On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Comics-Makers That For Part Of Their Comics Career Had A Job Not In Comics." This is how they responded.
1. Vera Brosgol -- Animator/Storyboard Artist
2. Harvey Pekar -- File Clerk
3. Kate Beaton -- Admin Assistant
4. Linda Medley -- Children's Book Illustrator
5. Chester Brown -- Political Candidate
*****
Roger Langridge
1. Jim Ottaviani -- Librarian
2. Warwick Johnson Cadwell -- Skipper
3. Trog (Wally Fawkes) -- Musician
4. Dave Shelton -- Novelist
5. Mike Collins -- Storyboard Artist
1. Eve Gilbert -- bartender
2. Reed Waller -- musician
3. Frank Stack -- professor of art
4. Greg Irons -- tattoo artist
5. Justin Green -- sign painter
1. Robert Crumb -- Greeting Card Creator
2. Joe Jusko -- Police Officer
3. Harvey Pekar -- File Clerk
4. Will Eisner -- Teacher
5. Bill Everett -- Art Director
1. Bill Mantlo -- Lawyer
2. David Gallaher -- Copywriter
3. Ben Towle -- Teacher
4. Ryan Estrada -- Ghost Buster
5. Jack Kirby -- Animator
*****
Joe McCulloch
* Brian Michael Bendis -- Caricaturist
* Dame Darcy -- Doll Maker
* Junji Ito -- Dental Technician
* Jean-Claude Mézières -- Ranch Hand
* Steve Purcell -- Computer Game Animation
*****
Mike Pfefferkorn
1. James Robinson -- Director
2. Sergio Aragonés -- Actor
3. Otto Binder -- Author
4. Jules Feiffer -- Screenwriter
5. Don Rosa -- Terrazzo Contractor
*****
Steve Harrick
* Harvey Pekar--File clerk
* Terri Libenson--Greeting card writer
* Tony Isabella--Comic book shop owner
* Carol Tyler--College instructor
* Brian Michael Bendis--Caricature artist
1. Dan Barry -- Prison Inmate
2. Pat Boyette -- Film Maker
3. Christy Marx -- Video Game Designer
4. Jules Feiffer -- Playwright
5. Larry Hama -- Actor
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Pete Morisi -- Police Officer
2. Eleanor Davis -- Illustrator
3. James Sturm -- School Administrator
4. David Lasky -- Teacher
5. Charles Soule -- Lawyer
* I revisited this list of exhibitors for CAB 2015 next weekend due to a conversation I was having with someone, and it struck me just how top-to-bottom strong it is. There are have been some great guest and exhibitor lists this year and this may be the best one yet.
* Mike Lynch is today's comics-related blog post author throwing his own kidney punches in the direction of working for free. As always: it's a terrible standard model, exposure arguments are beside the point in today's Internet, and anyone asking you for charity should at least have the paperwork filed to be a non-profit. I hate a system that's so broken and thus lists so far in the other direction that I sound like Ayn Rand whenever I write about it.
* I don't know that I'm familiar with Alex Nino drawing Conan, but I like what I see here.
* someone directed me to this short essay as a sort-of response to the hard-man advice recently offered by Noah Van Sciver. They're not really competitive with one another, and so both are worth reading and considering. I've frequently thought about consuming devotion to work in terms of my own life. I'm just not capable of it. I know in sports there's an ethos of working 20-hour days but it seems there are plenty of examples of greatness in that realm where someone leads at least a personally well-rounded life. Bud Grant going hunting in the afternoon during the Fall surely didn't cost him any of those Super Bowls, although I'm certain someone out there thinks so. Me, I'm not sure in the course of a life well-lived how many afternoons in the Minnesota wilderness I'd trade for a professional achievement, even the highest one.
* finally, I love the look of classic 2000AD covers, so this is a treat.
I hadn't thought about the missing Sri Lankan cartoonist/journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda for a few years now, noting the intensity with which family and friends continued to advocate for knowledge about happened to him right before a key national election.
Amazingly, there's been progress in the case brought about by a combination of shifts in national politics and the attention of international agencies. Those that may have caused Eknaligoda to disappear have been identified and an investigation is ongoing with what sounds like a lot of political fortitude in dealing with any fallout.
I continue to wish for the best outcome possible for the family and for the country Eknaligoda obviously felt strongly about that he would put himself to risk in exposing its wrongs.
Here. It's on the occasion of her life-saving surgery.
This is a good thing to read after a long summer and a longer Fall filled with a lot of the negatives of reading, making or otherwise being involved in comics. There will never be an Anne Koyama backlash because her personality won't allow for one.
* in fact, I'm scheduled to go to CAB -- I noted last week they have their programming up -- and I'm not sure I'm able to make that one due to cost. Ditto CALA in early December. I mention this mostly in case some random person ends up looking at me during one of the events, but also because we're entering a phase right after a phase where I think people were more aggressively doing shows than they will want or even be able to for the next five years. I've never been part of a trend before, but my hunch is I'll be part of one here.
* this is a good advice column about Short Run that applies to many shows of its type. I get what they're saying about not buying from the publishers with bookstore penetration at such events, but not everyone is locked into comics that way and not ever bookstore is willing to serve the mail-order needs of its fans. Buy what you want, that's what I say. Maybe try with some handmade material if that's not your cup of tea, because that really does speak to core values of such a show.
* not comics: there was some back-and-forth movement to an Internet discussion about working for free instigated by the actor and writer Wil Wheaton: this seems like a pretty good summary. I'm deeply unimpressed by arguing the extremes of a standard procedure change based on language used. Working for free is such a horrible standard model that the exceptions should be at the perimeter of things rather than their core... but you should expect exceptions. I don't just hate the idea of people working for free, I think the general downgrade in pay over the last 15 years has damaged the culture of writing. We should all work on it as best we can.
Here. I've had a few people send this to me. I'm not in agreement with everything Noah says here, but I think it's 100 percent made up of the answers Noah is going to give asked these questions. We're in the middle of a fascinating period where a ton of folks are rethinking the notion of a career in comics, and what making it looks like from a comics perspective.
* Chuck Forsman has a limited-time Kickstarter going for a book he's doing I think through Bergen Street Comics. I don't understand how any of that works, but enough do that it was quick to reach its initial established goal.
* there are some Internet rumblings out there along the lines of DC Comics not having an all-ages Supergirl comic book out there for those made curious by the television show featuring a version of the Otto Binder/Al Plastino character. Here's one such instance. I try not to tell people how to publish because I'm terrible at publishing, but it does seem odd. In fact, I don't know why there isn't a core line at both companies in addition to an all-ages line at both and why all four of these lines aren't stocked with the characters conventional wisdom demands of them. But that's just me. The other Internet back-and-forth I saw looking around is new/potential fans vs. established superhero dude fans and their respective opinions. I listened to music last night.
* the writer and comics historian Mark Evanier expands on an idea he presented to his readers while memorializing the late Murphy Anderson, citing the economic background of many first- and second-generation comic book makers and how they regarded their work as a result.
They've also promised that this year's Cupcake Award winners will be announced on first day of guest applications. The last day for exhibitor applications will be November 30.
