3. Lawyers for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton file papers to keep her from testifying in Paul's fraud case; for those keeping track, it's in the appeals stage.
Winner Of The Week
Libre. Whether or not they're the wronged party is a matter of documentation and law, but they sure won this week's perception battle.
Losers Of The Week
Anyone and anything involved with this lurid affair.
Doonesbury on Suzanne Swift Case Susan Palmer at Oregon's Register-Guardwrites a long feature giving some background and context to the current Doonesbury storyline, which they believe is directly related to the life and experiences of soldier Suzanne Swift. The issue itself is unpacked a bit in addition to quotes from the family. You can click on the picture to get to the Doonesbury site, where you can backtrack your way to the story's beginning.
It's a small photo set, but Laurent Melikian's pictures feature some cartoonists I've never seen photographed before, like Sarnath Banerjee above, and a killer photo of the Luna Brothers. Context here.
UK Police, Press Seek to Connect Lurid Murder to a Reader of Hentai Manga
I have no comment on this, as it seems pretty self-explanatory, and pretty self-evidently horrible and tragic. It's interesting to note that it's not just the connection to something strange and peculiar and foreign that's selling the story, but the juxtaposition of the two photos as well.
Franco Cosimo Panini, 1931-2007
Franco Panini, one of the famed Panini brothers who turned a newsstand in Modena into a massive sticker and card producer and newspaper distribution business, which later transmogrified into an even more massive Media Company including an important distributor and maker of comic books, died earlier today. If someone out there can correct my rudimentary knowledge of European comics business figures and complete lack of Italian, I'd appreciate it, but I believe the Panini Brothers sold what we think of as "We distribute Marvel and throw parties that Joe Quesada attends at Angouleme Panini" back in 1989, before it grew into its current comics-major-player status, and the later Mr. Panini became a high-end book publisher with a company of sort of the same name, a company that also included a comics initiative.
Just a follow-up to note that Joann Sfar's book on the Charlie-Hebdo trial, Greffier, is out scant days after the court's decision, which I guess was the point.
Angouleme Lays Future Groundwork
I'm not sure I'm reading this article by Didier Pasamonik totally correctly, but it seems as if he's saying there's going to be an alteration in the organization's administrative statues that will allow the Angouleme Festival to seek out external resources and companies to help with the festival -- the original organization would retain the brand. The move will have to be ratified by a proper quorum, which is scheduled for summer. I also like the reference to 2006 as "l'Annus Horribilis de 2006" -- god bless any comics organization with a tendency towards humorous self-mythology.
thank you to the crush of French-language readers who took me in their jaws and shook me back and forth before putting me down and having me rewrite this!
If there's one comics festival out there I'd like to attend, it would be Fumetto in Lucerne, Switzerland. Two reasons. One, it looks really, really gorgeous there. Two, the experience sounds like it would be different than most US comics festival because the commercial and promotional are dumped in favor of a series of high-end arts exhibition and a lot of informal socializing. Go here to check out what they've had on hand this year.
Al Feldstein's Parenting Advice
"When they called me in closed session before the Kefauver Committee, I said exactly that. I told them, 'The way to solve this problem is, if you don't want your kid to read Tales From The Crypt, tell them, "If I catch you reading that, I'll beat the shit out of you."'" -- a fun, short interview at A.V. Club
The Bulgarian cartoonist Boris Dimovski died on Monday at age 81. Dimovsky was a well-regarded painter and illustrator in addition to being a cartoonist. Born in the town of Yavrovo, his most famous cartoons may have been one from the late 1960s in poet Radoy Ralin's book Hot Peppers. To Ralin's statement "You'll have a full gut, if you keep your mouth shut" Dimovsky added a drawing of pig whose tail ends in an executive signature. Dimovsky and Ralin received grief after accusations that the signature was specifically intended to recall that of the communist leader Todor Zhivkov.
Dimovski later contributed to Daga one of the two significant comics-only magazine available during the 1970s and 1980s. For the magazine, he created the comic Once Upon a Time. Wire reports note that the artists also served as an MP in the 7th Great National Assembly.
A funeral, which was apparently well-attended by fellow Bulgarian artists, was held earlier today.
Happy 83rd Birthday, Jack Elrod! posted 4:16 am PST | Permalink
Manganews: Libre Statement on CPM
Manganews.net has a statement from the Japanese publisher Libre on a current dispute over whether or not the North American company Central Park Media has a valid licensing arrangement for many of its Be Beautiful line's titles. Basically, they believe they have acquired all rights to negotiate on behalf of licenses previously held by by BIBLOS, who went bankrupt in April of last year, and that this terminated all existing agreements. Further, they accuse CPM of not even holding up their end of the BIBLOS agreements, asserting they believe the bankruptcy absolves them of doing so.
