July 31, 2006
Dupuy and Berberian: Article, Comic
The French TV guide
Telerama, a publication that frequently features articles about cartoonists and comics, has
a profile of Dupuy and Berberian up on their site, as well as
a four-page comic. Check out the way the text pops on the comics page when you roll over it with your mouse -- I can't tell if that's really cool or really annoying, but it sure is different.
posted 11:00 pm PST |
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Go, Read: Sean Phillips' Blog
Via Matt Maxwell
posted 10:45 pm PST |
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What Editorial Cartoonists Do Now
An interesting article by David Astor on the expanded duties embraced by many staff editorial cartoonists, particularly concerning newspaper on-line strategies, has been posted at the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists site with Astor's permission.
posted 10:30 pm PST |
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Happy 75th Birthday, Tom Wilson Sr.!
posted 10:15 pm PST |
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Dilbert's Scott Adams Ties the Knot
Congratulations to Scott Adams on becoming a husband and stepfather, although I imagine the primary interest most comics people
will have in this article about the successful cartoonist's recent wedding is its informal march through some of his business dealings.
If you prefer your news of connubial bliss to be of the small-press, comic-book variety,
try this.
posted 10:10 pm PST |
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Quick hits
Kevin Frank Profile
Miami Loves Civil War
Ambassador Quesada
Andrew WK, Cartoonist
Montreal Gazette on Classic Julie Doucet
Local Comic Scene Profile: McAllen, Texas
Cartoon Leads to Official Complaint
The conservative blog Brussels Journal is on its way to becoming comics news source of the year, following up its close attention to the Danish Cartoons controversy
by tracking in English the complaint filed against a recent cartoon about the military conflict in southern Lebanon using imagery from the movie
Schindler's List. According to the blog entry, Miryam Shomrat, Israel's ambassador to Norway, filed a complaint at the Pressens Faglige Utvalg, a body set up to receive complaints about press articles. Shomrat's complaint focused on the lack of historical understanding about the Holocaust that fueled the imagery. The editor initially responded by saying the cartoon is clearly within the bounds of freedom of expression. The piece goes on to contrast filing an official complaint with a violence-filled series of protests demanding government intervention, and points out a little less directly that both this incident and the Danish Cartoons Controversy exist in the context of some violence that has nothing to do with freedom of expression issues.
posted 2:59 am PST |
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Go, Look: Alan Moore Sounds Project
via Jog
posted 2:45 am PST |
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Not Comics: On-Line News Trend Slows?
A new survey by
Editor & Publisher indicates that the general shift from print to on-line news sources
has perhaps stabilized. This is pertinent to comics because of the current, ongoing massive shift to on-line reportage and additional resources for existing on-line bodies taking place this summer.
Speaking of shifts to on-line reportage and Internet magazine-type presences:
Todd McFarlane is launching such a site.
posted 2:20 am PST |
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Eisner Interviews: Benjamin Herzberg
Bob Andelman's ambitious series of on-line interviews with various Will Eisner fans, peers, and students in support of his book
A Spirited Life moves onto the late cartoonist's collaborator for
The Plot (French version pictured) and
Fagin the Jew, Benjamin Herzberg. There's a lot of interesting back and forth about Eisner's relationship to European comics, Herzberg's reaction to some of Gary Groth's writing on Eisner, and the nature of the work Herzberg did for Eisner on each of the two books. There's also mention of a completed 30-page introduction to
Fagin that was scrapped that one hopes might see the light of day at some future date.
posted 12:46 am PST |
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July 30, 2006
Comics Registry: Anne Cleveland
In our latest attempt to get this site firing on all cylinders,
our ongoing bibliography project "The Comics Registry" returns with an entry on Anne Cleveland.
Shaenon Garrity is posting some Anne Cleveland and Jean Anderson cartoons
on her LiveJournal. Cleveland is the looser of the two artists.
posted 10:45 pm PST |
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Go, Look: Chris McLoughlin
posted 10:40 pm PST |
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Prominent Paris BD Shop to Close
I apologize as my French pulled a major
Vinko Bogataj trying to sort this out, but
this article indicates that one of the more historically well-known Parisian BD shops may close at the end of September. This would be the shop on the corner of Rue St. Jacques and Boulevard St. Germain, which once went by the name "Librairie Dupuis" -- it does in
this New York Times travel article -- and may go by a different name now. The original article also seems to give multiple dates all of which end in a three -- 1963, 1973 and 1983 -- so I'm not exactly sure of the store's background. If someone can help unpack this for me,
Xavier Guilbert Writes To Save Us All:
Here is a short summary of the article you refer to -- which, to reassure you on your mastery of French, is not very clear with some puzzling points.
The bookstore (under the name "Librairie Dupuis") exists at this location since 1963. It seems that it hosted quite a few major "dedicaces" with some major franco-belgian authors, among which Tillieux (pictured signing there in 1973), Franquin, Greg, Pratt, Peyo.
According to the article, the bookstore is on the brink of closing down because of an impending expulsion, following rough litigation with their landlord and the real estate manager who represents them. They are to clear the premices by September 30.
The fuzzy part regards the 1983 date -- they mention that "Glenat Editions created the bookstore" at this date but in another location, and that they operate the current store with the Album company. The relation to the rest of the article is not clear, and there is an asterix that indicate that it could be a footnote to some part of the text that didn't get reproduced there.
I suppose this has to do with legal stuff, and that they relocated at some point the store to this location, which used to be called (if memory serves) "Glenat - Librairie d'Images," and is now part of the Album network of comic-book related stores (US Comics accross the street, another franco-belgian BD shop around the corner, right by the manga store and accross the DVD store).
Thank you!
Thomas Ragon at Dargaud Pipes In to Say the Original Story's Wrong:
BD Zoom is wrong. The Comics bookshop being about to close is not the famous "Librairie Dupuis" at the corner of rue St-Jacques and boulevard St-Germain, but another "Album" shop in rue Lafayette, near by the Galeries Lafayette, in the Opera Garnier neighborhood. It's a really old shop as well (where I myself have been working for a year some ten years from now), and I guess the premises got too much a value in this very expensive area for the landlords not wanting to sell it...
