Thanks to This Pop Life for the love. 🙂

SO, confession I don’t read comic books all the time, I am a part time comic book fan, I read a few here and there, also some graphic novels. As a younger man I remember reading and loving Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Josie and the Pussycats, and Betty and Veronica.

I love the Go-Go’s too. I remember when the album “Talk Show” came out in high school I skipped class so I could purchase it and play it the rest of the day, on vinyl even!

I love Jane Wiedlin! So imagine when she announced a comic book based on her being a sci-fi superhero I was on board. Enter Lady Robotika!

Lady Robotika is a lot of fun. It’s a sci-fi rock n’ roll geek feast. Issue one came out last week.  I really enjoyed the story, the humor, and artwork is fantastic. Great job I say. Perfect for a summer read. Looking forward to the next issue.

So run and pre-order issue two from your favorite comic book shop. (I’ve read issue one sold out but look around!).  Thanks to Golden Age in Pike’s Place Market in Seattle. They have me pre-ordered for all the Lady Robotika comics. For more info check out Jane’s Lady Robotika website. She and Bill Morrison  will be at Comic-Con today as well.

Now I will wait for a new Jane Wiedlin solo album. Sigh.

New review over at playbackstl.com

Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin turns herself into a sci-fi superheroine in this fabulously campy romp.

Oh, Jane Wiedlin, what don’t you do? Clothing designer, cute girl guitarist in the Go-Go’s, public fetishist, reality television personality and now a writer of funnybooks. One might think that a lady with such a variety of interests might not do any of them well but, if Wiedlin’s flagging, it’s not here. Sure, it’s easy to dismiss Lady Robotika as a vanity project since it stars, well, punk rock sweetheart Jane Wiedlin, but it manages to rise above dreary possibilities and reach the stars, both in terms of quality and storyline. It’s easy to imagine this being a “safe” project but, thankfully, Weidlin & Company (Truly, it seems to take a village. Or a co-writer and two artists.) manage to avoid the pitfalls that can all too easily lure superstars and ghostwriters alike in situations like this and let it all hang out.

Lady Robotika is a dream of a comic, really, since it starts in a curious dreamscape where Jane Wiedlin’s superheroine/rock-star is rescuing a handsome gentleman about to be in a great deal of distress from under the watchful eye of some bored working-girl prison guards who are re-enacting a conversation I swear I had a million times in my copyshop days, minus the bondage gear and prison duty but including the crabby boss. From there, the comic expands into hilarious pop culture references (I’d like a twitter app for Alpha Centauri, if anyone out there could make that happen. You’d have to be way out there, obviously, but I’ve got time.) and sly self-deprecating cracks from our heroine herself. Throw in a plot with some aliens, and a few winks in the directions of Wiedlin’s well-publicized kinks and career, and you’ve got yourself a comic book.

The art is pretty standard for this type of book, but the utilization of the dark end of the color spectrum manages to push the book firmly into a deliciously camp territory. There’s an excellently executed moment where a vintage car is being held in an alien tractor beam that made my nerd heart skip a beat in glee. Speaking of nerd hearts going a-flutter, Bill Morrison began his career in the herd of animators for Disney, where his credits included the iconic poster for the movie version of The Little Mermaid. He later worked on The Simpsons and Futurama before eventually finding his way to Bongo Comics, home of the million comics based on these Matt Groening projects. Tone Rodriguez has also worked for Bongo Comics in recent years, in addition to his more recent stint as artist on Shadowhawk. Despite this, Lady Robotika manages to look both normal and interesting and nothing like what you would imagine from these résumés, which I suspect might be a good thing.

