* the writer Warren Ellis caught word of a new serial from Image by David Hine and Shaky Kane: The Bulletproof Coffin. The first issue is due in June.
* slipping out a month earlier is the first issue of something called 7 Psychopaths, noteworthy for featuring art from the prolific Sean Phillips, an artist I wouldn't think had the time for another series.
* Roger Langridge has put together a self-published, slightly cleaned up version of his Doctor Sputnik comics for sale at conventions. As much as the last ten years have been rough on some of my favorite forms of commercial projects, it's been great to limited-edition gems.
* after a pair of unfortunate co-publishing relationships, Humanoids will apparently strike out on their own. That makes sense to me because if you're putting work into circulation that probably won't sell, you might as well do it on your own. I'm also all for it because I'll be buying a lot of this stuff because it's at least pretty good.
* the writer Mark Millar will apparently guest-edit the re-launched Wizard. I enjoy Millar and have enjoyed Wizard in the past, but the marriage of the two in this particular project makes little conventional sense. First, Millar doesn't seem to have, at least on the surface of things, sensibilities that diverge from or clash with a standard issue of Wizard. Providing a contrast to standard issues is the basis on which most publications do guest-edited issues. The second is that unless the re-launch is going to feature nothing but guest-edited issues it makes little sense to make your re-launch debut one. Still, I think the magazine could probably use a re-fashioning to better reflect its current strategies and approach: I may not see it, as they stopped carrying it in my town about six months ago.
* Drawn and Quarterly shows off its 2010 plans for the Moomin characters. Yes, please.
* Vanguard announces new Neal Adams and Frank Frazetta books.
* the slightly disturbing married Archie Andrews comics effort will be published in magazine form instead of comic book form to better find its potential mainstream-type audience. O-kay. I've been trying to find a way to get excited about that thing in a pop-culture observer way. At one point, I had half-talked myself into the fact that how they portray Archie as a functioning adult might be interesting because he's one of comics' great blank slates. I wasn't able to maintain that feeling for very long.
* the cartoonist Jon Adams wrote in to say that his comic Friendship Town is appearing every Thursday in 96 Hours, the weekend entertainment supplement of the San Francisco Chronicle. Damned if I could find mention of it on his site, though, or a link to where the Chronicle might be putting it.
* I don't think I ever paid attention to the fact that Top Shelf is doing two books with Jess Fink, including that naughty robot thing. Although maybe I did. It can't hurt to say it twice, though, right?
* Archaia has announced a Mouse Guard anthology mini-series.
* not comics: I've heard through the grapevine that Tim Kreider of The Pain and TCJ.com has sold a book of his prose pieces to an established publisher for the kind of money that sounds like what adults makes for doing stuff. Kreider is a kick-ass writer, and I look forward to his book.
* finally, Drawn and Quarterly reveals the cover to its forthcoming collection of Vanessa Davis' comics.
Nadel Announces Fumetto Kirby Exhibit Dan Nadel formally announces today the not-a-secret that he and Paul Gravett have teamed up to curate a Jack Kirby exhibit in Fumetto. Not only is this two of the most interesting minds on comics teaming up to present one of the half-dozen greatest American cartoonists at what always sounds to me like the ideal convention, European model division (an exhibits-focused show spread out in a town that happens to look like this), but according to today's post it's the first major Kirby show in Europe and Nadel's description of what they have planned sounds like a knockout.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* the idea popular in India and in western conservative circles that Mickey Mouse Plot co-conspirator and Mumbai Massacre advance scout David Coleman Headley is an American intelligence operative remains and perhaps has intensified since Headley's guilty plea. Here's a typical article. I suppose it's possible, although the articles I've read so far sound to me like parents trying to rattle their teenager into a confession by tossing out ideas more than journalists putting two and two together.
* there's a bunch of stuff up today on a Chicago cab driver named Raja Lahrasib Khan accused of funneling money to al-Qaida operatives. There's nothing that links this man to David Coleman Headley or Tahawwur Hussain Rana except that they happened to have the same contact, Ilyas Kashmiri.
Kudos To Renee French On Two Years Updating Her Art Blog The great Renee French hit the two year mark yesterday in posting art to her site. I almost never see French's site listed as one of the cartoonist go-tos, although the art published there is an experience that's close to a lot of what we get out of her comics-making. The fact that the frequently sublime The Ticking made about zero best of decade lists makes me think that French is either still undervalued generally or y'all use too many superlatives when you write comics reviews. At any rate, congratulations to a fine cartoonist on a compelling run of image-making, and thank you for the all-too-frequent pre-coffee shudder.
Multiple Bay Area Events Scheduled In Conjunction With WonderCon 2010
As far as I can tell, what follows is a list of official and unofficial activities in and around this weekend's WonderCon in San Francisco. any updates, additions and/or changes.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* the writer and comics historian Mark Evanier revisits the Creators Rights controversies of the 1980s as recently discussed by Steve Bissette.
* Jog writes eloquently of the late Paul Ollswang's Doofer: Pathway to McEarth a potential and not very well-known top 100 comic of the 20th Century and a publication that used to be the best thing you could buy if you visited the Fantagraphics warehouse (back before they had the store.) Ollswang always seemed caught between generations to me. A lot of his peers do now, but he really did, and it was obvious at the time.
* J. Caleb Mozzocco feels silly for not being in on the joke. That's okay; it took me 17 years to figure out The Lockhorns were called The Lockhorns because "They Locked Horns." It also took me until yesterday to figure out that the "Blue" in NYPD Blue had two meanings.
* not comics: congratulations to Robert Kirkman and his collaborators on The Walking Dead being greenlit. I don't really cover movies, but that's a very good comic book series, and it could be a very good TV show with obvious benefits directly falling to the comic book series.
* Sean T. Collins on The Diary Of A Teenage Girl (the comic). Sean T. Collins on The Diary Of A Teenage Girl: The Play.
* finally, it turns out the whiteness of Imhotep in a Marvel comic comes down to a production error.
This Isn't A Library: New And Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate 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 works listed here. I might not buy any. But were I in a comic book shop tomorrow I would be celebrating the Cinderella-like runs of many of the following:
*****
DEC090774 RASL #7 (MR) $3.50
One odd thing about RASL is that by employing the desert setting as strongly as it has, Jeff Smith's current series also underlines how geographically specific Bone was as well. It's just that Bone trafficked in a region -- the American midwest with its forests and its caves and its strange horizons -- that almost never gets explored. Anyway, I have a lot of fun reading RASL in serial form, so I'm looking forward to seeing the new book.
JAN100139 USAGI YOJIMBO #127 SWORD OF NARUKAMI $3.50 JAN100329 ASTRO CITY THE DARK AGE BOOK FOUR #3 (OF 4) $3.99 JAN100231 BLACKEST NIGHT #8 (OF 8) $3.99 OCT090422 GODLAND #31 $2.99 JAN100467 SWORD #23 (MR) $2.99
Here's a small collection of comic book-type comics that may or may not allow you to build one of those classic comic-shop experience of little pockets of creativity sticking out of a thin, blue bag. You even get an honest-to-god veteran of those days in the Usagi Yojimbo comic book, and one of its transitional entities with the latest iteration of Kurt Busiek's superhero universe. Blackest Night brings to conclusion the spine of DC's most recent sprawling event work, Godland continues its slow progression towards its final issue and Sword probably contains some horrifying yet funny scene of someone getting a body part punched off.
JAN100942 IT WAS WAR O/T TRENCHES HC $24.99
I'd say this is the release of the week: one of the great works from one of the great, important cartoonists. This has been serialized a bit here and there over the years, so that's why the work may look familiar, but this book puts it all in your hands.
JAN101203 CHARLES M SCHULZ MY LIFE WITH CHARLIE BROWN HC $25.00
The amount of random material yet to be collected about Charles Schulz could fill a book. And so it has.
OCT090244 CREEPER BY STEVE DITKO HC $39.99
The price point for this bunch of fine but to my memory just slightly south of first-tier work by Steve Ditko seems aimed at that mystery DC patron that never buys anything that doesn't have a per-unit cost of at least $30. I hope one day to meet some of these people and have them accidentally buy me meals in the course of a long weekend.
DEC090840 JOHN STANLEY LIBRARY MELVIN MONSTER HC VOL 02 $24.95
I liked the first one of these and I delight in their total inaccessibility to children, inviting the neighbor's kids into my office and smacking their peanut butter-stained hands with a ruler as they reach for my fancy books. Actually, I had nice books as a kid -- Edward Gorey, Charles Addams -- so I see these as being for kids, too. Cute stories, cute cartooning, cute, cute, cute.
JAN101172 TEZUKAS BLACK JACK TP VOL 10 $16.95 FEB101148 TEZUKAS ODE TO KIRIHITO SC PART 01 $14.95 FEB101149 TEZUKAS ODE TO KIRIHITO SC PART 02 $14.95
Massive chunks of Tezuka -- the Black Jack project has to be over 3000 pages at this point, or at least close to it, with a couple thousand pages to come. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with a two-volume reprinting of Ode To Kirihito, but I think that's a marvelous comic: a mostly straight-forward action-drama that nearly shakes itself apart at certain moments with lucid weirdness, the closes we'll ever see to a Sam Fuller movie in comic book form.
DEC090866 HIGH SOFT LISP GN (MR) $16.99 DEC090868 PENNY CENTURY TP $18.99
Two from Los Bros: a collection of Gilbert Hernandez's stories about Fritz, stories I haven't come close to figuring out yet. The Penny Century book is one of those new-line softcovers and includes a lot of work just after the dissolution of Love and Rockets Volume One. Some of the best comics in the world, and as that Abrams book begins to hit everyone's looking at Jaime's work with renewed appreciation.
DEC091026 PLUTO URASAWA X TEZUKA GN VOL 08 (OF 8) $12.99
If I were Jog, I might be able to write 800 clever words comparing this eighth volume with the eighth Blackest Night book, but as it is I'll just point out it's hitting stories, it's a good series, and it's one that at eight volumes I can imagine having a decently long life in serialized book (as opposed to omnibus) form.
JUL090869 CLASSIC PINUP ART OF JACK COLE SC $18.99
This sounds like a reprint to me; I'd have to see it. The reprint I'm thinking of was a really nice book, although with books like this it's pretty much all in the title as far as potential buyers.
*****
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 so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, 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. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I didn't list your comic here, that's because I was intimidated by the arena until Coach Dale broke out the measuring tape.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* Mickey Mouse plot co-conspirator Tahawwur Hussain Rana is going to stick by his not-guilty plea, according to a smattering of articles up today. One might think that the spectacular not-guilty plea and then rumblings of continued dramatic information revealed by David Coleman Headley might have had an influence on Rana's more inflexible strategy, but he seems ready to go to trial both on his involvement with information-gathering for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and the plan to do harm against principals actors and agencies involved in the Danish Cartoons Controversy.
* here's a look at the prosecutor's preparation for that trial.
* this article claims that India's reaction to the original Cartoons Controversy saw a few brave souls speaking out against violence drowned in "a sea of fanatical clamor."
I initially missed this but Anime News Networkmade note late last week of the suspension of a middle-school boy in Michigan who kept a real-world approximation of the Death Note used in the manga and anime of the same name. In the fictional universe, the books afford an opportunity to foist death on the people whose names are written in it. In the real world... well, officials (in the broader sense) seem genuinely split whether listing a fellow student's name you'd like to see die is a passive act -- even a cry for help -- or the beginning of a potentially active one. It's not like wishing people to die is a new experience to high school students, and while I was mostly a genial teenager somewhere among the liquor bottles and Dio sticker designs in my own study hall cartooning might have been bad wishes for a person or two.
ANN's piece has a short list of North American students receiving some sort of discipline for similar offenses, which seems understandable because on one side of the split there's opportunity for an outcome that leads school officials to being sued to the point of wishing to be Death Noted. The one thing I keep thinking is despite this story occasionally repeating, the number of incidents still isn't anywhere near where I would have set the over/under the day I heard of the manga's plot.
Tea Party 'Toon: Priggee Goes There Having noted the portrayal of President Obama as a soft-chested, make-up wearing assaulter of white (well, green) women in a post yesterday, it would behoove me to note the controversial cartoon of Milt Priggee from the other side of the spectrum last week where he depicts members of the Tea Party movement employing the n-word and wielding a noose. Actually, not really: it's just that I heard about the Priggee cartoon today.
As might be expected, it looks like there's been a smattering of attention from conservative pundits and broader media. You can read the initial reaction thread at Daryl Cagle's active web site here.
Mikhaela Reid Retires From Alt-Editorials Alan Gardner caught Mikhaela Reid's announcement that she's ceasing operations on her political cartooning efforts, aimed at an alt-weekly market that was meager to begin with and has only become worse over the years. Reid began The Boiling Point in 2002 and has supplied the feature with 1-2 cartoons a week ever since. She began with one client, crested at about six or seven, and is currently back down to one. Reid cites various time factors as well, including the fact that she's an expectant mom. It's a straight-forward article, I think, well worth your time if you're interested in that aspect of cartooning at all. If you're more of a comic book person, consider that the alt-weekly cartooning (both editorial and feature-style cartooning) bottom has fallen out of that market in much the same way the traditional alternative comic book market all but dropped out in the last seven or eight years while the more substantial, traditional version of that market has held on. Reid cites a number of concurrent interests this may free her up to pursue, and we wish her the best.
Well, it was bound to happen at some point. I think this is two months ahead of last year, maybe? There's a secondary market for tickets on eBay and through other sources that has yet to spring into existence for this year, so it's not fair to say all the tickets are gone-gone, but the initial batches sold by the con are certainly out there in people's hands. The only reason it took this long is that the certain day trips and partial attendance schedules are less attractive than others: four-day passes both with and without preview night attendance sold out super, super quickly and will continue to do so for years to come. I've already had e-mail from a half-dozen people seeking strategic help for planning their 2011 trip.
More than any other factor, the willingness of a certain kind of fan to make a long-range investment in the weekend of Comic-Con International is the development most indicative of how that show has changed in the last decade. Click through the image above for Heidi MacDonald bringing word of the sell-out -- I whiffed on it -- and her analysis.
* the Man of Steel once again edges ahead of the Dark Knight in the American Icons' duel to see which one can better embody the horrifying divide between haves and have-nots in today's recession-soaked America.
* Graeme McMillan ends his long look at the Chris Claremont-era X-Men comics with a look at the issues running up to Uncanny X-Men #200. It's a good series of little critical, even though McMillan's completely wrong about everything.
* I don't think I could steal a comic book vending machine, it's probably awfully big, but I'd give it a try. (thanks, Devlin Thompson)
* I wish I had Borders' problems. Wait, no I don't. Wait, I sort of already do.
* finally, Gary Tyrrell looks at PAX East, a convention related to comics in the unique way that it's organized around a comic whose focus is also the subject matter of the convention. It also looks genuinely well-attended.
ComicsPRO Annual Meeting: Paul Levitz And Carol Kalish Receive Awards; Speakers Out The Wazoo You can hit this link for Matt Price's blog-style coverage of the recent ComicsPro meeting in Memphis: this includes the group giving its industry appreciation awards to recently downshifted DC officer Paul Levitz and the late, retailer-solicitous Marvel executive Carol Kalish (1955-1991) and making some changes to its board. I suggest you read it all. It's good to hear that there was discussion of things other than achieving #1 market share, and slightly odd to note that DC sent 12 people to the show. I think if I were a retailer I would be flattered but I would also wonder how the heck DC could afford that much manpower away from the office.
