The Comics Reporter

May 29, 2014

Go, Read: Three-Part Interview With Team Valiant

I found this three-part interview with the folks running Valiant interesting, although not always in a positive way. I like that was a company brought back to life by fans, and there's a straightforward line in the first section where the mission of the company is stated as simply as making the kind of comic that sold for the company once upon a time popular again that's super-appealing. I also liked some of the discussion about the company's publishing output. It does get a bit relentless with the broad, empty superlatives, though, and after a while my eyes sort of glazed over in terms of picking up any real information beyond assurances as to how the company is doing within its market. I also found some of the stronger statements made more untenable than undeniable. I'm sure not every retailer smiles when they think of chromium covers, for instance, particularly if you count all the retailers that were driven out of existence by excesses of non-content sales mechanisms. I could be wrong.

posted 11:55 pm PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Fabricated Pixelation

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Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital

By Tom Spurgeon

* this interview of Ben Dewey that was up a while back notes that he'll be wrapping up Tragedy Series, even as a book is due in March 2015. The reason? To avoid sucking, basically.

* two comics on-line that I read and enjoyed over the last week are this Vineyard Gazette effort from Paul Karasik, and whatever the hell Bastien Vives seems to have going on here.

* Madefire adds four including Archie and Archaia, both solid gets.

* good catch by Heidi MacDonald here that Apple is continuing to offer deals on digital comics -- I sort of doubt there's any kind of specific element of agency involved, but I suppose there could be.

* Blurb has acquired the employees of Graphicly, which will shut down. Kevin Melrose has a fine write-up.

* finally, I am still enjoying Drew Weing's The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo, partly for the visual punch of elements like the random half-panel below.

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If I Were In Charlottesville, I’d Go To This

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If I Were In Chicago, I’d Go To This

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If I Were In Chicago, I’d Go To This

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If I Were In Indianapolis, I’d Go To This

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Go, Look: Ronald Searle’s Christmas Carol

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Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Henry Chamberlain on Will & Whit. John Adcock on Alley Oop Sundays Vol. 1. Frank Santoro on Everywhere Antennas. Nick Smith on Max Brooks' The Extinction Parade.

* Heidi MacDonald suggests that some cons are going to be terrible and not do well. I agree with MacDonald, and I would suggest further that it can take a long time to develop an audience for shows, particuarly shows of a specific nature. This just sounds like a crummy one, though.

* Matt O'Keefe talks to Mark Waid. Frederik Hautain talks to Tom Muller. Reid Vanier talks to Jeff Smith. BYUTV Sports profiles Aaron Taylor. Dan Berry talks to Simon Moreton. Matt Emery talks to Ant Sang.

* people sometimes don't take seriously the notion you could argue that Jack Davis is our greatest living cartoonist, but he went through a lengthy period of producing near-divine work every time out.

* not comics: hooray for cash prizes!

* I'm looking forward to reading this Robert Stanley Martin post on Howard The Duck. Here's what was used in the making of that article. I am always similarly thrilled when a new Qiana Whitted article shows up, and I will devour that one as soon as I can, too.

* not comics: love the shoes.

* here's a look at Jim Borgman's studio.

* finally, Zainab Akhtar on the curious case of OK Cola. True story: when I was walking around the neighborhood trying to find Fantagraphics back in Fall 1994, I was able to find out because there was an OK Cola poster in the window.

posted 5:05 pm PST | Permalink

Happy 52nd Birthday, Kevin Eastman!

posted 5:00 pm PST | Permalink

Happy 42nd Birthday, Mark Price!

posted 5:00 pm PST | Permalink

Happy 42nd Birthday, Tom Galambos!

posted 5:00 pm PST | Permalink

Happy 62nd Birthday, Mike W. Barr!

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Go, Bid: Stan And Sharon Sakai Art Auctions Going On eBay

posted 4:05 pm PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Mark Schultz Image Gallery

posted 6:10 am PST | Permalink

Your 2014 Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award Nominees

Comic-Con International announced this year's nominees for the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award this afternoon.