It seems people at BD Zoom just read French as well as you do (sorry for you!), as the right address is clearly readable within the article!
Sorry for me indeed! I regret linking to the erroneous story, although it's worth noting any prominent BD shop being forced out of its premises so I'll leave the whole thing up so that you may all experience my Monday Morning bafflement. Thank you, readers!
posted 10:30 pm PST |
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Go, Read: Floyd Gottfredson Interview
posted 10:15 pm PST |
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Quick hits
Tintin and Detournement
Profile of DJ Coffman's Contest Win
Local Cartoonist Profile: Eric Teitelbaum
Who is the Customer for Comic Book Creator?
Stan Lee Comes Around on the Costumed Folk
July 29, 2006
CR Sunday Magazine
Preview -- Project: Romantic
*****
Go, Listen: Matt Madden Interview
*****
Collective Memory: Comic-Con International 2006
photo by JR Williams
*****
Go, Apply: CCS Scholarship
*****
Not Comics: Design Invitation Back and Forth
*****
What Comics Look Like After A Flood
*****
First Thought of the Day
You know you're getting older when your "convention season" consists of partial attendance at a grand total of two conventions, and you're still thinking about cutting back.
posted 10:26 pm PST |
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Happy 40th Birthday, Chris Sprouse!
posted 10:17 pm PST |
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CR Week In Review
The top comics-related news stories from July 22 to July 28, 2006
1. Teguh Santosa
faces up to five years in prison for his publication on-line of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed, cartoons that were originally published in Denmark's
Jyllands-Posten and led to worldwide riots.
2. San Diego's Comic-Con International
shatters attendance and heat records.
3. Teshkeel
adds DC to its content/gateway deal package for its comics entry into Middle East and North African markets; they already have Marvel and Archie.
Winner of the Week
Top Shelf, for reportedly selling some $35,000 in
Lost Girls books at the San Diego show. Some people probably think I should list "comics retailers" as the loser of the week because potentially some retail sales can be taken away by convention sales, but Top Shelf has made it really, really clear for years now how they intend to pursue direct sales at conventions and unless there was a specific promise with this book of which I'm unaware I can't imagine any smart retailer didn't already know this.
Loser of the Week
Martha Karua,
threatening to sue the cartoonist Godfrey "Gado" Mwampembwa and his editor for a cartoon that if nothing else was clearly political in nature, not personal. Totally ludicrous.
Quote of the Week
"You're not covering this convention at all." -- Tom Devlin on my less than aggressive reporting manner during last weekend's Comic-Con International.
Little Lulu has the right idea
posted 2:17 am PST |
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Happy 51st Birthday, Dave Stevens!
posted 2:10 am PST |
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This Week's Five For Friday
Results for this week's Five For Friday entry, "Name Your Five Favorite MAD Magazine Creators," have
now been posted in the appropriate section. Thanks to all that participated.
posted 2:06 am PST |
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July 28, 2006
If I Were In NYC, I'd Go To This
Happy 1st Birthday, Rocketship.
posted 10:44 pm PST |
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If I Were In LA, I'd Go To This
posted 8:45 am PST |
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Conversational Euro-Comics
posted 7:37 am PST |
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Tilting at Windmills With LAWs
The Turkish-German (!) humor magazine (!!)
Don Quichotte is hosting
a series of cartoon expressions against the newly-minted war in the Middle East. I find many of these cartoons bizarre, some intellectually dishonest and a few guilty of making unfortunate use of Nazi imagery in a way that at the very least is a crime against allegory. Diving in proves greatly fascinating, though.
posted 12:51 am PST |
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Last Day For Harveys Voting
The deadline is a received deadline, not a postmarked deadline, so you're pretty much down to
downloading a ballot, filling it out and then e-maling it to .
posted 12:31 am PST |
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Go, Look: Drink Me & Company Inc.
posted 12:03 am PST |
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July 27, 2006
Newsarama Auctions Convention Coverage Sponsorship to Benefit CBLDF
Exactly
what the headline says, actually; I just thought it was a nice move and worth noting.
posted 11:56 pm PST |
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Happy 61st Birthday, Jim Davis!
posted 11:30 pm PST |
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Last Week's Five For Friday
Results from last week's Five For Friday -- Name a comic and a person, place or thing that comes up in your memory when you think of that comic --
are now up. Thanks to everyone that participated.
posted 11:00 pm PST |
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Happy 46th Birthday, Jon J Muth!
posted 10:30 pm PST |
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Go, Read: Scott McCloud on Superman
These tend to be sharp, concise interviews.
posted 10:23 pm PST |
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Quick hits
Ali Kokmen to Del Rey
Go, Read: Abby Denson Profile
The London Free Press Loves Civil War
The Jewish Museum Braces For Masters Exhibit
Jewish Museum Will Also Host Jerry Robinson Exhibit
PW: Fanta To Publish Bill Mauldin
This is the unexpected of the two forthcoming Fantagraphics announcements I hinted at in my San Diego convention report:
Fantagraphics will publish a series of books featuring Bill Mauldin's cartoons from various points in his career. Although the late cartoonist was best known for his World War II era "Willie and Joe" cartoons, he was also a powerful editorial cartoonist, and I think people will be surprised at how lively his work from various periods could be. In addition, there's some work of his I don't think anyone outside of archivists has seen since it was originally published. This is great news.
posted 4:34 am PST |
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DC and Teshkeel Announce Deal
It seems like
a pretty straight-forward content/gateway deal to me, although everything here bears a second look. Teshkeel already has deals with Marvel and Archie.