I think there's been a lot of talk about changes in strategy and approach over the years, and while I don't deny it's those kind of discussions that can get people excited about what's to come, it would be nice if there was a bit more what's been done to go along with that what's to come. It's also fascinating to me that digital rights were a big concern, and that this was the subject of Robert Kirkman's speech: I mean, I guess digital rights should be a concern, but it also seems to me that there's a lot of energy that could be placed on making the Direct Market system work more effectively before projecting on some outside bogeyman.
Cartoonist Uses Rape Metaphor To Describe Passage Of Health Care So I guess a conservative political cartoonist has employed a rape metaphor to depict the recent legislative victory by President Obama and Congressional Democrats on the issue of health care. You can read analysis and criticism of the cartoon here and here. I actually think all such imagery and statements are fair game -- the subject of another post this morning, Zapiro, has done like 10 hold-'em-down rape cartoons featuring South African President Jacob Zuma -- but that it's more than fair to analyze and criticize the employment and appropriateness of such extreme metaphors. In other words, I support every cartoonist's right to do ridiculous, even shameful cartoons; I also support that they be called on same.
I tend to find such efforts sad and silly, in equal amounts. The two things I wish people would do when folks in the political realm decide to pull out these giant destruction-of-republic jeremiads and ramp up agencies and actors going about their business as historical travesties on an Emmerichian scale is a) demand consistency across the board and immediately stop paying any attention to someone who isn't consistent but is instead pushing politics as sport, b) hold critics that froth at the mouth over things like the destruction of the nation to some kind of timetable towards this guaranteed Armageddon when they don't get whatever political victory they want. I'm not waiting up, though.
Is The South African Press Less Free? This discussion of the South African press under President Jacob Zuma predictably gets into cartoonist Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro's work critical of the man, including the troubling reaction that many have had to Zapiro's admittedly harsh and uncompromising acts of expression and opinion. It's hard to track an argument made along the "climate of fear" lines, but this article does a better job than most. Some sort of sign from the top that violence against reporters won't be tolerated, yeah, that would be nice.
* there is a nice bunch of photos here in Joe Gordon's report from Hi-Ex, one of approximately 15,000 UK shows. What strikes me is that with a little lighting and a few professional backdrop posters the space looks much more visually sumptuous than most North American shows of equivalent size. If you run such a show, that could be worth looking into.
* I'm having a hard time getting a grasp on the Toronto Comic Con, the first in Wizard Entertainment's series of 12 different regional comics shows driven by a mix of old comics sales, actors in genre shows and a smattering of invited comics talent. I'm not seeing much if any news except of the basic "hey, a person we may have heard of" and "look at the crazy people in costumes" variety. Photos like these from Flickr, or sets like these from same, make the show appear mostly like a wasteland. This blog posting by a volunteer suggests it was very easy to get in and get out, which is not how any decently-attended con would be described. On the other hand, there's one weird, washed-out photo in Rich Johnston's set here that shows a few hundred people trying to get in, and Sequentialseems to all but outright support Wizard's 20,000 number. It looked like a good convention if you wanted to meet cute cast members from Da Vinci's Inquest that went on to do science fiction shows, but other than that, I just can't tell. If someone out there has a wide-shot of the floor at the con's height, please let me know so I can go look at it!
* the French-language comics news clearinghouse has a report up on how publishers saved money on expenditures at this year's Le Salon du Livre de Paris: one group reduced its space to the tune of 600,000 Euros in savings; another group exhibited together. Attendance remained high over the weekend despite the cost-cutting moves by the exhibitors.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Xaviar Xerexes relates word that Patrick Farley would like to return to webcomics making and may need a bit of your cash to get started.
* it was hard for me to get through this long essay on how Kurt Busiek ruined superhero comics, but I think I managed to disagree with every single idea that it suggested. You may do better than I did in both getting through it and retaining enough of it to make an argument of it.
* Alan Gardner notes that Paul Gilligan referring to Wiley Miller as a douchebag for entering his panel that sometimes runs in a strip space as a strip in the NCS Awards. It's a very lively comments thread, although I'd be lying if I said the first thing I did was something other than run a search to see if Miller himself responded (he didn't).
* Russ Manning: Kinky? Well, yeah. That little skirt Magnus wore made me feel all squishy inside and that comic was 15 years before my time.
Dick Giordano, a longtime pencil artist and inker as well as a key comics industry figure at Charlton and DC Comics, passed away on Saturday, March 27. He had reportedly been battling leukemia, a fight which was recently noted as having made a potential turn for the worse. Giordano was 77 years old.
Giordano was born in Manhattan and like many of his eventual cartooning peers made use of New York's focused high school system to receive the bulk of his early artistic training. He majored in illustration and advertising art at the High School Of Industrial Art. Once out of school, Giordano went immediately to work at the S.M. Iger Studio, where he was put to work inking backgrounds on titles such as Fiction House's Sheena. This sobering introduction to the field of commercial comics would be his home for the next nine months.
By 1952, Giordano was working freelance and publishing a variety of work through Charlton. Thus began one of two great professional relationships of his long career. Giordano was one of several artists hired when Charlton brought their nascent comics production capabilities in-house in 1951, under Al Fago as editor. Giordano's peer group with the company, which was already building a reputation as a publisher willing to follow youth buying trends into every corner of the comics market, included Sam Glanzman, Sal Trapani, Joe Gill, and Rocke Mastroserio. Giordano would later marry Trapani's sister, Marie.
Giordano seized the Charlton opportunity with both hands, performing a number of jobs across various genres and of every kind, big and small, that were assembled into comics at the time. Among the titles he worked on in the early 1950s were Lawbreakers, Racket Squad In Action, The Thing, Space Adventures, Hot Rods and Racing Cars and True Life Secrets. One can see two elements of distinction in Giordano's initial burst of work with Charlton. Unlike some of his peers who were either paired with an inker or pencil artist or even hired one of their own to increase productivity, many of Giordano's early credits had the artist performing both tasks. Giordano also began to do a number of covers, perhaps far ahead of what most artists with his productivity level on inside features might have done. Giordano's early covers frequently focused on a figure, either in action or repose, with backgrounds or scene-setting details falling away. Giordano would develop into one of mainstream comics' more passionate proponents of comics art as a storytelling form rather than an illustrative opportunity, even in still moments like the ones covers generally provided.
Giordano's career at Charlton tends to be marked by a slow rise through the ranks to become managing editor. While true, that progression, like that of American comics, was more fractured than first appears. Giordano began as a freelancer, but in 1955 went on staff at Charlton to keep his assignments. The comics industry of the late 1950s continued to be savaged by distribution trouble and general decline in a readership spending more time staring at television that reached into the relatively and insular Charlton. Although his work there continued unabated, as the '50s turned over, Giordano also picked up romance work from Marvel, a few gigs for the Treasure Chest title, a variety of jobs from Dell and even a comic or two for British publisher Alan Class. Giordano seems to have negotiated this dark period better than most, purchasing his first home with Marie in 1959.
Charlton laid down the foundations for a brief run of superhero comics that proved popular with hardcore fans in the very early 1960s, with brief runs on a Captain Atom and Blue Beetle character -- neither of which included Giordano, but as a creator making editorial in-roads he was certainly increasingly familiar with the company's line-wide strategies. With Marvel's success attracting press by the mid-1960s, and after the now-dissatisfied Marvel cornerstone and longtime Charlton artist Steve Ditko returning more fully to that company's fold in 1966, Giordano was able to spearhead the Charlton Action Hero Line that included Captain Atom, a re-jiggered Blue Beetle, The Peacemaker, Peter Cannon... Thunderbolt, The Question and the character Judomaster.
Not only did that bunch of titles make an impression on fans -- perhaps creatively so ahead of their bottom-line sales success -- and not only would Giordano's involvement presage a use of similar characters a couple of decades later with Watchmen, the move drove notice to Giordano from mainstream comics giant DC Comics. The hiring of Giordano into DC's editorial was one of several moves by newly named Editorial Director Carmine Infantino in 1967. Giordano fit both of Infantino's apparent qualifications for such a position: he was a working artist with an artist's appreciation for comics storytelling and effective cover image-making, and he had direct experience editing, particularly working with new talent.
Giordano is credited with involvement in two of DC's most highly regarded series of the period: Bat Lash, an easy-going western in the vein of Warner's immensely popular Maverick television series and offering readers a vaguely insouciant counter-culture feel, and a run of "Deadman" stories in Strange Adventures, one of comics' best attempts ever to use the superhero's uncanny ability to hold multiple genres to its chest by attaching horror elements to an otherwise standard costume and origin template. Burgeoning comics superstar Neal Adams drew the Deadman comics; Adams would prove to be a crucial creative and business partner to Giordano over the next decade and beyond. Comics like Bat Lash and the Deadman run were crucial to DC in that they allowed the company to partially staunch the bleeding in terms of cultural cool that was the result of Marvel's 1960s success, and pointed towards a creative direction for the company to pursue in order to stay relevant with a certain taste-making, hardcore readership in what seemed at the time like a potentially dying industry.
Giordano left DC in the very early '70s to work with Neal Adams at Continuity, where they packaged a variety of comics for a number of purposes, including special projects with both of Giordano's previous biggest clients: DC and Charlton. In 1977 he would start his own company, "Dik-Art," to serve the same kind of clients only with greater autonomy and control. Although this kind of break with traditional publisher/creator relationships was rare enough in comics history that as a business move each stands out on Giordano's long resume, there were two outcomes in terms of art during that period that may have had a greater effect on the cartoonist's overall legacy.
The first was that Giordano became the best of Adams collaborators in terms of inking his work. Giordano's fealty to figure drawing and ability to dissipate just that tiniest bit of over-the-top energy that Adams brought to some of this freelance work made that partnership work much better in terms of comics and storytelling of both the single-image and narrative flow kind than either Hall of Famer would enjoy teamed with other artists. He worked with Adams on memorable runs of Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and also worked with him on 1978's iconic Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali, a comic with a deserved pop-culture pedigree that's grown in stature for the relative high quality of the comics art and storytelling contained therein. Giordano also inked Ross Andru on Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, a popular 1976 novelty book that showed just how much the two companies house styles had grown close together.
The second was that almost as soon as Giordano walked in the front door of the New York City comics publisher he began working on covers for DC, starting with romance titles but soon branching out into their more popular titles, particularly those starring Batman. Giordano proved to be a pro's pro in that arena, adapting to various trends and visual signatures with startling alacrity. Story was front and center. A typical Giordano cover might feature a staged scene reminiscent if not exactly loyal to a scene in the comic, but the general handsomeness of the cartoonist's art at this stage in his career afforded whatever was drawn with a simple authority that was appropriate to DC's longtime standing within the industry. He would stay one of the iconic cover artists of that late Silver Age period, doing his part to define DC's overall look until the 1980s and fractured influences across multiple genres began to take hold.
In 1980, DC Publisher Jenette Kahn brought Giordano back into DC's fold. He rapidly ascended from a position editing the various Batman books to managing editor (1981) to Vice President/Executive Editor (1983), the position he held until his departure. When Giordano was brought on, DC had yet to find its footing in a comics marketplace focused less on traditional strengths like brand strength and newsstand sales and more on devoted fans spread out across generations and a Direct Market that allowed publishers to reach those fans with much less risk than had been the case decades earlier. Giordano focused on the comics DC was publishing, initiating what he later called -- casually -- a five-year plan (noting that he may have been a year or two behind), bringing on new talent, matching them to projects best designed to flatter the various, important DC properties. Like many creators in the 1980s, Giordano's pay was based on bottom-line sales. Unlike most creators, his bonuses included revenue from licensing. He settled into a precarious balancing act: revitalizing the DC icons while protecting each one's traditional function within the publishing line.
Giordano worked within the strictures of a leadership team comprised of himself, Kahn and Paul Levitz (Joe Orlando was sometimes included by Giordano as a highly-important fourth cog.) Giordano described the 1980s DC triumvirate in a 1988 interview with Gary Groth:
Actually, the three of us work pretty well together as a team. I'm kind of pleased with it. Paul's title is executive vice-president and essentially he's in charge of, if you want to get down to the simple facts, marketing, to some degree, and the money end of it. He's the one who tells me when I've over-spent my budget, or when I've spent my money foolishly. But he has no input direct into the contents of the magazines. He's the on that will let me know if we've done something that is legally wrong. Jenette, as publisher, is responsible essentially for making the decisions on what material we publish and for guiding me in what kind of material we want to publish for a given year. My basic responsibility is long-range planning in terms of what properties we're going to put on. I decided most of the properties that are going to be published simply by reading a humongous amount of proposals, by looking at work from artist and so on and so forth."
Giordano's description of the editorial team with whom he worked was about 20 people total, seven or eight that reported directly to him, and that in the end he felt responsible for everything between the covers of every DC comic of that period.
Among successes with which he's at least partially if not primarily credited is the reorganization/re-launch of popular characters through event series and special publishing events, the company's major, line-wide Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover that married the development of these properties to an actual storyline, and the grouping of a small bunch of successful horror-tinged titles into a full-blown imprint called Vertigo. Even some of his initiatives that didn't quite come to successful fruition, like a proposed children's line and a graphic novel series, involved measure the company would eventually pursue. Many of the younger artists that Giordano had shepherded through jobs at Charlton, DC (the first time around) and Continuity were among the industry's leading talents. He edited DC's groundbreaking The Dark Knight series with Denny O'Neil, but perhaps just as importantly had his hand in a variety of creative efforts that kept the sometimes-staid company creatively vital during that period, for instance green-lighting Bob Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden's bizarre and still slightly ahead of its time series Thriller, or working with Neal Pozner on the first of many modern attempts to resuscitate Aquaman, or green-lighting two NathanielDusk series featuring art from an absolutely in-his-prime Gene Colan. Giordano continued to be a mentor and touchstone to emerging artists, especially inkers who looked up to that aspect of his career. He continued to contribute artistically, for instance working on John Byrne's revamp of Superman (The Man Of Steel) and the Crisis interiors.
Giordano was essential throughout the development of the DC's hugely success and highly-regarded Watchmen book, being present during the initial recruitment of writer Alan Moore into the American company's fold during an early talent-searching trip to the UK, through the acquisition by DC of the Charlton superhero characters as his former publisher began to crash and burn, to suggesting to Moore that he use original characters on the book to greater creative effect.
Giordano's public profile with comics fans grew in the 1980s through a monthly column called "Meanwhile..." that promoted company news through its publications. Unlike such efforts in EC and most famously Marvel Comics, there was very little tomfoolery inherent in Giordano's pieces, almost nothing or an arch nudge-nudge, wink-wink tone. They were written in a relatively sober, absolutely friendly voice, like a friend of your father's you particularly liked and didn't mind sitting down to listen to. As a pipeline into at least some aspects of working in what still felt like a closed industry miles and miles away from most fans, the "Meanwhile..." columns may have led many in the rising creative class to feel they had the same kind of tutorial relationship as some of the artists with whom Giordano more directly worked.
The 1980s were a hotbed of creators' rights discussions and decisions made on both sides of the divide between creator and publisher. Part of Giordano's legacy as an industry figures is his central role in DC's labeling controversy during this period. He provided his own, eloquent disquisition into his decision-making on the matter and the beliefs fueling them in an interview with Gary Groth in The Comics Journal #119 (January 1988). Denying the persistent accusation that DC had looked into labeling their books due to outside pressure from sources critical of some content like prominent Direct Market retailer Buddy Saunders, Giordano unpacked a view where in-company labeling would act as a replacement tool for an increasingly creaky and arbitrarily applied Comics Code. He also, perhaps to greater controversy, suggested that while DC's decisions might cost them relationships with creators such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore, and that he and others would miss them personally and as revenue-generators, the company would manage to move forward with or without them. "I'm not happy with the situation," he told Groth, "but if you're asking does it hurt from a standpoint of publishing comics in terms of sales, not as much as you might think."
