Moonstone announces Kolchak & Honey West #1 with rare Ronn Sutton cover

Ronn Sutton cover

Moonstone Publications has announced that Kolchak & Honey West #1, a full-color comic book written by Janet L. Hetherington and illustrated by Ronn Sutton, will be released in January 2013 with three covers -- one of which will be a rare cover (only 15% of the run) by interior artist Ronn Sutton.

Kolchak the Night Stalker, a news reporter who keeps running into inexplicable supernatural events, first appeared on television in the 1970s and is credited with inspiring Chris Carter to create The X-Files.

Honey West is a female private investigator created in the 1950s by Gloria and Forrest E. "Skip" Fickling as novels and turned into a 1960s TV series starring Anne Francis (of Forbidden Planet fame).

Ronn Sutton previously illustrated three issues of Moonstone's Honey West comic book with the storyline "Murder on Mars" by writer Elaine Lee.

This is the first time Moonstone has paired these two characters in a crossover adventure.

Fans of Kolchak and Honey West should visit their comic book stores to preorder, as the issue is being solicited now through Diamond comic book distributors in its Previews catalogue. Here are the details:

McClinton cover

Davis cover

Kolchak & Honey West #1

Story: Janet L. Hetherington

Art: Ronn Sutton

Covers: Malcolm McClinton, Ronn Sutton,  Hayden Davis

40 pgs, color, $3.99

Two top-tier investigators in one titanic team up!

High heels and Hedonism!

Young cub reporter Carl Kolchak falls into an ongoing investigation with Honey West, who is undercover at a gentlemen’s club!  Disappearing women are the main course, as they both fight to just stay alive, as the violence escalates and the case gets out of control!

(Covers: McClinton = 60%,  Davis= 25%, Sutton = 15%)

Point this out to your comic book shop owner:

***RETAILER INCENTIVE: for every 4 you buy, get one free!

Moonstone also announced a long-lost Kolchak novel being offered in January 2013.

Kolchak: Grave Secrets

Author: Mark Dawidziak

6” x 9”, 204 pgs, $14.00

ISBN: 978-1-936814-44-2

Previews exclusive! Rare warehouse find…long since thought of as out of print!

The first post-TV show novel ever written about Kolchak... This was published by Cinemaker press at $9.95. This is a first printing: 1994. The novel: Kolchak is on the trail of whatever killed land baron Glen Gilmore. The answers are buried 2000 miles away and more than 150 years ago!

“Excellently done. I read it in one sitting.” – Richard Matheson

To find a comic book store near you, check this site.

Wizard World Chicago news from Ronn Sutton & Janet Hetherington

The dates for the Wizard World Chicago 2012 comic book convention are fast approaching (August 9-12 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL), and artist Ronn Sutton is ready with an original new art print of a feisty Space Girl battling hungry aliens.

Ronn pencilled the art for the 11" x 17" print, which was inked by fellow artist Hilary Barta (who collaborated with Ronn on Elvira, Mistress of the Dark comic stories and a dynamic Fear Agent tale). The art for the print was colored by Jason Millet.

At the show, Ronn will have original comic book art pages and comic books as well as the Space Girl print. Ronn will be happy to provide free autographs.

Hilary and Jason also plan to be at the Wizard World Chicago convention.
 

Janet Hetherington, who wrote the Honey West/Kolchak the Niight Stalker script that Ronn illustrated earlier this year, will be bringing her new Very Sketchy sketchbook as well as comics and art to the show. The sketchbook has an area for a personalized sketch and autograph in the front.

The Honey West/Kolchak the Niight Stalker comic book is slated to be published by Moonstone Publications in 2013.

Both Ronn and Janet will be available to do commissions at Wizard World Chicago.

Very Sketchy debut at Ottawa Comiccon

With Ottawa Comiccon opening its doors at 9:30am to a sold-out Saturday crowd today (May 12) at the CE Centre, I'm happy to have a new sketchbook to offer in addition to original art, Eternal Romance comics and commission sketches.

