Newsarama: Artist Urosov Explores the Process of Witchblade One-Shot

To what lengths would you go to protect them if you found out your family was in danger? What if you were locked away – behind bars – and unable to get involved? What if you could make a deal for someone else to protect them?

That’s just what William Hicks does in August’s Witchblade: Due Process one-shot from Top Cow. After being wrongly put away, he makes a deal with someone on the inside to protect his defenseless family on the outside. But as it turns out, the man he made a deal with is no man at all but a demon. Sara Pezzini, the bearer of the mystical artifact Witchblade, is brought into this as one of the arresting officers who put this innocent man behind bars years ago. A rookie at the time with deep suspicions that he was innocent, Sara has carried around the guilt and now she sees an opportunity to somehow make things right.

With Witchblade: Due Process now on shelves, we talked with the enterprising Canadian artist about the book and she gave us several behind-the-scenes sketches for the book.

Newsarama: For this book you had to design up essentially all of the characters except for Sara Pezzini. How was it establishing the characters of William and the others?

Alina Urusov: I did have a description of William, and I was given free reign with virtually everyone else save for Sara, so I just designed them according to what made sense to me, like William's shirt was plain because there would be no time to draw plaid, and his daughter had a big fuzzy ponytail because that is similar to the research photos I found of mixed race girls. So research did help, because I like to incorporate as much real details as I can.

Read the full interview here.
Source: Newsarama

CBR Reviews Witchblade: Due Process

Phil Smith writes an intriguing and compelling story. The guilt that Pezzini feels over her lack of action a decade previous and Hicks’ transformation make for some tense and complex scenes. Hicks wants to return to his family, but his wife wants nothing to do with him because of the company he kept in prison. Smith adds a surprising element to that dynamic by making Hicks’ wife black, but that isn’t fully explored or made entirely clear in the art.

Read the full review here.
Source: CBR

Newsarama's Best Shots Reviews Witchblade: Due Process

Phil Smith is not Ron Marz, and he doesn't have to be. He's given Sara a different voice here, but nothing that deviates from what Marz has set up these five years or so. She is more "cop" here than Artifact Bearer here and it's interesting to note that there is none of her supporting cast. No Julie, no Gleason, no Hope. Just Sara. Which is fine considering the nature of the story: it's Sara on a personal mission. It feels more direct that way.


Read the full review here.
Source: Newsarama

Graphic Policy: Witchblade: Due Process Preview

WITCHBLADE: DUE PROCESS #1 ONE-SHOT

(w) Phil Smith (a) Alina Urusov (cov) Alina Urusov

Sara has to make amends with an innocent man she sent to prison.

Before young Sara Pezzini was called to bear the Witchblade she made a horrible mistake that destroyed a man’s life. Today that man is being released from prison and has to put the pieces of his life back together. In order to protect his family, this desperate father made a deal with demonic forces, and now it is time to pay. When Sara tries to reach out and make her past wrong right, she’s confronted by demonic forces. The stakes: a man’s very soul.

Written by Phil Smith (Trinity: Blood on the Sands) with art by Alina Urusov (X-23, Young Avengers).

Full Color 32 Pages $3.99


Read the full release and see the preview here.
Source: Graphic Policy

Image Addiction Interviews Phil Smith on Witchblade: Due Process. Out Now!

On August 18, comic readers will be able to check out Phil Smith and Alina Urusov’s Witchblade one-shot about a man who is wrongfully imprisoned and how the system turn its back on him, but something else stepped in to look out for him – something very sinister. To get you introduced to this one-shot, Phil Smith joined Image Addiction to talk about the story, his motivations behind it, and the process in which the issue took to be made.

Image Addiction: Before we get in to the book, could you let our readers know a little about you? How did you start working for Top Cow?

Phil Smith: I had just gotten out of the Navy and was repairing and installing avionics at the Van Nuys airport and bartending at night. I got into comics by self publishing a 3 issue series with JK Woodward that never made it to market. Fiona Avery showed it to Renae Geerlings and that is how I got my internship 9 years ago. I can’t ever thank Fiona, Renae and Matt Hawkins enough for letting me stay.

Read the full interview here.
Source: Image Addiction

CBR Exclusive Preview: Witchblade: Due Process

Sara has to make amends with an innocent man she sent to prison.

Before young Sara Pezzini was called to bear the Witchblade she made a horrible mistake that destroyed a man’s life. Today that man is being released from prison and has to put the pieces of his life back together. In order to protect his family, this desperate father made a deal with demonic forces, and now it is time to pay. When Sara tries to reach out and make her past wrong right, she's confronted by demonic forces. The stakes: a man's very soul.

Written by Phil Smith (Trinity: Blood on the Sands) with art by Alina Urusov (X-23, Young Avengers).

Catch the exclusive preview here.
Source: CBR

Comic Book Page Spotlights Top Cow's Phil Smith, David Hine and Jeff Wamester

John Mayo and Bob Bretall discuss the contents of the June 2010 Previews catalog and play clips sent in from listeners spotlighting items they picked.

Tune in as Comic Book Page chats The Darkness: Four Horsemen with David Hine & Jeff Wamester, Witchblade: Due Process with Phil Smith and Witchblade: Redemption Vol 1 trade paperback.

Listen to the interview here.
Source: Comics Podcast Network