I’ve known and loved Will Vinton’s animation and special effects work for years, and today I found out he is moving from 3D work to the 2D comic world with Dark Horse’s Jack Hightower, an action/adventure/comedy graphic novel.
Dark Horse describes the title as “Tall, daring, and handsome, secret agent Jack Hightower had it all—a stellar career, beautiful women, and more power and influence than he could shake a supermodel at. Only one thing eluded him–the capture of his long-time arch nemesis, Dr. Flagitious Savant. Then one fateful night, the mad Doctor lured Jack into the beam of a shrink ray! Now Jack’s trying to put his miniaturized life back together, hunt down the deadly Dr. Savant and reverse the process that made him into the world’s first living action figure!”
In a prepared release, Vinton said, “I’ve always liked graphic novels, so when Mike Richardson suggested writing a graphic novel story about Jack, Andrew Wiese, my writing partner and I jumped at it. In some ways creating this character was very similar to creating a character for animation–it’s like storyboarding a film. But with a graphic novel you have whittle it down to the essence of character and story–you have to be more spare and make everything count¬then make that really vivid.”
Vinton will be making signing appearances across the country promoting the 150 page book. The first stop will be at the Miami International Universiy of Art and Design on January 17, 2007 a 11:00 AM, where he will be talking with students and faculty. At 6:00 PM, he will be signing for the public at Books and Books in Coral Gables.
Jack Hightower is created and written by Will Vinton and Andrew Wiese, with art by Fabio Laguna. The book arrives on sale on January 17 carrying a $14.95 price tag.
via Dark Horse (link)