The Very Sketchy 2012 Black & White sketchbook reproduces unpublished art as well as several parody pieces that appeared in the San Diego Comic-Con Program Book and other places. There's even a poem about a certain Caped Crusader.

If you are coming, Be sure to drop by table 914 to see Ronn Sutton and me. Ronn will have his popular Excerpts sketchbook with a different original art rough in each copy,  Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Honey West artwork & comics, and we'll be happy to discuss out forthcoming Honey West / Kolchak the Night Stalker crossover comic book from Moonstone.

-- Janet Hetherington

Happy New Year from Janet Hetherington & Ronn Sutton

Happy New Year!

It was a busy year in 2011. Janet Hetherington was working on new screenplays, taking screenwriting courses with Screenwriters Online, and seeing the her short script the House on Arch Lane come to life from Germany's StoneHope Entertainment.

Speaking of the House on Arch Lane, please take the time to vote in support of this film with your "like" so it can make the cut for the Fear Fête Horror Film Festival in Baton Rouge, Lousiana in October 2012.

But Janet hasn't forgotten her comic book creative roots. Artist Ronn Sutton is busy drawing the new Honey West / Kolchak The Night Stalker crossover event book for Moonstone Publications. The script is by Janet, who had a blast writing this story featuring two iconic TV characters.

Set in the 1970s, Honey is a seasoned private investigator while Kolchak is still earning his reporter chops, and the two are forced to team up to solve the mystery of a missing girl. When they discover a cult is involved, Kolchak’s radar picks up hints of the supernatural – but Kolchak is not quite willing to believe it. Ronn is pencilling and inking the book, which is due out in 2012.

Meanwhile, Ronn’s issue of Honey West #5 (the wrap-up to the "Murder on Mars" three-issue storyline by Elaine Lee) has been resolicited and will be coming out in early 2012. Get your comic shop to order one!

Also look for a new art from Ronn in the 1000 Ways to Die graphic novel trade paperback from Zenescope (based on the popular Spike TV television show).

Ronn illustrated a short story for the anthology (due out in 2012). Talk to your comic shop to order or check here for the Amazon listing

Happy Holidays from Ronn Sutton and Janet Hetherington

Wishing you a happy and creative holiday!

Season's Greetings from Ronn Sutton and Janet Hetherington

The top art is Honey West by Ronn Sutton.

The middle art is Elvira by Ronn Sutton.

The bottom art is Destine from Eternal Romance by Janet Hetherington.

See Ronn Sutton and Janet Hetherington at Fan Expo Canada!

Original Supergirl art by Janet Hetherington

Supergirl would fly there, and so are we!

Ronn Sutton and I are flying Porter Airlines to Toronto for Fan Expo Canada, the big comics, horror, science fiction, gaming and anime mash-up that starts Thursday, August 25 and runs through Sunday, August 28, 2011.

It's taking place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre,  and Ronn and I are looking forward to seeing you at our table, the delightfully named PO71A and PO71B.

If you visit the website or pick up a program book at the show, there's a map that will lead to treasure... all the great original art at our table!

Excerpts sketchbook

Ronn still has some original Elvira, Mistress of the Dark comic book pages, and comics, as well as new original Honey West comic book pages.  And don't forget his brand-new Excerpts sketchbook, which features a different original rough bound into each copy.

Poison Ivy original art by Janet Hetherington

I'll have Eternal Romance comics, t-shirts, mouse pads and new original artwork for this show... like this enticing Poison Ivy.

And remember, Ronn and I do commissions, so book yours and get something really unique. If you have a specific character in mind, please provide reference.

Looking forward to a fun, packed weekend and seeing y'all there!

Down-home hospitality at Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo

Wonder Woman finds a home with Wonder Girl

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo (June 17, 18, and 19, 2011) proved to be a busy and fun show for me and Ronn Sutton (Honey West, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Fear Agent). We were both kept busy talking, doing commissions and talking about comics, TV and movie to the many fans who passed our tables. And a lot came by!