posted 2:24 am PST |
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Go, Look: Floro Dery's Har-Magedon
posted 2:02 am PST |
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John Bush, 1954-2006
John Bush, a self-taught artist who did the cartoon
Bush League for the
St. Paul Pioneer Press died Sunday
from lung cancer. The cartoonist, who also did cartoon work for magazines and painted a popular map mural, did not smoke. He leaves behind a wife of 18 years and three children.
posted 1:55 am PST |
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The British Press Loves Comics
The BBC explores translated high-end French comics through a variety of media available
through this page,
The Independent talks to Marjane Satrapi as she moves into film and Paul Gravett
discusses Alan Moore's career.
posted 1:44 am PST |
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Site Accuses DHC WotW Comic Book
A few
CR readers have e-mailed me
a link to this site, probably because it was posted at the blog maintained by the comics news site
Newsarama, although I can't be totally certain. The site in question compares a bunch of still shots from a film version of
War of the Worlds to a Dark Horse comic book version of same, arguing that the comic displays too many similarities in design, composition and staging for there not to have been some active appropriation of these elements. I have no idea if this is true, and I'm not totally convinced by the site; some of the assertions seem strained. In fact, the clearest appropriation seems to me the "ooolaa" noise from that rock opera version of HG Wells' story that came out in the 1970s.
Where I get confused is what purpose such a site serves in the first place. The site talks about putting Dark Horse on legal notice in advance of a pending lawsuit. I have no idea what that means; I picture lawyers leaning out of '64 Dodge yelling insults at Mike Richardson as he climbs into his sportscar on the Dark Horse parking lot, or sending planes with message banners over the Dark Horse picnic. But all that aside, why not just sue? There's no court of public opinion aspect to any of this. I can't imagine there's a mass of people out there thinking the movie ripped off some comic -- I can't imagine there are many people who are even aware of both iterations on the old story. I'm even more confused by this than I am by the Martians' loyalty to tripod technology.
posted 1:10 am PST |
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Editorial Cartoonists Win Press Awards
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
has posted that two of its members have won two what I would call regional awards. Stephen Templeton won a 2006 Excellence in Journalism Award from the Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists for his work at
The Intelligencer in suburban Philly. SW Parra of
The Fresno Bee took first place in the editorial cartoon category of the 2005 Better Newspapers Cartoonist held by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. The AAEC has linked follow-ups.
posted 12:52 am PST |
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Happy 68th Birthday, Pierre Christin!
posted 12:33 am PST |
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Guy Gilchrist Event Raises $3000
An event coordinated by cartoonist Guy Gilchrist and his academy raised $3000 for a wounded soldiers-related charity,
Editor & Publisher reports. The centerpiece looks to have been an auction of original art by various newspaper strip heavy hitters.
posted 12:22 am PST |
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July 26, 2006
Happy 66th Birthday, Ernie Chan!
posted 10:30 pm PST |
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Quick hits
The Hub Loves Fetus-X
Go, Look: It Happened In Canada
Go, Bookmark: Comics Film Series in DC
Powers Begins Serialization at Newsarama
Go, Look: Matt Dembicki's Monster Sketches
If I Were In LA, I'd Go To This
posted 10:10 am PST |
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Europe's Jews as Nazis Cartoons
One of the odder political eddies to spin out of the tidal wave that is the escalation of violence in southern Lebanon in the past couple of weeks has been the occasional, unfortunate tendency of some of Europe's cartoonists to use Nazi imagery to depict the Israeli forces or Israeli figures in a negative light. It's the kind of thing where you can sort of see the logic there, especially if you've been drinking, where someone wants to make a real strong statement using elements that to Western Society post-1935 would count as an "ultimate irony," but really it's always a horrible idea and usually ends up being executed in horrible fashion.
This article talks about the above cartoon, using imagery familiar to viewers of
Schindler's List.
posted 2:53 am PST |
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OTBP: Cartoon America
As I understand it -- although it hardly takes a genius with that subhead -- this will spotlight the Library of Congress comics art holdings, which I believe include a lot of Jules Feiffer and some of the early political cartoonists in addition to a select few modern masters.
posted 2:15 am PST |
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Alexa Kitchen in the New York Times
In this quiet period between conventions, you might want to catch up with your feature reading starting with
this massive New York Times piece about elementary school cartoonist Alexa Kitchen in advance of her
Drawing Comics Is Easy! (Except When It's Hard). I'm not sure there were that many luminaries on the record when they profiled Chris Ware.
posted 2:09 am PST |
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Missed It: Dick Tracy to IDW
posted 1:56 am PST |
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CBG: DM Potential For $400 Million '06
Comics Buyer's Guide has their numbers up for June, including a six-month tally that indicates 12 percent growth over 2005 in the widest category the company's John Jackson Miller tracks. Pretty much anything else I mention detracts from his hard work, so I recommend
you look at the concisely written article here.
posted 1:51 am PST |
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Go, Look: J. Bradley Johnson Site
posted 1:36 am PST |
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Quick hits
DHP: We're 20
Ottawa Loves Civil War
Pilot Dislikes 9/11 Comic
Halo Comic Goes Monthly
Use of Term Gay in Zits Noted
Jewell's Legal Jihad Included NY Post Cartoon
Least Among Us Spotlights Clerical Sex Abuse
July 25, 2006
Go, Watch: Eisner Awards Red Carpet
The fact that Tim Leong at Comic Foundry has a microphone with a little Comic Foundry box on it may be funnier
than everything else in this video combined, but that's just because I found the microphone really, really funny.
posted 8:23 am PST |
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Editor Charged Over Danish Cartoons
The
BBC reported as early as last Friday that Teguh Santosa, the online editor at
Rakyat Merdeka, has been charged with inciting hatred towards a religious group. This is because Santosa posted the cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammed, cartoons that originally ran in Denmark's
Jyllands-Posten and as a result drove riots throughout the world. Indonesia was one of the focal points for rioting and political protest. Santosa faces up to five years in prison.
