This Isn’t A Library: New 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.
*****
JAN171776 SIMPLY SAMUEL HC $24.99
I think this is a Tommi Musturi silent book of recent vintage, and Musturi's cartooning is always welcome. It's also one of the few slam-dunk alt-comics offerings of the week, and I feel like those should be supported given the chance.
JAN171281 MUTTS SHELTER STORIES LOVE GUARANTEED SC $16.99
I think when McDonnell's career finally ends this book will look like a near halfway point splitting of the strip between its reputation for elegance and charm and its naked support for the social issue encompassed by the care for animals. It will be a positive appraisal, I hope.
DEC160437 ANIMAL NOIR #1 $3.99 JAN170105 BALTIMORE THE RED KINGDOM #2 $3.99 JAN170339 FLINTSTONES #9 $3.99 JAN170772 WALKING DEAD #165 (MR) $2.99 JAN171038 DOCTOR STRANGE #18 $3.99 DEC161120 CEREBUS IN HELL #2 $4.00 JAN171476 GIANT DAYS #24 $3.99 JAN171471 GOLDIE VANCE #10 $3.99 JAN171155 MOTOR GIRL #4 $3.99 JAN171762 ALL TIME COMICS CRIME DESTROYER #1 $4.99 NOV161087 REICH #4 (OF 12) (MR) $3.00
Most of the action this week is here in the single-issue comics. Animal Noir is a European comic brought here to live or die in serial comic book form. That usually doesn't but that's a charming book where a lower price might bring readers happy to have new comics-makers an entry point into new work. There's your Mignola. There's the inexplicable Flinstones minor hit: it really does work pretty well, and I get zero out of the other comics they've brought back to the stands this time around. Walking Dead day I imagine is still a pretty happy day at most comics shops, right up there with Saga day. Doctor Strange is a rare well-regarded serial comic for Marvel right this second. They've already had spinoffs. Cerebus In Hell I'll catch up to, I swear, just not yet. Here are three exemplars of the new mainstream approach, all of which have solid creators at work on them. I don't quite understand the appeal of wretched 1970's genre comic re-dos, just as something which to do, but I like a number of the comics that results. Reich I've learned is an Alternative Comics re-do of the Sparkplug series.
DEC160596 CORTO MALTESE GN IN SIBERIA $29.99
I look forward to this series as IDW continues to put them out, particularly they get into what I remember to be more interesting and more elegantly drawn material. The nice thing about that kind of perception is that even if it's more of the same I get to wrestle with my perceptions versus the work's reality.
DEC160606 DAVE STEVENS ROCKETEER ARTISAN ED TP DIRECT MARKET EXC $39.99
I have a hunch there will always be Rocketeer re-issues of one sort or the other: that character's special fit. This is basically a slightly downscale Artist's Edition, under $50, same treatment of the art, softcover instead of hard. No matter what, every Stevens re-formatting will be extremely attractive.
JUN160964 KARNAK TP FLAW IN ALL THINGS $17.99
I'm not sure how these comics work for modern superhero fans but to me the couple of issues I bought were pretty funny: the strike-and-shatter Inhuman recast as a young Kurtwood Smith, verbally on point, having unpleasant adventures and irritating anyone he might possibly talk to rather than chop in the head.
SEP161119 SHANG-CHI MASTER OF KUNG FU OMNIBUS HC VOL 03 DEODATO CVR $125.00 SEP161120 SHANG-CHI MASTER OF KUNG FU OMNIBUS HC VOL 03 DM ZECK VAR ED $125.00
It's a weird enough day at the comic shop I don't mind ending with a giant Marvel comic in a format I don't understand. I think I do have sort of a grasp on the format here: Marvel's long had success with these super-fat hardcovers that I guess go to those guys in suits I've long heard about but only ever see in Midtown Comics. I liked the heck out of these comics when I was a kid and re-bought the originals for me to consume as an adult when these collections were a twinkling in some lawyer's eye. They have that slight bump in maturity that the British Avengers TV show had, that idea you're at the adults table even if you haven't quite earned it. Plus: kung-fu.
*****
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.
Bill Leak Could Have Asserted His Complaint-Filed-Against Cartoon Was Done In Good Faith, But Didn’t
There's an interesting coda here to last year's story about a cartoon by Bill Leak being accused of racial discrimination under Australian's human rights laws. The complaint was dropped in November.
Essentially, Leak was contacted with the chance to put on an affirmative defense. He would have been able to state that the cartoon was done in good faith in that it was designed to drive conversation on an important public issue. For whatever reason, Leak declined to pursue the charge's dismissal that way. That's fascinating in the individual case that no action was taken, but also more generally that this is a way to get out of such a charge. As the article notes, folks are hoping to reform that part of the law.
* I like to cover books in advance because I don't like having missed something, but I had no idea we'd be seeing this giant tome from cartoonist Gabby Schulz. That's good news, though, despite my failure at a fundamental aspect of my job.
* I find the whole world of digital media stars sort of fascinating, but there's no hitch-step in fully realizing these folks are just as popular as their film, broadcast TV and cable TV peers. This will include comics.
* PWexplores some of the various bottom lines that characterize right now for IDW. That's a company not only playing the long game, but they're using a different rule book for much of what they do. Even the way they do TV/film is different.
* here's an article from FPI about Panini/Marvel celebration covers done by various European cartooning superstars, like Lewis Trondheim drawing the X-Men. Cover stunts like that usually end up being pretty fun. The tend to pick accomplished artists, and those artists have the entire history of the character from which to pull a single iconic moment.
* this was pretty funny, too. Although the notion that a relative might change something creatively in order to alter the perception the art brings with it, that seems like it could happen.
Missed It: Turkey’s Girgir Shut Down Over Moses Cartoon
This is a mess. A judge shutting down a humorous magazine for blasphemy in Turkey right now is hardly surprising, though still depressing. This article indicates a sprawl of motivations and counter-arguments, though, including the notion that staffers ran the cartoon without vetting because of late-night journalistic exhaustion, and that the cartoon and its cursing Israelis was conceived as a kind of provocation that would get the paper shut down.