Ultimately, Lady Robotika is a fabulous campy romp and I’m definitely going to pick up future issues. There are some references to the aforementioned well-publicized kinks so I’m not sure if it’s one for the kiddies, but I’m going to recommend this to everyone over the age of about 15. Jane Wiedlin’s got the beat and all you can do is read along. | Erin Jameson

July 23 – Comic-Con

• 11:00-12:00pm: Jane Wiedlin, Bill Morrison, Jim Silke – IMAGE booth (2729)
• 4:00-5:00pm: Jane Wiedlin, Bill Morrison, Jim Silke – IMAGE booth (2729)
• Eisner Awards – Bill Morrison (host)
• Geek Girl Tweet Up @ Jolt ‘n Joes – Jane Wiedlin

For full Comic-Con schedule please visit our EVENTS page.

Lady Robotika gets some love over at Wired.com 🙂

Come to the Lady Robotika party at Meltdown Comics dressed in your best sci-fi costumes and drag, and score a VIP pass for the gallery!

Thanks to EVERYONE who come out to see us at the Whatever Comics book signing. 🙂

Thank you to Desmond Miller for taking photos! 🙂
For more photos from the event go HERE.

A few more photos from the book signing at Atlantis Fantasyworld!

Thanks for all the fun! 🙂

Nice review for Lady Robotika over at Philly.com

Former Go-Go Jane Wiedlin takes punk attitude to comics

By JEROME MAIDA
Philadelphia Daily News

ALTHOUGH “Jane Wiedlin’s Lady Robotika” is perfect reading for your summer “Vacation,” and Wiedlin and co-writer Bill Morrison seem to be screaming “We Got the Beat” with a story that flows surprisingly well, so far they are telling Comics Guy “Our Lips Are Sealed” regarding the future for the character and concept.

OK, that might not have been the wittiest line ever written, but it gets its point across, and you can tell I was at least trying to be witty about this book starring Wiedlin, former Go-Go’s guitarist. The same thing can be said about “Lady Robotika,” Wiedlin and Morrison’s initial effort.

This is not a book that will ever win any Eisners (the comic industry’s Oscar). But it is wildly imaginative, and Wiedlin and Morrison have a true love for the material and are doing the best they can with it. This isn’t a celebrity vanity project in which they’re just trying to throw something together and hope it eventually becomes a movie or TV show.

In fact, Wiedlin, who has been a regular at comic conventions for years, seems to have learned a bit about the craft along the way. The book is fun and solidly scripted.

One of the best ideas was for Wiedlin to be the star of the book, both as herself and as Lady Robotika. She comes across as extremely self-deprecating. There are many Go-Go’s inside jokes for die-hard fans, and even a scene in which Wiedlin, after being captured by aliens and stripped naked, makes a reference to her reputation for selling revealing photos of herself at conventions by saying, “What happened to my clothes? I know I have a reputation for being kinky, but this is ridiculous.” In another, where she has cried so much her mascara smears, she jokes that it could help her in the next phase of her career, since she’s “never tried shock rock. Could work.”

One of the linchpins of the story is the mystery as to whether the Lady Robotika scenes – in which Wiedlin portrays Robotika – are simply Wiedlin’s dreams or actually happening. We get a definitive answer by the end of issue #1 (by which time you can cut the tension with a knife), which ends with a surprising twist.

Again, this is pretty standard sci-fi stuff. Wiedlin’s obvious enthusiasm for the character and ability to make us laugh by laughing at herself sets it apart and has Comics Guy hoping we see much more of this character and concept in the future, maybe even on the big screen starring Wiedlin.

Comics Guy would go “Head Over Heels” for that one.

Lady Robotika gets some love over at The Infinite Bookshelf blog.

First of all, I didn’t get to Whatever… until Saturday. My tardiness wasn’t because I was slacking, it was because I was saving myself… for Jane Wiedlin!!! Yes, Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Go’s has a brand new comic book out and stopped in at Whatever… to sign copies of Lady Robotika #1. Her co-creator, Bill Morrison, was also signing, but I was so excited about seeing one of my former music idols that I barely said anything to him at all. (Sorry for being so rude, Mr. Morrison!) The fellows at the store took a picture of me with them, I hope it turned out okay. Maybe they will post it on Facebook or on their website. Speaking of their website, they just alerted me to the fact that I’ve also won a signed poster! Now you know why I love that store so much!!