posted 3:37 am PST |
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The Secret Origin of Comics: 1827
Via
afNews comes the above link to Rodolphe Topffer's 1827 strip that many say basically created the comics form from whole cloth.
posted 3:18 am PST |
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Gado Threatened With Legal Action
Hitting the wires starting yesterday
comes this story that Godfrey "Gado" Mwampembwa from
The Daily Nation and his editor received a letter from Martha Karua, minister of justice and constitutional affairs in the Kenyan government, threatening legal action if a correction regarding a cartoon fails to be made. The cartoon shows the mininster digging up a grave, an allusion to opening up old issues for political gain. In Europe, Asia and Africa, multiple cartoonists and their newspapers have been threatened with or suffered from legal intimidation by government officials not happy with the content of a cartoon.
posted 3:05 am PST |
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Harvey Awards Voting Deadline Looms
posted 3:01 am PST |
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KFS: Zits Hits 1500 Client Point
According
to this brief at Editor & Publisher, King Features Syndicate claims that Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman's family-with-a-teenager strip
Zits has reached the 1,500 client mark; writer Scott's other strip has over 1,000. Newspaper strips are paid according to fees from newspapers, fees that vary by circulation size and which become highly lucrative as they accumulate. At this rarified level
Zits has become extremely lucrative for both syndicate and creators.
posted 2:25 am PST |
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Happy 49th Birthday, Ray Billingsley!
posted 1:59 am PST |
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July 24, 2006
Quick hits
Mercury-News Reviews Halo GN
Manga Program Promotes Literacy
Platinum Names Challenge Winner
Morocco Times Profiles 9/11 Comic
Financial Education Comic In Singapore
Vladimir Kazanevsky Exhibits in Tehran
Bob McCausland, 1916-2006
Bob McCausland, a cartoonist at the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the artist behind Seattle's popular
Hairbreadth Husky sports cartoon,
died Friday evening, apparently while attending a performance of Garrison Keillor's in Woodinville.
Hairbreadth Husky ran from 1959 to 1981 and as a throwback to that era where sports teams -- in this case the University of Washington's -- and comics in the newspaper more naturally served as rallying points for a community. It's hard to imagine a modern audience laughing at the
Harry cartoons, but as the bearer of a positive, humorous message on something for which local audience had great enthusiasm, it proved to be a popular and much-beloved feature. A book collecting some of the best samples came out in 1982. The artist worked for the
Post-Intelligencer from 1945 until his retirement. He is survived by a wife of 65 years and two sons.
posted 12:36 pm PST |
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Romeo Tan Togonon, 1951-2006
Editorial cartoonist Romeo Tan Togonon, best known as "Boy Togonon,"
passed away Thursday after a cardiac arrest. He was 55 years old. Togonon worked as both a cartoonist and art director, winning numerous awards for both aspects of his career. Most recently a cartoonist at
Manila Times, obituaries in that region mention his time with
Daily Express as important to his cartooning career. He advocated for press freedom through several organizations.
Togonon is survived by a wife, two sons, a sister and several other relatives.
posted 12:13 pm PST |
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Final San Diego Con Update
Here are my final thoughts on the largest North American gathering of the comics industry and comics readers, Comic-Con International. I apologize if they don't make a lot of sense, of if they're too self-indulgent. I'll do a Collective Memory entry and post it later this week.
1. It was a successful show. Huge crowds, most people selling well, lots of formal and informal meetings, people trying and mostly succeeding in having a good time.
2. The weather was a big deal. It was muggier than usual down there, which made moving around in the crush of people that much more difficult. I was constantly sweating in a not-charming Albert Brooks-in-
Broadcast-News fashion. More like King Kong Bundy in
Broadcast News, to be honest.
3. I talked to about eight to ten people on the train to Los Angeles about their show experience. These were people there for various reasons -- a couple of comic book people, a guy who was into illustration, a 20-something manga fan, and some general all-media types. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. There were complaints about long lines and a general lack of communication when those long lines presented themselves -- "Where am I standing?" "For how long?" -- but most of those complaints were of the type where you could sort of tell the show was pretty well-organized and rolled with most of the punches. The size of the show was seen as an advantage; most of these people felt like they had attended an event.
4. I asked these same people if they had any suggestions for the show, and one I heard that made sense was from a couple of people that didn't attend the show at all but kind of wanted to. I'd never thought about this before, but if I were in town while a big show like that was going on, I'd want a chance to buy a t-shirt or something, too. So maybe sidewalk boutiques as far away as the Omni and the Marriott? Maybe satellite boutiques in participating hotels? I don't know; it seems like those people could be reached in some small way.
5. I've never seen a show that's an unqualified success. Qualifications make sense, though, and not in a bad way, for two reasons. The first is that there several gathered factions in attendance. What works for some people isn't always going to work for others. The second is that a show like San Diego exists as a continuity. There's going to be some ebb and flow to how people make use of the show. Not everyone is going to have a peak year at the same time.
Because of the institutional nature of the San Diego show, what you're most likely to see is people simply ajusting their relationship to it. For some people this means "No, thank you" or "Screw that place." For others, it may mean just going one or two days when they used to go all four -- I think that will start to happen. Or maybe people will attend in select years, like many authors orient themselves towards BEA. For yet other people, it may mean getting a booth, or dropping a booth. Publishers adjust what they bring to the show (Fantagraphics used to bring a ton of porn, for example), and comic book retailers adjust what they sell (there are differences between what many bring here and what many take to a show like Chicago, I'm told). It make senses that they and others will adjust to the size and orientation of the show, too.
6. I'll be interested to hear how the small publishers did overall. I get a sense that the big business days were Wednesday/Thursday this time, and that things kind of trailed off over the weekend, but that's my hunch as opposed to a conclusion based on any sampling.
7. Fantagraphics sold 100 copies of Linda Medley's
Castle Waiting hardback by a little more than halfway through the show. They have two reprint projects that should be announced soon that should please a lot of fans. One was a total surprise to me.