Giordano left his position at DC at the midpoint of 1993, closely linked to the passing of his wife Marie due to complications from cancer and partly due to an increasing hearing loss that would come to have a greater and greater effect with just how the comics veteran managed to negotiate his way through the industry. His position was retired with him, and his duties were spread out amongst a surging in numbers editorial staff. Giordano remained a consultant with the company, working on areas of general expertise such new talent development. He remained an active artist, for example providing art to DC's 1994 Modesty Blaise prose adaptation, and standing in for short inking stints on various DC series up until a few short years ago, even as more and more of DC's archival work was bringing back to the stands various projects from the middle and early days of Giordano's long career. In 2002, Giordano was part of the abortive Future Comics effort, working with his friend Bob Layton. In more recent years, Giordano served on the board of the charity The Hero Initiative. A positively bubbly semi-autobiography written with Michael Eury called Changing Comics, One Day at a Time was released in 2003 from Twomorrows.
Giordano was one of several working professionals of his generation that made time to teach comics, working at a variety of institutions including Parsons, The Joe Kubert School, the Comic Art Workshop and Syracuse University.
Giordano received several awards for his work. They include the Alley Award for Best Editor in 1969 and the Shazam Award for Best Inker in 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1974. He received an Inkpot from Comic-Con International in 1981. He was named to the Eagle Awards' Roll of Honour in 1986 and shared a Harvey Award in 1997 for his role in editing the original series of what was that year's Best Domestic Reprint Project. He is on this year's Eisner Award Hall Of Fame nominees list.
FFF Results Post #203 -- Sounds
On Friday, CR readers were asked to, "Name Five Sound-Effects, Sounds or Noises From The Comics You'd Like To Hear In Person, Or That You Were Happy To Hear In A Movie." This is how they responded.
Tom Spurgeon
1. Snikt
2. Bamf
3. Black Bolt whispers (from the next county)
4. Superman's scream as he punches his way through much of the Scrubb Armada
5. The cash register noise that accompanies anyone's eyes becoming dollar signs
*****
Uriel A. Duran
1) Aquaman walking around in his wet costume
2) Thwip!
3) The voice of Dream of the Endless
4) The 'boom' of Boom Tubes
5) The engine of any vehicle designed by Jack Kirby
1. THOOOM!
2. The sound made when Don Blake's cane hits the ground.
3. The sound made when the Hulk's expanding feet blow out Bruce Banner's shoes.
4. The mechanical noises made MODOK.
5. The sound of Scrooge McDuck diving through his giant pile of money.
*****
Don MacPherson
1) Thwip! (Web-shooters)
2) Thrakakoom! (Or any other Mjolnir effect)
3) Whatever sound Starfire's hair makes when she flies (just curious).
4) The sound that Arm Fall Of Boy's arms make when they fall off.
5) The Boom! of a Boom Tube opening.
*****
Grant Goggans
1. The "SHFFF" of skysurfers on powerboards in Judge Dredd
2. The "BOOM" of a Boom Tube from New Gods
3. The "DOOM" of Surtur forging his sword in Thor
4. Black Canary's "canary cry"
5. The Hyper-Historic Headbang, from an old Alan Moore Future Shock.
*****
Russell Lissau
1. snikt
2. bamf
3. pfaff (Batman's grapnel firing)
4. The Batcycle's rumbling in Dark Knight
5. yoink
*****
Justin Colussy-Estes
1. The boomtube "BOOM"
2. Buddy Bradley vomiting
3. Maggie's jeans ripping
4. Any sound effect lettered by John Workman, particularly his run on Walt Simonson's Thor (I was always impressed by his Klang!s and KRAKOW!s)
5. Any or all of the sound effects from Far Arden ("Punch!" is a good start)
*****
Michael Grabowski
1. Jack Mercer's Popeye mutterings in the Fleischer theatrical cartoons
2. Robin Williams' Popeye Mutterings
3. BLOIT! (Popeye's Muscle Popping Up)
4. floof floofiTy flif flif flof da-flaf! (Many Smoke Signals Rising Quickly)
5. Poit! (Cerebus popping in and out of existence)
1. Opus Tuba Solo
2. Thwip
3. The cluck of the Whiffle Hen
4. Wuffa Wuffa Wuffa
5. Plexus Ranger's Buzz-Knucks™
*****
Bill Matheny
1) SHKLURCH! -- A hippie wringing out juice from his beard. The great Don Martin from MAD #139
2) CHOK! -- From Master of Kung Fu, as I recall.
3) SHLIK SKLUSH SHLAKLE SPLAK -- Hanging wallpaper. One more (of dozens) from the mind of Martin, Mad #112
4) SCROITCH! -- Tubby playing the violin from issue #4.
5) Those little hearts floating above a charter's head when they're lovestruck.
*****
Douglas Wolk
1) "K-POW" in the Scott Pilgrim movie trailer
2) Venus's siren song from Agents of Atlas
3) "HWWWWEDGIE," the sound of Thor giving Hercules a wedgie in Incredible Hercules
4) Scrooge McDuck diving into the coins in his money bin
5) Whatever it was Superman sang in Final Crisis
*****
Adam Casey
1. An Invincible "Cha-THOOM!" punch
2. A Boom Tube opening
3. The inimitable "BA-THROOM!"
4. A M.O.D.O.K. brain blast
5. Anything for which Todd Klein had to develop a new typeface
*****
Justin J. Major
1. The Batmobile accelerating (any version)
2. Surtur forging "Twilight", the gigantic "Sword of Doom" (Walt Simonson's Thor)
3. Ape Sex (Love and Rockets)
4. Thwip! (Spider-Man)
5. The Infinity Horn (Dreadstar)
*****
Des Devlin
* The wind blowing through Tintin's Tibetan cave: WIUUUUW
* Mr. Natural being fellated in the desert by Big Baby: MMPGH MPGH MPGH SMURCH GORP SLUP *BLORP*
* Cerebus walking hip deep in snow to find out the deciding vote: WUFFAWUFFAWUFFAWUFFAWUFFAWUFFA
* Captain America hitting a robot with his shield: WANK!
* A Don Martin supermarket collapsing, in MAD #115: FAGROON KLUBBLE KLUBBLE
*****
Stergios Botzakis
1. Whatever Superman was singing at the end of Final Crisis
2. Krakkaboom (or any John Workman lettered sound effects from Simonson's Thor run - from a distance)
3. Snap Ploobadoof
4. Ktang (from Capt. Marvel's nega bands)
5. Nurp
1. Superman's Song To Save The Multiverse (Final Crisis)
2. The Boom Tube (New Gods)
3. Mary Jane Watson's Laugh (Spider-Man)
4. Doop's Doop-Speak (X-Force/X-Statix)
5. The chime of the F-Sharp Bell (Green Lantern)
1. Woodstock's dialogue
2. Jimmy Olsen's signal watch: "zee zee zee..."
3. Starfire's starbolts: "SKREEEEE"
4. The Boom Tube
5. The "ZIP-POW" of Ignatz' brick to Krazy's head
*****
Mark Coale
1. Ka-pow!
2. Thoom!
3. The guns from american flagg
4. The boing from male excitedness made by tex avery wolves
5. The klang of cap's shield when it bounces off a room full of AIM henchmen
1. ZIT-ZIT-ZIT-ZIF-ZAT-ZAT-SWIZAP!
2. PFFFT-FRACK! POP ---SPROiNG-GING
3. FLUK GROON GROON GROON GROON SPLAZITCH SPLAZATCH
4. GLADINK BZZZT KLADWAK SPROINK FWAK KAZIK
5. Any other sound effect conceived of by Don Martin
1. That satisfying "SKREEEeeeee!" sound when Magnus, Robot Fighter decapitates a robot with his bare hands
2. The equally satisfying "Gunch!" of a Bode' lizard getting his head and/or 'nads crushed
3. "Gnnyaarrrggghhh!" as someone dies in a CREEPY or EERIE comic
4. "Toot! Tweet! Bonk!" as the Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. get stoned
5. ... and as Don Martin so eloquently put it: "Oot Gackle! Oot Geek!"
*****
Robert Martin
1. Jesse Custer's "Voice of God" from Preacher
2. The "Papa Ooo Mow Mow" of the Somnambutol Snowballs in American Flagg!
3. Batroc the Leaper's alleged French accent
4. Banshee's scream
5. Also from Preacher: Arseface's voice
1. "Thwip"
2. The whirring of a batarang through the air
3. "BLAM BLAM BLAM"
4. The click of Morpheus turning the key to the gates of Hell
5. The sound of a banana peel slip
Loser Of The Week
The Direct Market, if the marketshare games continue
Quote Of The Week
"Customers want to be entertained for a reasonable price, by stores that are "in continuity" and that are released in a reasonable amount/frequency." -- Brian Hibbs
*****
today's cover is from the 1940s-1950s mainstream comics publisher Avon
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* there were protests in Malaysia earlier today concerning the cartoon-style drawing from artist Lars Vilks in which Muhammad's head was placed onto a dog's body. This is worth noting not just for the continued attention paid the Vilks drawing but for the fact that during the initial Danish Cartoons Controversy protests in Malaysia helped coarsen the atmosphere in that part of the world to the point where similar free-speech issues were dealt with that much more harshly.
* the New York Timestakes its own look at the recent David Coleman Headley plea agreement, taking note of how easily Headley traveled.
* this should be interesting, and by "interesting" I mean a range of effects from raising an eyebrow to seeing a mushroom cloud on CNN: at least one report on the wires this morning has David Coleman Headley naming specific Pakistani army officers as being involved in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai.
E&P On Jack Higgins' Work Expansion
Newspaper industry bible Editor & Publisher has a short article up on that recent story of Jack Higgins' cartoons showing up in newspapers in Illinois towns Glenview and Hinsdale. Turns out that's just a continuance of the cartoonist's interest in doing local cartoons, the same impulse that generated a book of Chicago-only cartoons in 2009. A Pulitzer Prize winner (1989) working with such smaller papers is going to be a story, but in this case a relationship on that level with those sorts of publication fits what we know about the cartoonist.
Let's Hope This Is A Bit Of A Misreading Or There Was Something More To It
I didn't have the financial ability to cover this year's ComicsPRO meeting in Memphis, so I should probably be really careful about parsing the words of those who made it on site. That said, I really hope that Matt Price has it wrong, and there's a bigger takeaway from the DC presentation that an expressed desire to beat Marvel in the DM sales ranking.
There was a time when market-share goals made a lot of sense. That was 15 years ago, when Marvel great attempt at a headless (filmless) media empire had shareholders to impress and DC needed as many performance trump cards as it could muster to block the occasional divisional takeover bids from within the parent company. But at this point, no. Today, both of those companies hold positions of pride withing giant entertainment conglomerates that value them for reasons that have nothing to do with making the big space on a Milton Griepp pie chart.
I would suggest the vital task facing these companies isn't to secure great market share but to grow the market entire. Selling 200,000 copies of the #4 comic book is a far worthier goal than to have the #1 comic book at 87,500. Sustaining or even making thrive comics other than the ones where everyone gets together to fight the super-powered ferret-headed love child of Darkseid and the Beyonder or whatever is a healthier situation creatively for the long haul in comics and exploitation into other media. So I hope there was some of that, too. Sorry I missed it.
Comic-Con Should Be In Whatever Venue Can Best Guarantee We Don't Have To Talk About It All The Time
I'm growing more convinced that the sole effect of talking about Comic-Con International more than you have to four months before it arrives is to make you hate it a little bit. And I say that as a flat-out fan of the show and as a beneficiary of its parent company's advertising largesse. Still, people insist, and CCI is a humongous business within comics and as important an institution as is out there, so okay.
The new thing is that Anaheim has put up a facebook page and an open letter campaigning for the show to move there in 2013. Hey, good for them. Press every advantage. I don't know if Comic-Con will move the show, although it occurs to me that it's only important San Diego thinks they might. Seriously, though, I don't know the exact factors the CCI people are bringing to bear in making their decision -- whether it's hotel space, or civic concessions, or exhibition space, or maybe a tax issue, or what. Maybe it's the overall package...? I like the show, and I like it in San Diego; I'm biased that way.
However, aside from the real discussion that's going on even as we speak between the adults in charge, it'd be nice if the imaginary proposals put forward by the competing cities or their proponents didn't suck giant donkey balls. I'd almost consider the internet version of the public face of these proposals from cities not San Diego some sort of ploy by the city of San Diego to make people like them better.
Anaheim has much less of a compact immediate area to host a show, and nobody seems willing to give a forthright answer how Disneyland's proximity -- Disneyland in summertime! -- doesn't ruthlessly punch in the kidneys any advantage that area might have as to parking and hotels. Las Vegas is 40,000 degrees in the summer, it's the worst match in history of a convention city to a convention population that doesn't want to spend money except inside the convention center, the vast majority of the convention population would have to depend on an infrastructure or cabs that likely wouldn't be up to it but would almost certainly result in a black hole of bitching and complaints about the money spent before the weekend was up, and to top things off I'm totally convinced someone would die in the cab line at McCarran and 80 percent of the remaining people spending the two to five hours there Wednesday afternoon would wish that person was them. Los Angeles seems like a much more spread out San Diego that will make the show seem like work for all the Hollywood types and make it actual work for everyone else scrambling to get to the central location each day. Moving to LA would be kind of like when a TV show rebuilds its East Coast sets on the West Coast for some reason no one remembers when the show gets canceled a year later. It does have the advantage of not being an insane option, though. (I have no idea why no one talks about San Francisco, which has the advantage of actually hosting a comics-driven convention twice a year; I'd imagine it's a no-go exhibition space-wise.)
Winning CCI will be for that city like winning the White House is for a presidential candidate. Half the people will freak out, but the other half will grow to appreciate as positive qualities things about the city that never occurred to them before. The (nerd) republic will endure. I just wish it felt like an honest-to-God heavyweight election and less like three fringe candidates hanging around to see if the front-runner gets assassinated.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* there's a really nice post here from Tim Hensley about a gig facilitating something close to the original Black Blizzard lettering.
* here's a giant, permanent resource-style list of graphic novels with female protagonist being whipped together by an all-star line-up of Internet writer-about-comics regulars.
* today's loaded selection of birthday includes Alvin Buenaventura and Greg McElhatton. I can't do a birthday greeting post for Alvin because I have no idea how old he is and I can't do one for Greg because I can't figure out an icon/image to use. Happy birthday anyway, fellas.
* there's a three-part interview with Tokyopop's Stuart Levy at the comics business and news analysis site ICv2.com. (1, 2, 3). Levy says the company is stable in the bookstores, stable in a different way in the comics shops, and bullish on digital. The most interesting stuff in there was a comparison of the British and German market. Well, to me, anyway.
* that Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World trailer is a really nice, effective trailer, and the film looks like a great deal of fun. What else is there to say?
Go, Read: On John Hicklenton
The writer Pat Mills remembers his friend and longtime collaborator the late artist John Hicklenton in an earnest and even somewhat understandably scattered post up at Forbidden Planet International's blog. Mills mentions a number of projects that weren't quite as prominent a part of Hicklenton's biography as his 2000 AD work, noting that his late friend had just finished a project called 100 Months for a trio of publishers including one in Great Britain. He also spoke admiringly of Hicklenton's skill with the grotesque and fearful, including this wonderful line: "His range of demons seems inexhaustible."
