Art by Matthew Southworth

Greg was named as a Pacific Northwest College of Art Graphic Literature Award finalist today, alongside Graham Annable, Aidan Koch, Sarah Oleksyk, and Joe Sacco. Greg was honored for his work on Stumptown, the series from Oni Press with art by Matthew Southworth that focuses on Dex Parios, a private investigator who runs Portland’s Stumptown Investigations.

A ceremony will be held April 23. For more on the Oregon Book Awards, see the write-up on Oregon Live.

This week, War Rocket Ajax is proud to welcome the Eisner Award-winning writer Greg Rucka to the show! Following last week’s release of The Punisher #1, he talks to us about what makes Frank Castle work, his awesome runs on Detective Comics and Wonder Woman, his new webcomic and why he hates the Joker — and you can listen to it right here at ComicsAlliance!

Give the interview a listen at ComicsAlliance!

Greg has been talking to lots of folks this week about his debut issue on the Punisher. Here’s a round-up of interviews published thus far:

MTV Geek’s Charles Webb goes through the first issue page-by-page with Greg as part of their Creator’s Commentary series:

I really wanted to control what we see of Frank, what we know of him, and in doing that try to force the reader’s perspective and view of him through the eyes of those around him, the Good Guys and the Bad. Frank has been expertly explored by so many writers in recent years–Garth Ennis probably the foremost amongst them, but Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, Matt Fraction, all of them–that it seemed to me following him closely, getting into his head, that had been done, and done quite well.

There’s an odd paradox in this, too, because I really feel that Frank is one of the most isolated, lonely people in the entirety of the Marvel Universe. By separating him like this, by keeping him silent, I wanted to emphasize that isolation.

Laura Hudson at Comics Alliance has an in-depth discussion on Frank Castle and asceticism:

I think there’s a danger in humanizing Frank too much. He’s not crazy — I don’t even want to write him as crazy. He’s not inhuman, and I don’t want to write him as inhuman. But he is alien, and he needs to be alien to your experience, to my experience. This is a guy who has been through an obscene crime, just a horrible, hateful, devastatingly damaging trauma. And his response to that trauma is likewise dangerous and devastating.

And Royal Nonesuch of The Outhousers talks at length with Greg not just about Punisher, but Comic Con, Tr!ckster, novel writing, Lady Sabre, Stumptown, Queen & Country, the whole nine yards:

Frank really shouldn’t work. As a character, he really should not work. He’s inherently a revenge story, and revenge stories pretty much all end the same way. They end with the guy seeking revenge, getting it, and then dying because there’s an imposed morality there and a variety of expectations. The fact that Frank can continue, and has continued, I think, makes him really remarkable and fascinating and worthy of more examination.

I Am An Avenger #2

Word from San Diego is that Greg and artist Michael Lark’s “Post Mortem,” from I Am An Avenger #2 has won the Eisner Award for Best Short Story!

When nominated in April, Greg shared the script for the story in a blog post describing the collaborative process of comics:

In the spirit of attempting to put some utility to this blog, I’m posting the following – the complete script to the story “Post Mortem,” which appeared in I Am an Avenger, Issue #2. It’s in PDF, and I provide it mostly as a curiosity, so one can see – first of all – how I script, and – far more importantly – that in the realm of comics, I am one but cog in a much larger machine. The machine, in this instance, included not only myself and Michael Lark, but crucially Stefano Gaudiano, Matt Hollingsworth, Travis Lanham, Alejandro Arbona, and Steve Wacker, and those are just the credited names.

That’s what you can’t see in reading a script, and what is so often overlooked in reading a comic book. That is, to me, the magic of the medium; the alchemy that allows the creation of a story, of a piece of art, that can genuinely become more than the sum of its parts.

The script for “Post Mortem” is still available for download.

While in San Diego, Greg will be speaking at two Tr!ckster symposiums and also selling merchandise from his latest creative effort, Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether.

What is Tr!ckster, you might ask? From their website:

TR!CKSTER is a retail space: specializing in CREATOR-OWNED wares including small run and limited edition books, fine art prints, toys, clothing, and more.

TR!CKSTER is a fine art gallery space: featuring the CREATOR-OWNED work of some of today’s most influential artists and designers.

TR!CKSTER is a series of Symposia: focused, CREATOR-DRIVEN demonstrations and discussions of method, process, and theory concerning the act of creating new, uniquely-voiced works of art.

We at TR!CKSTER create and control our own work, our own visions, and our own destinies. We do these things to share them with the world. We’d love to make your acquaintance.

For the duration of Comic-Con International, Tr!ckster will set up shop at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center, at 200 Harbor Drive. Greg will be speaking at two of their events:

SYMPOSIUM 5:
Saturday, 7/23/11, 1:00PM to 3:00 PM
BUILDING A CREATOR-OWNED CREATIVE TEAM
Featuring storytellers MIKE ALLRED, LARRY MARDER, GREG RUCKA, JAMIE S. RICH, and more TBA
Writing a story is hard enough, but finding the visual pairing to help express the story to its fullest can be pivotal in crafting your work. The right combination of exposition and dialogue with the perfect set of sequential images make for excellent, memorable storytelling in comics and children’s books. Join in with acclaimed writers and the artists they’ve worked with as they explore how the creative team, and the creative process, come to fruition.

SYMPOSIUM 7:
Sunday, 7/24/11, 1:00PM to 3:00 PM
WORLD-BUILDING and the IMMACULATE REALITY
Featuring film and comics storytellers GREG RUCKA, IVAN BRANDON, B. CLAY MOORE, TED MATHOT, DEREK THOMPSON, and more TBA
Fiction is a limitless landscape, ripe for painting with the varied colors of the imagination. Fiction is the realm of the impossible made possible. To do this effectively, writers, artists and storytellers present themselves with questions requiring unique answers. Not only must they know the lives and environments and politics of their central players, they must know what lurks behind the curtain, what lies beyond the horizon, and what awaits just off-screen. Even the most fantastical and surreal worlds must still be grounded in a reality that the audience can start from, can find footing on, and can then move from the familiar safety of…into the new worlds of story. This workshop will also dive into creating the worlds of character interaction: how player dynamics must be constructed effectively. In this, we’ll analyze the roles of archetypes including the “trickster” and how they effect the stories of their worlds.

Tickets for each event are available at the Tr!ckster website.

In addition, Greg will have on hand posters and t-shirts from Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether. Check out the Sabre website for product images, descriptions, and future announcements!