They are:

* Aaron Conley, artist, Sabertooth Swordsman (Dark Horse)
* Vanesa R Del Rey, artist, Hit (BOOM!)
* Stephan Franck, writer/artist, Silver (Dark Planet)
* Anders Lazaret, artist, The Brave (Mythos Comics)
* Greg Smallwood, artist, Dream Thief (Dark Horse)

The award has been given out since 1982. Past winners include Eleanor Davis, Marian Churchland and Steve Rude.

The nominees was selected by a jury from the West Coast Comics Club and from Comic-Con. The winner will be selected by jury made up of past winners and former Manning assistants. The award is announced during the Eisner Awards ceremony held at Comic-Con International.

posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: The Comics Habit

posted 1:40 am PST | Permalink

Go, Read: David Harper On Making Comic Book Art As A Vocation; Warren Ellis On Trees #1 Sales

* there's an effective piece over at Multiversity by a writer named David Harper about many of the pressures facing those who want to make a career out of making comics from the arts-end of that equation. It makes a fine companion to yesterday's discussion of European cartoonists grappling with the market that regularly yields $1300 a month income for even successful comics-makers. There's still a little bit of talking around the issue of "how much do you make doing this stuff anyway?" but there are a number of figures and valuable insights that make themselves known -- certain page rates, how artists ramp up production to make a gig work financially, and so on.

* the prominent comics-maker Warren Ellis writes directly about sales and print runs for his new comic with Jason Howard, Trees, in a way that, as asserted in the previous bulleted item, people in North American comics rarely employ. It probably is less tough to make this kind of confession when it's for a book that doesn't sell as well as that one seems to have first time out of the gate.

We are due a massive reconsideration of what being a professional comics-makers means, perhaps by the end of the year, and both of these posts may help to get us there. Let's hope.

posted 1:35 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Pot-Shot Pete

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Totally Missed This: Jabeur Mejri Back In Jail

Probably the most depressing -- and telling -- thing about the young Tunisian activist Jabeur Mejri being back in jail is that it's not for the charges related to making caricatures of Muhammed for which he received a presidential pardon earlier this year after serving nearly two year and that it's also not the charges that complicated the application of that pardon to Mejri's case. This is a third set of charges, stemming from Mejri speaking caustically about the timing of a summons to come face a judge. If you were one to believe that the Mejri is less a thoroughly engaged and active doer of crimes and more the kind of young, outspoke atheist bound to have troubles in a country with a deep streak of religious authority ingrained into the government culture, you'd be nodding a lot after the events of the last couple of weeks.

The idea of criminal law protecting sitting officials from insult is something we've seen in a lot of countries in that region, and these are not laws that are kind to anyone with a satirical or expressive proclivity. Hopefully, international agencies will continue to advocate on behalf of the cartoonist, and against such brittle laws more generally.

posted 1:25 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Suscrofad

posted 1:20 am PST | Permalink

Amazon, Hachette Continue To Do Battle Like Giant Monsters

I thought this was the best article of those I've read today about the dispute between Hachette and Amazon over e-book pricing and what's fair in the negotiating process to get us there. It seemed pretty straight-forward, reasonably unbiased (at least there's nothing in there that would actively fool anyone, I don't think), and generalist in nature. If you'd rather continue to follow at home step by step, know that Amazon responded to recent charges in a Kindle forum and Hachette responded reasonably soon after that, and no fundamental position was changed.

One of the readers also recommended to me this post which seemed to me strongest not as a dissection of anyone's arguments (it's strongly asserted that a New York Times article sucked balls, but there's little in the way of factual refutation of that article that I could see) but as a strong reminder these are two giant entities doing battle and not everyone feels that Hachette's interests are shared by literary publishers.