The author of the piece notes that a Japanese publishing company making a claim in public must be proof they're right; Dirk Deppey suggests that maybe they'd have been better off in court. I personally have no idea. I will join Dirk in his eminently sensible statement that you generally don't know enough to make strong statements until you see the papers filed and the law in question, and I'll further suggest that sometimes you have to wait for a decision or settlement because those can go against all logic seemingly supported by documentation. Multiply this by a billion for the international aspect and I'll take a comfortable seat in the wait and see lounge. To me the most telling part of the release is Libre's suggestion that other companies in CPM's shoes have already re-negotiated.
Top Cow Downloads Are Now Live
In one of those moves that feels like a signpost on the momentum highway, the comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com reports that Top Cow has made the first of its comics available through IGN's Direct2Drive digital retail store. The report says that 400 comics will be made available through the service, which includes movies and games, by year's end. The price will be $1.99, $1 off of the typical price point, at least for now, and no work less than a year old will be uploaded, say officials.
Finding a way to make comics available to fans who want them on-line without causing a giant backlash in traditional retail outlets is an issue on every publisher's minds and will be until commitments are made by the largest companies with the biggest back catalogs. Top Cow may be best known for publishing fantasy-adventure comics featuring female protagonists bearing 1990s-style idealized pin-up figures. It's unclear with these moderately sized companies how valuable their back catalogs are, so this should be interesting in that sense as well.
Go Forth, Ye Eligible Readers, And Vote
* the Eagle Awards, which many of you might remember as a sticker-looking insignia on the corner of prime-time early-era X-Men comics. That "Roll of Honour" nominees list encompasses more generations than most such lists.
* the Glyph Awards has a fan category, previously mentioned on this site. I voted for the superhero comic.
* the Harvey Awards enter into the final days of the nomination round. Go here to access a ballot. It's the most work of all the nomination processes, but since so few people take the time, it's the one where you and several friends can likely make your voice felt.
This Isn't a Library: New and Notable Releases to the Comics Direct Market
Here are a few books that jump out at me from this week's list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America. I might not buy all of the following, but were I in a comic book shop I would likely pick them up and look at them, potentially annoying my retailer.
*****
OCT060027 ALICE IN SUNDERLAND GN $29.95
I know some people who are looking forward to buying it and twice as many as want to see Bryan Talbot's new book and then decided if it's for them or not. I'm in the latter category. But I really want to see it.
JAN078263 CAPTAIN AMERICA 2ND PTG EPTING VAR #25 CW $3.99 FEB078049 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER VAR CVR NEW PTG #1 (PP #759) $2.99 FEB073431 DON'T GO WHERE I CANT FOLLOW GN (MR) $17.95
You can get a second shot at the serial comic book issues that were the focus of much discussion all month -- Captain America eating a bullet in Captain America #25, and the continuation of the Buffy saga Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #1 -- and/or another chance to buy one of the books everyone should be talking about right now, Anders Nilsen's Don't Go Where I Can't Follow.
JAN073666 HOUDINI HANDCUFF KING CENTER OF CARTOON STUDIES HC BOOK $16.99
Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi are smart to have released their straightforward, through the prism of a single day biography with CCS and the Disney folks during a moment in which people are actually talking about Harry Houdini again. How'd they manage that? Will we someday soon dig up the body of Satchel Paige?
NOV063528 OH SKINNAY HC $24.95
A new version of a 1913 book that looks like the 1913 book, Drawn & Quarterly's Oh Skin-nay! is a collaboration between the cartoonist Clare Briggs and the poet Wilbur Nesbit that looks at a year in a small town through a youth's eyes and activities. If you've read any essays, histories or novels from the first half of the 20th century, you'll recall how affectionately most people of that era remember being a kid in the pre-World War I era -- with its mix of outdoor and city activities, and America's slow reclamation of sport from its scariest, most violent elements. I look forward to this.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock.
If I didn't list your new comic, it's not because I missed it by accident or that our tastes differ. It's because I hate you.
So: Are You Linked To From This Site?
What about your friends? What about your favorites?
I'm in the process of re-doing this site's links pages for the first time since September 2004. Please check it out and tell me if I'm missing something, particularly if what I'm missing is you. E-mail me at with any changes, additions and/or suggestions.