Euro Comics Authors Take Stand On Issues Surrounding Digital Rights According to a brief report at BDZoom.com, over 750 comics authors and creators active in the French-language comics market have signed a declaration to stop granting digital rights to their publishers until industry standards are worked out in terms of the nature of digital comics work (separate book, derivative work) and how authors will be rewarded for the sale of such works in light of various pricing issues. You can see -- and translate -- a document with the bulk of those names here; the initial document that went out with 14 comics creators including Cyril Pedrosa and Olivier Jouvray can be found in PDF form here.
Not Comics: It's The Advertising
* the leviathan that seems to be making itself known to the army officers ringed around the shadow and dust of the print newspaper's near-collapse the last few years is looking more and more like the Great Beast Of Falling Advertising Revenues. The thinking here is that above and beyond any kind of new media development or a shift in consumption habits or loss of readership confidence the most important factor in the struggle of newspapers to make ends meet is that they used to have a monopoly on a certain kind of advertising, or at least to a certain percentage of it: they don't have that anymore. Editor & Publisher reports that 2009 advertising revenues fell to mid-1980s levels last year, falling under $25 billion and representing a 28.6 percent drop. Moreover, the losses are accelerating after a 2007 when they were 9.4 percent down and a 2008 in which they fell 17.7 percent. While there are certainly industries that can operate with $25 billion in one of their revenue streams, the severity of the drops will continue to wreak havoc on an infrastructure designed to function at a certain size unless it bottoms out at some point. This is one of the reasons I think you could see some newspapers culling their comics sections in severe fashion: for many publication, the money is simply not there.
* so what about on-line models, as perhaps exemplified by the conversion of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer into an on-line publication? This profile puts a cheery face on what seems to me some pretty dire analysis: the paper didn't come close to meeting its revenue goals during the honeymoon period, those revenue goals seem super-modest and not indicative of the paper's full operation (that's a hunch on my part, reading between the lines), and the paper in moving on-line hasn't come close to matching the print newspaper's devotion to hard news and is in fact favored the kind of first-person blogging and lifestyle stunts you can get in a lot of places. I've been as hard as anyone on the failure of traditional newspaper models to match bottom-line production to dollars spent, but this doesn't sound like an alternative way of news-gathering; it sounds like an alternative to news-gathering.
This Twilight Thing May Be Popular Previously measured in such terms as box office performance, mentions of its stars on entertainment shows relative to that box office performance and the number of tour buses hitting Forks, Washington, the Twilight phenomenon extended into a new area of proclaimed public relevance by moving 66,000 copies of a comics version drawn by Korean artist Young Kim. Publisher Yen Press declared this a record, and there's no reason to doubt them. While the sales were only 1 in 60 over the same period of the movie spin-off of the Stephanie Meyer novel, comics works according to a different scale. One interesting thing that popped up was a comics culture-centric criticism of the ham-fisted lettering techniques, meaning that it was noticed by folks with more of a comics background rather than it being a complaint that erupted from the more general readership of the book. It's also the kind of craft thing that under almost any circumstances wouldn't have a big enough effect on the reading experience to damage initial sales, but could conceivably have an effect on how big a hit the book becomes as the series progresses.
* Bob Temuka imagines the end of comics and finds himself not too sad over such an option, at least from a pretty rigorous creative standpoint. I think there's something to be gleaned from here about these companies over-publishing, for sure; except in one or two cases these aren't the greatest concept and it just doesn't make sense from a long-term resource management standpoint to have folks cranking out more adventures for the Teen Titans when they could be working on something else less tired.
* go here to stare at a nice charity piece by Stan Sakai.
* if you start here and follow the links you'll see a bunch of artists doing scenes from movies. I think. (via)
* the writer and comics historian Mark Evanier responds to the folks that are rumbling about starting a creator-focused convention to run at the same time as Comic-Con International.
* finally, Robot 6 tracks a rumor that Paul Pope's Battling Boy may end up in on-line serialization. I think I remember a Paul Pope blog post where he pined for the days of print serialization while wrestling a bit with this project, so maybe that's related.
* In breaking news -- meaning it popped up in my inbox 10 minutes before this post rolled out -- Fantagraphics has signed an agreement with Rick Marschall to create and run a new imprint for the company called Marschall Books. This imprint will be devoted to the historically compelling comics, cartoons and humor efforts in which Marschall is a widely-acknowledged, longtime expert. Tons of information in the press release here.
* Fantagraphics has one of those photo-description-video-pdf previews up for the first volume of its Roy Crane reprint series. He is the source for action in comics, the Douglas Fairbanks Sr. of funnybook lickety-whop, and these books should be a blast. (image at top)
* Daryl Cagle's on-line syndicate turns 10. That's an idea that was way before its time at its inception. Heck, given the incremental, leviathan-like crawl of the newspaper industry, Cagle's operation is still ahead of its time.
* CBRpreviews the forthcoming Daren White and Eddie Campbell collaboration The Playwright.
* the writer J. Torres talks to PW about a repackaging of his Alison Dare material he did with J. Bone from a publisher with the frightening appellation of Tundra.
* I'm not really good with the superhero stuff, and those dopey "I'm an Avenger" silhouettes and their joke equivalents have both more than worn out their welcome and never should have been treated by anybody as straight-up news in the first place, but I guess it's worth noting that Robert Kirkman is going to band together elements of his sprawling Invincible universe into something of a team book. Kirkman has been working through a lot of projects lately, and not all of them feel like hits. This one seems like something safely within his sweet spot, though. As for the original Avengers, I guess retailers are going to get a flat-out, potentially terrifying snootful of them starting this summer.
* veteran Paws Inc. contributor Brett Koth is launching his own strip through Creators, Diamond Lil. You can keep clicking through to a number of links worth consuming if this news interests you.
* the writer Warren Ellis provides a look at the fourth paper volume of his Freakangels project with Paul Duffield, one of the higher-profile and simply conceived web and print projects going. Ellis also notes the existence of a one-volume collection of his NextWAVE series with Stuart Immonen, which was a funny, clever series you might want to have under one cover.
* Captain Underpantswill appear in a series four graphic novels; the first one will have a print run of one million, which is actually a modest estimate given the success of the original series.
* here's something that Brigid Alverson caught that I sure didn't: Meredith Gran of Octopus Pie is really pushing for sales through her own site, citing economic reasons. I haven't seen anyone do this with quite that language, although selling to your mailing list and at show and through one's site and to one's friends is pretty common for all authors. Although maybe I'm reading it wrong, this sounds much closer to a vote of no-confidence in seeing a decent return from the release of the book through the standard sales infrastructure of bookstores and on-line retailers, which is a different thing altogether.
* Marvel takes baby steps towards publishing Marvelman/Miracleman, the superhero whose kryptonite is a legal brief.
* IDW's latest licensed franchise will be Jurassic Park. Guys, I'm telling you, I'm sitting on multiple issues of potential Eisner-winning Sapphire and Steel storylines here. We can make this happen.
* the writer Graeme McMillan was let go from the science fiction blog-driven site io9, which means I don't have to go to io9 anymore. Their loss: I thought he did good work for them. I look forward to seeing McMillan's by-line on more specifically comics-focused sites, like this one.
Peter Brookes was named cartoonist of the year at the 2010 British Press Awards, held last night at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Brookes was one of four winners from The Times in a night where the strongest overall showing was apparently enjoyed by The Daily Telegraph. You can go here for a Brooke slideshow, including one of the cuter American health care passage cartoons I've seen. I like how straight-forward his cartoons tend to be; it makes necessary strong punchlines -- if you're not going to be blunt and insightful, you're just piping up like any ol' dumb person.
Terry "Aislin" Mosher (Montreal Gazette), Brian Gable (Globe and Mail) and Malcolm Mayes (Edmonton Journal) will vie for top dog in the editorial cartooning category of the National Newspaper Awards to be announced mid-May. The awards have been given out since 1949, and receiving the honor seems to be a first-graph-of-obituary honor for many of its recipients.
Aislin's submissions included the above cartoon, about a humorous situation arising from a breach of etiquette by US First Lady Michelle Obama when meeting Queen Elizabeth -- the kind of thing that makes many people with some relationship to a queen hold their breath but no one in the US notices. Anyway, he makes a compelling point in the article at the above link about how cartooning has become deeply responsive to recurring imagery that gains a foothold via social media and through more traditional media channels. I'm not sure that hasn't always been true, and an upswing in responsiveness to such imagery and its resultant impact seems worth serious consideration.
RSF Makes Request To Sri Lankan President On Behalf Of Cartoonist and Journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda
Although it feels like something they'd know would fall on deaf ears, the Paris-based media advocacy group Reporters Sans Frontiers made an appeal to the office of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to put his weight behind finding -- or at this point, finding what happened to -- cartoonist and journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda. Ekneligoda has been missing for two months, and was believed kidnapped on the even of presidential elections. This is the first article I've seen to publish a counter-explanation from government officials: that Ekneligoda staged his own disappearance to embarrass the certain-to-be-incoming president.
Go, Read: Ace Backwords Helped
The cartoonist and street-level living advocate Ace Backwords is the subject of a San Francisco Chronicle profile, detailing how his friends have encouraged him to apply for some measure of aid to help with recent eyesight losses. The article paints a pretty clear picture of what's going on. Backwords has always been an intriguing talent, marrying some of the best expressive and even transgressive elements of the underground tradition with an alt-culture era nod towards community and relentless self-examination.
What's striking is that he's 53, which I think makes his plight of another, ongoing story, the potential tidal wave of cartoonists and comics folk who never worked in a kind of corporate set-up that was rewarding enough to gain a foothold of the kind that's useful when physical maladies set in, artists that spent that time working for publishers or for infrastructures that fade more quickly than most. It's something worth keeping in mind as a community and an industry.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* what Mike Sterling considers the perfect comic. I think it's a really good all-ages adventure comic with a lot of craft elements to recommend it, and it's obviously a pop-culture item with which to be reckoned, so count me on board.
* Graeme McMillan looks at the "Cover Version" concept.
* longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort names a few of the company's more prominent extended storyline sagas.
* so I guess some artists are agitating for a Creator-Con alternative to Comic-Con, apparently out of some frustrations with the show. I'm actually stunned that no one's ever tried to just put on a focused show near CCI during that weekend. I don't even see it as a sure sign that people are angry with Comic-Con, as I bet a lot of people would enjoy doing both. I wouldn't spend time going to see a bunch of not-interesting cartoonists, but I'd make the time to go see some good ones if they were nearby. Why not? I plan on shopping at Quimby's during the Chicago Con. One problem I see is that the people who end up trying this have no money whatsoever, because a lot of the stuff that I would imagine working -- honoring CCI badges, for instance -- kind of cut into maximizing the dollar.
* finally, this interview with Ted Adams was described to me as a victory lap for IDW gaining premier status with Diamond, but if you don't get a victory lap for breaking into that club, no one ever gets a victory lap.
Two New Staffers Added To CBLDF Via press release comes word that the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has added a Development Manager and a Operations Manager to its management team. Cheyenne Allott will take on the Development Manger position, which will place her front and center in the organizations' fund raising activities. Brady Bonney takes the Operations Manager position, which means he'll run the office, the web store and various office interrelationships with a goal towards greater overall effectiveness. Both are veterans of the comics industry in the Pacific Northwest: Allot from Dark Horse Comics; Bonney from Things From Another World. Both new hires will report to longtime Executive Director Charles Brownstein, who promises additional moves in 2010 to increase the organization's size and scope.
This Isn't A Library: New And Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate 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 works listed here. I might not buy any. But were I in a comic book shop tomorrow I would be crossing off in my bracket the winners and losers among the following:
*****
JAN100072 THE GUILD #1 (OF 3) CARY NORD CVR $3.50 NOV090385 KING CITY #6 (MR) $2.99 DEC090413 ORC STAIN #2 (MR) $2.99 JAN100570 CAPTAIN AMERICA #604 $3.99 JAN100613 UNCANNY X-MEN #522 $3.99 JAN100700 GLAMOURPUSS #12 $3.00 FEB100834 ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL OF TIME #1 $3.99
A bunch of serial comics with interesting things to offer, even if I'm not certain I'd buy any of them were I in the store. The Guild features the unlikely team of Felicia Day and Jim Rugg; King City and Orc Stain are the prime, must appealingly idiosyncratic offerings from the pleasure-from-drawing side of the Image catalog; Brubaker and Fraction offer up solid variations on successful Marvel formulaic approaches in Captain America and Uncanny X-Men; Glamourpuss reaches an unlike 12th issue, and a series adapting Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time begins, which I'm guessing will have to be 15,000 issues long.
DEC090043 BOOK OF GRICKLE HC $17.99 DEC090040 WONDERMARK TP VOL 03 DAPPER CAPS & PEDAL-COPTERS $16.99
Two strong offerings from Dark Horse this month firmly in the alt-comics camp: the vastly under-appreciated Graham Annable, years after a run of mostly great books at Alternative failed to get him all the way over, and the latest in David Malki's successful collections of his webcomic.
NOV090179 NEWSBOY LEGION BY SIMON AND KIRBY HC VOL 01 $49.99 OCT090600 THOR TALES OF ASGARD BY LEE & KIRBY COIPEL CVR HC $29.99 NOV090689 DONALD DUCK CLASSICS HC VOL 01 QUACK UP $24.99
Multiple worthy collections of older material. The Newsboy Legion material is fascinating, much more sophisticated and self-aware just a few years into the superhero genre than I was ever led to belief. Plus you get a Joe Simon introduction instead of mine, which kind of sucked. You can make an argument that the material in the Tales of Asgard collection comprises the third best comic that Marvel made during its 1960s heyday. I also can't recall this material being collected in quite this way before. I have no idea what's in the Donald Duck book, but Barks is always worth checking out.
FEB101095 120 DAYS OF SIMON GN (MR) $14.95 FEB101094 HEY PRINCESS GN (MR) $14.95
Top Shelf's Swedish invasion hits American shores. The first is a book about Simon Gardenfors' attempt to live 120 days away from home without staying in the same place twice, kind of like that recent Ted Rall book with much less creepy. Hey Princess I think is straight-ahead young person autobio of the kind that doesn't come out as much as some rabid critics of anything not in a cape and jockstrap would have you believe.
DEC090958 ON THE ODD HOURS GN $14.95
Another translation from a series of graphic albums featuring stories related to the Louvre, I think Eric Liberge's story is about a man who takes an after-hours job with the museum when it's revealed to him that the work has mythic resonance. Even if I'm not right, I know I'm correctly noting that it sure is pretty.
JAN101198 WACKY PACKAGES NEW NEW NEW HC $19.95
I think this is a sequel to the previous Wacky Packages book, which means more series of these cards that offers up the day-job work of some of the great, later-period underground cartoonists.
JAN101200 ART OF JAIME HERNANDEZ SECRETS OF LIFE & DEATH HC $40.00
I've been dying to get my hands on this book, which seems like it was a delayed a few times announcement to publication. Jaime Hernandez draws like Aaron Neville sings and Usain Bolt runs.
FEB100869 BLACK BLIZZARD GN $19.95
Yoshihiro Tatsumi's crime comic, another one I'm dying to see. It feels like a great bonus release rather than a super-, super-, super-necessary book, which excites me all the more.
JAN100950 COMPLETE PEANUTS HC VOL 13 1975-1976 $28.99
There's a really fine appreciation for Robert Smigel here; funny, too. The work in this period is better than you may remember, and you'll see at least 50 strips you would have assigned to a more obvious "golden period."
*****
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 so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, 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. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I didn't list your comic here, that's because I am in the grips of March Madness. Go, Northern Iowa!