Here. I'm a little confused by the PR for this big mega-podcast event as touted thus far. Certainly several of those podcasts are popular, "name" podcasts in the world of comics, and I like the idea of a shared experience. I'm a little unclear as to what this shared experience might be beyond some questions that go from blog to blog, but I suppose that will be revealed as we get closer to date.
What strikes me about it in terms of writing a post here are 1) podcasts are ubiquitous in a way they weren't three years ago when a bunch of us also thought them ubiquitous, and 2) in general there are a lot of media sources for comics, but as is the case with written sources from five years ago or so the podcasts I encounter seem to be mostly personal commentary and interviews, and most are further tied into very specific PR cycles and expected buying habits at a time when there's some dissonance of how that gets presented to consumers. There's a similarity between media efforts that makes it seem like there are fewer of them than there are. That sounds like I'm casting aspersions, but I'm not: everyone should do what they want to do and our perception of the aggregate says what it says. I think one thing this promotion does is give us a snapshot of a type of industry media effort that hasn't been taken yet, a useful thing no matter when it happens.
Personally, I think I would look forward to the differences between these podcasts rather than their similarities, which is probably why I hope for a stronger presentation of uniting theme/structure or a charitable effort underlying the event announced soon.
Zunar Lands In Great Britain As Serious Consequences For Sedition Act Wait Back Home
The Independentnotes that the sedition laws being used by the Malaysian government to grind against the cartoonist Zunar for the content of the cartoons and his vigor in laying claim to his right to express himself in a way the law should support came from 1948 when Great Britain was in charge and desired to suppress communist political expression.
It's very important we pay attention to Zunar because not only is he on the cusp to be partly, massively screwed by what seems like a vengeful police/justice ruling class in his home nation, but if god forbid he's sent to jail he should be sent to jail in front of millions of white-hot, pissed-off witnesses. I continue to hope for the most beneficial outcome.
Go, Listen: Deconstructing Comics On The Digital Censorship Of Dirty Comics Material
Here. I'm bookmarking it for myself because I haven't read it yet. The idea of a clear path to market isn't one we talk about anymore, but maybe should.
* Ryder Windham wrote in to the Comic Books Are Burning In Hell podcast about my podcast with them about Eros. I had totally forgotten Ryder used his real name and that was indeed an important thing in terms of the culture around that company. I hadn't heard that Black Kiss was an inspiration for the imprint. I'm jealous of Windham's friendship with Frank Thorne.
* I enjoyed this list of horror comics at Paste although I was surprised that Josh Simmons didn't make the list along with his alt-comics peers Ben Catmull and Al Columbia. Simmons is the best cartoonist working that genre today.
* not comics: there are enough news sources reporting this preposterous-sounding story as true that I'll risk linking to one, as it's an interesting story if true or if the product of mass psychosis. Sometimes I wonder about all of this junk-genre TV being poured into the top of people's heads, although when I do that I don't really project this kind of dramatic result.
Comics By Request: People, Projects in Need Of Funding
By Tom Spurgeon
* the great Frank Santoro is 91 percent of the way to meeting his initial goal for funds to restore a nearby house into a physical teaching space. I hope he gets there with some time to spare, because I want to see what he does with any extra money.
* I made the joke last night that I don't understand anything going on in the latest Dave Sim post on behalf of restoring his Cerebus comic. I didn't mean that as a funny way to be mean and say I hate the project. I think having that comic in print or otherwise available for its fans sounds like a great idea. I just don't understand these posts. I think this is the latest in the line of digital offers by which the project is being archived, but I could be wrong about that. I participated in one of these, and was confused by what I got in return. I don't even hate Cerebus; I like big chunks of it. I wish I could get my hands on high-end versions of the stuff I like.
* it might not be Cerebus; it could be I'm just having an old-man day. Since Santoro's project is on IndieGoGo, I thought I'd look at comics projects there, but I had a hard time understanding their search mechanism due to the overwhelming number of complete projects. I'm sure there's a good one in there.
* the New Brighton Archeological Society material is being made available as hardcover books again. There's a lot of history there in terms of that project: its double-helixed relationship to crowdsourced publishing, who was carrying it and when, who fulfilled what orders and when, how it was made available on-line and so on... I don't know if any of that is pertinent to the crowd-funder itself, but I'm happy to receive e-mail telling me how I'm wrong.
* this is a good question. I don't have as negative a view of how manga is covered within North American comics as several people I know seem to. Some of those people have much more practical hands-on experience when it comes to making that call, and I concede that it's not covered in proportion to the readership it has within North American comics culture -- as that particular audience base should be understood. I'm trying to ramp up my coverage of manga as I try to ramp up my coverage more widely, and neither task is easy. I have the same problem with webcomics. I hope to improve. As to the discrepancy of coverage between the two time periods, I think there's a threshold element to that along with a bunch of standard structural failures.
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Cartoonists Whose X-Rated Work You've Enjoyed. Also Name The Work. Pick At Least One Cartoonist And Work From The Longtime Fantagraphics Imprint Eros." This is how they responded.
*****
Rob Salkowitz
1. Ellen Forney, cover of Best Erotic Comics 2008 (Last Gasp)
2. Reed Waller and Kate Worley, Omaha the Cat Dancer. (Eros)
3. Denis Kitchen, “The Giant Penis That Invaded New York.†(cover of Bizarre Sex #1)
4. Milo Manara, Click.
5. Stasia Kato and K.D. Booze, The Virgin Project.
1. Guido Crepax, Turn of the Screw (pictured)
2. Kris de Roover, Tales of the Chateau of Delights
3. Vittorio Giardino, Little Ego
4. Jordi Bernet, Le Cri du Vampire
5. Wallace Wood, Naughty Knotty Woody
1. Reed Waller, Omaha the Cat Dancer
2. Isutoshi, Slut Girl
3. Erika Moen, Oh Joy Sex Toy (pictured)
4. Jess Fink, Chester 5000 XYV
5. Vittorio Giardino, Little Ego
*****
Stergios Botzakis
1. Frank Strom, Cheeta Pop
2. Anton Drek (aka Don Simpson), Wendy Whitebread: Undercover Slut
3. Larry Welz, Cherry Poptart
4. Ron Wilbur, The Flying Wombat Woman
5. Bill Willingham, Ironwood (pictured)
*****
Dave Knott
* Marco Delizia, Ramba
* Francisco Solano Lopez, Young Witches
* Bill Willingham, Ironwood
* Colleen Coover, Small Favors (pictured)
* Don Simpson (a.k.a. "Anton Drek"), Wendy Whitebread, etc.