8. Hotel Watch: I heard a few from-left-field horrendous things about the Radisson, the Hyatt and the Wyndham Emerald Plaza. I heard unsolicited positives about the Omni and the Hilton. The US Grant looks nowhere near opening back up.
9. I stayed at the Westgate and liked it very much. For one thing, the rooms are huge, which was nice because you could actually have people up to your hotel room for pre-dinner cocktails and not feel like teenagers stuffed into a room drinking at the Motel 6 before a basketball game (your choice of sport; I'm from Indiana). The staff was nice, and they have a fine, expensive but well-stocked hole-in-the-wall bar in back with a piano. It's one of those places Uncle Seymour and your dad escape to from the wedding reception and no one can find them for hours. One of the Westgate's musicians sang "Miss Otis Regrets" for my party on request, and if that made you projectile vomit, it's probably not the place for you. The hotel distributed a unintentionally funny letter to hotel guests describing the convention and preparing them for the costumes and promising the parties the hotel was hosting for the show would not go too late or be too noisy. If you want a nice, quiet hotel with big rooms and a well-appointed bathroom in that general neighborhood, I'd certainly recommend the Westgate.
10. Best diet ever. Me: "You look 15 pounds lighter." Cartoonist: "I was audited."
11. Publishing news seems full speed ahead; book publishers adding to the relentless mix of new offerings and musical chairs from the established publishers. I'm not sure the framework is there to support all these books or help them find their proper audience, but that's a story for a different time. Several cartoonists I talked to were able to rattle off a variety of projects with a variety of publishers, which is a huge change from the lean years around the turn of the century, where if you had one thing planned you seemed to be doing really well.
12. I heard more people talk about Geof Darrow than ever before, which makes me think he's working his way into wider consciousness in that way that Mike Mignola did around '98-'99. Jordan Crane's a fan, as are a lot of artists.
13. Ted Rall was there to fulfill his function as a kind of a new talent coordinator for United Media, and was giving out business cards. Well, okay, he gave out one that I saw. Could United Media become the
Nickelodeon of newspaper strip syndicates?
14. Everyone I talked to was reasonably pleased by the programming options. Some of the spotlights were sparsely attended, but that's always the case. I did a spotlight panel with Roger Langridge and it went about as well as those kinds of things can go, I thought. There were multiple fans there that were really into Roger's work, who seemed pleased by being able to ask more than one question. Roger is a thoughtful cartoonist and seems a very nice guy.
15. James Sturm says that things at the Center for Cartoon Studies are crazier than ever, despite my reading last Friday of their press, but he seems genuinely excited about the school's progress thus far and their immediate outlook. I heard Jason Lutes will be teaching there for a year. I await my opportunity to coach the CCS football team some years down the road.
16. I don't think people in town were more hateful towards the show as much as it had a higher public profile so it was a topic of conversation from both the positive and the negative directions. My initial cab driver said his con fares were "loud, they were in costumes, they smelled bad and they DID NOT TIP!" which is the angriest response I've ever received from a cabbie about the convention (I always ask). But I also overheard a conversation in the Westgate bar between two managers talking about how much they enjoyed the bar the night before, and the interesting people that had settled in. That kind of thing worked out about 50/50 for the weekend.
17. One of the funniest things I saw was a haggard con-goer at the end of the day walking towards his hotel suddenly given a dollar by a man in the suit, and the congoer realizing what it was and then yelling back, "I'm not panhandling!"
18. My backpack was stolen; my own fault. I always wondered what kind of person attended panels about comic book blogging, and now I know: thieves! Fortunately, I had a phone and a camera so old and cheap they don't even make them like that anymore. I will miss the sunglasses, though. I hope whoever nicked it enjoys them and they weren't dumpsterized.
19. Batton Lash and Rory Root both expressed appreciation to readers of this site for tracking down their respective booths according to the CR Comic-Con Guide.
20. I had a Truman Burbank moment when I opened the back door at the Picadilly and the Pickwick was gone, replaced by a kind of backroom. I hadn't noticed they were renovating until that moment. The bartender at the Picadilly on Saturday night was great. The place needs the ability to move in a few more chairs, though.
21. It was a great meet and greet show. In terms of comics I saw tons of people I hadn't seen in years (like Tom Devlin, Souther Salazar and Dan Clowes), saw a bunch of regulars (everyone from Sammy Harkham to Joel Meadows), and met many people for the first time (Todd Hignite, Kevin Huizenga, John DiBello), and met other people out of the blue I wasn't aware of before. I even get to meet some art heroes. San Diego still has that effect on me where I'm not visually disciplined enough to keep from looking away a lot of the time or keep from being distracted -- cons turn everyone rude in that way -- and there were loads of people I saw either briefly or not at all that I wish I had. It was that big of a show, though.
22. Surprise book of the show for me: a Jeremy Eaton collection from Drink Me Press, which I guess debuted earlier this year at APE. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Patrick Rosenkranz's Greg Irons book had come out.
Lost Girls was selling well and was paid the ultimate compliment by a friend of mine. He went back into the show just to buy a copy.
23. I don't know what they're going to do about the size of the show. It could be that people will naturally adjust and that faced with the heat and long lines this year a significant chunk of con-goers will now attend fewer days or go every other year, I'm not sure. If superhero movies begin to tank the size of the movie exhibits may scale way back. Panel size and my general impression of the comics end seems to indicate that the growth is not reflected in as rapid a way with the comics part of the show, and although there are few complaints, all commerce is local, and eventually decisions will be made on that level as opposed to the lines to see the
Lost preview.