The blog at Forbidden Planet International is reporting that artist John Hicklenton has passed away. The news originated with the 2000 AD forums and has since been confirmed. Hicklenton was afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis, and his struggle against MS had become well-known in the UK creative community and more widely through the documentary Here's Johnny.
Hicklenton collaborated with writer Pat Mills after initially contacting the writer directly, looking for work. He worked with Mills on runs of the Nemesis the Warlock and Third World War series in the late '80s and early '90s. Work on the Judge Dredd character in Judge Dredd Megazine followed in addition to a number of short works throughout. In the late 1990s he provided the art for a four-issue, Pat Mills-written Dark Horse series called ZombieWorld: Tree of Death, working as John Deadstock. That series was later collected as part of 2005's ZombieWorld: Winter's Dregs.
Hicklenton employed an art style slightly off-center from established commercial norms, but one that offered compensations in terms of meticulous rendering and a sense of visceral character design that would have served the artist well in a number of genres. Grant Goggans, a critic with a special interest in the British comics industry where Hicklenton made his career, told CR that the artist impressed him on taking over from Bryan Talbot on Nemesis in the 1980s and didn't stop. "Hicklenton specialized in wild-eyed madmen with clenched teeth and heads set at awkward angles, and stories set in the ruins of urban decay. His Mega-City One was not a place of futuristic wonder, but crumbling basements and black, black sewers. His work could be very challenging and deliberately confrontational, and not just in the way he could obscure traditional panel transitions and storytelling by forcing background elements and shadow into play, but in the way his monsters, demons and aliens didn't look like comic book creatures. They looked like genuine nightmares."
In 2000, Hicklenton received a diagnosis of MS following years of aches, pains and weaknesses for which doctor could find no direct cause. In an interview with the Telegraph given in 2008, he described how he learned he had the disease in almost blunt, comical terms. The occasion of the interview was his participation in the documentary Here's Johnny, which won two Grierson Awards that year. According to this review, the documentary tracks the artist's growing debilitation and his anger towards the remove at which he and other sufferers are treated by the medical establishment.
Hicklenton continued to draw, and had at least one major credit in the late 2000s, a story called "Blood of Satanus III: The Tenth Circle," again with Pat Mills for Judge Dredd Megazine. This was in 2007. He was also working on a project called Sand for a group called Renegade arts entertainment. An interview in 2000 AD Review revealed a thoughtful artist enthusiastic about the comics medium, happy to be (as he described it) "a grafter working in the basement," and a fan of runs of work on the various 2000 AD characters that might have fallen slightly out of favor. He described as his own strengths his painting. Mentioning that he was slightly put off by descriptions of his comics as violent, he admitted he found compelling that element of his work.
... I think violence is fascinating. I've seen someone beaten half to death, and I was very disturbed by it. I can't watch operations and if I have an injection I have to look away. If it's real, then I can empathize with the suffering there. But I sometimes get frustrated with the reactions when I do violent stuff. There's some good gory stuff in Satanus, but it's just fantasy. No one's suffering except me... and Claire (John's wife). It's not real, but I think that every human being, if we're honest, is fascinated with the power, viscera and beauty of violence because of its purity.
In an initial statement, longtime collaborator Pat Mills called Hicklenton "A great artist and a true hero."
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* there seems to be some confusion over whether US authorities have yet to make a decision about how much access to provide Indian law enforcement and security official to David Coleman Headley or if they've made at least a summary decision over how much access is to be allowed.
* the Rotterdam newspaper Algemeen Dagblad denies that it removed a reproduction of the cartoon from the artist Lars Wilks depicting Muhammad's head on a dog's body in an article on a conspiracy to kill the artist because of pressure from radical Muslims. Instead, the paper suggests that after an internal review they found the reproduction inappropriate to the content of the article in question.
* I thought this was a pretty good summary piece on the Lars Vilks situation, just as the majority of the accused conspirators against the artists were released.
Salon Drops Tom The Dancing Bug
The cartoonist Ruben Bolling announced yesterday at his blog that the online magazine Salon has canceled his long-running feature, Tom The Dancing Bug. That cancellation took effect immediately.
Bolling's strip has run in Salon since the pioneering web magazine's inception in 1995. Bolling reported in his statement that he was told that the strip was dropped because of "severe budget constraints." Given that Bolling's strip has been a signature feature for as long as it has and still places high on the top features list through to the last strip run, severe would seem to be the applicable term.
Bolling also expressed gratitude for Salon and made public his desire to find a new web site home for the strip.
The feature will continue either way. "Losing Salon does not affect Tom The Dancing Bug's financial viability," Bolling told CR. "I wasn't on staff, or paid some exorbitant fee; they paid a syndication-type fee that can't make or break a feature." Bolling's biggest regret is in how well the strip did over the years with Salon in terms of how many readers enjoyed the comics through that publication. "[T]here was a great relationship between Tom The Dancing Bug and Salon's readers -- which is why it was consistently one of the site's most-read features -- and I'm hoping I'll be able to replace that."
Bolling says that he is listening to offers for a new web site home for the strip, which is also syndicated.
This Modern World is at the moment I'm writing this Salon's final surviving strip. Keith Knight announced his break with the publication in early February.
Portland Press Efforts Need Cash
Dylan Williams has sent along a missive from the Portland 'Zine Symposium announcing their fund raising drive. I'm not familiar with the organization, not even a little bit, but Williams is an upstanding member of the comics community and I'd tend to take him at his word that this is a worthwhile group. Oddly, T. Edward Bak, another fine Portland-area cartoonist, has written in imploring people to join the Independent Publishing Resource Center, another group with which I have no personal familiarity but sounds great. It seems to me a lot of groups having suffered through 18 months of severe Recession are going to start coming up dry in terms of regular fund raising goals, so I'd keep an eye out on such organizations in your area.
Your 2010 National Headliner Award Comics Division Winner, Runners-Up
Alan Gardner caught that veteran editorial cartoonist Mike Peters of the Dayton Daily Newswon the National Headliner Award in the category of editorial cartooning. Placing second was Dana Summers of the Orlando Sentinel and placing third was Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The awards program has been around since 1935, and were founded by the Press Club of Atlantic City. Breen is among many past winners.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I wasn't aware of this corner of EC history at all.
* Dan Nadel unearths a piece of writing from Russ Manning advocating for the publisher Dell. Dan's right that a lot of the activism on behalf of publishers not named Marvel or DC has to be reconsidered in terms of what we now know about some of those great comics.
* this supporting character single elimination tournament is awfully cute, although I just know Richard Rory is going to take right in the shorts on this one. Richard Rory is very underrated -- he's exactly halfway between the creepy perpetual grad student version of Rick Jones and Ed Begley Jr. If I were running the Marvel Universe, every single time a male superhero became romantically interested in a female supporting character, she'd be dating Richard Rory.
* I enjoyed this blog posting from Craig Thompson about some of the Habibi pages he's going back and re-doing. The glimpses of this book are really pretty.
* someone needs to use this cool painting of Superwoman to play a prank on the fanboys about the direction of the Nolan/Goyer revamp of the Superman movie series.
* not comics: I did not know of this Moomin movie, although considering how obsessively various sites followed the Captain America casting, I wouldn't mind if from now on my only knowledge of the movie industry came from the lighted sign outside my local theater.
* it never occurred to me to see this cartoon as a statement on Sarah Palin's sex life. I just figured Oliphant was portraying her life as a lunatic, overheated soap opera and generally being rude to her.
* Noah Berlatsky and gang look at definitional issues, with an all-star chorus of people commenting in the comments thread. At least that's what Noah tells me, I haven't been over there yet.
William Charles "Bill" Jaaska, 1961-2009 A variety of on-line sources have concluded then confirmed Bill Jaaska, a comics artist who broke into the field in the late 1980s through independent publishers Eclipse and First before moving on to various jobs with mainstream comics publishers passed away late last year.
Jaaska broke into comics providing art on stories featuring various iconic characters of the 1980s independent comics movement: Judah Maccabee, Jon Sable, Skywolf and Scout. His three most high profile jobs with the major mainstream comics publishers were a run on New Titans that included a pair of issues written by the late artist, a partnership with Peter David on Incredible Hulk that resulted in the fondly remembered Crazy Eight capital punishment issue (#380), and providing art to the early Dark Horse cross-media efforts Terminator: Hunters and Killer and Terminator: Rewired. David wrote of their collaboration in 1991: "Bill Jaaska's art was so effective that, by the time we got to the electrocution sequence, I had become so fond of the character that I was sorry she was going to die."
Jaaska also provided work to the X-Men, Checkmate and Turok comics, although never catching on with the kind of lengthy run through which careers are firmly established. He apparently left comics behind in the mid- to late-'90s.
In 2004, another of his fondly-remembered single-issue stories on the Hulk title, "Rhino Plastered," was reprinted in that year's issue of Marvel Holiday Special.
In 2005, Jaaska's art was employed in a DVD that combined the Terminator: Hunters and Killers with voice actor talent to create one of the first motion comics efforts -- notable in that the Terminator comics on which Jaaska worked were already pioneering in terms a certain, serious approach that characterizes the current revitalization of licensed comics at such companies as Dark Horse.
"I had always thought that Bill had moved on to bigger and better things and was stunned to learn of his passing," Peter David told CR "I've always felt the that the issues of Incredible Hulk that he worked on were among the most memorable of the series. He had a unique art style and I think it's tragic that he didn't have all the work he could handle and more."
Jaaska's sister speaks in lovely fashion to how surviving family members discovered their loved one's death here and here. His last known location appears to have been the Milwaukee, Wisconsin rooming house in which he was found, alone.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard comments on David Coleman Headley's guilty plea. Westergaard was targeted in the Mickey Mouse Plot; Headley's plea included admission of an intent to do harm against Westergaard.
* the Sri Lanka Guardian goes over the plea documents and shares the new information. It looks like the attack on the Jyllands-Posten building was to be a multiple-person suicide bombing to be coordinated by Headley.
* while Headley will not be extradited to India to face charges in their court for scouting out what would become the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Indian officials will continue to have access to him.
Go, Read: Brian Hibbs On The Failures Of The Current Comics Periodicals Market
I've been writing about the idea of periodical comic books as habitual entertainment since 1995, and I think anyone who has ever been in the habit of buying comics that way would agree to me that reliable, weekly nature of the experience is a significant factor for the way they buy or the way they're aware other people buy. Maybe both. My personal experience has always been that many weekly, Direct Market comics-shoppers have a split impulse that fuels what they take home: they buy and follow certain comics or characters or creators, but they also facilitate for themselves a comics-reading experience that in many cases involves matching a rough or even set amount of money. Usually the two overlap.
To state this another way: while I admit content-only comics buying could be the case with some people, literally none of the comics shoppers I've known in Indiana, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Seattle and New Mexico employed a rigid, content-driven buying strategy that would have them comfortably buying one comic one week and eleven the next week. If a week was stuffed with comics they liked my friends and acquaintances might buy them all but they also might just buy the ones they really, really liked. If the week was light on comics they enjoyed, they might try something new, settle for something they sort of liked but was reliably there, or buy books they passed on from a previous stuffed week.
It's anecdotal evidence, sure, but it's twenty years since I started paying some attention to it. There's a ton of factors I don't understand at all that also come to bear: I don't know or understand premium cover collectors, for instance. Like as human beings I don't understand them. I don't know any "I will buy every issue of X-Men even when it hurts" customers, mostly because I stopped buying comics in comics shops before the publishers turned this into a real pressure point, transforming a custom into a dare. I also have to imagine that everything is different for the folks spending $200-$400 a week in regular fashion. Hell, the insides of their cars probably smell different. But to deny any effect to this very specific and peculiar way certain comic books are sold in North America seems to me the kind of thing you can only do in some goofy Internet argument you refuse to lose.
His solutions are all reasonably compelling. I endorse his general logic that if you want to serve a certain kind of customer, you should do your best not to trip over your own feet while serving them, or, you know, directly antagonize them. At least one of Brian's solutions involve a closer reading of comics than I'd be comfortable putting forward. I have no idea if people are favoring one kind of storytelling experience over another, if Armless Speedy (didn't read) is more popular than Brainless Iron Man (read and enjoyed) or what, but I would generally leave that part in the publisher's hands (and in fact, a more systemic problem may be that there's almost no penalty for creating work that's fallen out of favor). Where I might break with Brian is that nearly all of his solutions are about making the current set-up work more effectively, and that runs the risk of keeping the system sort-of broken, or at least skewed. I would suggest to Brian that many of the things for which he advocates more generally, or for which others have long advocated, might also have an effect on better serving the current audience. Here's a few that occur to me on a Monday morning.
1) More stores. Brian uses a drug metaphor to describe the haphazard week-to-week scheduling of the mainstream comics companies being akin to cutting the product with way too much baby powder. I'm more of a Barksdale: I think having more corners would be a good thing, too. I think this might be true even in changing behavior at the existing points of sale. The one thing that we know from the numbers is that more accounts selling comics means more comics sold, even when many of the accounts are crappy. The mainstream comic book industry has potentially pissed away most of a big opportunity to restore its coverage map in an economy that actually favors the pursuit of franchising and small-business opportunities. With a bunch more stores, there's a chance -- a very small chance, but a chance -- that the publishers with a goal of selling two copies of a Wolverine comic will reorient themselves from selling customer A copies of two different comics and selling the same comic to customers A and B. Although it's not something anyone wants to talk about I think that the price point of digital initiatives and a potential greater attention to expenditures that may come from increased corporate attention could be a factor in this, too.
2) Break the back issues market. I think a big chunk of the back-issues market is made-up, exploitative bullshit that leads to a lot of dead pulp lying around. I suspect many stores would be better off in a culture where we treated the vast bulk of used comic books as used books with a higher grind and turnover than as a dubious, strongly asserted commodity they may or may not be able to cash in on at some point. If you want people in the habit of coming into the shops, creatively giving them a reason to show up that has nothing to do with the capriciousness of new comics, that works for a lot more comics fans than I think people imagine. It can also help your entry-point problem. If DVD rental companies worked like comics shops, Netflix would charge $16 to rent Dutch.
3) Incentivize Non-Mainstream Periodicals. I'm no longer a comic shop customer. I was a really good comic shop customer. I came in every week, I spent a significant amount of my discretionary income at these shops. I tried new comics suggested to me by my retailers. I recommended my shops to people. Today, there's almost no periodical work I'm interested in buying that actually appears in comic shops, even when I have months of pent-up demand working in my favor. Were it not for homework and friends, I'd spend less on periodical comics now than I spent in two weeks back in 1991, when comics were much cheaper.
Rather than boiling off layers and layers of comics fans over the years, why not try and restore a reason for those who love them to get back in the exciting habit of buying these comics again? Why wouldn't you want these customers, too? I'm of the mind that as much as the Direct Market did to drive those comics right out of existence, the Direct Market could also work to restore them if it wanted. You could directly target such publications with discounts, although other market agents would likely set their hair on fire and run through the streets if this were done. But even modest programs that, say, excused all publishers with ten-years of standing in the market the freedom to do comic books without being held to Diamond sales minimums until some traction were gained, or a program by which the releases from certain publishers were coordinated so as not to dump them all at once but encourage weekly visits from that kind of customer, these would be easy to do and might help. I would assume that there are better solutions than what I can come up with at 7:20 AM on a Monday morning. But whatever gets tried, it would have to be better than doing nothing.
Although even I can think of a lot of great strips that no one mentioned, I think it's a pretty good list, and only three made me want to build a time machine to go back to caveman times and find some way to destroy mankind's artistic impulse. And then only for a few seconds. Mostly, there's a lot on even this admittedly very standard list with which I wasn't yet familiar. Anyway, I made a folder out of open new tabs and all tabs in a folder function, and look forward to digging in. Maybe you will, too.