What that suggest to me is the repressive atmosphere isn't just seen in direct government restriction on speech but helps to build a culture of avoidance and blame that gums up the works before government even gets involved. Even the worst kind of speech in the whole world can be processed through a culture more fruitfully.
I attended what was basically, I think, the closing reception for the Billy Ireland installation of Windows On Death Row, which will run through the second Sunday in March. It's a show that's run three or four places in North America and at least two in Europe.
This is one of Lebanese-Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte's series of cartoon-driven installations concerning social issues, bringing to bear qualities people associate with comics and cartoon like humor, satirical insight and a diversity of voices on the political and practical viewpoints involved. The Billy Ireland installation provides a high quality mix of cartoons across four thematic organizing principles, along with art from death row inmates. The Saturday evening event included a walk-through with the curators, a reception and a speech featuring one of the artists and introduced by author Piper Kerman.
About 60 people attended, which was a nice crowd for an evening of overlapping campus events. The quality of "Windows" called for a full house. The art itself, like a lot of jailhouse art I've seen, was intriguing for its range of obviously self-taught craft with an almost routinely heartbreaking aspirational aspect, where an image might reflect a limited worldview or something the artist wishes for but isn't present. The reception was enjoyable for the attendees that weren't typical Billy event participants, a broad range of arts-interested people, at least two Kerman fans to whom I spoke, and campus denizens either ordered to be there or there for some assistance with their own death penalty related social causes.
The belle of this particular ball, though, was the presentation portion of the evening. All of those involved -- the organizers, Kerman and cartoonist Joel Pett were charming and concise, the latter of which might represent a miracle for this kind of thing. A general point made more than once involved the notion of fighting the death penalty as confronting the spear-tip for mass incarceration, a way of dulling the blade for a deeply ingrained and financially well-protected element of our country, all of which is derived from the nation's punishment culture. There was also some smart discussion of related issues, and steps to policy correction.
The show's heart was remarks from Ndume Olatushani, who spoke directly and eloquently to his decade-long incarceration on death row and what turned him around and the value of art in finding personal direction. It's one of the presentations I'll remember for the remainder of my life, the feeling of it if not the specifics. It was a moral address of the best kind. Olatushani's patience and display of character in parsing what had happened to him, and how it felt at different steps along the way, astonished most of the crowd. As pointed out several times, the activist and artist was a living example of why there shouldn't be a death penalty.
I hope to do many more shows like this in the years ahead. If you haven't seen the exhibition you have about two weeks for Ohio, or you can see it at future 2017 installations in Texas and New York City.
The cartoonist and his journalist peers have not even been indicted, as of this writing.
Various human rights-focused organizations have reacted strongly to the imprisonment, as the government detail. These tend to be broad commissions and organization rather than something within Turkey that might have greater pull to force action.
CRNI's description of the cartoonist's situation chills. I'll re-run it here with apologies because there may be a few people that will read it here and not follow a link to it. "... [Kart] continues to be held under the kind of restricted circumstances normally reserved for those convicted of a crime. While he and his journalist colleagues have access to paper and pen, nothing is permitted to leave and nor may they receive letters. They may see their lawyers once a week for one hour and up to three of their family members, also for one hour a week. Inmates and visitors are separated by glass during family visits or accompanied by a prison officer doing lawyer visits and at all times any discussion is audio-recorded. Inmates are permitted a phone call once in 15 days for a duration no longer than ten minutes. They cohabit in groups of three and aren’t allowed to see their peers. They are given access to a 3×5 meter yard with very high walls to get air and exercise. They do have a television and get the daily newspapers but there are limitations on books. Deputies from the CHP visit them often, as is their right, and share their messages with the public."
One hopes there is word of a case and/or its progression sooner rather than later. This is abominable, but it happened very quickly and with very relative pushback from the citizenry, or at least it seemed that way from the outside looking in. Horrifying in and of itself, it's not an unfair concern that this kind of thing may one day be common in all right-tilting countries, or those with a focus in maintaining power in one person.
Comics By Request: People, Places In Need Of Funding
By Tom Spurgeon
* there is a little over two weeks remaining in the Garbage Pail Kids collectible offering to benefit the mighty artist Jay Lynch by reducing the pressure brought about by some of his medical bills.
* that joke isn't funny enough to justify its place bumped up against some strong concerns readers will express, even if they're not really all that apt. If I put an equivalent tweet out there, I'd likely delete it.
* Sean Howe has a moment in mind when the Marvel Age of Comics truly began, and it'd be difficult to argue him out of it.
* a pair of pin-ups of notice: 1) Kevin Nowlan doing Hellboy art seems a natural fit of artist and subject. It's handsome like nearly everything Nowlan does. 2) One thing I love about John Fantucchio's art is that what seems like a terrible idea when you think of it in abstract sort of works on the page.
My favorite news story of this last week was word that Anne Koyama, the gracious and much-loved publisher behind Koyama Press, was donating a bunch of original art of recent vintage to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. What's specifically great about this donation is that a lot of cartoonists coming up after the year 2000 have sold original art as a source of secondary income. To know there will be a collection in Columbus that encompasses that first generation of comics-school kids and the resurgent Small Press Expo crowd of that time period is thus a blessing and a thrill. We'll see how thrilling in a gallery show to be curated from the donation by Caitlin McGurk, to be up on the Billy's walls during CXC 2018.
Annie Koyama is famously one of the great, warm souls to ever work in comics, and I'm always delighted to talk to her. -- Tom Spurgeon
*****
TOM SPURGEON: Tell me about the earliest piece in the collection. Exactly what made you buy it?
ANNE KOYAMA: I can't recall the first actual piece but it may have been small pages from Melissa Mendes or Box Brown. In the early days, it was most likely an artist posting pages for sale in aid of paying their rent or needing funds to get to a show.
SPURGEON: Was collecting any part of your experience before then, was it part of how you engaged with comics?
KOYAMA: Aside from a tacky salt and pepper shaker collection, I've never really been a collector. I was never going to be that person who bought something in the hopes of selling it on eBay later for a stupid amount of money. I'm driven more by connecting with artists. I can't work with everyone I'd like to and this was a way to support all kinds of artists.