Okay, so Lady Robotika is a lot of fun. The premise is, Jane Wiedlin is abducted by aliens and forced to perform for the alien emperor. By the end of the first book, however, she discovers that the aliens have also replaced her left arm with an entirely robotic one! I should note that this story is in flashback since the opening panels show Jane as “Lady Robotika” rushing in to save her human male (love?) interest. It’s a lot of fun and full of little pop and obscure references (like a Ziggy Stardust one on the cover and a reference to Trannyshack somewhere inside… I don’t know enough about Trannyshack to actually find it.) Along with the fun story, the art is really nice. Go on, Lady R!!

Check it out the rest of the blog HERE.

Jane & Bill will be at the IMAGE booth at Comic-Con signing copies of Lady Robotika! 🙂

• July 22 – Comic-Con
  3:00-4:00pm: Fractured Fables (Doug TenNapel, Phil Hester, Bill Morrison, Derek McCulloch,  Anthony Peruzzo, Ben Templesmith, Ted McKeever, Camilla D’Errico)
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• July 23 – Comic-Con
  • 11:00-12:00pm: Jane Wiedlin, Bill Morrison, Jim Silke
  • 4:00-5:00pm: Jane Wiedlin, Bill Morrison, Jim Silke
  • Eisner Awards – Bill Morrison (host)
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• July 24 – Comic-Con
  3:00-4:00pm:  Jane Wiedlin, Bill Morrison, Jim Silke

iFanboy Reviews Lady Robotika

This comic is not to be taken too seriously, which is a good thing.  Reading this first issue reminded me that some comic books are just meant to be goofy, ridiculous fun and that’s exactly what this is.  Full of references to pop culture and Miss Wiedlin herself, Lady Robotika #1 follows the former Go-Go as she is abducted after a concert by aliens who are big fans of hers and Earth pop-culture in general.  That’s about the extent of the premise here.  It’s refreshing to see a comic that is shallow simply because it wants to be and doesn’t require a whole lot of background or depth to weigh it down.

There is a funny appearance by a fat man with a five o’clock shadow running out of a bar named Joe’s who wonders if Jane and her companion are glowing (during their abduction by tractor beam) because they work at the nuclear plant too.  Wonder who that could be?  I’ll most likely be picking up the second issue, because we need more comics that don’t take themselves seriously and are there to entertain us with fantasy.

Tfaw reviews Lady Robotika

Comics Bulletin reviews Lady Robotika:

Vanity projects tend to suck, even when essentially ghost-written by the actor or singer’s co-author. Lady Robotika is a fun traipse through ’50s “Watch the Skies” science fiction.

I don’t exactly know how much Jane Wiedlin wrote, but she is a songwriter, and there are some scenes that would have had to be approved by the subject. The character Jane Wiedlin gets probed and naked a lot in this book, and that’s the kind of thing you would expect the star to have a say in. I can envision Wiedlin enthusiastically agreeing to all these indignities, simply because they are a staple of pop UFO culture. Also, Jane’s dialogue sounds fairly authentic. I’m a huge Go-Gos fan. So, I watch their interviews and I’ve attended several of their concerts when they played Pittsburgh.

So let’s say that Bill Morrison and Jane Wiedlin probably got together, found a mutual appreciation for kitschy sci-fi and produced a little number in which Go-Go Jane Wiedlin is abducted by classic aliens, probed and given an ultimatum: sing or die.

That doesn’t explain how Jane became the swashbuckling sci-fi, whip-wielding heroine of the title, but they’re getting there. Until then, Morrison and Wiedlin give readers a taste of Lady Robotika in action. She infiltrates the sadomasochistic cover queen’s lair and rescues her would-be beau Jasper, who in the opener looks and sounds a lot like the tenth Doctor. This is especially true when he’s strapped to a table and about to be tortured. I’d be surprised if that wasn’t pure homage.