Anyhow, while it's fun to watch the two creatures exchange blows, and certainly a drinking game that involved chugging whenever anyone came across disingenous statements would kill any three people participating, my takeaway right now is that Amazon seems pretty upfront about their negotiating tactics. I think that may foster a negative reaction with consumers -- not enough for the company to really notice, but enough for a few rival services or strategies or approaches to bloom. As familiar as we already are with giant publishers being criticized on the basis of what they provide their authors for the money they receive, we may soon see an ongoing criticism of Amazon along those same lines. I'm interested to see what happens.

posted 1:15 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: ‘70s Sci-Fi Art

posted 1:10 am PST | Permalink

Go, Read: Near Week-Old PW Summary Article On Diamond Comics Summit Numbers And FCBD 2014 Figures

Here's an article I keep coming back to: Heidi MacDonald's round-up at PW of the figures that Diamond released in conjunction with their recent retailer summit in Las Vegas. There are basically two areas covered: state of the market and the success of this year's FCBD. The figures in and of themselves are interesting.

What they say to me is, first, that the surge of the last few years in terms of sales across the board in the Direct Market has diminished significantly, at least in terms of its momentum. This is led by an outright decline in serial comics sales over a similar period in 2013. Second, I still wonder if we'll ever get a sense of Free Comic Book Day as a tool to build business for the rest of the year, even though we have the sense now that the promotion itself is popular on the day it happens and depending on the store for a few days on either side. That's not necessarily a criticism; I'm more interested in what the event is rather than stake a position amenable to its supporters or its detractors.

posted 1:05 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Galerie Laqua

posted 1:00 am PST | Permalink

We Live In The Humble Bundle World Now, All Hail Our New Significant Product-Moving Overlords

Heidi MacDonald caught something that completely escaped my attention: the recent Image Comics "Humble Bundle" offering that raised a bunch of money for the CBLDF was followed by a second, even more successful campaign raising money for a pair of charities and featuring Dr. Who comics and a Dr. Who game.

I did happen to catch that Top Shelf is next up to bat, with one that features cartoonists like Ed Piskor and Nate Powell.

I'm happy for successful efforts on behalf of charity, but I think what's fascinating is the idea of consuming in high volumes like this. This is something made possible by the fact that these are digital works, that these digital works tend to be back-of-catalog works and therefore not on the hook for maximizing profit like brand-new work might be, and that these companies have a staggering amount of material to offer up through these channels and according to these plans. The next two years should see a number of strategies engaged, both on behalf of charity and just generally.

posted 12:55 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: A Rolling Stone

posted 12:50 am PST | Permalink

Your 2014 Society Of Illustrators Medal Winners

The Society Of Illustrators has announced its participants and dates for the exhibits related to their first juried competition regarding comics. They'll do it in three chunks:

* Long Form and Comic Strip: May 28 -- Jun 21
* Short Form and Special Format: Jun 24 -- July 19
* Single Image and Digital Media: July 22 -- August 16

An annual is also to be published.

It looks like the participants will be the various medal winners, which are as follows by category. Congratulations to them.

*****

LONG FORM

Gold Medal
* Tom Gauld, You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack (Drawn and Quarterly)

Silver Medal
* Gilbert Hernandez, Marble Season (Drawn and Quarterly)
* Alex Schubert Blobby Boys (Koyama Press)

*****

COMIC STRIP

Gold Medal
* Ruben Bolling, Tom The Dancing Bug (Universal Press Syndicate)
* John Martz, Lighthouses (Lucky Peach Magazine)

Silver Medal
* Bizhan Khodabandeh, Finding Time (Magic Bullet)
* Brendan Kiefer, Stop! (787XX/Raw Paw Press)

*****

SHORT FORM

Gold Medal
* Adrian Tomine, Optic Nerve #13 (Drawn and Quarterly)

Silver Medal
* Maelle Doliveux, Four Fables (Seven Stories Press)
* Hayley Gold, Nervosa
* Talya Modlin, Blimpakind: Drinking Buddies

*****

SPECIAL FORMAT

Gold Medal
* Ten Steps In The City, Various Artists (Teiera)