SPURGEON: Do you remember how the collection stopped being just a few pieces you were buying from friends and people you liked and started having its own weight and momentum? Did that change how you approach your purposes?
KOYAMA: I do. I was at TCAF and I was talking to Jim Rugg. I knew that he was bringing his ballpoint pen drawings for sale and I really loved them. It seemed that no one else was doing that kind of work at the time. After gently berating him for charging too little for his work, I took a couple of pieces home. Looking at them later, I realized how selfish it felt to hold onto those pieces and have very few people ever see them in the flesh. So I started thinking about where I could place them so that anyone could see them. For a while I considered trying to organize a gallery/museum space but then realized how insane it would be to add another full-time job onto what I do now. I need regular reminders that I am not 20 any more, it seems.
SPURGEON: [laughs] Talk to me about maybe a favorite piece.
KOYAMA: I'm a huge fan of Kevin Huizenga's work and was pretty thrilled to have several of his pages in the collection. I feel that his work is under-appreciated.
SPURGEON: What do we learn about this group of cartoonists after spending an afternoon with your art?
KOYAMA: Though I did not set out to be a collector of comic art and work by cartoonists, it's a pretty diverse and perhaps not the most cohesive collection. However, it should stand as a snapshot of the decade from 2007 to 2017. If you viewed all of the work together, you'd probably see an eclectic collection that contains mostly emerging talents but what is wonderful to me is that many of those people are now well on their way as published authors. You may not see another collection with work by Jonny Negron, Keiler Roberts, Lane Milburn, Katie Skelly, Aidan Koch, Oliver East and Chris Pitzer!
SPURGEON: You have a lot of choices these days ... what about leaving this particular legacy at the Billy Ireland intrigued you?
KOYAMA: I looked around a bit but was really impressed by the work that the Billy Ireland Museum was doing and Caitlin McGurk and Jenny Robb both share the enthusiasm that I have for showing the work in the to anyone who shows any interest. How accessible that work is to the public sealed the deal for me. I'm less concerned about my legacy than I am for any of the artists.
I have held onto my collection of Canadian comic art for now as I'd ideally like to keep it in Canada but if I cannot find an institution that will make the work accessible to the public, this work may also find it's way to Columbus.
Someone cracked that I should get a big tax receipt for that donation. As a Canadian, I don't get a tax receipt and frankly, don't give a shit about tax receipts, I only care that the Museum has enough funding so that the work will be there for a long, long time.
SPURGEON: Were you mindful of the fact that a lot of art from this specific generation may be lost to collectors and private collections?
KOYAMA: Yes, absolutely. And while I hope that some of those people eventually donate those pieces to a museum, many will probably stay in families as with anything collectible.
SPURGEON: Annie, how does it feel to let them go?
KOYAMA: It's the best feeling, really. When you grow up in a family of six kids with parents who didn't have much, you share everything and I mean everything. If you get to a point in life where you no longer have to share, it's important to keep making that a conscious choice.
* from a beautiful Tim Hensley page
* from Dustin Harbin's comic about Koyama
* two full pages from Frank Santoro (first) and Aidan Koch (second)
* panel from a donated Sammy Harkham page
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Comics Characters That Either Presently Have -- Or At One Time Had -- Less Of Their Body Than They Did The First Time You Encountered Them." This is how they responded.
* B.D.
* Cerebus
* Bucky Barnes
* Flash Thompson
* Atom Eve
*****
Marty Yohn
1. Claw the Unconquered
2. Aquaman
3. John Colby (Chew)
4. Roy Harper
5. Black Hand
*****
Anthony Stock
1. Tetsuo
2. Cerebus
3. Deunan Knute
4. Green Arrow (in the Dark Knight Returns)
5. KGBeast
*****
Daniel Kalder
1. Arcturus Rann (Leader of the Micronauts, lost a hand in Peter B. Gillis' weird/pretentious New Voyages series)
2. The Shadow (Helfer/Baker version)
3. Dr. Strange (Had an eyepatch, Peter B. Gillis again)
4. Swamp Thing (Repeatedly maimed, or reduced to a shoot)
5. Machine Man 2020
*****
Sean Kleefeld
1. Green Arrow
2. The Thing
3. BD
4. Tetsuo Shima
5. Cursed Pirate Girl
*****
John Vest
1. Ultron (in Avengers # 57)
2. Machine Man (disassembled by Madame Menace)
3. Brainiac (in Alan Moore's Superman # 423)
4. Original Human Torch (what was left of him in Ed Brubaker's Captain America)
5. Fafnir (loses arm and later life in Thomas / Windsor-Smith Conan)
*****
Matt Emery
1. Judge Dredd
2. Sugar Ray (1980's Dan Dare)
3. Doomlord
4. Mean Machine Angel
5. Jesse Custer
*****
Mike Pfefferkorn
1. Speedy/Arsenal (Roy Harper)
2. Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)
3. Anton Arcane
4. Bucky/Winter Soldier (James Buchanan Barnes)
5. Machiste
1. Nighthawk carries his brain around in a dish in Steve Gerber's Defenders
2. Jack Frost in The Invisibles has a finger cut off and eaten
3. John Garrett in Elektra: Assassin is blown up and rebuilt
4. Odin's eye goes walkabout in Roy Thomas's Thor
5. Wonder Woman sacrifices both eyes in Greg Rucka's run
*****
thanks to all that participated; I skipped posting four entries that seemed not to answer the question; I'm not sure that Raina one did, either; my fault, not a great topic; I'm chopping off my typing fingers now
The Iranian cartoonist Eaten Fish has ended a lengthy hunger strike designed to drive attention to abuses within an Australian immigration system that involves a lengthy stay on Manus Island.
It's a chilling article, as the artist admits to thoughts of more direct suicide in addition to the damage recently done his body by not eating for almost three weeks.
Eaten Fish won the 2016 CRNI award for courage for the cartoons he made during his stay in detention;
The cartoonist, whose chronicling of life in detention last year won him Cartoonist Rights Network International’s award for courage in editorial cartooning, said he was being plagued by thoughts of ending his life.
The Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE) has announced through its organizer Back Porch Comics the 2016 prize-winners, which will be presented at the show on March 25. The SPACE Prizes are given to work that was featured at the previous year's show.
