Jen Van Meter

Jen has a story drawn by Eric Canete in Thunderbolts #159, on stands today. Check out a preview at Comic Book Resources!

This weekend, Jen will be in Charlotte, NC, for the Heroes Convention, the annual affair put on by Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find.

She’ll be at booth AA-604, signing copies of Hopeless Savages, Black Cat, Red Sonja, and the rest of her comicography!

For more information, see our appearances page!

Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 7, and Jen will be at Olympic Cards & Comics in Lacey, Wa. from 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM!

For more information, check out the Olympic Cards & Comics website.

From the latest round of Marvel solicitations:

When the Fear Itself hammer falls, The Raft is raised by one of its most powerful prisoners with a newfound weapon of the gods! Now the Thunderbolts will begin to learn the true meaning of FEAR ITSELF! Frank Tieri, Jen Van Meter & Joe Caramanga join series writer Jeff Parker to give us all sides of the story as the Thunderbolts try to hold themselves and their world together against tide of anarchy!

Tim O’Shea at Robot 6 has just posted a roundtable discussion with a number of folks who have worked with Jen on Hopeless Savages, including editor Jamie S. Rich, artists for past Hopeless stories Ross Campbell, Christine Norrie and Bryan Lee O’Malley, and the latest artist to take on the family, Meredith McLaren, who gives a sliver of a preview:

O’Shea: After getting to know the characters, what are you most looking forward to drawing?

McClaren: From what has been shared as far as each character’s story goes, there’s a lot in book 4 to look forward to. I’m particularly drawn to Zero and Rat, because their journeys are so often driven by identity discovery; but there are other aspects of the story that I already know will be hugely exciting for me.

Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits came out in October, and collects all previous Savages stories in advance of new material out later this year!

Dynamite Entertainment released news today:

Written by Jen Van Meter and drawn by Edgar Salazar, the Red Sonja: Break the Skin one-shot is a must-read! In the story hitting comic shops this coming April, it looked like such a simple job: Zepur, a princess of the nomadic Talakma Horsemen, sought Sonja’s sword to defeat an unwelcome suitor and his army. When Sonja discovers she’s led her mercenary band into the middle of a bitter and vicious rivalry for leadership of Zepur’s clan, she’s got to figure out who’s lying to her the least, which promises she can keep, and how to fight the soul-eating avatar of an angry ape god.

“It had been awhile since I’d gotten the opportunity to write a character like Sonja–an unapologetic badass who answers to little outside herself–so I dove into this gleefully,” says writer Jen Van Meter. “Red Sonja: Break the Skin is my effort to really look at her mercenary, sword-for-hire life in a world in which the lies and political machinations that are handled comparatively cleanly in other genres are visceral and passionate and immediate, and in which angry gods are active players who can be manifest, grotesque and cruel. The great thing about Sonja, to me, is that she feels like a lone gunslinger and a wild-eyed pirate captain at the same time; there’s tons of charisma, lusty bravado and brazen ego there, alongside this wonderfully quiet isolation. There aren’t a lot of female characters who have both those modes available to them so readily, so it’s been a real delight to write her.”

For the full press release, and previews of the issue, see the write-up at Comic Book Resources.

Jen chatted with Shaun Hatton of Electric Playground at-length recently about the release of Hopeless Savages: Greatest Hits, and that video interview is now available at the Electric Playground site!

Hopeless Savages: Greatest Hits was released in October and collects all three previous volumes of the Hopeless-Savage family saga, as well as B-Sides and web content. More stories featuring the punk family are coming from Jen, artist Meredith McClaren and Oni Press in 2011!

Meredith McClaren was announced at NYCC as the artist for Jen’s next installment of Hopeless Savages, and subsequently shared a glimpse of what that book will look like. Check it out at Inquitous Fish.

In addition to the final chapter of “The Inheritance,” which can be found in JSA All-Stars #11, Jen has another work hitting stores today: Hopeless Savages: Greatest Hits.

This trade paperback collects all previous Hopeless Savages stories in preparation for the family’s return in 2011. Oni Press will have copies available at this weekend’s New York Comic Con, where Jen will also be appearing.

Oni describes the book as, “…The totally swerval return of the First Family of Punk! Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage went from the parties, touring, and recording studios of rock stardom to the quiet of the suburbs, but that’s no reason they can’t still be themselves. Join Dirk and Nikki, along with their kids—Rat, Arsenal, Twitch, and Zero—as they bounce their way through kidnapping plots, first love, and international intrigue in this massive collection of the Eisner Award-nominated series!”

In addition to the booth appearances listed in the post below, Jen will also take part in the Oni Press panel on Sunday, from 1:15-2:15.