"The convention was terrific," Ronn agrees, saying, "We were seated in guest area. We each had a table to ourselves and in a bit of terrific synchronicity, Leonard Kirk was seated next to us and David Ross right across from us. Other comics guests included Neal Adams, Michael Golden, Tim Sale, Mike Mignola, Joe Jusko, etc. I had a nice conversation with Bo Hampton, whose work I've always liked. I was pleased to find out he knew some of my art, too. Movie star guests included William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Doug Bradley (Pinhead). Guest George Romero had to cancel out until next year."

Calgary luggage handlers

It was our first time attending this comic-con, and our first time in Calgary. We had an inkling that it was going to be an interesting weekend when we got off the plane at the Calgary airport and saw cool model displays at the baggage pick-up featuring realistic dinosaurs ripping up luggage.

Ronn comments about Calgary, "It was funny to see all the police officers walking around wearing cowboy hats as part of their uniform. There were sculptures everywhere. Not abstract stuff either. Lots of sculptures of lifesized cowboys on horses, etc. Great park benches supported with a wagon wheel on each end. I was surprised at the number of large art galleries and performance/dance theatres. Calgary is a big money town (oil)."

As for the show, we heard that the crowd was around 35,000. Maybe it was because it was Father's Day weekend, or maybe it was just Calgary, but  there were lots of families (parents and kids) at the show, including a little Wonder Girl who bought a piece of my Wonder Woman art.

Gil is pleased with his Zatanna art

I did many commissions, like female heroines Zatanna and Batgirl. But I also did some fun animal-themed ones like Super-Monkey, My Little Pony (in high-heeled shoes) and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Darren displays his mighty shield

Ronn and I signed lots of souvenir books, but one of the oddest requests for me was to sign a Captain America shield that also boasted (real) celebrities like Jonathan Frakes. It's going to look great handing on the wall. 

Ronn says, "The con staff were just terrific. They were constantly coming around handing out bottles of water to guests and bringing food." This was a relief but also very strategic, because it kept us at our tables!

Leonard Kirk and Liana K.

We went out to dinner after the show with friends and fellow comics pros Leonard Kirk (X-Factor), Dave Ross (Star Wars) and Dave's wife Judi. "Saturday night Judi wanted to go to Vietnamese restaurant," Ronn says. "What a comical time. The staff didn't have a clue what they were doing. Everybody was missing half their cutlery, and after they prepared our table half of us had plates and half didn't, including Dave Ross who got a saucer instead. The waiter came to table with dish he identified as "pork chops," which in fact was Judi's order of lemongrass chicken. Man, what a place. The food was good, though. We had a fun time. When we exited we noticed the name of the place was the 'T & A' Restaurant."

Speaking of which, there were plenty of fetching women dressed in costume at the comic-con, including TV personality Liana K., who scandalized Calgary police with her "faux nude" sci-fi gaming character costume.

Our ride back to the airport on Sunday night was also memorable. The convention was kind enough to provide a shuttle service for us -- and that turned out to be an adventure.

Ronn Sutton on the limo bus

"We're taken to the bus and the driver is there," Ronn recalls. "He's dressed in black cowboy hat and black tailored formal cowboy suit looking like a cross between Ronnie Hawkins and Santa Claus, with a big white beard and long white hair and huge rings on every finger. He ushers us on to bus. Holy cow! It's a limo inside!  There are long couches, mirrored ceiling, a bar, hardwood floors, and blaring sound system. We sit almost half an hour because he's waiting for more people. Finally he says they've called for a smaller car to take us. As we get off bus, actors Adrienne Barbeau and John Amplas (Dawn of the Dead) show up. So it's back on the bus and he takes us out to airport."

So Calgary put on quite a convention. Lots of down-home hospitality and great people. Thanks, Calgary!

-- Janet Hetherington

Sketchbook by Ronn Sutton ready for Calgary Entertainment Expo

With Calgary Entertainment Expo coming up June 17-19, Ronn Sutton (artist of Honey West, Elvira, Fear Agent and more) has put together a new souvenir sketchbook called EXCERPTS, featuring a wide variety of artwork.