SPACE will be held March 25-26 at the Northland Performing Arts Center in Columbus, Ohio. It is the nation's comics convention closest to my house.
Winners by category:
GRAPHIC NOVEL
1st Place: Persia Blues Volume Two: Love & War, Dara Naraghi and Brent Bowman
2nd Place: Amiculus Volume II: Flagellum Dei, Travis Horseman and Giancarlo Caracuzzo
3rd Place: Love & Monsters, Cynthia Lee (Editor)
GENERAL
1st Place: Woodstalk #6, Bruce Worden
2nd Place: Phillip Fox Band, Craig Bogart
3rd Place: Prizefighter, M.S. Harkness
MINI-COMIC/SHORT STORY
1st Place (Tie): Dive, Sean Dempsey
1st Place (Tie): Far Tune Terry Eisele and Brent Bowman
3rd Place Ask Bud!, Pam Bliss
JUNIOR
* Ant and the Zombie SpidersParts 1 & 2, Harrison Worden
* Starcatcher's Quest, Althea Seilhan
Congratulations to all the winners and hope to see most if not all at SPACE 2017.
* I didn't really understand this story when it was presented to me by the PR people involved, and I'm hoping PW can make a better go at it. It seems like there are two stories here: the funding and the model, with the model being basically big-gulp style streaming of the kind that has settled in on Netflix and Amazon.com. I'm not sure that works without a surpassing amount of money to be made, but the content/window-for-content bases are similar, I suppose.
Ken Fisher, better known by his pen name Ruben Bolling and for the name of his feature Tom The Dancing Bug, has won this year's Herblock Prize, it was announced today via press release. TTDB is distributed by Andrews McMeel; it appears on three key media web sites: BoingBoing.net, DailyKos.com and GoComics.com.
The New York City resident was a finalist in 2016, and is a past winner of the Society Of Illustrators Best Cartoon Award, among several honors. He has also been published in The New Yorker, Nickelodeon and MAD.
Bolling's fans had notice an intensification in Bolling's approach during the frog-simmering-in-heated-water year that was 2016, something he's continued into the present moment. I have to imagine that watchers of his work or somewhere in the ballpark of being as pleased as I am.
Bolling will receive a $15,000 award from the Foundation named after the cartoonist who worked in a magical age you could make a foundation's worth of fortune from received newspaper stock. The ceremony will be March 29 at the Library of Congress.
Judges for this year were Mark Fiore, Martha Kennedy and Matt Wuerker.
Finalist Marty Two Bulls Sr. a freelancer for the Indian Country Today Media Network, will receive a $5000 after-tax prize.
You can read more about the Herb Block Foundation here.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* TCAF keeps inviting wave after wave of special guests. It's terrifying and very, very impressive. Looks more and more like a great show. I'll see you there.
* most folks I know have settled in on Emerald City, not just as a show they're doing but as the first show of the year in practical if not literal terms. At the end of March a big bunch of shows will make perfectly clear that we are a-conventioning again.
* did you read Bart's article on this year's Fauve D'or winner? It's good!
* somebody talks to Ben Marra. Gil Roth talks to the great Patrick McDonnell. It's about time for all of us to once again start appreciating McDonnell more openly and actively. A bunch of wieners talks to Emily Carroll. Alex Dueben talks to Jamie Delano.
* not comics: this happens to a lot of people these days. It hasn't happened to me yet. I've had people withdraw from me for political positions in the past, usually ones that were classic left/liberal ones. It always breaks my heart, but I get it.
Today Is The Day We’re To Celebrate 40 Years Of 2000 AD
That's what the press releases tell me. There's been stuff on-line and a bit of material in the real world. It's a good anniversary to celebrate. That publication and its spawn has been foundational for key readers and influential creators for most if not all of its existence. Within the UK market and in terms of creative opportunities, it kind of encompasses the indie part of the states' indie/alt comics but also the prestige mainstream lines that developed along the way, frequently employing many of the same people that put their time in on the weeklies. It is a cultural positive.
The thing I think of first when I think of 2000 AD is what a goddamn splendid comics writing career John Wagner's had, including loads of material for the publication in question and work in the general school of comics to which it gave birth. It's hard to think of someone else in comics that has worked in a similar milieu that well for that many years. While I'm sure there are several if you include all of the world traditions of comics-making, I'm certain they could fit into a coat room. But why compare? Wagner's achievements have been all his own and lag far behind the respect he deserves for their making. And past Wagner there's a line of many, many, many more. Thanks for the comics.
OTBP/Bundled Extra: The Great Oliver East Has A New Comic Book Out In Rolling Stock #1
Oliver East's new book Rolling Stock #1 sells for under $6 USD, it looks like, which is a doable content expenditure even for something from overseas. Oliver East is one of my favorite cartoonists. He specializes in urban exploration, either as the main line of narrative for a book or as a starting point on which to riff on history, culture and personality.
Don't take his apologizing for the in the presentation linked-to as anything more than politeness.
Keren Katz is one of the more interesting talents to appear this decade, with a foot in several artistic expressions. She's had homemade work at various MoCCA Festival as idiosyncratic and fun as anything you might have in your hands as you walk away from that show. A debut graphic novel from Secret Acres seems an auspicious pairing.
Their description: "The Academic Hour charts the romance between Pothel, a disgraced architecture professor, and his student, Liana. Told in a series of surreal, vibrant vignettes, and set in a fantastic, logic-defying college of shifting rooms and secret performance spaces, The Academic Hour affirms how an intense, fledgling relationship can ignite the impulse for storytelling with unbridled, ferocious creative energy." Sounds good to me.
The Academic Hour will be full-color, 176 pages, and cost $19.95. Its ISBN will be 9780996273954.
It will debut at TCAF and be released more generally the week after.
This Isn’t A Library: New 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.
*****
DEC161626 SPANIEL RAGE GN $16.95
Vanessa Davis is a great treasure of comics and this is a welcome new edition of an early collection. I find most of what she does pitch-perfect, and I'm always pleased by some of the artistic flourishes she brings to sometimes more standard confessional or autobiographical stories.
