Mark Millar's The Unfunnies returns in September 2007 with issues #3, and #4, plus Unfunnies: First Follies
issue 1 cover by Keith Giffen
inks by Marc Deering, color by Nimbus
Mark Millar's The Unfunnies: First Follies
The first two issues of Mark Millar’s disturbed horror/comedy are available again right here, collected with a new cover by series artist Anthony Williams! Welcome to the most depraved comic book of the 21st century, a disturbing, mini series that blends traditional animation with photo strip storytelling to produce one of the most compelling horror/comedies in years. The Unfunnies is a journey through the dark side of the human soul like Magnolia or Happiness, but told in the style of your favorite animated cartoon strips. Undoubtedly, the most uncompromising work Mark Millar has ever produced.
Mark Millar's The Unfunnies returns in September 2007 with issues #3, and #4, plus Unfunnies: First Follies
Original Millarworld Press Release from Mark Millar:
Some interesting news for December. As you may have heard whispers
about these last few months, I've been putting together art teams for
my long-promised creator-owned projects. I've also been talking to various
publishers about a pan-industry initiative I've been developing where
each book appears from a different company, but gets linked together
by a little www.millarworld.biz logo in the corner of each cover. Although
each of these titles is creator-owned and independent of the others
in a story sense, there are little hints that connect the titles and
what I've essentially done in this sense is create the first industry-wide
crossover.
December is going to be a big month with regard to my new Marvel project,
but I think they're holding off until Wizardworld before making any
kind of announcement. On the creator-owned front, the companies I selected
for each of these projects are Top Cow, Dark Horse, Image and Avatar.
Each project, like I said, is self-contained and can be read on their
own, but the link goes beyond the little story hints mentioned earlier.
In what I suspect is a unique move, each of these projects will be carrying
ads for the other projects in the line even though they're all coming
from several different comic-book companues. Obviously, an Avatar book
isn't going to sell as much as a Top Cow book, but hopefully the advertising
in both will bring new readers to both companies.
When you're writing books like The Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men and so
on, it's easy to play it safe and just write top five titles all the
time, but I think that's slightly immoral when you've come from the
small press scene and worked your way up through smaller publishers.
What I'm trying to do with the Millarworld line is balance my career
in the same way George Clooney did by balancing Ocean's Eleven with
his own projects like Confessions of the Dangerous Mind. I'm not interested
in creating something nobody's going to read. These titles are the kind
of superhero and horror comics I've always wanted to write, but I want
to own them too and also produce the kind of material that might be
impossible from the big two. The learning curve that began for me with
The Authority and was carried through Ultimates kind of peaks with the
books I've got planned here. WANTED, from Top Cow, is the superhero
book I planned to follow The Authority with before I went to Marvel
and I've been plotting it for three years. Similarly, the content for
THE UNFUNNIES (from Avatar) is just so extreme that neither of the big
two publishers would be allowed to print something of this nature.
I've been working on this initiative for some time and the scripts are
mostly done. Likewise, the artists have all started and most of the
series will be completed or near completed by the time the first issues
hit the stands (I've learned a lot from working with these last two
years). It's by far the biggest thing I've ever done and the biggest
thing I've ever been involved in so I'm as excited as h#&% at the prospect
of what we might be able to achieve here. We've been promised features
in Wizard, Rolling Stone, The Sunday Times, Abercrombie and Finch, etc,
to promote the line so I think we might be sitting on something potentially
enormous here. As has been reported elsewhere, Eminem appeared in a
UK newspaper last month talking about how he wanted to buy and appear
in the movie version of WANTED so the heat seems to be spreading before
information on the titles has even been released. Information on the
Marvel project won't be given until Wizardworld, but details of the
other titles are as follows:
WANTED (TOP COW)
Writer Mark Millar (The Ultimates)/ Artist JG Jones (Black Widow)
Get ready for the next generation of superhero comics. This mature readers
title finishes what started with The Authority and continues with The
Ultimates as Mark Millar gives you super-people as you've never seen
them before. The gloves are off for this six issue series that's been
described by the Sunday Times as 'Watchmen for Super-Villains'. Six
issues. Monthly.
CHOSEN (DARK HORSE)
Writer Mark Millar/ Artist Peter Gross (Books of Magic)
Imagine you were a twelve year old boy from smalltown, USA, who just
found out you were the returned Jesus Christ. Chosen is a three issue
series that kicks off with this premise and explores where he and his
family go from here. It's Stand By Me meets the Book of Revelations
as a kid finds out he's the real deal and has a terrifying destiny ahead
of him. This Harry Potter for fundamentalist Christians. Three issue
horror series. Monthly.
THE UNFUNNIES (AVATAR PRESS)
Writer Mark Millar/ Artist Anthony Williams
Leave your taste at the door. The Unfunnies is a shock to the senses
unlike anything we've ever seen before in the comic-book medium. 'Horror
needs to be horror', insists Millar. 'The Unfunnies is the most uncompromising
thing I've ever written and I'm immensely proud of it, but slightly
worried about people reading it. It's really THAT F&#%ed-up.'Imagine
Magnolia or Happiness drawn in the style of Scooby Doo and using a combination
of Looney Tunes art with real world photographs designed by animator
Anthony Williams. Four issue horror series. Monthly.
IMAGE COMICS
Four self-contained one-shots coming out through 2004 and part of the
new wave of superhero thinking that begins with WANTED. Essentially,
these are all adult, 21st century updates of the old 20th century concepts
Marvel and DC have had such success with since the 1930s. The first
book is called RUN! and is a completely, completely new way of looking
at super-speed. The artist for this book is the brilliant Ashley Wood
and the title ships in December. The next three titles (next release
being POW!) are also self-contained and will be drawn by John Cassaday
(Planetary, Captain America), Frank Quitely (The Authority, New X-Men)
and a fourth superstar artist who can't be named at the moment because
he's still under contract elsewhere. Four self-contained one-shots starting
in December
and running through 2004.
As you might have heard, the www.millarworld.biz site is undergoing
a facelift at the moment and we're coming back soon with an expanded
line-up of features including a monthly magazine format. Each of these
titles will be heavily advertised on the site and lettered previews
of each series will be available for downloads here in the week prior
to the wizardworld convention in Chicago. Also, it's worth pointing
out that none of these books will interfere with my current commitment
to Marvel Comics. These titles have been mostly written and, by the
time they appear, announcements will already have been made regarding
my next two Marvel titles. I'm planning to make a MAJOR commitment to
Marvel at the end of the year, but these are books I've wanted to do
for years and I just needed to get them out of my system first.
Mark Millar