1. Howard Chaykin, The Black Kiss
2. George Pichard, Marie-Gabrielle
3. Franco Saudelli, The Blonde (because you made me pick one)
4. Michael Manning, In A Metal Web
5. Reed Waller & Kate Worley, Omaha the Cat Dancer (because I'm not a total perve) (pictured)
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Gilbert Hernandez, Birdland
2. Jess Johnson, Dirty Stories
3. Dave Cooper, Cynthia Petal's Really Fantastic Alien Sex Frenzy (pictured)
4. Molly Kiely, Diary Of A Dominatrix
5. Teruo Kakuta, Bondage Fairies
* Eric Stanton, The Dominant Wives and Other Stories
* Namio Harukawa, various (I’ve only seen his drawings online but saw Nina Bunjevac posing with a French book collection)
* Ron Embleton and Frederic Mullally, Oh! Wicked Wanda (pictured)
* Dennis Eichhorn and B.N. Duncan, "Two Friends"
* Dennis Eichhorn and Molly Kiely, "I Fuck Betty"
*****
John Vest
1. Reed Waller & Kate Worley, Omaha The Cat Dancer
2. Sylvie Rancourt & Jacques Boivin, Melody
3. R. Crumb, Id
4. Larry Welz, Cherry
5. Guy Colwell, Doll
Go, Listen: On Five Years Working Next To Eros Comix
Just please know this is more personal reminiscence than researched history; I'm sure I got a ton of stuff wrong during the podcast. Still, it was very interesting to work next to this office at that particular time in art-comics history. There were some great cartoonists doing work for that line, and several others that were earnest in a way I still find humbling and informative. Thanks to Chris and Jog for the platform.
* Gary Tyrrell discusses a discussion of professional opportunity facing Erika Moen that I've seen a lot of people mention in passing.
* totally missed XKCD turning 10. That's an important comic. I also missed that the next Tony Cliff book will be serialized on-line for a period before its full-volume release. That makes sense given the audience for that work. First Second's show a willingness to do that for their authors that have a presence in that world for comics.
* Kevin Melrose has his usual superior link-blogging post up, this time about a pop-portrait of Batman that was lost and now has been found, with many zeroes in the valuation line.
* Tula Lotay illustrates "Demon" by Bear In Heaven.
This article has what seems to me (I could be wrong) a clear-headed summary of claims made by the cartoonist Zunar about a new cartoon featuring the prime minister's wife being blocked, being stripped from a piece with wider context, and perhaps even being blocked under a different name. The complete breakdown in trust between Malaysia's anti-Zunar officials and the cartoonist is almost as fascinating if this were just some sort of minor technical error. It doesn't sound like it, though.
With the cartoonist still facing multiple charges that could land him in jail, every article about Zunar feels like a slow tightening on hands, feet, neck and livelihood. I pray for an optimal outcome.
start with Drew Friedman on the cover, then go onto the article if you wish; I always enjoy hearing from Crumb, although this interview is an odd one, with a lot of the interviewer in the final result and something of a predetermined shape
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* I missed out on some of the hardcore NYCC reportage by not doing a Collective Memory. Rob Salkowitz notes the attendance figure claimed. It certainly is a massively popular show. One thing I read is that the con hopes to extend its actual con things into different areas more frequently in the future, which strikes me as an approach in addition to their city-wide comics week promotion.
* I still hope to do one for that show, as I hope to for APE and Lakes.
* Comic Arts Brooklyn has its Sunday programming up. Looks like a full hour spotlight with Derf, Clowes and Spiegelman/Mouly, respectively; small group panels with some of the more eclectic names. I hope I can attend.
By Request Extra: Massive Top Cow-Driven Comics Humble Bundle For Hero Initiative
It's here. I'm told it's very large for this kind of thing in terms of the number of books offered, but I haven't followed these closely enough to know if that's even a claim worth making. I assume it is! I'll catch up eventually. Until then, I'm sure if there's a significant return to a charity that the people benefitting from that charity would be grateful for your consideration. I've read a number of these comics.
I'm also very interested in sales strategies, charitable or not, that make use of comics backstock now that the idea that all old comics are valuable has been ground to dust, and this certainly seems like something we'll see repeated: a giant chunk of material aimed at a specific promotion or sales mechanism.
This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases Into 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. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
JUN151274 ADULT CONTEMPORARY GN (MR) $26.95
I saw this one and had it in my hands at SPX. I lied and said I already had one at home because I thought I did and, let's be honest, carrying books home stinks if you have any other option. This looks beautiful, though, and the description about three graphs in on the D+Q web site sounds pretty close to my own early appraisal: that it explores a certain kind of set piece cartooning within a wider context of slightly surreal comedy. I don't know if that's true or not. I have to read the book. I'd read it right in the damn store if I had a moment today.
AUG151607 ARAB OF THE FUTURE GRAPHIC MEMOIR SC $26.00
This is the big book of the week, really, which gets to play host to an in-text placement of an image because Henry Holt simply doesn't have any images out there to steal and like most campaigns for important graphic novels from slightly off-the-beaten-path-for-most-gns publishers I'm not on the PR list and don't have the book to scan. I hope that doesn't mean the work will fail to penetrate into our end of the year discussions. It certainly found purchase at the top end of the French-language markets, and they have a pretty good track record of having interesting material sift its way to the top. Again, I have to read this, but I want it.
AUG150009 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #136 $3.50 AUG150055 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #10 $3.99 AUG150053 USAGI YOJIMBO #149 $3.50 AUG150523 INVINCIBLE #124 $2.99 AUG150286 ASTRO CITY #28 $3.99 AUG150166 JUSTICE LEAGUE #45 $3.99 AUG150782 KARNAK #1 $3.99 AUG151636 INVADER ZIM #4 $3.99 AUG151470 HIP HOP FAMILY TREE #3 $3.99 AUG151252 LUMBERJANES #19 $3.99 AUG150042 DARK HORSE PRESENTS 2014 #15 $4.99 AUG151185 SIMPSONS COMICS #224 $2.99
This is as strong a day for serial comics as I can imagine without more of the heavy-hitters from Image making an appearance. You got your Mignola and your Aragones and your Sakai. Invincible is a solid performer; as is Astro City. The current Justice League sounds bonkers reflected back at me through reviews, which makes me want to see it. Ditto any time the writer Warren Ellis spends in serial comic book as in his partnership here with Gerardo Zaffino on the Karnak character. The great thing about the Ellis runs is that they tend not to last for very long and I can buy them all without killing my wallet. There's Invader Zim and Hip Hop and Lumberjanes all contributing greatly to the bottom line of companies that don't do serial comics the way they used to. DHP and Simpsons I have done basically to stare at the numbers of issues they've already put to bed.
JUN150315 GET JIRO BLOOD AND SUSHI HC (MR) $22.99
This is a follow-up to a previous Anthony Bourdain co-written book (with Joel Rose) starring the same character. Art team this time out is Alé Garza & José. This kind of outsized genre tweaking isn't my kind of thing but I hope Mr. Bourdain remains around in comics long enough for someone to just try and get him to do Pekar-like anecdote stories set around food. I think that might be really good.
NOV140863 HAWKEYE BY MATT FRACTION AND DAVID AJA OMNIBUS HC $99.99
This is all the Hawkeye comics from the award-winning team named right there in the title, a series I enjoyed whenever I read it and I read it whenever I could. You can buy t-shirts and facilitate a donation to charity, too. I am very divorced from the kind of buyer that wants the material this way, although I'm jealous of their spending habits and would certainly feel faint passing in front of a bookshelf. I imagine any addition with care in the production end of it would be flattering to Aja's artwork.
JUL151452 ATTACK ON TITAN COLOSSAL ED TP VOL 02 $49.99 JUN151580 KILL LA KILL GN VOL 01 $12.99
Two series, two different formats, two kinds of work I tend not to follow, yet two I'm fully aware they exist. In a lighter week, I might buy one or the other. It might be tougher this week, but I'm sure I'll at least sample eventually.