Ahmed Abbas' Appeal Has Been Denied
Scroll down a bit in this article for depressing news that on Monday the appeals court in Male rejected cartoonist's Ahmed Abbas' attempt to have his conviction-in-absentia from last Fall overturned. Although the RSF article says "the police have never clearly stated what Abbas, who is currently held in Maafushi, is alleged to have done," I thought he was being held because of statements made to a newspaper.
1) nearly every single justification one can imagine might make one want to close a comics and manga and anime store gets a mention in kind of a It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of retailer complaints, including one or two that can't be true (Marvel's publishing arm is doing fine, for instance).
2) it makes note of a downturn (at least a local one) in the gaming market I generally know little to nothing about that I'm sure has had a great effect on comics shops that sell that material. It also mentions how much in terms of physical resources can be spent giving gamers space to play their games, and how that could be utilized in a different way, which is something I never thought about.
3) after bagging on the chaotic marketplace they end the note with a pitch for someone to buy the store. This is doubly funny in that one can imagine some fans would run the numbers in their head even if they were told the building was radioactive.
Chris Butcher Vs. Generation Entitlement
Actually, the retailer, sometimes-creator and frequent industry commentator's encounter with a young woman and aspiring artist is a lot less confrontational and a lot more encouraging than the title makes it sound. The underlying issue is a compelling one, no matter how you phrase it. It should be interesting to see how a generation of teens and early twenty-somethings will develop into accomplished artists coming of age in an era that has somehow managed to ascribe more significant cultural value to the act of stepping out of a car while flashing one's cooch -- or in less crude terms, how one gets past making art that offers status within a circle of friends and family and into the habit of making art that will, as much as the world allows, have wider, lasting value.
The best moment of Butcher's advice is when he goes beyond noting that focused dedication to improvement can bring about better results to underscore that such dedication can be an extension of the initial enthusiasm that drove the person. Too many people talking to young artists place an emphasis on stopping one direction before moving in another, and I think a lot of younger people never get past the stop part.
Go, Read: Editors and Publishers
The men behind -- or right in the middle of -- your favorite comics publishing companies take a turn in the interview spotlight this week.
* PWCW's Douglas Wolk interview SLG's Dan Vado about the bottom-line realities of publishing independent comics.
Senator Hillary Clinton's Lawyers File to Keep Her Out of Peter Paul Fraud Suit
I'm not sure I'd trust the source given what seems like an upfront political bias/axe to grind in the company's mission statement and because even though they've been around for nine years I've never heard of them. And to be honest, some of the details sound strange to me. The general thrust of the news story seems pretty straight-forward: Senator Hillary Clinton does not want to testify in former Stan Lee Media co-founder Peter Paul's fraud case about potential and past-proved Senatorial campaign fund-raising discrepancies while running for president, or, one imagines, pretty much ever.
Go Read: Ville Ranta Interview
If you're interested at all in autobiographical comics, I'd recommend this interview with Ville Ranta at du9, even if you can only read it via an on-line translation. Xavier Guilbert draws out some interesting facts about the cartoonist's approach, such as how in Papa est un peu fatigue Ranta drew on a lot of comics-heavy journal pages but really worked with them and focused his inquiry rather than publishing essentially raw drafts. He also talks about working with Lewis Trondheim on a more standard album and how the ephemeral nature of web publishing, the ability to publish things temporarily, frees up what he can say.
Part-Time Writers Become Full-Time
Actually, in the case of writing as a job, it's generally "people writing full-time already feel comfortable enough to drop the other job they've been doing, moving from a 120 to an 80 hour work week." But you get my meaning, I'm sure.
* Rich Johnston has word from DC editorial mainstay Pete Tomasi is using the springboard of a screenplay sale to become a DC exclusive writer.
* In addition to delighting our inner numbers-geek with Comichron.com, former Krause Publications anchor John Jackson Miller is now a full-time freelance writer as well.
* Not related really at all, but like Zack Mayo it had nowhere else to go: four writers including sometimes-comics writer Paul Di Filippo have launched a blog named after the The Inferior Five.
Drew Hayes, 1969/70-2007
Lawrence Andrew (Drew) Hayes, the creator of the Poison Elves comic book, died last Wednesday in his hometown in Bellingham, Washington. According to his publisher, the cause of death was a heart attack brought on as a complication during a bout of pneumonia. Although this latest bout of sickness followed years of health problems related to cardiac issues, the end came suddenly and surprised those close to the artist.