* I'm a huge sucker for tales of pre-1980 comics conventions, so of course I lapped up this post by Steven Thompson about his early convention experiences.
* Jeet Heer brings the deep, deep nerd. Actually, it's not so bad, but the streams he's crossing are pretty atypical.
* I have no idea why Kevin Huizenga is posting CharlesSaxoncartoons to his blog, but I'm not going to complain. Saxon is one of those emblematic cartoonists from the later William Shawn era at the New Yorker, which isn't the easiest period of the magazine to appreciate and one that is even harder to love. He's also the most representative of a kind of attitude the magazine supposedly had towards suburbanites at the time, a perceived contempt that a lot of culture-watchers resented. I wonder if there isn't a lot of material for rediscovery there.
* this is the kind of thing that would figure into one of those lighthearted mystery shows on USA Network.
* I always recommend to everyone that writes about comics that they sit down with the Sunday section from their local -- or near-to-local -- paper, and see what strikes them. Here's a set of reactions from one writer doing just that thing, although not at my urging.
* this is cute, although I didn't stay for very long.
* I've disagreed with a lot of what Tim O'Neil has written recently, but the second of the two reviews here is pretty darn entertaining.
CR reader Dan Steffan: "As I recall, you recently posted a link concerning somebody's attempt to find George McManus' house in Los Angeles. (Of course, when I went back to find that story/link, I couldn't -- but believe me, you did. Ahem.) Anyway. That story made me remember something else of a similar nature that I stumbled on a while back -- another one of McManus' homes. This time it's his house in Long Beach, NY. I think you'll find the short description as interesting as I did -- to say nothing of the nice color picture. If you didn't tender any such link or story, I apologize -- I hate that I couldn't find it -- but I think you'll find it worth your time, regardless. Have a look.
Your Current Weekend Comics-Related Major Media Feature News Updates * the New York Timesdigs into the Kirby Family vs. Marvel/Disney legal battle a bit, mostly by focusing on the size and scope and implications of the case, with an undercurrent of personality profile regarding Marc Toberoff. There's a bit of news to scan from it, though, and not just the hunch it shares with most comics folk that the case may turn on how exactly Kirby worked in the early '60s vs. his expectation of how he was working. To rattle them off 1-2-3: 1) Toberoff was surprised by Marvel's counter-suit, expecting a settlement offer, 2) Mark Evanier expects to testify and didn't talk to the Times (he hasn't commented on his site, either), 3) Stan Lee expects the same thing and didn't talk to the Times.
* writers better than I am have recontextualized this piece on Bryan Singer that focuses on his forthcoming X-Men movie work with a lot of background into a piece marking the 10th anniversary of that film. It's a bit scattered, but worth reading if you're into the movie business that has sprung up around comics. I still think Blade gets downplayed a bit -- it wasn't a superhero/superhero movie in the way that X-Men was, but it was a character from an obscure part of Marvel's catalog that was done with serious intent for a grateful audience that allowed it to make a lot of money.
Another thing about the X-Men movie that I think gets over-simplified is to talk about its fans as a monolithic group. By the time the movie rolled around, you had multiple generations and strata of X-Men fans: hardcore, read-it-all-along fans; several cycles of teens that read the comics for a time and then stopped (none of my fraternity brothers -- 1987-1991 -- read comics, but 90 percent knew who Wolverine was) and another series of cycles of teens that watched the cartoon versions and then stopped. Somehow the X-Men had a sizable potential audience without ever breaking out to a mass audience the way it would with the movies -- I think a lot of popular manga functions that way now, and I wouldn't be surprised if 2018's live-action Naruto film surprises the same kind of industry observer. I also think X-Men fans were well-placed. I had an editor write his own positive synopsis to the movie so it would run in the subsequent briefs section instead of the shortened version of my original, negative review, as was customary.
I still don't think that film is very good at all, but I can understand why people enjoyed it, and I still hold that whatever casting director found Hugh Jackman after Dougray Scott bailed should have been given $50 million and had a building on Fox's lot named after them.
FFF Results Post #202 -- Webcheck
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Webcomics You Read That 1) Aren't Any Of The Five I Chose, 2) Posted First On-Line -- Not After Or Concurrently With Print, 3) Are Ongoing (Updating At Least Once This Year)." This is how they responded.
Quote Of The Week
The only scapegoat and handy corporate employ among the signatures on the freelancer-dominated petition and the January 19 letter, Marv got the corporate boot up the ass." -- Steve Bissette
*****
today's cover is from the 1940s-1950s mainstream comics publisher Avon
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
One story dominates today: in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, David Coleman Headley plead guilty yesterday to a series of federal terrorism charges. This included charges related to plotting against institutions and individuals related to the Danish Cartoons Controversy, as well as advance scouting on behalf of terrorists that executed 2008's terror attacks in Mumbai. At this time, US officials do not plan to extradite Headley to India. Headley DCC co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana still faces a number of the same charges regarding both series of activities. Details, such as the planned beheadings of the Danish Cartoons principals, should chill.
Your 2010 NCS Division Award Nominees -- Seth, Mazzucchelli and Small In Graphic Novel Category
The National Cartoonists Society has officially released its list of nominees for its Reuben Award and NCS Division Awards, which will be handed out in May in New York during the only awards ceremony related to comics requiring formal wear. The Reuben Award nominees had already been leaked/reported at an earlier date: a mighty trio of Stephen Pastis, Dan Piraro and Richard Thompson. All three are deservedly well-regarded. I think it feels like Pastis' year. Admittedly, I know very little about most things.
The Graphic Novels category features the 2009 works by esteemed cartoonists David Mazzucchelli (Asterios Polyp), Seth (George Sprott) and David Small (Stitches); a Comic Books category I don't remember seeing before will come down to Terry Moore (Echo), Paul Pope ("Strange Adventures" in Wednesday Comics) and JH Williams (Detective Comics. I think what's worth noting here is that none of those choices feel like NCS favorites that happen to work in those kinds of comics. It's also worth noting Steve Brodner's nomination in advertising illustration and a fairly loaded comic-strip division category.
THE REUBEN AWARD
* Stephen Pastis
* Dan Piraro
* Richard Thompson
NCS DIVISION AWARDS
Television Animation
* Kevin Deters -- Walt Disney Prep and Landing
* Mike Gray -- The Infinite Goliath
* Seth McFarlane -- Family Guy
*****
Feature Animation
* Ronnie del Carmen, Storyboard Artist -- Up
* Tomm Moore, Director -- The Secret of Kells
* Barry Reynolds, Character Designer -- The Secret of Kells
*****
Newspaper Illustration
* Bob Rich
* Tom Richmond
* Robert Sanchuk
*****
Gag Cartoons
* Glenn McCoy
* VG Myers
* Dave Whamond to be honest, I have no idea exactly what qualifies here; above is a Glenn McCoy editorial cartoon
Got A Good CCI Hotel Room = Happy; Didn't Get One = Unhappy Shocker
I don't want to spend a ton of time talking about the act of securing convention-discounted hotel rooms for Comic-Con International. I think it's a story -- I think it's one of the few times of direct interaction between the forces of growth of that convention and others like it and the impulse to go to that convention and others like it that's not the five-day event itself. At the same time, I'm wary about stories that involve the commercial activity of bunches of people, because I think that participation lends to a greater amount of time talking through things in a way that skews the story. I thought this true of the Amazon.com story, too.
Anyway, like most things in comics -- perhaps exemplified by the first NYCC when people with the ability to circumvent the system seemed to groove on the excitement and exclusivity conveyed through a collapsed registration system that was openly screwing people -- the tendency is to high-five when something works on your behalf and to wish apocalyptic damnation on anything that doesn't. I would suggest there are hits and misses. It's my understanding exhibitors were taken care of a while ago, at least in part -- that seems like a good idea to me. As far as remaining exhibitors and attendees, I can't imagine from a process standpoint anyone not preferring yesterday's in-and-out, fraternity bid system to the rage-inducing and lose-a-working-day access issues of years past. I'm also reminded that people were completely shut out under the old system -- I was last year -- so it's not like a similar result is new to 2010.
That said, I'm totally sympathetic to those that felt they were in and out of the new system really quickly and that they were not treated as they expected to be treated given that facility. You can read a metric ton of them here. I've also read and heard distressing stories about not receiving back any word at all (although here's a thought: could that maybe be browser incompatibility? that's been an issue in the past for TP). I would hate reserving rooms into a void with the white-hot fury of 10,000 suns aka "Frank Martin style." A lot of anecdotal evidence suggests weakness if not outright collapse or corruption in the timestamp system, and that should certainly be addressed along with the non-response type failure. Both should be part of the dialogue that press people and attendees have with the CCI team that employs Travel Planners, and the ability to process what's promised fairly should be a consideration in the long-term future of the show.
On the other hand, I think the idea of fairness only extends so far. It seems to me a lot of what people experience is too many folks wanting too few rooms -- especially those highly-desirable rooms either super close to the show itself or those six to eight blocks away that don't cost an arm and a leg (perhaps an arm and half a leg). Those rooms are indeed awesome. I love those rooms! The lack of such rooms and room generally sucks on the cosmic scale of things, and is another item of discussion about the long-term future of CCI's viability in San Diego. Still, it's hard to see this strictly as an issue of fairness as long as people see their experiences 1) in narrow terms, 2) something they're entitled to. Some people are shut out of rooms they thought they had a chance of getting, and some people just didn't get a cool hotel room; we can't treat those two complaints as the same thing.
I've stayed in Mission Valley; I've stayed 25 minutes by car past Mission Valley. I had a blast those years, too. The way people describe having a hotel out there, it's like they envision coming to the convention center in an all-terrain vehicle shared by Jan-Michael Vincent and George Peppard, dodging giant scorpions along the way. The year I stayed 35 minutes up the highway I made a choice to be there for my job, and doing my job didn't require me to have an awesome room 200 feet from the convention center. (I don't take anyone seriously that claims it does, and I know dozens of out-of-work journalists that would cover the show really, really well from the Holiday Inn in San Juan Capistrano.) Would it make things easier? Sure. But so would the con buying me a better class of notebook and comping my room.
As a longtime con-goer and someone who can get an awful lot of business done there, I wish CCI were as easy to attend as HeroesCon. But you know, I wish New York Comic-Con were a lot cheaper to attend, too, especially as someone getting too old to gracefully crash on a couch somewhere. Ditto Angouleme. Ditto Fumetto. (Okay, maybe especially Fumetto.) People in comics sometimes have a really hard time imagining an industry that exists without them, but such an industry is a truer reality now than it ever was before. Maybe you don't get to own all the comics you want, maybe you don't get to write Uncanny X-Men, and maybe you don't always get to stay at the Hilton and take a 45 second walk to Comic-Con. In the end, even the biggest funnybook show in North America is a funnybook show: you decide if it's worth it to go, and you make adjustments accordingly. The rest really is a lottery.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* if you read only one piece of writing on a very busy Friday, make it Tim Kreider's review of Pim & Francie. If you have a bit more time, read Jog on thought balloons. If you're still looking for something to do, make me a sandwich. Seriously, though, those are two good articles.
* Shannon Smith has published an enjoyable, lengthy list of the mini-comics artists, webcomics cartoonists and anthologies that made 2009 a good one. The list includes:
+ Brad McGinty
+ Dustin Harbin
+ Ed Choy Moorman
+ Ghost Stories
+ James Kochalka
+ J. Chris Campbell
+ Josh Latta
+ Julia Wertz
+ Kate Beaton
+ Megan Rose Gedris
+ Michael Kupperman
+ Patrick Dean
+ Pinstriped Bloodbath
+ Rene Engstrom
+ Sally Bloodbath
+ side B: the music lover's comics anthology
+ Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the Eight Grade
+ T. Avery
+ the 2009 Fluke Anthology
+ the 2D Cloud books
+ The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
+ the DC Showcase Presents line
+ The Deadbeat
+ the Marvel Essential line
+ the occasional Archie digest
+ The Surogates: Flesh and Bone
+ the Winter 2009 volume of Mome
+ Wednesday Comics
The list is all over the place, but to be honest, so is the way most of us read comics. The write-ups are fun, too, so I hope you'll explore them through the link.
* finally, I wasn't going to run a link to this column by Clifford Meth until he e-mailed me a chillingly recent photo of my dog.
If You Have A CCI Room Story To Tell, I'd Like To Hear It And Exploit It
Today was the first day of Comic-Con International hotel rooms being offered at a discount through the convention. This has in the last few years been a day filled with a super-tense, one- to four-hour staring contest with the Travel Planners Web Site as it bottlenecks, followed by much disappointment as the seemingly tiny allotment of rooms quickly dissipates. As such, it's come to represent the rapid growth of CCI and conventions in general, and a potential schism between older fans used to doing things a certain way and newer fans who want in on the fun. This year Travel Planners instituted a time-stamp system whereby people submitted 12 choices and then heard back from TP as to which one they secured with a request to confirm through one day's deposit.
I'm a long-time Comic-Con attendee that uses the system every year. I was shut out of the hotels on this day last year and spent like five hours to learn that I was shut out. This year I spent exactly four minutes on-line and went to watch a basketball game and when I got back I had my fourth choice. So for me, this worked out great. However, I honestly don't care where I stay. I can't imagine there were too many people psyched to get their 12th choice, but for me the only requirement is I stay in at least one new hotel every year to learn what they're like. So my needs are different.
What about you? Did you like the new system? I'm particularly interested if anyone had problems that weren't simply related to more people wanting hotel rooms than were available. Because that's not changing any time soon, and certainly wasn't going to change with a lottery-type system.
Oh, and by the way: maybe check your spam if you never got an e-mail? That's how my program scanned the incoming Travel Planners missive.
IDW/DCD: IDW Becomes Premier IDW Publishing announced today via press release that it will become a premier publisher with Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. This would make IDW the first publisher to advance to that status with Diamond since the terms were implemented 14 years ago.
IDW recently broke into the top tier of comics publishers based on market share, a tier traditionally reserved for premier publishers. That achievement was a sign of the company's growing sales presence and indicates a generally positive partnership with Diamond -- also the company's book distributor through a separate arm of the company.
In addition to the status involved -- and don't discount the status involved: as I recall, not getting this status was a real blow to CrossGen once upon a time, although their candidacy was much less convincing than IDW's by a country mile -- IDW will move its listing to a reserved section at front of the catalog and will participate in the Final Order Cut-Off Program before the end of the year. Unlike Marvel and DC, IDW will retain a traditional buy/sell relationship with the distributor. I don't know if IDW will start designing its own catalog pages or if it was already doing so; a query to the publisher has as of this writing yet to be answered.
Although it's unclear just how great an advantage that premier publisher status brings almost 15 years since it was, indeed, a very big deal that helped shape today's market, it's difficult to deny that 1) IDW has achieved that status due to the original sales performance parameters in a much less fruitful economic climate, 2) any assistance in negotiating the Direct Sales Market is, one would imagine, more than welcome. So good for them.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* Mickey Mouse plot co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana has been denied bail, even as co-conspirator David Coleman Headley is expected to change his plea to guilty today in a Chicago-area court. Rana and Headley were arrested on charges related to a plot to harm various Danish Cartoons Controversy principals, which expanded into an inquiry as to the men's involvement in advance scouting for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
* Colleen LaRose is expected to be arraigned this morning in a Philadelphia court for her various activities as "Jihad Jane," including work against the safety and well-being of Swedish artists Lars Vilks. Vilks made a cartoon drawing of a dog with Muhammad's head in the wake of the original Danish Cartoons Controversy. Two men were remanded in Irish court earlier this week for their roles in what looks like a loose international conspiracy against the artist. Apparently, like recent detainee David Coleman Headley, LaRose has been cooperating with authorities.