AUG151016 BABY BLUES COLLECTION TP NO YELLING $18.99
I wanted to note that both of Jerry Scott's series -- this one, with Rick Kirkman, and Zits with Jerry Borgman -- have had a dependable, solid books program for years now, which I has to think helps with maintaining a presence with fans and making both features feel like the major mainstream works they obviously are.
JUN151451 BAD MACHINERY VOL 04 CASE OF THE LONELY ONE $19.99
Here's my choice for a book if you just want to buy a book. I'm a fan, although I haven't started in with the books yet. Just go look at the thing, poke around. You'll know in about ten seconds if it's not for you, but it may take a while to figure out how much it is for you. But that's okay; it'll still be there why you think things through.
JUL151203 JON SABLE FREELANCE OMNIBUS TP VOL 02 $39.95 AUG150039 ROOK #1 $3.99
Here's the power of a name: I would think about buying that Jon Sable book even though it's not even a book I collected if there are enough pages there. Ditto the Rook book, and I don't even remember what the hell that one was about beyond my reading it in Warren magazines when I was sick and my dad would bring home weird comics for me to consume.
AUG151497 OMAHA BEACH ON D-DAY JUNE 6 1944 HC $24.99
This launches a series for First Second. I have it, and while I'm never all that favorably inclined to comics or illustrated work derived from photos, I realize that an affliction that most people don't have. I have found World War 2 a lot more interesting as we move past this last romanticization of it based on all those people still being around into a first round of analysis that comes from a different place.
MAY151448 SERPIERI COLLECTION HC VOL 01 (MR) $22.50 MAY151449 SERPIERI COLLECTION HC VOL 02 (MR) $22.50
The least fondly remembered right at this moment of the 1990s trinity of dirty comics from Europe, although if you had told met that we'd see a day where Crepax was remembered more fondly than Manara, I'm not sure I would have believed you back when Clinton was president. Let's see what today's readers make of Serpieri.
JUN150406 JOE KUBERT RETURN OF TARZAN ARTIST ED HC PI
I had to have an old man comic at the end of today's wide array of books, which skews older in general. I love looking at the Kubert Tarzan material any way I can, and since my interest is primarily in the visuals this is a find way to consume them.
*****
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 failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
* there are way more comics out there than I will ever be able to read with serious intent. Here's one the creator suggested I read that looks like an incentive for people to consider subscribing to its host magazine: it's called Shamrock.
* finally, I like cute updates, particularly as years from now they'll help me figure out when a story was published now that the number system has gone kablooey.
* Alex Abad-Santos writes about attempts at DC Comics to bring more diversity to the line, in a mostly positive that suggests that there may be some difficulties in getting conception to completion on a plan like that one.
* Aidan Koch and Sam Alden are going to teach this year's SAW spring workshops.
* not comics: that's a lot for a comics page, but TinTin pages would seem to me to be one of the original art subsets to retain its values for years to come.
* fake news story with a creamy comics center as conservatives take umbrage at the idea of a political Captain America that would be anti-conservative, when that's pretty much been his identity for the bulk of his long supheroing career. It wasn't Hubert Humphrey that blew his brains out in the White House.
1. Batman -- Dad
2. Calvin and Hobbes -- My grandmother
3. Snake n' Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret -- My brother Nate
4. League of Extraordinary Gentleman -- My Wife Christa
5. Lone Wolf and Cub -- My friend Jim
*****
Philippe Leblanc
1. New X-Men (by Grant Morrison) -- My wife Danielle
2. Tintin -- My mother
3. Yoko Tsuno -- My dad
4. Asterix -- my grandmother Marguerite
5. Frank -- my brother in law James
1. Lumberjanes -- My daughter Heather
2. Rex Morgan, MD -- My grandmother
3. Batman -- My Brother Rikk [spelling is correct]
4. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers -- Old Army buddy Joe
5. Little Lulu -- Former co-worker Bill
*****
Sean Kleefeld
1. Aya -- My wife
2. Scout -- Dad
3. Judge Dredd -- My buddy Jim from high school
4. Godzilla (1977) -- My brother
5. Fantastic Four -- My friend Gregg who died tragically in 2006
*****
Matt Emery
1. DC Thomson's Commando -- My Uncle Dick
2. The Phantom -- My Uncle Henare
3. 2000AD -- Dad
4. Eerie and Creepy -- Mum
5. School Fun -- My Brother Chris
*****
Anthony Stock
1. Peanuts in the old paperback format -- My Mom
2. That Conan the Barbarian Treasury Edition with "Red Nails" in it -- My Dad
3. Preacher -- My Sister Nora
4. Jack Kirby's New Gods -- My friend Kevin
5. Yu Yu Hakusho -- My friend Jose
I like this theme a lot, especially because it forces me to think about those seemingly rare people who enjoy comics but don't make them or write about them.
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. Mary Perkins On Stage -- Mom
2. From Hell -- Wife
3. Dondi --my softball team (honest!)
4. Little Lulu -- my Daughter
5. Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman -- my old roommate Richie
*****
Mike Pfefferkorn
1. Alley Oop -- Dad
2. Donald Duck -- Mom
3. Elfquest -- My Sister Patty
4. Batman -- My Friend Patrick
5. Scribbly -- My Friend Bruce
1. Mid-80s Captain America -- My Friend Chandler
2. Henry -- My Grandpa Albert
3. The Far Side -- My Dad Van
4. Groo the Wanderer -- My Brother Jared
5. Ralph Snart Adventures -- My Friend Chris
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Little Orphan Annie -- Mom
2. Barnaby -- Dad
3. The Badger -- My Brother Dan
4. Maakies -- My Brother Whit
5. Marshal Law -- My Friend Rebecca
*****
Douglas Wolk
1. Deadpool -- my son
2. Turok, Son of Stone -- my friend Andrew
3. Finder -- my friend Jay
4. Groo the Wanderer -- my friend Lia
5. Saga -- my friend Sarah
*****
Marty Yohn
1. Roy Rogers Comics -- Mom
2. Buz Sawyer -- My grandma Gladys
3. Baby Blues -- Wife
4. The Haunted Tank -- My brother Ron
5. Captain America -- My nephew Greg
*****
Michael Grabowski
1. Iron Man -- Dad
2. For Better Or For Worse -- Mom
3. Special Exits -- my wife
4. Barks' Donald Duck & Uncle Scrooge -- my daughter
5. Minions -- my younger daughter
*****
Robert Kirby
* Pogo -- mom and dad
* BC -- dad
* Ernie Pook's Comeek -- all my coworkers at Alexander’s Restaurant (1990-1992)
* Calvin & Hobbes -- ex-boyfriend Tony
* Peanuts -- husband John
*****
Michael May
1. Pogo -- Dad
2. Bloom County -- My Brothers Mark and Matt
3. Bone -- My Wife Diane
4. Boxers and Saints - My Son David
5. The Flash -- My Friend Paxton
* this reads more like a commercial for a TV show than an in-depth publishing analysis, but I guess it's interesting to know that gender issues in mainstream adventure comics and their related-media cousins as enough of a general item of interest that this kind of story gets commissioned. It takes a while for an idea to gain momentum like that, and every bit of attention is good, I think.