Hayes first made his appearance on the comics scene in 1991 by self-publishing I, Lusiphur through his own Mulehide Graphics. He would eventually change the size from magazine-sized to standard comic book and the title from I, Lusiphur to Poison Elves. Like many of the independent comics of its era, Poison Elves afforded Hayes a personal vehicle through which to tell stories as well as a platform for supplementary writing and more direct interaction with fans through letters and responses to same. My memory is that the book itself was a dark fantasy with a few contemporary trappings that blended a lot of genres, that it was intended for adult audiences, that it contained a significant and rough humor element, and that it was perhaps best known for the frequent, anti-heroic actions of its lead.
Hayes was part of two larger comics trends -- the first towards self-publishing in the early 1990s, and the second a move by many self-publishers into publishing arrangements with established publishers as the industry entered choppy waters at mid-decade. Hayes moved Poison Elves to Sirius Entertainment in June 1995, ending the Mulehide run at issue #20. (If I remember correctly, Hayes had promised to return to the Mulehide run and finish out a story there over four issues, but never got back to it).
For Sirius, Hayes would create 79 issues of the black and white Poison Elves comic and one color special, reaching a wider audience during a rough sales period of comic books generally and black and white efforts specifically. There were also a number of supplementary items created in the 1990s. Hayes and Sirius put together an aggressive trade program featuring books from the Mulehide and the Sirius runs; Hayes was one of the first cartoonists who repeatedly worked in small arcs of the kind that allowed for easy collection into trade paperback form. With Hayes' help, Sirius became an established presence for its creator-driven, black and white fantasy and science fantasy comics.
The final Hayes effort for Sirius was issue 2004's #79. According to Sirius publisher Robb Horan, Hayes planned on a return to his series starting with issue #80, and resuming a quarterly schedule.
Hayes had in recent years faced a number of health problems, up to and including those that required hospitalization.
Drew Hayes is survived by his mother and a daughter. He was 37 years old.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* A woman who lost her husband in the Madrid bombings wears a t-shirt with a Muhammed cartoon on it to the trial of Islamic radicals; the thing is, the shirt as described sounds nothing like any of the cartoons.
* According to Keith Knight, the Muhammed cartoons had an effect on the American market for editorial cartoons and illustration: not a good effect, either.
* The Danish Cartoons Controversy will show up in a lot of articles as context over the next few years where there is any sort of violence or protesting over religious issues.
Go, Read: Meaning-Lite Euro-Comics
Matthias Wivel has a piece up well worth your time where he takes a snapshot of modern European comics and finds a lot of works that are beautifully crafted, but don't have a lot to say. This is an interesting issue to me because I do think there are comics that are like that because of market pressures or failure of ambition on the behalf of a creator or creators, but I also think there are artists who create surpassing works composed of building blocks restricted to the surface elements of comics.
Go, Read: CPM/Libre Walk-Through
Jordan Marks goes over the dispute between Central Park Media and the publisher Libre about licensing issues, step by step, clearly marking what's known and what acts as an assumption. The end result is a much better informed "we don't really know." That sounds like a joke but it's actually very helpful.
Go, Read: Alan Gardner's OSU Visit
Alan Gardner at Daily Cartoonistvisits the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University. Even if you had a good weekend, it's likely it could have been a better one if you had spent some of that time looking at Calvin and Hobbes and Prince Valiant originals.
Mort Walker: 2007 Gold Key Winner
The National Cartoonists Society has announced that industry mainstay Mort Walker will win that group's Gold Key Award, which will be given out at the Reubens dinner during late May's annual meeting. Walker is best known for the comics Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois, but he's also the founder of the well-traveled National Cartoon Museum and a past NCS president. According to this Editor & Publisher article, the Silver T-Square will go to Joe and Luke McGarry for various volunteer services to the organization.
* Bill Griffith wrote in to say a Zippy tribute strip to Kennedy will run on April 9. He sent along a copy and it's sweet and sad. I thought about excerpting it here, but I don't want to aggravate King or make a presumption on Griffith's behalf. I regret not mentioning Zippy the Pinhead in the CR obituary. While the strip was at King Features before Kennedy got there, Kennedy was an ardent supporter, was actively involved in its editing and promotion from his first days inside the offices which meant he had a 20-year relationship with the strip, and it's no secret that the strip being there was part of King's appeal to Jay, something Griffith mentions in his April 9 installment.
