Ah rookies!
Those new, generally youngish (but not always) members of some faction of society: sports teams, post-secondary education institutions, law offices, happy-hour bars, and the like.
Yes, rookies are babies in need of knowledge feeding, philosophical views and values burping, and life-skill diaper changing. That’s why an older generation guides them…so that one day, “the son becomes the father and the father the son.”
Or something like that.
Earlier this year, under acclaimed writer Scott Snyder and legendary artists Jim Lee and Klaus Janson, DC Comics started up their own comic book academy to develop writers and artists to lead the sequential art form forward.
The results of that first cohort are in and the rookies have something to say in New Talent Showcase #1!
New Talent Showcase #1
Written by: Various
Illustrated by: Various
Published by: DC Comics
This isn’t the first time DC Comics have given a platform to new, fresh talent.
During the early 1980s, New Talent Showcase was a monthly comic book publication, featuring short stories by emerging talents that focused on DC’s stable of world-famous superheroes and lesser known ones. It was a veritable artistic briar patch. That particular series was edited by newcomer Karen Berger, who would go on to found Vertigo Comics, which would change the landscape of the comic book world forever. The periodical also featured the early works of Norm Breyfogle, Steve Lightly and Stan Woch. Even the dearly departed Darwyn Cooke got featured within it’s pages.
Today, DC releases New Talent Showcase #1 – a one-shot special featuring the talent that graduated from their comic book academy.
Here you’ll find names like: Adam Smith, Joelle Jones, Chris Sebela, Michael Moreci (who has made the rounds at Biff Bam Pop! before), Erica Schultz, David Messina, Juan Ferreyra and Barnaby Bagenda, to name just a few. It’s a huge list of names you’re probably not familiar with today… but before long they’ll be writing and drawing the Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman comic books of tomorrow. Here, they’re focusing on action-packed, comedic and dramatic stories featuring characters such as Hawkgirl, Kyle Rayner, Wonder Woman and many more.
Let’s see what these rookies have got to offer today! Make the run to your local comic book shop and pick up the one-off, extra-sixed, New Talent Showcase #1.