* the talented cartoonist Terry LaBan sent me a note the other day I'm just now able to act on, upon his participation in something called the Philly Comics Symposium, a one-day presentation on comics and how to do them, a focused comics gathering that has jettisoned the idea of a flea-market type room. I think we'll see a lot more of these in the future, particularly as people seek a way for a scene to do more than one event. Here it is.
* one of the things that we don't talk about anymore is a project that at one point in time would be considered a slam-dunk cash-grab using the same tools as someone's dream project to get funded. Here's one of those. I'm not sure what happened to that as an issue; I imagine people every so often get tired of arguing everything. This seems like something similar, although maybe not quite the same thing.
* not comics: this may be of interest to you if you've ever walked into a comics gathering, knowing no one.
* the writer and cartoon-essayist Kate Leth draws upon her vast, varied experiences to explain the unfortunate role that pre-orders play in the current Direct Market system, as the numbers are so small that a guaranteed sale reflected in orders will have more power within the publishing narrative of an individual title than a sale made later on. It's basically one way that publishers act as short-term thinkers and how even gigantic corporations might operate as if they're tiny publishing houses lacking capital. Alerting people as to how the system works can be beneficial; so can scrambling the heck away from the excesses and eddies of that system when you have the power to do so. I encourage a consideration of both strategies.
This Site Is No Longer Broken, Just Fussy And Tired
So we fixed the site with the help of a person suggested by a reader; thanks to everyone that tried to help. We may switch gears entirely in 2016 in terms of how we do the site -- a different platform, I mean. We'll see. I like what we're using and what I can do with it, but updating it at this late date might be beyond my abilities or even our desire to do so. And as many of you know, I'm really late with a lot of stuff concerning the overarching CR mission. So back to work.
This Site Is Still Broken, But We’re Working To Fix It
About a month ago I started to get a blank page when going to edit posts. The way I run the site counts on a lot of my editing posts so that I can do a little bit when time allows and not just do the site front to back every day. I do birthdays ahead of time, for example, as I'm beset by insomnia. I do a lot of the columns with bullet points that way.
So anyway, this blank page was easily taken care of by switching browsers. Then when it started happening on whatever browser I was using (safarai, chrome, explorer, firefox) I could get it back by clearing the cache. Eventually I had to clear it nearly every other time I used it. Now there's no getting back the edit page at all. Just this:
And now it's what my publishing partner Jordan gets in California even though other people can get to the edits page and he previously could, too. We get it on every browser and on multiple computers. I get it on my phone both wi-fi and 4G. Other people don't get it at all.
So if anyone has any advice, we'd appreciate it. We've turned off the modem and turned it back to re-route the whatzit. We've had our server people -- who can easily get on and thus don't see a problem with which they can help us -- check to see if the IP is banned. We're quite baffled. So if you can help, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Right now I have a help me page at the tool kit's site we use on CR to see if maybe that's the problem. They've already asked me to do two things I can't do, so I'm not thinking this is going to be easy.
I will start regularly posting on Monday at the tumblr -- comicsreporter.tumblr.com -- if this doesn't resolve. If this post is still up, it didn't resolve. And I have no way of getting at it to take it down until it does resolve. So please bear with me; sorry for the hassle. I am sort of amazed over the last ten years of doing this how fundamentally unreliable publishing on-line has been, as much as I love it and as much as I owe it. And this still isn't as bad as when the server people we had at one time deleted 60 percent of our files and wouldn't talk to us for a month. But it's pretty bad! Hopefully it goes away soon. If not, see you at Tumblr where I will be doing ads in-text Johnny Carson show style. -- Tom
Update October 18, Noon ET
I have access to a few files through a trick someone set up for me, and the ability to do new posts remains unchanged. I can thus soldier on a bit, and I'm going to take this post from off the top of the page to a post that continues every day from a more modest position top to bottom. Thanks for everyone's help, and we'll continue to work on things.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* I had no idea until someone told me that I had it on the calendar and the calendar was thus wrong that Bent Con in Burbank has canceled its 2015 event. I do remember that a crowd-funding campaign earned a little more than half of one percent of its desired goal.
* the process for registering as press for SDCC has begun, so I'm guessing it's begun for a few population statements. I still go to that show both as a fan (taking in panels, seeing my friends) and as an industry reporter (taking meetings, seeing the Eisner Awards in person), so I'm all in. A few friends and I were talking about going as a fan/going as a pro and what that means; we mix them without thinking and then when one aspect is gone we think both are, but that's not necessarily the case.
* I thought this was a wonderful facebook post to just stumble across. Kudos to Mr. Berger and every best wish to him in dealing with his health issues.
* so I guess there's a new Wolverine -- the Laura Kinney character created by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost. I remember making jokes on twitter about the old Wolverine dying, so I guess that was an actual thing that took place in that narrative. I don't really have a dog in the fight of characters taking over for other characters; it reminds me of when I was a kid and there'd be a new Ronald McDonald and it'd be freaky for a couple of months and then that would be the new Ronald McDonald. I'm happy for more diverse character line-ups, but it's pretty far away from a kind of storytelling and creativity I find worth digging into.
This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases Into 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. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
AUG151390 KILLING & DYING HC $22.95
This is the collection of major comics from the last three Optic Nerve comics, a way of reading them the first or keeping them for all time that I'm sure between the two describes a healthy audience. I remember recent individual issues of the series being quite strong in a way I was looking forward to settling into them later on. I'll have my chance. I can already see the CAB line.
AUG150282 TWILIGHT CHILDREN #1 (MR) $4.99 AUG150008 ABE SAPIEN #27 $3.50 MAY150536 EAST OF WEST #21 $3.50 AUG150513 PHONOGRAM THE IMMATERIAL GIRL #3 (MR) $3.99 JUN150555 SEX CRIMINALS #13 (MR) $3.50 AUG150519 WALKING DEAD #147 (MR) $2.99 AUG151256 ADVENTURE TIME #45 $3.99 AUG150521 WICKED & DIVINE #15 CVR A MCKELVIE & WILSON (MR) $3.50
A bunch of serial reads of note -- typical for its sprinkling of Mignola and smart cartoon adaptation into a mix of positively-selling Image serials. The difference this time around is Twilight Children #1, a must-see serial for a) what Vertigo has on the line with this new run of serials and for the powerful team-up of two of comics' great modern iconoclasts: Darwyn Cooke and Gilbert Hernandez. I'm greatly looking forward to that one, and looking even more forward to how it might look at issue #5 or so.
JUN150305 GRAPHIC INK THE DC COMICS ART OF DARWYN COOKE HC $39.99
This is more Darwyn Cooke -- more to the point, this is a lot of Darwyn Cooke. If I remember how these books work, there are standard art-book aspects but they also just flat run some of the artist's not-as-collected work from the publisher's output. In Cooke's case, that's some very good work, particularly on the Jonah Hex character, that a lot of people may not have seen. DC has been treating Cooke really well as a publishing ally in recent months, which isn't always their reputation. I'm all for people being treated as well as possible, particularly talented people.