24. I didn't see a single Klingon.
25. Did I mention I had a real good time?
posted 9:52 am PST |
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Happy 71st Birthday, Pat Oliphant!
posted 4:51 am PST |
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July 23, 2006
Quick hits
Quick hits
AP Takes In Anime Expo
Go, Read: Profile of Lambiek
Local Shop Profile: Baseball Cards & More
Cumberland Readers Love the Classic Strips
Review Cleverly References Dennis Travelogues
July 22, 2006
CR Sunday Magazine
A Short Interview With Comic Art Editor Todd Hignite
*****
Your 2006 San Diego Con Update
I'm pretty certain that at this point I no longer cover the show in any official sense, but here are some brief notes from my second and final day at Comic-Con International 2006:
1. It's still incredibly crowded. On-site and and on-line registration were shut down, and people were giving up while still on the highway coming down to San Diego.
2. That being said, it really wasn't all that crowded in the alternative-arts section of the comic book part of the floor. In fact, this is the first time I can remember not being reprimanded at some point for taking up space in the middle of an aisle. Jean-Claude Mezieres noted the size of the crowd but also immediately seized on its desires, saying "Maybe some of them are here for comics."
3. I think I may have ruined the Picadilly.
4. Although I'm not 100 percent certain, I swear I saw Don Rosa.
5. Yoshihiro Tatsumi received an Inkpot award during his spotlight panel and touched a lot of hearts with the gratitude displayed in accepting it.
6. There's nothing like ending a day of walking around a comic show by going to a Brazilian grill and devouring a patchwork cow's worth of meat.
7. I have never seen so many kids at the show. There were even kids at the Masters of Alternative Comics panel, causing Jaime Hernandez to decline to tell a story he had planned on relating about Robert Crumb.
8. People were not only not taking tours of the entire floor, but many people were deciding on what to do and what not to do based on how far they would have to travel to do it. If the booth was beyond your ability to see it, you might just stay where you were.
9. I was luck to do a really fun panel with Roger Langridge -- no visuals, just a laid-back discussion about the artist and his art with multiple questions from some really great fans.
10. Arlen Schumer was the talk of the Eisners.
For supplemental coverage, particularly of the publishing news emerging from the show, I recommend my peers at
The Beat,
Newsarama,
Comic Book Resources and
The Pulse.
*****
Go, Look: Piromi.com
*****
Go, Look: Kasper Stromman
*****
First Thought Of The Day
I am probably on the train as you're reading this. I love trains. In fact, I love trains for all the reasons people generally hate trains. We need to nationalize the rails and get rid of Amtrak, sure, but I still love trains.
posted 10:00 pm PST |
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Your 2006 San Diego Con Update
I did make it down to the comic book convention for the weekend. A few random observations.
1. It is incredibly crowded down here. I talked to about 12-15 con regulars -- not professionals who seemed for the most part to enjoy the extra business, but con-goers -- all of whom said something along the lines of not coming back or severely limiting their exposure to the convention in future years. Preview Night in particular was crammed like a Saturday morning.
2. At a panel about the universality of the graphic novel, the artist Jean-Claude Mezieres confirmed something that we've been debating here for a while -- the big change in the French-language comics market because of the crush of new books and manga is turnover. Books show up on the shelves, they stay for a scant time, and they leave. Mezieres noted this isn't particularly the kindest model for new artists; we've discussed it here at
CR on the basis of it being a tough market in which to find more alternative-type books, the kind you don't necessarily show up and buy the first week.
3. His fellow artists in the alternative/arts realm are abuzz with what a lovely man Yoshihiro Tatsumi seems to be; I've never seen this many artists concerned with making sure an artist and his wife are taken care of and have a good time.
4. I haven't really checked booth by booth, but Fantagraphics seems to be selling a lot of Linda Medley's
Castle Waiting volume.
5. The blogger panel went okay. I noticed that Jay Kennedy from King Features Syndicate was in the audience, and I kept wanting to say something I thought he might be interested in hearing. It is always nice to see my blogging peers both on the panel and in the audience. This year's trends seem to be video blogging, more content instead of links, and more aggressive podcasting-type services.
6. It was great to meet the writer John Wagner, one of the great, underappreciated careers in comics.
*****
The cancelled
Solo looks to me like the big winner at last night's Eisner Awards, and it stirkes me that other than Chris Ware and maybe Charles Burns it doesn't look like any alternative comic beat out a mainstream superhero comic when it had the chance. Just sayin'.
Congratulations to my peer and colleague Calvin Reid.
Your 2006 Eisner Winners (In Bold)
Best Short Story
* "Blood Son," by Richard Matheson, adapted by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood, in Doomed #1 (IDW)
* "Monster Slayers," by Khang Le, in Flight, vol. 2 (Image)
* "Nameless," by Eric Powell, in The Goon #14 (Dark Horse)
* "Operation" (story #5), by Zak Sally, in The Recidivist #3 (La Mano)
* "Teenage Sidekick," by Paul Pope, in Solo #3 (DC)
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
* The Bakers, by Kyle Baker (Kyle Baker Publishing)
* Ex Machina #11: "Fortune Favors" by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister (WildStorm/DC)
* The Innocents, by Gipi (Fantagraphics/Coconino Press)
* Promethea #32: "Wrap Party" by Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III (ABC)
* Solo #5, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)
Best Serialized Story
* Desolation Jones #1-5: "Made in England," by Warren Ellis and J. H. Williams III (WildStorm/DC)
* Fables #36-38, 40-41: "Return to the Homelands," by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Leialoha (Vertigo/DC)
* Ex Machina #12-14: "Fact v. Fiction," by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister (WildStorm/DC)