* two personal essays about interacting with Jay Kennedy have been added to the CR site: the great underground comics historian Patrick Rosenkranz recounts a funny and revealing series of encounters here; a section that was going to be included in this site's obituary about what Kennedy was like as an editor, later excised, has been expanded and made its own entry here.
* another regret I have is that in my obituary I didn't find a place to emphasize his enthusiasm for politics and journalism, which multiple people mentioned and which were passions that Kennedy held without making him a strident or off-putting person, a major life achievement in and of itself. He was one of the few comics lifers with an obvious well-rounded perspective that fed and did not diminish his interest in the form.
* I hope now that ten days have passed and because of Kennedy's interest in journalism that he won't mind if I suggest two future stories related to his passing for which you should keep an eye out: how King Features moves on personnel-wise, and the eventual fate of Kennedy's world-class collection.
* the folks who post to the Engine look at a week's worth of largely inarticulate (that goes double for me) postings about 1970s comics and begin listing comics from that era that are valuable and/or worthy of rediscovery. It always interests me that those discussions still involve a lot of reclaiming or rehabilitating childhood memories and perspectives, whereas discussion of 1970s films by film buffs of the same age probably wouldn't spend as much time pointing out the good elements of The Apple Dumpling Gang or The Bad News Bears.
* Abhay Khosla's running commentary on the month in comics is always worth a read, even though he hates on me a little bit, by association, and it made me cry in a sitting with my back against a row of lockers around the corner from the high school dance sort of way.
* a pair of people people have written in to mention that Ralph Steadman did one of those shows on C-Span through Book TV.org in January, and that it's likely something that many people may want to keep an eye out for via their local listings if it works it way through the broadcast schedule once again.
* one thing about accidentally dropping The Watcher's web site from your permanent links page -- like Santa, he knows about it immediately. This mention will hopefully remind me to add it back in.
*****
Go, Look: Koren Shadmi
*****
First Thought Of The Day
Last night, on the way home from the movies, we stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up a package of bandages that no one else in town carries. And there were a lot of young people there. Young people that had apparently come to Wal-Mart on dates.
The top comics-related news stories from March 17 to March 23, 2007:
1. An acquittal in the Charlie-Hebdo face, where a magazine editor was facing a stiff fine and a short jail term if convicted, for publishing and re-publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed.
2. Claims made by Libre that Central Park Media has been fueling its comeback via titles without proper licensing agreements.
3. Nominations for the 2007 Reuben Award and the NCS Division Awards announced.
Local Paper Confirms Hayes Passing
I wanted to get this out there because there's bound to be some Internet discussion of a hoax. Drew Hayes was 37 years old.
Paris Mosque Probably Won't Appeal
About the only new news I can glean from articles on yesterday's exoneration of Charlie-Hebdo and Philippe Val on charges "publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion" is that the initial impulse of La Grande Mosquee de Paris is to not join co-plaintiff the Union of Islamic Organizations in France in their planned appeal. This statement at the mosque's web site from Dr. Dalil Boubakeur says the group feels justified by statements in the decision that their bringing the suit was just, and that while political pressure may have come down on the side of the caricaturists, the court's decision could also be seen as a warning against this kind of speech.
Go, Look: Booklist Online's Top Ten Graphic Novels For Youth, 2007
I know there seem to be lists like this every week, but this one (click through the image) not only seems solid it manages to have avoided adding that one super-oddball, what-the-hell choice that distinguishes a lot of these efforts.
Washington's New Editorial Cartoonists The other Washington, that is. Todd Matthew's feature article looks at the state of editorial cartooning from a different perspective -- a local one, spotlighting the people who are doing it, how they're doing it, and what they bring to the table. I found it pretty interesting.
The nominees for this May's Reuben Awards have been given wider release -- by which I mean I was able to find them as opposed to this accurately describing some intentional tiered release schedule. For discussion of the awards, my bet is on Alan Gardner at Daily Cartoonist.
I had wondered out load in oafish fashion if they were going to drop the comic book divisional award, but they haven't.
Feature Animation
Peter De Seve, Character Design (Fox) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Carter Goodrich, Character Design (Sony) Open Season
Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, Directors (Dreamworks) Over The Hedge
Gag Cartoons
Drew Dernavich
Mick Stevens
P.C. Vey
Greeting Cards
Kevin Ahern
Pat Byrnes
Carla Ventresca
Hayes was part of two larger comics trends -- the first towards self-publishing in the early 1990s, and the second a move by many self-publishers into publishing arrangements with established publishers as the industry entered choppy waters at mid-decade. Hayes moved Poison Elves to 
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