Each copy of EXCERPTS will have an original art rough by Ronn bound into the sketchbook.

Ronn and I will also have comics and original art available at the show, and we will both be doing commissions. We're always happy to chat and discuss comics, movies and more. Free autographs.

Find us located at tables L09 and L10 at the BMO Centre. For more information on the Expo, visit its website.

Where to get your comics fix in Bermuda

Garan Madeiros and Ronn Sutton at the Comic Stop, Bermuda

Ronn Sutton and I went cruising in May on Holland America's Veendam ship from New York to Bermuda. This was a family cruise, with 14 of us on board. That assembly of relatives resulted in scenes straight out a Chevy Chase Vacation movie, including a land excursion that had us all wearing matching T-shirts sporting the logo "Grandma's Gang."  I intend to write all the insanity into an exaggerated comedy screenplay.

Logline: An 80-year-old matriarch books her entire bickering family on a week-long cruise where they are forced to spend quality time together on a ship full of old people.

Sea turtles at an aquarium in St. George's

I do want to say that there were fun times. The food was plentiful and delicious (surf 'n turf, lobster bisque, all-hours pizza for Ronn); we saw sea turtles; I won a karaoke trophy after getting wasted on champagne cocktails; we went on a glass-bottom boat ride; and Ronn and I got our comics fix at the COMIC STOP comic book store in Hamilton, Bermuda.

What was really amazing is that we had met the owner Garan Madeiros before in Toronto, and had actually gone out to dinner with him along with our friend, comic book artist Dave Ross. Garan, who attended the Joe Kubert school, is also the creator of the Contract comic book. I got ahold of copies of those at the store, and Ronn gave Garan an issue of Honey West.

Scenic and sunny Bermuda

Garan frequents Comic-Con in New York, but the best way to meet him is to drop in to the COMIC STOP in Bermuda at the Emporium Building, 69 Front Street, Hamilton.

Tell him Ronn and Janet say "hello"!

Honey West #3 with Ronn Sutton art hits comic shops March 9

Honey West vs. evil robot in #3 - Art by Ronn Sutton

Ready for some super-cool retro good-girl action?

On March 9, 2011, Moonstone Books releases Honey West #3, the first part of the trilogy story "Murder On Mars" by writer Elaine Lee and artist Ronn Sutton.

 

As reported earlier this year, this three-issue story arc features fictional detective Honey West joining the cast of a mid-1960s low-budget science fiction B movie (Amazons of Mars) to investigate the murder of the film's starlet, Zu Zu Varga. Honey must find out if the culprit is a scheming ingenue, a down-on-his-luck director, a jealous agent or an aging teen heartthrob.

 

This storyline runs through Honey West issues #3, 4 and 5, after which artist Ronn Sutton will be penciling and inking some other Honey West projects in 2011.

 

"I'm currently wrapping up the artwork on my third issue," comments Sutton. "I've spent a lot of time drawing these issues, so to speed things up a little I've brought in a model with a belly dancing and burlesque background to help me create all the major Honey West poses in issue #5."

 

The character Honey West was created in the late 1950s by Gloria and Forest Fickling for a series of detective novels written until 1971. In 1965, Anne Francis starred in a Honey West TV series, after the character first made a brief appearance on the Burke's Law TV show. 

 

Honey must find the murderer!

 

"I'm having a lot of fun working on these issues," Sutton says. "In the original novels, Honey West was a much sexier character than she was portrayed on television. So I'm trying to re-instate that."

 

Ronn Sutton captures 1960s style

"The story takes place in 1965 and I've worked hard to visually recreate that era: the hairstyles, clothes, furniture, etc.," the artist says. "The mid-60s was also probably the last hurrah for that very girly-girl sex kitten image. That's what I'm trying to bring to my version of Honey. She's very alluring, well-built and she's always on the verge of spilling out of her clothes."

 

Sutton knows a fair bit about drawing sexy women after having drawn issues of Claypool Comics' Elvira, Mistress of the Dark for nine years. Prior to that he had worked on a number of other female protagonists such as Draculina, the vampress Luxura, a Vampira movie comic, and She-Dragon (for the Savage Dragon animated TV series).