* Y: The Last Man #37-39: "Paper Dolls," by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Goran Sudzuka, and Jose Marzan Jr. (Vertigo/DC)
Best Continuing Series
* Age of Bronze, by Eric Shanower (Image)
* Astonishing X-Men, by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (Marvel)
* Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister (WildStorm/DC)
* Fell, by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith (Image)
* Rocketo, by Frank Espinosa (Speakeasy)
* True Story, Swear to God, by Tom Beland (Clib's Boy Comics)
Best Limited Series
* Nat Turner, by Kyle Baker (Kyle Baker Publishing)
* Ocean, by Warren Ellis, Chris Sprouse, and Karl Story (WildStorm/DC)
* Seven Soldiers, by Grant Morrison and various artists (DC)
* Smoke, by Alex de Campi and Igor Kordey (IDW)
Best New Series
* All Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC)
* Desolation Jones, by Warren Ellis and J. H. Williams III (WildStorm/DC)
* Fell, by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith (Image)
* Rocketo, by Frank Espinosa (Speakeasy)
* Young Avengers, by Alan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, and John Dell (Marvel)
Best Publication for a Younger Audience
* Amelia Rules! by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance Press)
* The Clouds Above, by Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)
* Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius, by Chris Eliopoulous and Mark Sumerak (Marvel)
* Owly: Flying Lessons, by Andy Runton (Top Shelf)
* Spiral-Bound, by Aaron Renier (Top Shelf)
Best Anthology
* The Dark Horse Book of the Dead, edited by Scott Allie (Dark Horse Books)
* Flight, vol. 2, edited by Kazu Kibuishi (Image)
* Mome. edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
* Solo, edited by Mark Chiarello (DC)
* 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2005, edited by Nat Gertler (About Comics)
Best Digital Comic
* Copper, by Kazu www.boltcity.com/copper
* Jellaby, by Kean Soo, www.secretfriendsociety.com/archive.php?cat=2
* ojingogo, by matt forsythe www.comingupforair.net/comics/ojingogo.html
* PVP, by Scott Kurtz, www.pvponline.com/
Best Reality-Based Work
* Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
* Epileptic, by David B. (Pantheon)
* Nat Turner, by Kyle Baker (Kyle Baker Publishing)
* Pyongyang, by Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)
* True Story, Swear to God (Clib's Boy Comics), True Story, Swear to God: This One Goes to Eleven (AiT/Planet Lar), by Tom Beland
Best Graphic Album--New
* Acme Novelty Library #16, by Chris Ware (ACME Novelty)
* The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar (Pantheon)
* Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, by Alan Moore and Gene Ha (ABC)
* Tricked, by Alex Robinson (Top Shelf)
* Wimbledon Green, by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Graphic Album--Reprint
* Acme Novelty Library Annual Report to Shareholders, by Chris Ware (Pantheon)
* Black Hole, by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
* Feast of the Seven Fishes, by Robert Tinnell, Ed Piskor, and Alex Saviuk (Allegheny Image Factory)
* Ice Haven, by Dan Clowes (Pantheon)
* War's End, by Joe Sacco (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Archival Collection/Project--Comic Strips
* The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
* The Complete Peanuts, 1955-1956, 1957-1958, by Charles Schulz (Fantagraphics)
* Krazy and Ignatz: The Komplete Kat Komics. by George Herriman (Fantagraphics)
* Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press Books)
* Walt and Skeezix, by Frank King (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Archival Collection/Project--Comic Books
* Absolute Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (DC)
* Buddha, vols. 5-8, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
* The Contract with God Trilogy, by Will Eisner (Norton)
* DC Comics Rarities Archives, vol. 1 (DC)
* Fantastic Four Omnibus, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Marvel)
Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material
* Cromartie High School, by Eiji Nonaka (ADV)
* Dungeon: The Early Years, vol. 1, by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blaine (NBM)
* Ordinary Victories, by Manu Larcenet (NBM)
* The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar (Pantheon)
* Six Hundred Seventy-Six Apparitions of Killoffer, by Killoffer (Typocrat)
Best Writer
* Warren Ellis, Fell (Image); Down (Top Cow/Image); Desolation Jones, Ocean, Planetary (WildStorm/DC)
* Alan Heinberg, Young Avengers (Marvel)
* Alan Moore, Promethea, Top Ten: The Forty-Niners (ABC)
* Grant Morrison, Seven Soldiers, All Star Superman (DC)
* Brian K. Vaughan, Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC); Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC); Runaways (Marvel)
Best Writer/Artist
* Geof Darrow, Shaolin Cowboy (Burlyman)
* Guy Delisle, Pyongyang (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Eric Shanower, Age of Bronze (Image)
* Adrian Tomine, Optic Nerve #10 (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #16 (ACME Novelty)
Best Writer/Artist--Humor
* Kyle Baker, Plastic Man (DC); The Bakers (Kyle Baker Publishing)
* Paige Braddock, Jane's World (Girl Twirl)
* Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Oni)
* Eric Powell, The Goon (Dark Horse)
* Seth, Wimbledon Green (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Penciller/Inker
* John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Planetary (WildStorm/DC)
* Gene Ha, Top Ten: The Forty-Niners (ABC)
* J. G. Jones, Wanted (Top Cow/Image)
* Frank Quitely, All Star Superman (DC)
* J. H. Williams III, Promethea, Desolation Jones (WildStorm/DC)
Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)
* Paul Guinan, Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate (IDW)
* Ladronn, Hip Flask: Mystery City (Active Images)
* Ben Templesmith, Fell (Image)
* Kent Williams, The Fountain (Vertigo/DC)
Best Cover Artist
* Frank Espinosa, Rocketo (Speakeasy)
* Tony Harris, Ex Machina (Wildstorm/DC)
* James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); Runaways (Marvel)
* Jock, The Losers (Vertigo/DC)
* Eric Powell, The Goon; Universal Monsters: Cavalcade of Horror (Dark Horse)
Best Coloring
* Jeromy Cox, Teen Titans (DC); Otherworld (Vertigo/DC)
* Steven Griffen, Hawaiian Dick: The Last Resort (Image)
* Steve Hamaker, Bone: The Great Cow Race (Scholastic Graphix)
* Jose Villarrubia, Desolation Jones (WildStorm/DC)
* Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #16 (ACME Novelty)
Best Lettering
* Chris Eliopolis: Ultimate Iron Man, Astonishing X-Men, Ultimates 2, House of M, Franklin Richards (Marvel); Fell (Image)
* Todd Klein: Wonder Woman, Justice, Seven Soldiers #0 (DC); Desolation Jones (WildStorm/DC); Promethea, Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, Tomorrow Stories Special (ABC); Fables (Vertigo); 1602: New World (Marvel)
* Richard Starkings: Conan, Revelations (Dark Horse); Godland (Image); Gunpowder Girl and the Outlaw Squaw, Hip Flask: Mystery City (Active Images)
* Chris Ware: Acme Novelty Library #16 (ACME Novelty)
Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition
* Dawn Brown (Ravenous, Little Red Hot)
* Aaron Renier (Spiral-Bound)
* Zak Sally (Recidivist)
* Ursula Vernon (Digger)
Best Comics-Related Periodical
* Comic Art, edited by M. Todd Hignite (Comic Art)
* Comic Book Artist, edited by Jon Cooke (Top Shelf)
* The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth and Dirk Deppey (Fantagraphics)
* Draw!, edited by Michael Manley (TwoMorrows)
* Following Cerebus, edited by Craig Miller and John Thorne (Aardvark-Vanaheim/Win-Mill Productions)
Best Comics-Related Book
* The Comics Journal Library: Classic Comic Illustrators, edited by Tom Spurgeon (Fantagraphics)
* Eisner/Miller, interviews conducted by Charles Brownstein (Dark Horse Books)
* Foul Play: The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s EC Comics, by Grant Geissman (Harper Design)
* Masters of American Comics, edited by John Carlin, Paul Karasik, and Brian Walker (Hammer Museum/MOCA Los Angeles/Yale University Press)
* RGK: Art of Roy G. Krenkel, edited by J. David Spurlock and Barry Klugerman (Vanguard)
Best Publication Design
* Acme Novelty Library Annual Report to Shareholders, designed by Chris Ware (Pantheon) TIE
* Little Nemo in Slumberland, designed by Philippe Ghuilemetti (Sunday Press Books) TIE
* Promethea #32, designed by J. H. Williams III and Todd Klein (ABC)
* Walt and Skeezix, designed by Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Wimbledon Green, designed by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Hall of Fame
Judges' Choices: Floyd Gottfredson, William Moulton Marston
Voters chose four:
* Matt Baker
* Vaughn Bode
* Wayne Boring
* Reed Crandall
* Creig Flessel
* Ramona Fradon
* Harold Gray
* Graham Ingels
* Robert Kanigher
* Russ Manning
* Mort Meskin
* Marty Nodell
* Gilbert Shelton
* Jim Steranko
*****
Other Award Winners
Bill Finger Award: Alvin Schwartz, Harvey Kurtzman
Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Calvin Reid
Russ Manning Award: R Kikuo Johnson
Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award: Zeus Comics
For supplemental coverage, particularly of the publishing news emerging from the show, I recommend my peers at
The Beat,
Newsarama,
Comic Book Resources and
The Pulse.
posted 1:00 am PST |
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July 21, 2006
Go, Read: Mazen Kerbaj's Blog
The musician and cartoonist is blogging from Beirut.
posted 5:00 am PST |
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PR: Verizon Gives Building to CCS
I don't have much to add to this
press release about Verizon giving the 1922 telephone building in White River Junction, Vermont to the
Center for Cartoon Studies. But I think it's worth noting as it's been a remarkably quiet summer for CCS as it heads into its second full year. I have to imagine that exuding business-as-usual attitude so early in its institutional life is a good thing as far as the school goes. Heck, I was more of a noisy, needy mess when I was trying to
go to school my sophomore year, as opposed to operating an entire school. Also, if you're looking to expand you physical plant, and you can make use of a building when it's given to you, you must be doing okay in terms of both administrative skill and operational expenses. Lets hope I'm reading those signs correctly.
From the "news you can use if you're of a certain inclination" department, the Center
has also announced a scholarship in partnership with
Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc.
posted 4:30 am PST |
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Your 2006 San Diego Con Update
The year's biggest gathering of professional cartoonists and comics industry folk as well as an increasingly popular showcase for television, film, genre prose and toymakers, Comic-Con International, celebrated its first -- and some say the best -- day Thursday in a frightening business-as-usual sense.
You know, while I enjoy going to the San Diego Con, I'm never quite sure how it should be covered. There is usually some angle of covering the show as a business, like registration issues and the yearly rumors that the convention may move to Los Angeles; there is publishing news, although it's mostly of the pr-driven "Creator X Doing Comic Y" variety; the Eisner Awards are certainly a legitimate event, but they make a strange impression -- although I remember two people told stories about comics pros in bathrooms I couldn't tell you who won a single 2005 Eisner by name and category; and being more interested in art and business than people and personalities, I have a hard time working up much enthusiasm for "comics culture."
So what's left? There are still backroom discussions and some deal-making, and a lot of the kind of socializing that can later lead to work. It certainly has a touchstone quality, being a convention that's run the length of comics growth out of dead-end obscurity into a vital art form and along the life paths of that great generation of fans-turned-pros. But beyond, I'm kind of lost. Is this just a PR stage? Is covering it a waste of time? Is CCI a commercial event that people wish meaning onto in order to inject some status into an extended social occasion?
*****
Live Blogging
*
Man of Action
News Reports
*
Associated Press Preview
*
Augie De Blieck Day Zero
*
Chat With First Guy in Line by Union-Tribune
*
Local SD Fox Affiliate Preview
*
LA Times on How to Get Swag
*
Newsarama: DC Nation Panel
*
Newsarama: Marvel's Civil War Panel
*
Newsarama: New Avengers Title
*
Newsarama: Preview Night Finds
*
Newsarama: Samurai Comic Sequel
*
Wizard Universe Interviews Mark Siegel
Blogs and On-Line Diaries
*
Bully Says on Preview Night
*
Irene Gallo on Preview Night
*
Irene Gallo on Thursday
*
Kushi Tan on Preview Night
*
Louie Del Carmen on Preview Night
*
Matt Maxwell Day Zero
*
Meticulous Nonsense Skips Preview Night
*
