will be published again by Image and has a cover by Wood. While the last anthology had an impressive creative line-up, Brandon has assembled an equally distinctive bunch this time out, including artists from Brazil, Spain, England, and Canada.

The second anthology grew out of the first one, said Brandon, who compiled the book as editor and wrote a few stories for it. "It was sort of a haphazard thing. The contacts that I had hunted down the first time have expanded and beyond that a lot of people I look up to and respect have approached me." Once again the book will offer stories of robots against an urban backdrop. But this time the subject matter has expanded--a bit. "A lot of the people gravitated toward robot characters inspired somewhat by robots in my own previous works but in this case it has a much wider context," Brandon said. "The creators have completely taken any preconceptions away and re-interpreted the basic idea of urban robots from scratch in a wide range of different direction--anything from an underwater robotic city to sentient robot dogs playing poker."

Niko Henrichon (Pride Of Baghdad): from a story he wrote and drew.

With competition for top talent fierce even for anthologies, Brandon found that the key to attracting new creators was offering them a chance to do something different. "I think a lot of creators do a lot of work for hire, and not that they don't put their hearts into it, but an anthology like this gives people a chance to do things that they don't normally get to do," Brandon explained. "And they can fit it into their schedules because the stories are short."

The anthology also gives exposure to artists from around the world, including several from Brazil, where there isn't much of a native comics industry. Brazilan brothers Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, have established themselves in American comics and they introduced several new artists to the project who work mostly in concept art and game design. DC Comics artist Rafael Albuquerque also brought along several new contributors. Brandon is particularly excited to introduce these artists to the American market. "It's a generation of storytellers," Brandon said. "Many up and comers [in the US market] are guys who were raised on [DC Comics subsidiary] Wildstorm or Image, and it's a different dynamic. The Brazilians tend to be more classic storytellers. And they're very young. One of the best artists is a game designer who's only 21. "

As for Brandon's other projects, NYC Mech, his regular robot-city serial done with Andy MacDonald is on hiatus for now although it will return at some point. A collected edition of Cross Bronx, a well-received collaboration with artist Michael Avon Oeming, has just been released and the two plan to collaborate on future projects.

Last year's first 24Seven volume was well received, and putting together a second one has been both harder and easier. Although now it's a known commodity, the second edition must live up to the first one said Brandon. "The bar is fairly high in terms of the content, and I'm not satisfied to do the exact same thing again."

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