Silver Medal
* Two Years In New York City, Omer Hoffmann

*****

SINGLE IMAGE

Gold Medal
* Keith Bendis, Little Red Riding Hoodâ€™s Wardrobe

Silver Medal
* Liam Walsh, Land of the Blind
* André Carrilho and Luis Lazaro, Mandela

*****

DIGITAL MEDIA

Gold Medal
* Ann Emond, Comiques

Silver Medal
* Leela Corman, Yahrzeit (Table Magazine)
* Blane Duncan, Blane Throttle: Part One
* DingDing Hu, Peeling Inspiration

*****
*****

posted 12:45 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Folerpas de Tiramisu

posted 12:40 am PST | Permalink

Serialized Event Reports Are The Next Big Thing

Well, they're the next big thing of 1998, to be honest with you -- today is more about a tweet that references a single post put out 20 minutes after the thing that happens, and everyone will just read the tweet. Still, I liked a couple of incremental reports that came out recently. The first is this second Doug Wright Awards official report, with plenty of pictures. The second is this first installment in what one hopes is a few missives about the road taken by Robin McConnell and Brandon Graham to visit people and interview them for the Inkstuds show. This one is similarly photo-loaded. I sort of wish there had been more photos involved with comics when I was younger, say 25 years ago; when I moved to Seattle to work for Fantagraphics I had absolutely no picture in my mind's eye what that would be like.

posted 12:35 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Everything Is Vibrating

posted 12:30 am PST | Permalink

Missed It: Oishinbo Storyline About Fears Concerning Fukishima Area Food Consumption Draws Criticism

Brigid Alverson tracked a story in two separate posts that I totally missed, about a plotline in the serialized manga Oishinbo that related to fears about irradiated food supply in the area around the Fukashima nuclear power plant, damaged in 2011 and as a result a huge agent for driving concern about the long-term health issues concerning damage to that plant. It looks like the criticism appeared but the work was still published, the idea of squelching free expression for economic and political concerns doing battle with the idea of giving voice to concerns that are more inflammatory or alarming than a reliable reflection of reality on the ground. That actually seems to me a not-bad outcome, although dancing right up to that line is pretty scary and the idea that squeamish editors armed with multiple pages of guidelines are going to be on the front line of future editorial decision-making doesn't provide me with a lot of confidence or cheer.

posted 12:25 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Vintage Marvel Stickers

posted 12:20 am PST | Permalink

Right Up Against Free Commercial Vs. Practical Acknowledgement Of The Role Of Consumption In Comics

This is pretty dicey area in terms of what this site does. I don't like running free commercials -- if it's something for which you can buy ad, it's probably not news -- while at the same time 1) I'm sort of interested in everything comiXology does right now; 2) I'm really interested in the general idea of how comics will use its titantic, general, and usually relevant back catalog in the years ahead; 3) I don't want readers whose sole interaction with comics news is through this site (basically my family and a half-dozen college friends) to miss out on free comics.

So this is the comiXology summer promotion, which is basically daily, free comics according to a limited window comic-to-comic and over the course of a restricted period overall. There's one of significant interest up today. I think the idea is that you get people in the habit of using the on-line retailer on a regular basis as well as the not-just-an-on-line-concern idea that if you get to look at comics you might not buy on your own you might find something you like you wouldn't otherwise. This comibination of old and new techniques/concerns interests me, anyway.

posted 12:15 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Island In The Sky

posted 12:10 am PST | Permalink

Missed It: Another Window Into The World Of Collectible Comics As Desirable Larcenous Currency

I don't particularly hearing stories about people exploiting other people criminally or even the way that someone's life can go awry to the point where they consider doing something like this. Still, what fascinates is that every six months we hear about a criminal entertprise that involves comic books. While this may be presented as a nerdy affectation of the criminal, it always seems to me that comics are used because they're a hard to track item and the price/money used on either end can fluctuate wildly. It's an underground currency in many ways, wildly unstable -- but that can be useful, too.

posted 12:05 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: A Couple Of Bob Powell Comics

posted 12:00 am PST | Permalink

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