JUL150320 SENSATION COMICS FEATURING WONDER WOMAN TP VOL 02 $14.99
I don't know why the Wonder Woman character doesn't work in that foundational way that Superman and Batman do. She has pretty lousy villains; that may contribute. A lot of her comics feel like positioning exercises than compelling narratives and attempts over the last three decades to recontextualize her in a way she has agency always seem to bring in so much backstory that it makes it hard for her to fulfill a role in the wider DC Universe the way the two big male characters do. I am curious as to whether or not there may just be some character exhaustion there, the way i feel there has been the last five years with the Fantastic Four concept. These comics were about as good as that character's been in the last five years.
AUG150514 SATELLITE SAM OMNIBUS DLX HC (MR) $44.99
This is the first chunk of a likely two-chunk run of Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin on early television as seen through what seems mostly Chaykin's perspective on how adults run things. I had a lot of fun with the series, although I'm totally happy with owning it in comic book form. I'm happy that they thought enough of their audience that this kind of edition is possible. I bet it flatters Chaykin's art here, just as I bet reading it all at once is vastly different experience than getting it in serial form.
JUL151095 PEANUTS A TRIBUTE TO CHARLES M SCHULZ HC $34.99
I have zero interest in the forthcoming film and even less in what I'm sure are very well-crafted and lovingly made Peanuts comic book of recent vintage, but I have a soft spot for tribute comics and ask only that they're done with serious intent to say something about the subject matter as opposed to assembling elements with which one then takes a creative selfie. It's a good line-up here; I'm going to at least check it on the store.
JUL158516 PIPPI LONGSTOCKING STRONGEST IN THE WORLD GN $19.95 AUG151389 ANNA & FROGA FORE HC $14.95 AUG151624 PABLO & JANE AND HOT AIR CONTRAPTION HC $19.95
Three new -- well, newly presented in the case of the first two -- works that scratch that satisfying itch for high-end idiosyncratic all-ages material. The Anna & Frogra material I just enjoy straight-up, no thought to its age-intentions, however they might exist. There's something about relatively subtle-in=severity personalities brought to bear against one another that's so satisfying I could read 10,000 pages.
AUG151567 BOUNCER HC (MR) $44.95
This is a giant collection from the western series by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Francois Boucq and that information all by itself is more than deserving of a pull of the shelf and thorough look. It is thoroughly handsome-looking, that's for sure.
AUG151490 BATTLING BOY FALL OF HOUSE OF WEST GN $9.99
This is JT Petty and David Rubin working with and in the world created by Paul Pope for his Battling Boy series; I missed the first of the Aurora West character books but I know it was well-received and that this book is anticipated more than it is tolerated by its fan base. You can't beat that price.
JUN150093 CRIME DOES NOT PAY ARCHIVES HC VOL 10 $49.99 JUL150512 HAUNTED HORROR HC VOL 03 PRE CODE COMICS SO GOOD THEYRE SCAR $24.99 JUN150036 BIG GUY & RUSTY BOY ROBOT HC SECOND ED $19.99 JUN150101 LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 10 $19.99 JUL150965 BEST OF ARCHIE COMICS 75 YEARS 75 STORIES TP $14.99 UL151200 LUCKY LUKE TP VOL 54 RODEO $15.95 JUN150299 BATMAN YEAR 100 DLX ED HC $29.99 MAR151563 JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50 KIRBY FIVE OH NEW PTG $24.95 JUL151818 MAD SPY VS SPY AN EXPLOSIVE CELEBRATION $24.95
That is a staggering amount of material that would be an excellent citizen of any comics reader's one-bookshelf comics collection, particularly if you use one edition of a good series -- like the Kazuo Koike/Goseki Kojima work -- and extend that out into however many volumes that series bears. You could fill a room, and it's amazing that all this stuff should show up as new comics listings.
JUN150027 TWO BROTHERS HC $24.99
I have two brothers with whom I occasionally fight, and Have long been interested in the idea of a family member being sent off due to disharmony within the group and then being asked to return to the fold as an adult some years later. That should never work. I'm also enough of a fan of the creators Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá that I'd pick this up sight unseen. I always like how they make use of their creative and popular capital.
*****
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 failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
Here. It's all stuff that's been covered here already, and separately, but no one will blame you if you want to take that stuff in in one big gulp. It wasn't the healthiest magazine from a burning mission point of view when the murders took place. As the article points out, the magazine is in a good place right now financially and might be able to put that to use.
* so I made a decision I won't be going to Short Run this year. I'm going to CAB instead. I really want to see Short Run for the first time, but I don't have the money or the time to do both shows and I have business I can complete in New York that I lack in Seattle. It's a bummer. I go to too many shows anyway, but I wanted to see that one. Plus I love Seattle. I will try really, really hard next year.
Go, Read: People Debate A Terrible-Sounding Cartoon
Here. I'm not sure what you do in the case of a cartoon you dislike so much it drives you to fury, although calling on it to be banned somehow seems weird. That the cartoonist is largely unapologetic means that pushing at the cartoon allows her a stage to push back with the message you dislike.
It's interesting that the cartoon being traced became an issue used to discredit the cartoon, both as a general indictment of its skill and as a specific indictment that the cartoonist added a message that wasn't there in the original. One constant of modern political debate is that any tactic can and will be used to win the argument in play, and that at least one of the sides will try to play it so that they're only hoping to win a little bit of an argument, if not just one instance of it.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: Publishing News
By Tom Spurgeon
* I'm still sorting out announcements from NYCC 2015, so expect links to that show this week and next.
* the must-read coming out of that show about publishing in general is Deb Aoki's twopart interview with Kodansha executives.
* the big story of general interest from manga companies as presented through western comics media seems to be this western artists driven Attack On Titan anthology due this Fall. That is a humongous property right now, so just about anything they do with it will be of interest, and there are a lot of interesting cartoonists contributing work. It's weird in that I don't think of something that is that popular as ever needing a western comics on-ramp, although I'm likely overthinking things by a significant amount.
* one panel presentation at NYCC that got basic, PR-driven press is the Viz Panel, with an announcement of seven new series. It's kind of a thrilling when a big company like that announces an entire slate where none of the comics are in my specific wheelhouse. I'm also happy to see sports manga continue to work their way into translated editions. Sports prose like Talmage Powell's Cellar Team was a big part of my appetite for reading and for sports growing up.
* one thing I gleaned from checking out Aoki's twitter feed is that Yen Press spent at least a few moments of time at their NYCC 2015 panel reducing expectations for the completion of old series. It makes sense, if a series didn't pan out in the market the first time, that's a really tough thing for a company to decide to want to spend resources doing. It seems like there's a lot of pressure on these publishers to churn out new books across the lines, with the hits being trickier to find for all of that production.
* all that said, I still want Fantagraphics to do a Cromartie High School Omnibus, though. Or Fantagraphics Underground. I think the change in publishing context would generate more readers, just enough to make that one work.
* this column is just going to be me ordering publishers to do things to please me --- the best kind of column.
* DC used the publicity platform to do a general push on their third Dark Knight series. It's interesting to watch the publicity on that one compared to the publicity for the new cycle of Star Wars movies, in that both follow efforts that directly followed the individual series that in some way weren't embraced by hardcore fans. That's about the only similarity, but the positioning seems much the same. I've had one retailer tell me that it scares him that DC is putting that much emphasis on a single title at a time when they have linewide issues.