Though three artists and a unifying colorist detail the Lady Robotika premiere, the art melds fairly well, and it’s all professionally rendered. The entire team illustrate a sharp likeness of our Go-Go-To-Gal. Furthermore, Bill Morrison, Tone Rodriquez, Dan Davis and Rachelle Rosenberg all have an excellent handle on the visual qualities of sci-fi pulps and the movies inspired by them.

It turns out that Lady Robotika is actually better written and illustrated than some of the so-called serious books that I’ve read. Jane Wiedlin’s personality is all over the writing, and I don’t believe Go-Gos fans or science fiction fans will come away from the book disappointed.

Jane & Bill will be at Whatever Comics in San Francisco (5pm-7pm) on July 17th for a Lady Robotika book signing!

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Hope to see you there! 🙂

Thanks to Atlantis Fantasyworld for hosting today’s event and to everyone who came by to say hi. Big thanks to De-De for taking photos!

Click on image to see full size …

Jane & Bill will be at Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz (12 – 2pm and 4 – 6pm) on July 16th for a Lady Robotika book signing! 🙂

New interview with Jane over at Pop Culture Zoo.

Jane Wiedlin gained worldwide recognition as rhythm guitarist, singer and songwriter in the band the Go-Go’s and her successful solo career. She has also had notable acting roles in the films Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Clue. Recently she has teamed up with The Simpsons illustrator and Futurama director Bill Morrison on a new comic book called Lady Robotika, which sees Jane herself as the main character. Joe had a chance to talk to Jane about the comic…. Read rest of the article HERE.

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON ATTENDEES ESCAPE TO L.A. FOR MELTDOWN’S ANNUAL BASH

July 13, 2010 (LOS ANGELES, CA): Meltdown Comics in Hollywood, CA will host the official launch party for the debut of the new savior of the universe Lady Robotika, the comic book creation of Jane Wiedlin (guitarist for the legendary Go-Go’s), and Bill Morrison ( Eisner Award-winning creative behind The Simpsons Comics, Futurama Comics, Roswell, Little Green Man and Heroes Anonymous).

Lady Robotika will take center stage as the premier event during Meltdown Comics’ highly anticipated annual after-party for San Diego Comic-Con, attended by celebrities, entertainment VIPs and fans alike. Jane Wiedlin and Bill Morrison will be on hand to autograph copies of Lady Robotika’s issue #1: Slaveship to the Stars! Wiedlin will also perform several Lady Robotika songs (while sitting down as she is still recovering from a recent knee surgery).

When:        July 26, 2010
Time:        7:00pm – 10:00pm
Where:        Meltdown Comics
7522 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90046

The party is free and open to the public. In celebration of sexy cyborg revolutionist Lady Robotika, attendees are encouraged to dress for the party in their favorite metallic and spacey regalia. C3POs welcome.

About LADY ROBOTIKA
Lady Robotika is a full-color 32-page comic published by Shadowline and Image Comics. The brainchild of Jane Wiedlin and Bill Morrison, with an art assist from Tone Rodriquez and Jeffrey Moy, Lady Robotika hits comic stores nationwide on July 14. Earthly rock star Jane Wiedlin is abducted by a rock ‘n roll-loving evil alien emperor and implanted with nanobots meant to enslave her.  His plans backfire as our guitar-slinging heroine learns to control the nanites and transforms into the super-powered cyborg galactic liberator Lady Robotika! With sexy sci-fi rock and roll space adventures to ensue…

About MELTDOWN COMICS
Meltdown Comics is the largest comic book shop on the West Coast, located in the heart of Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. Meltdown opened in 1993 and has since become one the most respected comic book stores in the world. With a sophisticated approach to merchandise and operations – and a reputation for hosting successful events in their Melt Gallery – Meltdown is a must-see pop culture destination in Los Angeles.

Thanks to Rebel Alert blog for the love.

Read what they wrote HERE. 🙂

New interview with Jane and VonEtte magazine. 🙂