OCT160072 EDGAR BURROUGHS TARZAN JESSE MARSH OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 $29.99
This is the best deal you'll find this week in terms of attractive pages per dollar, that's for sure. When I lived in Silver City I used to give my local charity thrift store a heads up if they had something in the quarter-bin that might be something they could eBay. I told them I'd do it until I found some comics I personally wanted. That happened with a big stack of Jesse Marsh Tarzan books, which are still in a small stack next to my guest room's bed.
NOV160329 COSMIC ODYSSEY DELUXE EDITION HC $34.99
I have this in either single-issues or an initial trade, but everyone has their format preferences. This is perhaps artist Mike Mignola's best-remembered extended effort with DC mainstream superheroes. There are some great pages in here, and the book itself has a 1970s cosmic charm.
OCT160547 JAY DISBROW MONSTER INVASION HC $24.99
Flames of Gyro, never stop burning. This is a Yoe-assembled collection of the idiosyncratic author's earlier material. I'd certainly pick it up to look at it.
DEC160721 MONSTRESS #10 (MR) $3.99 DEC160733 SHE WOLF #6 (MR) $3.99 DEC160666 SUN BAKERY #1 $4.99 DEC161010 BLACK PANTHER #11 $3.99 DEC160440 STARSTRUCK OLD PROLDIERS NEVER DIE #1 (OF 6) $4.99 OCT160318 ASTRO CITY #41 $4.99 DEC160047 VISITOR HOW AND WHY HE STAYED #1 (OF 5) $3.99
Hey, comic-book comics. Monstress is a hit. She Wolf is Rich Tommaso's latest stab at genre material, and as usual has a few pages to die for. Sun Bakery makes its Image debut after four self-published issues. Black Panther continues its most recent core title run, either near the end or the actual end of a politically-drenched storyline. The Starstruck I find extremely curious, essentially an expansion of old Epic material, but really expanded. Its creators are formidable, too. Forty-one issues of this latest round of Astro City! That's quite the accomplishment. I'm quite behind, but I enjoy those comics just fine when I read them and I always catch up. Don't be me. The last is a Paul Grist comic and I love Paul Grist comics. It's also this week's serial-format Mignola.
DEC160774 SNOTGIRL TP VOL 01 GREEN HAIR DONT CARE $9.99
The $9.99 price point indicates more to come where the lower-priced volume one acts as an inducement for folks to try the series out. I've liked the couple of issues I've read although it's so light I have a hard time remembering what's going on even issue to issue. It might be fun to read a big chunk at once.
DEC161229 BIG NATE WHATS A LITTLE NOOGIE BETWEEN FRIENDS TP $9.99 DEC161854 HILO GN VOL 03 GREAT BIG BOOM $13.99
Books from two kid series. The Big Nate books are really popular and represent an ongoing enterprise that does well in bookstores. The Judd Winick Hilo series I think is just three books and this is the concluding one. Winick's enjoyed a pretty eclectic career in terms of number of genres worked.
DEC161894 LITTLE NEMO BY WINSOR MCCAY LIFE OF IMAGINATIVE GENIUS HC (R $79.99
Books featuring Little Nemo isn't as difficult a thing to follow as EC and Archie reprint series, but it's up there. I don't know where this one fits in -- it's certainly not complete, and it may feature more biographical material than usual, but Little Nemo is an achievement where it is definitely worth having some of it on your shelves and this would be one way to achieve that.
AUG160479 ALEX TOTH BRAVO FOR ADVENTURE ARTIST ED HC $PI
The great stop-and-stare comic book artist of the 20th Century meets the great stop-and-stare format of the 21st. What's not to love? It's hard to gauge the cut-off date for interest in older artists -- characters seem to last longer -- but I think there's still enough oomph in the Toth name for this one to sell very well. It should be gorgeous.
*****
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.
* by request extra: Jeremy Eaton is having another big sale of his art. His art is always pretty fun, particularly for hardcore comics fans. Jeremy seems to be making these occasional sales a regular part of how he gets his work out there, and I'll try to follow his pattern as best as I can. My Eaton, by the way, is really good-looking, much better than I thought from a scan.
* finally, Cynthia Rose profiles the great André Franquin. I think more of North America might be ready for André Franquin; by "more" I mean people beyond those having dinner with Kim Thompson more than once a year.
Koyama founded the alternative comics company in 2007 and quickly became home to an under-published, emerging generation of cartoonists that had spent their entire creative lifetime in the milieu of unfettered expression and mutable styles that had become a growing force in the medium following the 1960s underground generation.
In addition to her publishing slate, Koyama became known as a general patron of the cartoon arts, supporting and looking after both her cartoonists and those that worked the same general landscape. One way of doing this was buying original art.
As the press release puts it, from Koyama: "I started purchasing work from some of my favorite American cartoonist as a way to support and offer patronage to predominately up-and-coming artists. Over time, I built a collection of art that is as unique and diverse as the cartooning community from which it is derived. I am excited to see these artists finding recognition and representation in what I consider a vital resource: the BICLM." This resulted in her beginning to more actively curate this collection in 2013 for eventual donation.
Not only does Koyama's donation reflect a stellar line-up of artists like Eleanor Davis, Hellen Jo, Katie Skelly, Noah Van Sciver and Lisa Hanawalt (you can see a rare and beautiful-looking Tim Hensley page below), but the collection provides a snapshot of a generation that might be otherwise difficult to nail down through original art because of that art's value to the artist as a commodity. Many modern cartoonist during their long gestation period in mini-comics and the small press will sell a significant number of their original pages these days, into collections of three, four, a dozen original art pieces held by a variety of purchasers. Koyama's decision to first help out, then collect in focused fashion, represents a gift to present and future scholars hoping for one place to find a bunch of this material.
This also makes that art eligible for exhibitions at the museum. An exhibition featuring the Koyama Collection itself will run from May 6 to October 21 in 2018, and will be a major focus of that year's Cartoon Crossroads Columbus comics festival.
Everyone likes Annie Koyama, and this is yet another reason to join them. I wish for everyone that loves comics some sort of purposeful giving relationship to the art form. Comics has run for decades on almost hyper-intense individual experiences like collecting that it might be a little difficult for us to think in other ways. Once again, Annie Koyama gets there a little bit ahead of the rest of us. We should all follow her example.