 

"I'm attempting to portray a very specific look, something that was fleeting and now is long gone," he says. "But you see a certain sexiness in the way women dressed then, the way they walked, a particular sort of sexy sophistication that disappeared when go-go, hippie and unisex styles invaded."

 

Honey West is published by Moonstone Books. Each issue is 32 color pages for $3.99. The comic ships with three variant covers including one photo cover of Honey West actress Anne Francis, who passed away on January 2, 2011. Script by Elaine Lee, pencil and ink art by Ronn Sutton, colors by Ken Wolak.

 

Ronn Sutton’s new femme fatale is Honey West

It’s no mystery why artist Ronn Sutton loves drawing Honey West for Moonstone Books.

This lady P.I. is hot.

Sutton has a comic book art resume full of drawing sexy women, including nine years illustrating Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Claypool Comics), a Vampira promo comic (for Vampira: The Movie, 2006), the vampress Luxura (Brainstorm Comics) and She-Dragon (for The Savage Dragon animated TV series).

Sutton’s newest femme fatale is Honey West, a female detective based on the 1950s novels by Gloria and Forest Fickling and the 1960s television show of the same name (starring Anne Francis).

Sutton is working on a three-issue story arc for the comic book series published by Moonstone. The script is by Elaine Lee (Starstruck, Vamps) and is titled “Murder on Mars.” It features robots, aliens and murder in 1960s California.

“Drawing this stuff is a blast,” Sutton says, adding, “although it’s kind of ironic that this story has Honey West on the set of sci-fi movie, considering I spent nine years drawing Elvira, which featured sci-fi and macabre themes in every issue.”

In the three-issue Honey West storyline that Sutton is penciling and inking, Honey is hired by an anonymous employer and goes undercover on the set of low-budget sci-fi film Amazons of Mars to investigate the mysterious death of Zu Zu Varga, queen of the B-movies. Honey must find out if the culprit is a scheming ingénue, a down-on-his luck director, a jealous agent or an aging teen heartthrob.

Sutton enjoyed doing the research so he could accurately portray the 1960s in his art.

“I bought a DVD with all the Honey West TV episodes so I could watch them and got ahold of a 1960s Sears catalogue so I could get the ‘period look’ of the fashions, furniture and equipment like telephones just right,” he says.

In addition to making the switch to drawing a sexy blonde like Honey West from drawing a sexy brunette like Elvira, Sutton also adjusted his art technique because Honey West is a color comic book.

“I’m used to drawing for comics printed in black and white,” Sutton says. “While I’m still using blacks for shadow dynamics to create mystery and suspense, I’m actually leaving a lot of areas of the art more ‘open’ so that the color can be used effectively.”

Sutton is delighted by the work that’s he’s seen from colorist Ken Wolak so far. “It’s vibrant,” he says. “The colors are really making the action jump off the page.”

The pages previewed here are from issue #3 (the first of the three-issue story arc). Sutton is currently working on issue #5.

Issues #3 and #4 will be available soon at comic book shops. To find a comic book shop near you, visit www.comicshoplocator.com.

To see more of Ronn Sutton’s art, visit www.ronnsutton.com.

Anne Francis (Honey West, Forbidden Planet) passes away at age 80

Anne Francis, who won many a fanboy's heart with her sultry portrayals in the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet and the 1960s TV show Honey West, has passed away at age 80 from complications related to pancreatic cancer.

Interest in Honey West re-emerged in 2010 with the publication of a new Honey West comic book (Moonstone Books) featuring the adventures of the blond detective and her pet ocelot. Artist Ronn Sutton is currently illustrating a three-issue story arc for the comic book which, in the tradition of Forbidden Planet, has Honey investigating mysterious circumstances on the set of a science-fiction movie.

An obituary of Anne Francis by Dennis McLellan, published by the Los Angeles Times, can be found here: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-anne-francis-20110103,0,2031697.story.