Your 2010 Joe Shuster Nominees Several mighty armies of nominees were named yesterday in six categories for the 2010 version of the Joe Shuster Awards. Designed to "recognize the achievements of Canadian comics creators," the Shusters are in their six year. They are named after Superman's co-creator, who was born in Toronto. Winners will be named June 5 during Toronto Comicon weekend.
Additional rounds of nominees will come in the publisher and comics for kids categories, in addition to the Harry Kremer Award (which goes to retailer) and the Gene Day Award (for self-publishers). More information through that initial link.
*****
ARTIST
* Chris Bachalo -- Dark Reign: The Sinister Spider-Man #1-4, Dark Avengers Annual #1, New Avengers #51-52, Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #2 -- "Black & White" (Marvel)
* Darwyn Cooke -- Jonah Hex #50 (DC Comics), Madman Atomic Comics #14 -- "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Madman Movie" (Image Comics)
* Marc Delafontaine -- Les nombrils, Vol. 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
* Djief Bergeron -- Saint-Germain, Vol. 1: Le Comte des Lumières (Glénat)
* Dale Eaglesham -- Justice Society of America #26 (DC Comics), Amazing Spider-Man #591, Fantastic Four #570-572, Captain America #600 -- "The Persistence of Memorabilia," Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #3 -- "Nice Things," Origins of Siege #1 -- "Doctor Doom" (Marvel)
* Stuart Immonen -- Ultimate Spider-Man #130-133, New Avengers #55-60, Fantastic Four #569 (Marvel), The CBLDF Presents Liberty Comics #2 -- "Trampoline Hall" (Image Comics)
* Francis Manapul -- Adventure Comics #0-3, 5, Superman/Batman #60-61 (DC Comics)
* Cameron Stewart -- Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye #1-3 (DC/Vertigo), Uncanny X-Men First Class Giant-Size Special #1 -- Origin of Wolverine segment (Marvel), The CBLDF Presents Liberty Comics #2 -- "The Apocalipstix in Taboo Boogaloo" (Image Comics)
*****
CARTOONIST
* Darwyn Cooke -- Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (IDW)
* Jeff Lemire -- The Nobody, Sweet Tooth #1-4 (DC/Vertigo), Noir: A Crime Comics Anthology -- "The Old Silo" (Dark Horse), Awesome 2: Awesomer -- "The Horseless Rider" (Top Shelf)
* Bryan Lee O'Malley -- Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe (Oni Press)
* Philippe Girard -- Tuer Velasquez (Glénat Québec)
* Michel Rabagliati -- Paul, Vol. 06: Paul à Québec (La Pastèque)
* Simon Roy -- Jan's Atomic Heart (New Reliable Press)
* Seth -- George Sprott 1894-1975 (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas -- Red: A Haida Manga (Douglas & McIntyre)
*****
COLORIST
* Brad Anderson -- Aliens #1-2 (Cover), Aliens/Predator FCBD 2009, Star Wars: The Clone Wars #8 (Cover), Star Wars: Legacy #32-40, #43 (Dark Horse), Action Comics #873 (Cover), Superman: Secret Origin #1-3, Superman: World of New Krypton #1-6, Superman: World of New Krypton #7, 9-10 (Cover), Wonder Woman #28-35, 39 (DC Comics), Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil #3 (Cover), Franklin Richards: April Fools, Franklin Richards: It's Dark Reigning Cats & Dogs, Franklin Richards: School's Out, Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special #1, Spider-Man & The Secret Wars #1 (Marvel Comics)
* Chris Chuckry -- Air #6-16, The Unwritten #1-8 (DC/Vertigo), G.I. Joe: Cobra #1-2 (IDW), Amazing Spider-Man #582, 591, 599-600, 606-607, Amazing Spider-Man #583, 595, 597-598 (Cover), Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #3, Iron Man Vs Whiplash #2, Ms. Marvel #36-37 (Cover)
* Maryse Dubuc -- Les nombrils Volume 04: Deuls et belles (Dupuis)
* Nathan Fairbairn -- Amazing Spider-Man #605, Dark Reign: The List -- X-Men #1, Dark X-Men: The Confession #1 (Cover), Guardians of the Galaxy #16, 18-19, House of M: Masters of Evil #1, Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, Nation X #1, Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1-2, Timestorm 2009-2099: Spider-Man, War of Kings: Warriors #2, Wolverine #72, Wolverine: Origins #32, Wolverine: Weapon X #6-8, X-Factor #39-50, 200 (Variant) (Cover), X-Factor #45, X-Men: Kingbreaker #2-4, X-Men Origins: Gambit #1 (Marvel Comics), Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen #4-5 (Oni Press)
* Lovern Kindzierski -- The Sandman: The Dream Hunters #3-4 (DC/Vertigo), Angel #19, Doctor Who #1-2, G.I. Joe: Cobra #3-4, G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #1, GrimJack: The Manx Cat #1, Star Trek: Crew #3-5, Star Trek: Romulans: Schism #1-3 (IDW), What If? Daredevil vs. Elektra (Marvel Comics)
* Francois Lapierre -- Magasin général Volume 05: Montréal (Casterman)
* Dave McCaig -- Star Wars: Dark Times #13-14 (Dark Horse), Detective Comics #857-860, Wednesday Comics #1-12 (DC Comics), House of Mystery Halloween Annual #1, Northlanders #14-23 (DC/Vertigo), Mysterius: The Unfathomable #1-6 (DC/Wildstorm), Invincible #66-67 (Image Comics), Berserker #2-3, Broken Trinity: Angelus, The Darkness #75, Pilot Season: Murderer #1 (Image/Top Cow), Agents of Atlas #9 (Cover), Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2-5 (Cover), Deadpool #900, Fantastic Four #571 (Cover), Ghost Rider #33-35, Marvel Comics #1 70th Anniversary Edition, Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 (Cover), New Avengers #50, 55-60, Origins of Siege #1, Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #3-6, Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem #1 (Cover) (Marvel Comics), Resurrection #0 FCBD 2009 (Oni Press)
* Ronda Pattison -- Star Wars: The Clone Wars #4 (Cover), Star Wars: The Clone Wars FCBD 2009, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Wind Raiders of Taloraan, Star Wars: Purge -- Seconds to Die, Unbound Saga (Dark Horse), Angel vs. Frankenstein (IDW), Killer of Demons #1-3 (Image Comics), Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1-3, Human Torch Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 (Marvel Comics), Atomic Robo and Friends FCBD 2009, Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time #1-5, We Kill Monsters #1-5 (Red 5 Comics)
*****
WRITER
* Kelley Armstrong -- Angel #18-22 (IDW)
* Ian Boothby -- Futurama Comics #43-44, Simpsons Comics #150, Simpsons Super Spectacular #8 -- "The Sprint" (Bongo)
* Hervé Bouchard -- Harvey (La Pastèque)
* Maryse Dubuc -- Les nombrils Volume 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
* Kathryn Immonen -- Runaways #11-14, Patsy Walker: Hellcat #5 (Marvel Comics), The CBLDF Presents Liberty Comics #2 -- "Trampoline Hall" (Image Comics)
* Dean Motter -- The Spirit #29 (DC Comics)
* Ty Templeton -- Star Trek: Mission's End #1-5 (IDW)
* J. Torres -- Disney/Pixar's Wall-E #0-1 (Boom!), DC Holiday Special '09 #1 -- "Huntress in Naughty or Nice," Batman: The Brave and the Bold #5-8, #11 (DC Comics)
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* this is CCI's hotel reservation day, kicking off at 9 AM PT. They'll be doing it slightly differently this year, with the person submitting a list and then having to secure the counter-offer with a deposit within a few days. You can go here to get oriented; I thought they did a good job of unpacking it. As the #1 abuser of the non-deposit system over the last few years -- I think I had 17 rooms at the Kona Kai at one point -- I look forward to seeing how the new system works. And as someone who was totally shut out of last year's stampede, I figure I can't have a worse first day... or can I?
* the longtime writer-about-comics Johanna Draper Carlson, who takes what I'd call a consumer advocate's position with a lot of her writing on the business, looks at marketing to women.
* Brian Fies adds his thoughts to Kurt Busiek's recently active posting on breaking into comics. Brian and Kurt by themselves represent two entirely different ways of getting into comics despite the fact they're in (I think) the same advertising demographic.
* finally, here's another interview with Lance Fensterman, which as always makes me feel much less special. The interviewer asks about the Vs. Wizard stuff, which I think is a) mostly boring, and b) gives Wizard more credit that they're due, so I skipped them, but Fensterman's responses were kind of passive-aggressive and compelling and now I wish I had gone there.
* the Amazon.com listings are starting to fill in through the 2010 holiday seasons, and some quick googling can reveal a cover or two -- mostly because of a combination of book distribution catalog requirements and artists active on-line. That's Ray Fenwick's initial shot at a cover for his December Fantagraphics release Mascots, which may or may not be what's actually used when the book comes out. He explains his thinking here.
* the artist Tom Richmond reports that MAD will be bumping up from quarterly production to bi-monthly production, an increase of 50 percent in terms of published pages in a year. He extols nearly all the conceivable virtues of the move in his post, actually.
* Michel Fiffe is spearheading a run of indie/alt cartoonists taking on Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon character, which will run in the comic book of the same name starting in issue #160. All the press material and statements can be found here.
* a company I've never heard off is bringing back the Charmed property through comic book publication, I guess because there wasn't enough Charmed during its 33 seasons on the air. Although I'd buy it if Gilbert Hernandez were doing it.
* it's always fun when people have fangasms over properties in which you're too old to have participated on any level, and thus it was with the announcement that Boom! is doing a Darkwing Duck comic book.
* the series/property Hack/Slashis moving from Devil's Due to Image. It makes total sense for a book like that to make that move, I'd think -- it seems like an Image book already, the creators can control the publishing schedule to their liking, and they're unfettered on the Image end to make outside deals for the property if any come up.
* if you follow mainstream comic books, you already knew this, but the team of Palmiotti, Gray and Conner is off of their Power Girl sort-of revamp. Conner moved first and the writing team followed. That title had a bit of traction with some fans, about as much as can be expected in this day and age, I'd guess.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
There's only major update today, but it's a huge one. It's been announced that David Coleman Headley is expected to plead guilty this week. Headley was one of two Chicago men arrested for conspiring to bring harm to Danish Cartoons Controversy stalwarts Flemming Rose, Kurt Westergaard and the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. While in custody, partly through Headley's cooperation, it became known that he did advance scouting on behalf of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. It makes sense given how much Headley has cooperated with authorities both here and from other countries that a plea deal might follow, and if it's made public as expected there may be some salient information as to how serious their efforts were against the DCC targets. The other Chicago man arrested, Tahawwur Rana, has been much more strident about proclaiming his innocence.
Niqab Cartoon Draws Criticism; Aislin Turns Around, Does Another One
The much-lauded cartoonist Terry Mosher, who works as Aislin, made news this week for a cartoon from last Friday depicting jail bars and a lock through the slit in a niqab. The cartoon refers to the case of Naima Atef Amed, a new immigrant to Canada, who filed charges related to what she believed was discrimination against her during her participation in a French-language class in Montreal. Mosher was not openly confessional in terms of opposing the woman, he followed through this week with another niqab-related drawing, seen at right, above. I don't have the ability to find out the particulars and understand the context of the incident involved, although just mentioning it here will likely result in an accusatory letter, but I did think Mosher's matter-of-fact stand and the paper's willingness to support him worth noting.
Your Quality Feature News Round-Up
A few articles out there I'd suggest as either better than the average Internet posting, touching on an important issue, or both:
* if there's one historical/soft news/feature piece you need to be reading right now, it's Steve Bissette's ongoing look at the censorship wars of the 1980s -- so far in parts one, two, three, four and five. I've long thought this important, too, not only for the issues raised by the schism that resulted between various camps over how they negotiate the mainstream comics culture of their time period. I'm in full absorption mode right now on this, although I'll express an opinion on this material at some point, but that doesn't mean you should fall behind in keeping up with what Steve is putting out there.
* Johanna Draper Carlson brings our attention to Tyler Page's breakdown of how much self-publishing has cost him under a certain strategy that involves a lot of con appearances to drive publicity. I think the thing that's interesting here in an historical sense is that while it's funny to say, "Don't go to so many conventions, dude!" I think there was definitely a point at which some sort of direct outreach was absolutely crucial to small- and self-publishers that wanted their work to reach readers, and that this wasn't always the case. When people make relative different ways of getting work out there, they're missing the boat that some methods are far more costly than others, and that all of these methods shape the kind of work readers get to see and how they view them.
* Ada Price of Publishers Weeklytalks to a small sample of working retailers about Life During Recession. Direct Market retailers and prominent indy book stores do so much to shape their individual markets that it's hard to find agreement between them and even harder to make much of any shared threads you might discover, but the range of solutions and strategies on display in this piece sure is fascinating. One seeming area of agreement: it was a good year for top-end sellers in terms of books from the regular book publishers, which is something that not all comics shops are set up to sell, and which was an under-reported new story from people like me that if certain books hadn't hit between summer and Christmas last year I have a hunch the commitment from such publishers might have changed. That Yen Press Twilight book should do very well, although I wonder if that isn't a completely different subset retailer-wise from the kind of stores that sell things like Genesis.
* Thursday passes have sold out at Comic-Con International, with the initial burst of hotel reservations through the con becoming available tomorrow. I think much more consideration should be given by all parties to my being able to rationally schedule the CR Comic-Con Guide, because right now it's really confusing.
* Kevin Church is right: there are a lot of decent-to-fun action sequences in Marvel comics in the company's earlier days.
* when posting a few notes on last week's filing by the Kirby Family for termination of various Marvel copyrights, I was confused by a time and character discrepancy in regards to one or two of the characters, particularly the Rawhide Kid, who were invented before the period the suit claimed to cover. A couple of knowledgeable comics pros and one comics historian-type person all wrote in to say that the Kirby revamp on Rawhide Kid was so sweeping and complete that it could be said to be a new character, and that may have been the reason they were included. (Plus there was one of the occasional skips in publication numbers you had back then by the periodical featuring that name.) Since my knowledge of Marvel's western heroes extends to a few time-traveling issues of Avengers and climbing over them at the local flea market to get at comics I wanted, I'll defer to those much more knowledgeable than I am. Sorry, Marvel Westerns fans. Hey, I need something to read in my old age.
* Woman's Dayhas a feature up on funny comic strips to reconsider. I never thought I'd be typing that sentence.
* finally, the comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com has a preview of the forthcoming Diamond Retailer Summit, scheduled to coincide with the Reed convention C2E2.
Cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco has won the 2010 Ridenhour Book Prize for his Footnotes In Gaza, a late 2009/early 2010 release from Metropolitan. Calling Footnotes a "work of profound social significance," the prize committee will give Sacco $10,000 in conjunction with the prize.
This Isn't A Library: New And Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate 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 works listed here. I might not buy any. But were I in a comic book shop tomorrow I would be reading aloud from many of the following, in a loud yet lovely voice.
*****
JAN101202 BACKING INTO FORWARD JULES FEIFFER MEMOIR HC $30.00
It's Feiffer's memoir! Of course you want this. Most underrated cartoonist of the 20th Century, that guy.