* Top Shelf quietly announced their Spring season last week, or at least they announced it quietly enough it escaped my attention until now. Campbell Whyte combines the day-after-school and slip-into-fantasy-world subgenres in Home Time. That cover is very attractive. There's also a Nate Powell Omnibox on the way; this seems analogous to what they've done with the Eddie Campbell material, getting the work a second run on the marketplace with a box-set slipcover presentation. Everything Powell does is of interest.
* the family Allred are behind a forthcoming series using a bunch of minor DC Jack Kirby characters, with the focus on Forager, The Bug. It's always nice and also sad when DC comics characters are employed, because they're usually great characters and you worry about the necessity of trotting them out again.
* Mark Waid takes on an expanded role at Archie. That seems a wise choice for both writer and publisher; Waid's done the core older-reader soap opera version of the Archie book for a while now.
* finally, Scott McCloud writes about his forthcoming book and how it will have an effect on his public profile. But it's on here for the forthcoming book part.
* not comics: this is a long article that repeats some of its point for emphasis, but its analysis of where Matt Furie's Pepe The Frog characters fits into the Trumpian landscape is concise.
* this exhortation on behalf of the Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan character created by G. Willow Wilson, Sana Amanat and Adrian Alphona has a very sweet quality to it.
Ezra Clayton Daniels Wins Third Dwayne McDuffie Diversity In Comics Award Over Weekend
Heidi MacDonald has an early, fully-written story here that Ezra Clayton Daniels emerged the winner of the Dwayne McDuffie Diversity In Comics Award from a strong finalists' list. Daniels won for his work on Upgrade Soul and was in attendance.
The Beat's story describes in great detail the ceremony, which sounds like a good one. I think that award has done a really solid job of establishing itself in a brief time. It's a fitting reflection of its namesake's extended run of significant work in both comic books and animation, and addresses what should be an issue of interest for everyone in comics right now that has a stake in how things develop over the next quarter-century.
Bundled Extra: Editor Karen Berger Developing Berger Books Line With Dark Horse Comics
It was announced late last week via press announcement at this weekend's ComicsPRO gathering (I think) that Karen Berger, the founder of DC's influential Vertigo imprint, will develop a line of creator-owned comic books and graphic novels at Dark Horse. The line will be called Berger Books. You can read a bunch of very good articles perhaps structured after the very good David Hyde press release at places like PW.
Berger stepped down from Vertigo in 2012, and has taken on a number of eclectic freelance gigs since while kind of remaining the #1 free agent out there in terms of an editor with industry influence and no office with their name on it. A name like Berger's is increasingly important in comics as the North American market continue to surge forward with titles in a lot of different categories, comics that without a reason for folks to stop and look might appear on the racks briefly and fairly disappear.
In addition to bringing a great deal of talent -- most famously writing talent -- to English-language readers during her tenure with Vertigo, the imprint is also credit with providing a mainstream-comics weight and oomph to a lot of trends developed in comics during that period. Berger also seems personally well-liked to a significant degree by creators that worked with her before or merely read the comics she fostered into existence, so the talent roster she's able to assemble with Dark Horse backing her should be a fascinating story to watch.
I know I write a little bit of something for nearly every issue, but I greatly enjoy Mineshaft. I admire its unlikely existence and each issue seems to have a few more accomplished comics and/or sketches by members of the underground school -- both the original crew, and their generational successors. This one has fun work from Mary Fleener, Peter Poplaski, John Porcellino and the usual dash of Robert Crumb. I wish every tradition in comics had a similar publication.
* Ivan Brunetti's auction-related efforts on behalf of his students with their Linework anthology is building up a decent head of steam. Brunetti's work is available very intermittently, and the big-ticket item here is as good-looking as anything he's done.
* finally, I'm still rooting for the Treece family. It's great for them to reach 50 percent of their initial ask. A lot of campaigns don't get that far.
* Mike Lynch slams Glenn McCoy's idiotic and tone-deaf explanation for this cartoon comparing Betsy DeVos. It doesn't pass a sixth grader's logic test. Ruby Bridges wasn't being castigated for her beliefs, she was be threatened and harassed for the color of her skin. Even if those were conceptual equivalencies, the identity-based equivalency of directly contrasting a mature billionaire lurching after a position of power with pitiful results to a little girl simply trying to go to school and being dignified while doing so, that's just shameful. What a terrible, terrible, terrible cartoon.
* there are some pin-up posters floating around the Internet promoting the movie Logan; you can see the images here. I'd love to read a smart piece on why that character appeals. My theory of the comic character's appeal is that he was short and his power set directly embraced the new "realism" paradigm that settled onto a lot of fantasy literature. But the movie version gets weird. He's tall and handsome. He gets the girls instead of throwing his hospital flowers in the trash. He has always been grim and gritty so there's no juice in flipping the script on him, but there are enough characters like that -- the Punisher, Deadpool -- he doesn't seem totally unique that way, either. So what I'm left with is (Super) Man With No Name. Maybe that's the extent of it.
This year, however, they outdid themselves. When 2016 ended I was certain about my pick for best comic of the year, and, in a thrilling surprise, so was the Angoulême jury: Paysage après la bataille by writer Philippe de Pierpont and artist Êric Lambé. This hauntingly poetic masterpiece is one of the best comics in years, a subtly unnerving work about the transformative power of grief.
De Pierpont and Lambé have been collaborators on and off for more than a decade now. They had previously published Alberto G., a quasi-biography of Giacometti, in 2003, as well as La Pluie and Un Voyage. Four years ago Lambé shocked the comics world with the graphically astonishing graphic novel, Le Fils du Roi (elaborately cross-hatched in ball point pen). Paysage saw a return to the simpler line art of his earlier work, now paired with breathtaking compositions. Framing and layout operate in this book at an incredibly high level to create meaning. It is a formal tour-de-force.
Paysage après la bataille is simple to describe in plot terms. Having lost her daughter in a car accident, a woman, Fany, travels to a mobile home park in winter to escape the world. Here she meets four people, a couple and two lone men, each of whom have their own backstories. While not a wordless comic, it is likely that about 300 of the 420 pages in the work contain no text.