* here's word from the convention of a new Star Wars series that moves us away from the time of the original series but still focuses on major characters as the other Marvel SW series have.
* finally, this sounds fun, although I'm never quite sure what to make of special issues for a comic that new. It seems like there's still basic groundwork to be done in terms of establishing those characters and that setting, but what I don't know about how mainstream comics work is likely everything making them successful.
Sam Briger talks to the cartoonist about returning to Bloom County after a long hiatus and several abortive attempts to do sort-of sequels. That's an interesting story if only in that when a cartoonist retains hold of her creation you're likely to see them at least considering a return after an epoch's worth of contextual change all around the work.
* not sure how this article about Train World got into my bookmarks, but I'm glad it did. I could spend a couple of days looking art the way cartoonists have depicted trains and that would be a totally acceptable 48 hours.
By Request Extra: 2D Cloud In Last Hours Of Fundraiser
Here. They've made their goal but certainly not smashed their way past it, and that's a publisher that a lot of readers of this site may wish to support and have access to their material in the ways offered. They've done good work in the past, and should continue to do so in the future.
As always, I want to be upfront in asking for an additional level of scrutiny from you towards all fundraisers that involve an entity whose traditional role includes providing capital. Comics' history of exploitation at multiple levels and in several ways encourages caution for anything that shifts responsibilities in that way. It's not a blanket condemnation, though, just a request. Certainly most people seem to disagree with me on this, and I understand how this might work within a healthy ecosystem for the entire medium.
Comics By Request: People, Projects In Need Of Funding
By Tom Spurgeon
* the Rowhouse Residency crowd-funding campaign is probably due some attention as we get to the halfway point. Frank Santoro is the kind of artist that would do grand and ambitious things with any money leftover, too.
* Sam Costello's patreon campaign is designed to rid his site of advertising and pay contributors; it's also Halloween-themed so there you go.
* there's not a ton in world of randomly-view Kickstarter campaigns that caught my attention this week: I was struck by how many days are left on this one having met its goal. I remain interested in how Digital Manga does these Tezuka-related campaigns, which are popular enough they seem to succeed on a project-to-project basis with great regularity. Basically, the core component-deal there is $25, as that's the first one that gets you the print book. I'm always fascinating by the attempts to fund shows and shops through crowd-funding, like this Virginia con. There weren't a lot of big names from print that I saw working my way down the lists; this came closest.
* finally, the Tony Breed-related GoFundMe crowd-funder is close to meeting its stated goal. It's hard not to want to give or up your donation if you see that photo. It's for care-related costs due to the long-term illness suffered by Breed's husband.
* Jarni Blakkarly profiles Zunar. Every Zunar profile is important right now. Dan Solomon profiles Kate Beaton. Kate Beaton profiles are also important right now in the wider scheme of things, as the smart kids 10, 12, 14 years old she helps inspire to make comics could transform the industry a decade from now. Steve Foxe talks to Valentine De Landro and Kelly Sue DeConnick. Dan Nadel talks to Hugh Front and Leon Sadler.
* not comics: I'm frequently told niche web sites are all the rage. I don't know if that would work in comics or not, because I'm not sure the percentage of a niche market that can support a sub-niche would be there no matter how cleverly conceived.
* I'll never understand the creative heart of cosplay, it's just not in me, but there's no denying how much skill is on display, from homemade costumes to more elaborate affairs.
And Then There Was That Time Matt Bors & Martin Shkreli Went Back And Forth On Twitter A Bit
Weird, but also a sign of the times: basically a public version of the old story about a politician bumping into a newspaper editor at Rotary and asking for a copy of the cartoon.
Martz was named in one of the English-language categories, Children's Literature (Illustrated Books), for A Cat Named Tim And Other Stories from Koyama Press. 970 books were submitted overall in all English-language categories.
* livers are suffering damage all over Gotham City as NYCC settles into its long weekend. That's a very festive show, and a humongous, significant one of the mainstream comics + pop culture variety. A lot of business will be done over the next few days, and not just the kind of business that involves bending elbows at some bar. It also marks the end of the traditional mainstream con season.
* it's super-interesting to me that this retro way of presenting comics conventions is a core strategy for a lot of shows that can't afford faded Hollywood stars and wrestling personalities.
* that smart man Philip Nel writes about Children's Literature, and the act of reading it as an adult. I heartily concur, although I still worry about my friends and acquaintances that fail to engage with a wide variety of material including prose that most children wouldn't choose to read or likely wouldn't be able to process. I'm old that way.
* that's interesting. I don't know how effective that kind of broad effort can be, but it's worth trying and there have been rumblings for this kind of group PR campaign for years now. The branding is sort of interesting in that I thought they'd try to do something with the phrase "BD," which I think has a lot of potential. Then again, this one may be bigger than just French-language comics.
* Rachel Pinnelas to Dynamite. It's always important when dealing with underrepresented hiring categories that members of them get second and third chances, not just first ones, so I'm happy for the move.
Please do yourself the favor of reading this post by Julia Wertz on harassment she's received and how she's negotiated the cycle of responses that follow. Please do yourself the additional favor of reading it without being super self-conscious and defensive -- if you recognize yourself in any of the behavior, don't just dig in; seek the possibility of change.
When I was a kid and a more traditional believer in Christianity, I remember going to a youth service with a much-liked pastor for kids and teens. At the "rap" session -- we were all about the rap session -- kids were asking about being able to wear some kinds of evil rock and roll t-shirts and enjoy some level of intimacy while dating, maybe playing role-playing games without dice, when the pastor suddenly pointed out that the idea of having faith was to get as deep as one can into one's beliefs, not stay at the surface negotiating exceptions to the responsibilities one encountered there. He compared it to leaving the house to go outside and never taking your hand off of the doorknob.
It stuck with me.
Now might be the time with issues of harassment and gender relationships in comics to go as hard as we can in the other direction, towards the most exemplary behavior possible. Shouldn't that be the idea? Maybe it's worth doing whatever we can to minimize our exposure to this kind of behavior no matter how draconian or unnecessary or unfair it feels. Maybe we could cancel a few parties, maybe some of us could choose not to drink during show weekends, maybe some of us could pledge not to blend work and personal life to the exclusion of any other way of thinking about those things than they have to be together. Maybe we should blanket accept just how fucking demeaning it is to treat a peer like an object for some sort of acting out you wish to do, with whatever end in mind you think should be on the table. It's not like we're going to get to perfect, humane behavior immediately -- or at least I know I won't be perfect, because I constantly screw stuff up -- but we may get to a better place more quickly by trying as hard as we can to maximize how much progress we can make than we might by constantly bartering for a minimal amount of change. Maybe it's time we all stepped away from that door.
* it's weird to me to think there's a great deal of value for old, gross comics characters to become less gross as there's little of what I remember about the original characters that seems to me of value. It's good PR churn for these companies, though, and maybe these characters will reveal something in their new incarnations that has escaped me until now.
* the SPX driving force of recent vintage Warren Bernard endorses both Blast Furnace Funnies and Frank Santoro's desire to build a physical school to complement his digital one. We also endorse these things.