NOV090223 BRONX KILL HC (MR) $19.99
This is one of those Vertigo Crime comics I haven't seen yet, one by Peter Milligan and James Romberger. I would have to imagine that it will help this line if they can sell books with a comics writer rather than an established crime writer; plus giving their better creators the chance to work on all the different lines could go a long way towards solving some of DC's talent development issues. On the other hand, I've heard next to nothing about this book and it's coming out tomorrow.
DEC090247 MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE TP $17.99
I'm glad this one is coming out in a trade, as I thought it kind of lost as a WildStorm comic book when it came out as a limited series -- I think Jeff Parker wanted to punch me in the jaw for saying that back when the series was out, but I really did think it was an odd book out there and maybe would have been better served by a different publisher. It's not like I meant anything bad by it, I swear! Publishing is tough right now.
JAN100571 DOOMWAR #2 (OF 6) $3.99
This is a dopey Marvel comic book at least $1 too expensive for my plebeian tastes. I like the sound of that title, though, and Dr. Doom is certainly the Belle of the Bad Guy Ball right now, judging in terms of how many people want to use the armored monarch. Remember, Marvel writers, it's the fact he's as powerful as he is but still packing heat that makes Doom the villain he is today.
NOV090861 KRAZY & IGNATZ HC TIGER TEA $12.99
Not as many folks as 25 years ago think as highly of Krazy Kat, but it's always worth noting when any new publication comes out, even if it's the "Tiger Tea" sequence you might already have in an issue of RAW.
NOV090763 MOME GN VOL 17 2010 $14.99
Hey, the new MOME is out. It's an odd issue, and vaguely dissatisfying as a whole, but the comics by Renee French, T. Edward Bak and Oliver Schrauwen are stop and stare good.
DEC090032 GROO HOGS OF HORDER #4 (OF 4) $3.99 DEC090729 DIE HARD YEAR ONE #7 $3.99 DEC090755 MUPPET SHOW #3 $2.99 JAN100356 JOE THE BARBARIAN #3 (OF 8) (MR) $2.99
A smattering of old-fashioned comic books, the kind that used to drive a lot more of our comics-related shopping experiences. It's all about the creators here: Aragones, Chaykin, Langridge, Morrison.
*****
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 so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, 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. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I didn't list your comic here, that's because it's cold out and my fingers don't work. It's really March?
Authorities Arrest Man Suspected Of Killing Brazil's Glauco And His Son According to wire reports and picked up by a variety of arts advocacy organizations, a man was arrested while crossing into Paraguay that has since confessed to killing Glauco Villas Boas and his adult son last Friday. The 53-year-old Glauco were shot to death in their home in a Sao Paulo suburb early Friday morning. How this squares with initial reports that two men were involved, I'm not certain.
This article suggests additional detail, such as that the man's name is Carlos Eduardo Sundfeld Nunes, and that like the younger Boas he was a college student, and that there was a shootout involved that wounded a police officer. The article also explains the gossip that ran rampant on Friday and over the weekend that some sort of cult activity was involved: the student was a member of a spiritual center founded by the elder Boas and his wife, and the killer had access to the home of the center's patriarch.
A Few Notes On The Kirby Family Suing For Termination Of Copyrights
* you can look at the new filing here. You should read it; it's not so bad.
* your plaintiffs are: Lisa Kirby, both as an individual and as a trustee of something called The Rosalind Kirby Trust; Barbara J. Kirby; Neal L. Kirby; Susan M. Kirby. Your defendants are the usual Marvel companies, plus the usual John Does, plus Disney.
* this comes on the heels of a December lawsuit from Marvel seeking a set-aside on September request for copyright termination on 45 Marvel characters.
* I'm not sure I understand the inclusion of characters like Rawhide Kid, that were revamped under Kirby but actually precede his return to the restaurant. I'm also not sure why we get a Wertham-driven history lesson or have to hear about the art returns, but I'm certainly not a lawyer.
* I think it's fair to say that a lot of this will come down what the legal proceeding eventually decides was Jack Kirby's relationship to Marvel while doing the work in question, whether he was a freelancer or whether he was in the kind of supervised relationship that many feel proves a work-for-hire style relationship. That should prove... interesting, especially if it comes from really nailing down Kirby's relationship with Stan Lee and Martin Goodman during the Marvel surge.
* as has been the case with Stan Lee's various legal maneuverings vis-a-vis Marvel -- and now even vis-a-vis SLM -- what was said in later agreements and how those arrangements could conceivably have an impact on how the court sees the arrangement that existed.
* finally, I usually get more upset at the fans that rage against family members suing on behalf of a deceased family members as greedy. That's still a horrible thing to say about a person of whom you actually know very little, and I still think in many cases it's a combination reaction fueled by the fear of losing one's favorite superheroes and the guilt/entitlement a certain kind of fan may feel by those companies' efforts to "share" the characters with fans.
That contempt is still there, trust me. My main objection, to be honest, is the lack of intellectual rigor it takes to presume that some violation is occurring by seeking this kind of legal outcome, because a) you don't like it, b) you see some hidden message like they've included Spider-Man whose creative pedigree is much more in doubt than that of many other characters. Just stop it. I'll argue the morality involved concerning comics' long-term relationships with creators like Jack Kirby with anyone who'd care to argue the other side, and I'm confident I'd win. But let's not presume that this is something being tried in Nerd Court. What I'm saying is that whether or not there's an ability to sue on these grounds and whether or not this suit is justified is exactly what gets resolved with these motions up to and including a trial and appeals.
Still, I do see more people looking at the Kirby Family's side of things, if not outright rooting for them. That gives me just enough breathing room to feel, well, sorry for people that can't see past a money motivation here or in similar cases, or that can't put a money motivation in its proper and relative context. In the end, these issues won't be resolved according to the devotion of comic book fans or the certainty of creators rights advocates; it'll turn on the law.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* two of the people detained by Irish authorities were charged with crimes related to efforts against the Swedish artist Lars Vilks: Ali Charaf Damache was charged with making a menacing call to an individual, while Abdul Salem Monsour Khalil al Jahani was charged with failure to produce a valid passport or other valid document to establish his identity. The detention of a wider group of suspects over a week ago gained international attention when it was found to include two American women. The enmity against Vilks is related to a drawing he did of Muhammad's head on a dog's body, art created in the wake of the Danish Cartoons Controversy.
Go, Look: The Incrdible [Sic] Story Of Neil Abercrombie
from CR reader Richard Melendez: "Underground comix styled campaign flyer (poster?) for former U.S. Congressman Neil Abercrombie, promoting his run for the U.S. Senate back in 1970. The blog this is posted on is obviously anti-Abercrombie, and very right-leaning, but still thought this was a fascinating bit of history."
John Kane, a New Yorker cartoonist that came to that particular vocation and venue later in life than many of that magazine's devoted artists, passed away on March 10 after what appears to be a modest period of illness. Kane may have been best known as a friendly and supportive member of the cartoonists' circle that went to lunch every week after showing their work at the New Yorker offices.
Kane worked in graphic design for several years, and approached cartooning with a broad enthusiasm that dug into the details of what made one joke work over the other. In his lovely remembrance here, Derek Van Gieson describes Kane showing up at the offices with multiple variations on individual gags. "Most people had about ten gags to show but John would come in armed with 20 or so cartoons, many of them approaching jokes from different angles or were fascinating executions of an idea constantly working itself out. You'd see an idea germinate and resolve to its final limits within his batch."
Similarly touching personal reminiscences can be found from Mike Lynch and Eli Stein.
Kane's work was first published in the New Yorker in November 2003. He lives in New York City.
* Roger Langridge 
Dan Nadel 
The great Renee French 
* 
Alan Gardner 
* there's a fine interview with James Sturm 
So I guess a conservative political cartoonist 
* I'm having a hard time getting a grasp on the Toronto Comic Con, the first in Wizard Entertainment's series of 12 different regional comics shows driven by a mix of old comics sales, actors in genre shows and a smattering of invited comics talent. I'm not seeing much if any news except of the basic "
* it was hard for me to get through 
Giordano seized the Charlton opportunity with both hands, performing a number of jobs across various genres and of every kind, big and small, that were assembled into comics at the time. Among the titles he worked on in the early 1950s were Lawbreakers, Racket Squad In Action, The Thing, Space Adventures, Hot Rods and Racing Cars and True Life Secrets. One can see two elements of distinction in Giordano's initial burst of work with Charlton. Unlike some of his peers who were either paired with an inker or pencil artist or even hired one of their own to increase productivity, many of Giordano's early credits had the artist performing both tasks. Giordano also began to do a number of covers, perhaps far ahead of what most artists with his productivity level on inside features might have done. Giordano's early covers frequently focused on a figure, either in action or repose, with backgrounds or scene-setting details falling away. Giordano would develop into one of mainstream comics' more passionate proponents of comics art as a storytelling form rather than an illustrative opportunity, even in still moments like the ones covers generally provided.
Charlton laid down the foundations for a brief run of superhero comics that proved popular with hardcore fans in the very early 1960s, with brief runs on a Captain Atom and Blue Beetle character -- neither of which included Giordano, but as a creator making editorial in-roads he was certainly increasingly familiar with the company's line-wide strategies. With Marvel's success attracting press by the mid-1960s, and after the now-dissatisfied Marvel cornerstone and longtime Charlton artist Steve Ditko returning more fully to that company's fold in 1966, Giordano was able to spearhead the Charlton Action Hero Line that included Captain Atom, a re-jiggered Blue Beetle, The Peacemaker, Peter Cannon... Thunderbolt, The Question and the character Judomaster. 
The first was that Giordano became the best of Adams collaborators in terms of inking his work. Giordano's fealty to figure drawing and ability to dissipate just that tiniest bit of over-the-top energy that Adams brought to some of this freelance work made that partnership work much better in terms of comics and storytelling of both the single-image and narrative flow kind than either Hall of Famer would enjoy teamed with other artists. He worked with Adams on memorable runs of Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and also worked with him on 1978's iconic 
The second was that almost as soon as Giordano walked in the front door of the New York City comics publisher he began working on covers for DC, starting with romance titles but soon branching out into their more popular titles, particularly those starring Batman. Giordano proved to be a pro's pro in that arena, adapting to various trends and visual signatures with startling alacrity. Story was front and center. A typical Giordano cover might feature a staged scene reminiscent if not exactly loyal to a scene in the comic, but the general handsomeness of the cartoonist's art at this stage in his career afforded whatever was drawn with a simple authority that was appropriate to DC's longtime standing within the industry. He would stay one of the iconic cover artists of that late Silver Age period, doing his part to define DC's overall look until the 1980s and fractured influences across multiple genres began to take hold.
Among successes with which he's at least partially if not primarily credited is the reorganization/re-launch of popular characters through event series and special publishing events, the company's major, line-wide Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover that married the development of these properties to an actual storyline, and the grouping of a small bunch of successful horror-tinged titles into a full-blown imprint called 
Giordano left his position at DC at the midpoint of 1993, closely linked to the passing of his wife Marie due to complications from cancer and partly due to an increasing hearing loss that would come to have a greater and greater effect with just how the comics veteran managed to negotiate his way through the industry. His position was retired with him, and his duties were spread out amongst a surging in numbers editorial staff. Giordano remained a consultant with the company, working on areas of general expertise such new talent development. He remained an active artist, for example providing art to DC's 1994 Modesty Blaise prose adaptation, and standing in for short inking stints on various DC series up until a few short years ago, even as more and more of DC's archival work was bringing back to the stands various projects from the middle and early days of Giordano's long career. In 2002, Giordano was part of the abortive 
There was a time when market-share goals made a lot of sense. That was 15 years ago, when Marvel great attempt at a headless (filmless) media empire had shareholders to impress and DC needed as many performance trump cards as it could muster to block the occasional divisional takeover bids from within the parent company. But at this point, no. Today, both of those companies hold positions of pride withing giant entertainment conglomerates that value them for reasons that have nothing to do with making the big space on a Milton Griepp pie chart. 
The new thing is that Anaheim has put up 
* 
Previously measured in such terms as box office performance, mentions of its stars on entertainment shows relative to that box office performance and the number of tour buses hitting Forks, Washington, the Twilight phenomenon extended into a new area of proclaimed public relevance 
* super-villain team-up: 
* CBR 
* Ray Olson 
* Sean T. Collins 
Hicklenton collaborated with writer Pat Mills after initially contacting the writer directly, looking for work. He worked with Mills on runs of the Nemesis the Warlock and Third World War series in the late '80s and early '90s. Work on the Judge Dredd character in Judge Dredd Megazine followed in addition to a number of short works throughout. In the late 1990s he provided the art for a four-issue, Pat Mills-written Dark Horse series called ZombieWorld: Tree of Death, working as John Deadstock. That series was later collected as part of 2005's ZombieWorld: Winter's Dregs.
Bolling's strip has run in Salon since the pioneering web magazine's inception in 1995. Bolling reported in his statement that he was told that the strip was dropped because of "severe budget constraints." Given that Bolling's strip has been a signature feature for as long as it has and still places high on the top features list through to the last strip run, severe would seem to be the applicable term.
* Dan Nadel 
Jaaska also provided work to the X-Men, Checkmate and Turok comics, although never catching on with the kind of lengthy run through which careers are firmly established. He apparently left comics behind in the mid- to late-'90s.
It's anecdotal evidence, sure, but it's twenty years since I started paying some attention to it. There's a ton of factors I don't understand at all that also come to bear: I don't know or understand premium cover collectors, for instance. Like as human beings I don't understand them. I don't know any "I will buy every issue of X-Men even when it hurts" customers, mostly because I stopped buying comics in comics shops before the publishers turned this into a real pressure point, transforming a custom into a dare. I also have to imagine that everything is different for the folks spending $200-$400 a week in regular fashion. Hell, the insides of their cars probably smell different. But to deny any effect to this very specific and peculiar way certain comic books are sold in North America seems to me the kind of thing you can only do in some goofy Internet argument you refuse to lose.
His solutions are all reasonably compelling. I endorse his general logic that if you want to serve a certain kind of customer, you should do your best not to trip over your own feet while serving them, or, you know, directly antagonize them. At least one of Brian's solutions involve a closer reading of comics than I'd be comfortable putting forward. I have no idea if people are favoring one kind of storytelling experience over another, if Armless Speedy (didn't read) is more popular than Brainless Iron Man (read and enjoyed) or what, but I would generally leave that part in the publisher's hands (and in fact, a more systemic problem may be that there's almost no penalty for creating work that's fallen out of favor). Where I might break with Brian is that nearly all of his solutions are about making the current set-up work more effectively, and that runs the risk of keeping the system sort-of broken, or at least skewed. I would suggest to Brian that many of the things for which he advocates more generally, or for which others have long advocated, might also have an effect on better serving the current audience. Here's a few that occur to me on a Monday morning.
* I'm a huge sucker for tales of pre-1980 comics conventions, so of course I lapped up 
* I have no idea why Kevin Huizenga is posting 
* the New York Times 
* the writer and academic Charles Hatfield has another fine, lengthy event report, this time on 
IDW Publishing announced today via press release that it will become a premier publisher with Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. This would make IDW the first publisher to advance to that status with Diamond since the terms were implemented 14 years ago. 
Several mighty armies of nominees 
* Sandy Bilus 
* Michel Fiffe is spearheading a run of indie/alt cartoonists taking on Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon character, which will run in the comic book of the same name starting in issue #160. All the press material and statements can be found 
* Johanna Draper Carlson 
* 
* I'm not sure I understand the inclusion of characters like Rawhide Kid, that were revamped under Kirby but actually precede his return to the restaurant. I'm also not sure why we get a Wertham-driven history lesson or have to hear about the art returns, but I'm certainly not a lawyer.