Snow falls. Birds sing. A rabbit is buried. Life goes on. Or it doesn't.
The work is carried by its misleadingly simple structure: plenty of single-panel and two-panel wordless pages lend the book its muted, understated tone. The vast majority of the book features grey washes and black-and-white line art, yet unexpected flashes of color signal major emotional highs and lows. In what is to me the book's most affecting sequence, Lambé cuts between images of a hunter and a showering Fany to create a potent scene of threat and loss. Few cartoonists could have pulled off such an understated moment.
"Understated" is the key word for this book. De Pierpont and Lambé don't compete with each other -- during the one key sequence with dialogue, for instance, Lambé literally drops the art out of the page. There isn't a misstep to be found in these pages. I've read this book three times, and, in all honesty, I got chills every time.
The best book of last year. By a wide margin.
*****
You can read about the highly accomplished Bart Beaty here. His writing about the various European comics scenes over the last quarter-century is one of comics' great treasures.
*****
* Paysage après la bataille, Eric Lambé And Philippe De Pierpont, Actes Sud, 9782330069988, October 2016, approximately $31 USD.
Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital
By Tom Spurgeon
* there's a lot to ponder about digital in general with this article on the New York Times and their long move away from print. Just the idea of identifying a core offering and then working your way into indispensability through working in other factors is food for thought.
* never heard of this site and then I read two people casually talking about it on the same day. I love it when the Internet works like that, I don't get that feeling as much as I used to.
* hey, congratulations to Tim Seeley, Mike Norton and their collaborators on Revival, last issue out this month. Comics isn't a big enough industry/culture that we pay attention to comics outside that five percent of successful ones as their own event -- and of course mainstream comics has made the end of series a generally useless thing. I thought that was a solid series, though, and surely it's a life milestone for its creator to complete it in full. I hope it was a great experience.
By Request Extra: Ivan Brunetti Raising Money For His Students’ Anthology Via eBay Offering
The great Ivan Brunetti wrote in yesterday, from his perch as a comics and illustration teacher at Columbia College Chicago. He's donating money to Linework #7, the student anthology there, by putting some of his work up for auction on eBay. A bunch of projects were covered by a significant sale he made there a few years back.
I'm all for student anthologies and the above comic "Hinky Daisies" looks cool. Ivan's work is always great. Hopefully the times are such we can maximize some profits for that group via Professor Brunetti's kind offer.
Final Shortlist Released For Dwayne McDuffie Award
The always-reliable, always-solid Graeme McMillan has a solid, reliable article at Hollywood Reporter on the final shortlist for this year's Dwayne McDuffie Award For Diversity In Comics. That list is:
That's a fun list, with a lot of work that's read and enjoyed without making that top five percent of all comics being sold. The winner will be named at this weekend's Long Beach show.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* TCAF starts naming its featured guests after a long list of exhibitor-type guests last week. And boy, it's quite the list as you'd expect. I like how forward thinking it is, and how it will score TCAF fans in areas of comics that other shows won't be as aggressive in forging relationships. Very smart.
* the SPX registration lottery is open. Small Press Expo is one of the comics shows that is well-conceived and well-executed, and for cartoonists under 35 I'd say it remains a must-do. Lot of shows out there, but still.
* I like this article about Wizard World in Portland that's basically a long list of what you have to pay to get some celebrity's autograph. That's just not a world I connect to, although in that moment people always look super-happy.
* finally, the Heroes Aren't Hard To Find store in Charlotte is moving. This goes here because most folks know the store as the headquarters and post-party location for Heroes Con, which celebrates 35 years this year and remains one of our great shows. Looks like the new location is big enough that they won't need that little warehouse building out back. That article also suggests the store's location has been in a variety of places over the years, not including those years where there was more than one store (someone correct me if I'm wrong about their being more than one store at one time).
* I feel DC's work at developing its characters of the last decade or so has been somewhere between awful and haphazard, but I like both of the super-sons. Go figure.
* Hillary Brown talks to Matthew Loux. Andy Oliver talks to Sean Azzopardi about his very good idea for a comic. Henry Chamberlain talks to Ed Sorel. Albert Ching talks to Chip Zdarsky.
This Isn’t A Library: New, 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.
*****
DEC161677 MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS GN (RES) $39.99
There are a lot of books with spines out this week, many of which are of specific interest, but nothing like the Emil Ferris debut My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. There are a bunch of entry points into the story beyond just getting to experience a new visual impression of the world that's always exciting. I like it as a portrait of its time, both in popular culture and its monster obsession and the collapse of typical, economic-driven family structure in upon itself. Can't wait for Volume Two.
DEC160229 WILD STORM #1 $3.99 DEC160082 DEPT H #11 $3.99 DEC168068 GREEN VALLEY #4 (OF 9) 2ND PTG $2.99 DEC160639 INVINCIBLE #133 (RES) $0.25 DEC160717 KILL OR BE KILLED #6 (MR) $3.99 DEC160692 SEX CRIMINALS #16 (MR) $3.99 DEC160743 THEYRE NOT LIKE US #14 (MR) $2.99 DEC160746 WALKING DEAD #164 (MR) $2.99 DEC161014 DOCTOR STRANGE #17 $3.99 NOV160995 CEREBUS IN HELL #1 $4.00 AUG161122 REICH #1 (OF 12) (MR) $3.00 OCT161118 REICH #3 (OF 12) (MR) $3.00
Pretty good comic book marked by probably my favorite grouping of Image's books right now. We lead with the Warren Ellis "show run" The Wild Storm #1 which seems to me to play to Ellis' strength at riffing on formula and reconceptualizing characters before kicking them in the rump so they move forward. Dept. H is almost a dozen issues in; I thought that one started like two months ago. There's that list of Image Comics, including a twenty-five cent issue of the Invincible series that will end next year. I've been buying Doctor Strange, although the narratives move very slowly for even my old ass. Everything Dave Sim does is interesting, although I'm always worried that somehow I'll be asked to read 75,000 words of text. Those Reich comics are handsome and you want them all.