Bundled Extra: A Reminder That Love And Rockets Is Headed Back To Comics Format
I'm pretty sure that this was announced earlier, but I was reminded over the weekend while interviewing Jaime Hernandez that Los Bros are switching back to comic-book format after the next literary-digest formatted issue. That's interesting to me because it's done for creative reasons rather than commercial ones. The idea is that with a comic book, you get a greater opportunity to find closure within making comics in a way that makes for better work per thousand pages. Paul Pope has expressed a similar desire, but has less control over recent products. The fact that the digest size pulled Love Bunglers out of Jaime and he still feels this way is a sign of a very confident artist. I'll follow Love & Rockets wherever it goes.
Jaime also revealed that he's interested in the character Gomez perhaps ahead of his audience's interest in same, which means we may get a comic about that character someday.
CR Guest Editorial: Christian Hoffer On The Direct Market’s Role In General Comics Market Growth
The following was written by Christian Hoffer as his contribution to a series of blog posts at different sites about the sustainability of comics sales with the Direct Market playing a central role. I'm happy to put it here for him. -- Tom Spurgeon
*****
By Christian Hoffer
The following post was written as part of WomenWriteAboutComics.com's "blog carnival", answering the question "is it possible for comics to grow sustainably if the direct market continues to dominate distribution?"
For decades, comics' primary point of sale has been the specialized comic book store, which receives its comic stock from one vendor, Diamond Comics Distributor. For many mainstream comics fans, the direct market represents the "be all, end all" of their comics buying experience. These fans go to their local comic store on Wednesday, buy new issues of their favorite monthly titles and theån repeat the routine the following week. For both retailers and publishers, the "repeat customer", the fans who visit a store 30-50 times a year, represent the backbone of their business, keeping the direct market viable.
Although the direct market allows the casual reader access to a wider variety of books, offers better stock quality for collectors and allows retailers the option to provide a more catered and intimate customer service experience, the system also has some very major flaws. The direct market places an emphasis on existing readers and indirectly inhibits potential new readers from getting exposed to comics. As the newsstand has died out and there's no longer a place for comics in groceries, corner stores and pharmacies, comics are no longer an impulse buy for casual readers. There's also Diamond's no-return policy to consider, which forces retailers to order conservatively on new monthly titles, putting many on the brink of cancellation before they have time to find an audience. Due to the conservative ordering atmosphere created by Diamond, mainstream creators and publishers often ask their devoted fans to "game" the system, encouraging them to pre-order comics from retailers in order to push their sales figures and get more stock on the shelf for other readers.
Industry trends suggest the direct market isn't going anywhere. Diamond's sales figures has shown five consecutive years of growth, moving more stock and generating more revenue than at any point since the 1990s. Even the concept of the comics store is engrained in the consciousness of mainstream culture. Thanks to television shows like The Simpsons or Big Bang Theory, comics has become tied to the image of the specialized comics store, filled with posters and merchandise promoting their favorite superhero store. Common sensibility suggests that the direct market is here to stay, with all of its limiting flaws and warts.
But despite the sentiment that comics are forever intertwined with the direct market, more and more creators and publishers are finding ways to circumnavigate the system. The comics medium has never been more accessible, thanks to the almost limitless supply of web comics available on the Internet. Creators and publishers have discovered that crowdfunding can be used as an alternative distribution service, allowing fans to support comics projects without ever having to walk into a comic store. There's also a growing market for comics in traditional bookstores and the rising popularity of digital comics from services like Comixology to take in account, as well as the growing convention circuit that allows creators the chance to hand sell their comics directly to fans. And, that's not even factoring in that the largest retailer in comics probably isn't a comic book store chain, it's Amazon.com.
With all the increasingly accessible options available to purchase comics, it almost feels like a second market for comics is growing outside of the direct market. That's why the New York Times Bestseller is filled mainly with books and creators that have a relatively minor presence in comics stores. The mainstream comics industry might rely on the direct market to drive sales, but maybe the "mainstream" isn't so mainstream anymore. After all, many of the biggest creators in comics, people like Kate Beaton or Raina Telgemeier, are barely impacted by anything that happens with the direct market. The alternative comics scene is also thriving, in part because more and more creators are looking away from comics stores as how they get their comics into the hands of consumers. And it seems like more and more creators and publishers are able to make a comfortable living outside of the grind of the direct market and its limitations as they can build fanbases through social media engagement and the Internet.
asking whether comics can grow under the direct market is the wrong question to ask. Instead, we should ask if the direct market can tap into the immense growth experienced by other areas of comics in recent years. I don't think that people will ever stop buying their comics from a comic book store, but one day, that system could also be more conducive to distributing zines, alternative comics and graphic novels to "mainstream" audiences. The comics medium is evolving outside of the direct market; it's the direct market's decision whether to help comics grow or get left behind in its wake.
Just Got Back From CXC Festival And Boy Are My Arms Tired
I was lucky enough to be part of a new comics show this weekend. We had a good time. We had awards. We had several fine meals. I look forward to next year's version.
I am very tired, more so than I expected. All apologies.
Go, Read: Various Articles Related To Scott Allie’s Behavior At Comic-Con International 2015
Start here. Go here. Important side trips here and here. You should read them beginning to end. It's good to take notes, even.
There is a lot of stuff here, and it doesn't even have to encompass the entire history of shitty behavior towards women professionals and women generally in the modern comics industry to be worth noting and exploring. There's the issue of how much the hosts of a social event bear responsibility for the outlandish behavior of guests. There's the issue of whether or not longtime industry figure Scott Allie's recent sideways relocation in the editorial hierarchy at Dark Horse was part of a reaction to this. There's the issue of any company that brings employees that conduct themselves poorly during that show's duration as desirable partners for cons and festivals. There are likely other rumors to track down in the light of Allie's apology. There's the issue of the hard distinction between single actions and systemic behavior. There's the issue of what actually constitutes a work event and representation on the job. There's the issue of how much comics institutions owe their public and professional communities in terms of explanation and how they might be legally bound -- actually legally bound, not assumed to be legally bound -- to not report such things. There's the issue of how much health is involved in comics' dependence on a model which so explicitly mixes outreach work and inward-looking, hedonistic pleasure.
My guess is that comics may not have the constitution to seriously work through these issues because of how closely its culture is driven by personal and social need, in the same way that issues of aggressive violence are difficult for a wider US culture that's fear- and entitlement-driven. It may be, then, that it's going to take a brave figure to stand up and sue the bejesus out of an individual, their supervisor, their company, the host of a party, the setting of a party, the convention under whose auspices this takes and five or six people I can't think of at 3:20 in the morning. My suggestion in the meantime is that those of us in media that cover comics treat this kind of a story as a beginning -- not for a culture-wide jeremiad, necessarily, but for this specific story. We need to all file one as soon as we can, with all the questions re-asked, even if the answer is just to point us in the direction of a previous statement, even if the article says "This PR person chose not to even contact me back on this issue." And it's up to all of us to make decisions based on whether those stories are done, and how institutions react to those stories being done. Let's get to work.
* it's hard for me to understand how comics publishing works when there are seemingly no repercussions for this kind of thing. It's like there's no "right way of doing things" to abuse.