OCT160036 ANGEL CATBIRD HC VOL 02 CASTLE CATULA $14.99
The first volume of Margaret Atwood and Johnnie Christmas take on superhero comics elicited the widest range of responses from my friends of anything in recent memory not Patience. I'm on board for volume two, for sure.
NOV168196 CAN OPENERS DAUGHTER GN (RES) $19.95 DEC161870 HADDON HALL WHEN DAVID INVENTED BOWIE HC GN $22.95 NOV161566 STARSEEDS HC $29.99 DEC161681 EXCAVATION HC $29.99 OCT160041 SABERTOOTH SWORDSMAN HC VOL 01 (2ND ED) $17.99 OCT160351 LOCKE & KEY SMALL WORLD DLX HC ED $14.99 OCT161293 KILLER HC VOL 05 $24.99 DEC161623 FIRES & MURMUR GN $34.95 DEC161627 WILSON TP (RES) (MR) $15.95
I was writing a bunch of individual description but I think bunch of books is more interesting as a group. You get two from SelfMadeHero, including the follow-up to Rob Davis' Motherless Oven, a very high-profile stand-alone. The creator of Starseeds, Mexico's Charle Glaubitz, is either completely unfamiliar to me or did work that's so huge I can't see it close-up with my glasses on. Still, a sharp-looking stand-alone is a unique comic-book experience. I haven't seen a Max Andersson book in years, and his work is always of interest to me. That was a happy moment, getting that one in to review. Sabertooth Swordsman I've seen a lot of but haven't read. Locke & Key and Killer are the kind of quietly popular series that can carry whole lines. I love the Mattotti works collected together here and Wilson made me laugh in ways that probably don't reflect well on my character. You could drop the $200-plus here and not blink.
OCT161403 JON SABLE FREELANCE OMNIBUS TP VOL 04 (OF 4) $35.00
Did the story of Jon Sable have a proper ending? I don't recall. I would sneak a peek. Matthew Rhys always reminds me of Jon Sable, for some reason. Also, Jon Sable is why I can remember the modern pentathlon event, for which I'll always be grateful.
NOV161911 JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #70 $10.95
The very loud man at the comics shop last week told us that this issue was coming out and it was rare for the magazine to come out when it initially said it would. All respect to 70 issues. Lot of fun in there.
DEC161332 LOVERS IN THE GARDEN GN (MR) $10.00
If my advice given above to randomly buy graphic novels didn't really appeal to eye, heart or pocketbook, maybe just by this extended-length comic from Anya Davidson instead. She's a special talent, and I'd like to see her find a place in the post-Picturebox publishing landscape worthy of her talent.
*****
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.
* Mike Sterling writes about collecting Atlas comic books. One way comics collecting will likely develop in the next two decades is that with wider access and so many comics published, folks are going to do small, specialized collections for the specific joy of collecting. I think I'll still have a general collection fitting my taste, but even with my comics, my handmades go right to the Dylan Williams collection at Billy Ireland. I'm honored to be able to do that, but it takes the general off of general collection for me.
* this is an awful cartoon. I can't imagine any construction of thought that gets anyone to the point where they would compare a billionaire being scrutinized by congress and a little girl being harassed by racists. If it's meant to be "outrageous" for the sake of being outrageous, that is one cynical use of someone's genuine life moment, a billion miles away from the cartoonist's experiences.
By Request Extra: OSU Begins Matching-Fund Fundraiser For Lucy Caswell Research Grant
That time is the exact time working back from today's start that I gave. Scholars are crucial to the continue growth of comics, and their ability to use the magnificent institutions that comics is building is a key to their continuing validity. Plus: Lucy Caswell. Please consider giving.
* our friends in Latvia reach 10 years and 50 books on their necessary and frequently excellent mini-comics series.
* I don't know when this E. Gary Gygax book was announced, but clearly the editorial meetings included making a book that I would personally be interested in reading. I hope it's good and super-rigorous rather than broadly portrayed, because the details of that world are reasonably fascinating.
* superhero event comics is not my specific area of expertise, but this seems like a pretty solid mini-series conceptually as far as these superhero things go: "Everyone against Nazi Captain America." Far more than other recent efforts, anyway. The Nazi Captain America part even gives you another potential sales boost, the "You're doing it wrong" thing that fans always seem to fall for in terms of reading a title because they're upset at its direction. The balancing reality is that Marvel has not executed its last several event series all that well compared to past efforts, and you lose your audience for this kind of thing with every previous misfire.
* finally, I somehow missed that RL Stine has been recruited to work with the Man-Thing character created by the artist Gray Morrow and credited to the three-headed writing creature of Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway. Stine was so popular and influential for a compressed time that the first Harry Potter book was processed for its horror elements because that what people thought kids want to read exclusive of all other kinds of writing.
* here's a list of best X-Men stories involving time travel. Hard for me to imagine there are fourteen better stories of that specific type than that scary ass giant robot holocaust I read when I was a kid. I've read a lot of X-Men comics after the ones I read when I was a kid and the one thing they don't seem to get right is that the X-Men always lose. I guess now that the Inhumans are sort of the X-Men, too -- a hideous waste of a Kirby concept -- that point is moot.
By Request Extra: Challenge Grant Issued By Eisner Foundation For New Lucy Caswell Research Award
According to this press release over at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, a new research award named after the best friend comics ever had, Billy Ireland's founding curator Lucy Caswell, will get some help in the form of a challenge grant. That means that if the libraries can raise $35K, the other $35K will come from the Will And Ann Eisner Family Foundation and form the basis of an endowment to fund the awards for the rest of time.
The Billy does so much so well that we sometimes that a primary function for the place is research. In fact, comics has lacked in nice things since its inception so we sometimes forget that going to where material is held, that's a basic thing that academic areas of interest encourage. So this sounds much needed to me just in terms of pushing the art form's attending culture in the right direction. And it's named for a titan of that culture. What's not to love? Open those wallets up. Everything counts twice.
Comics By Request: People, Places In Need Of Funding
By Tom Spurgeon
* I wanted to mention the Treece family again. The artist isn't a major name but the situation he's facing is majorly screwed up. They still have a lot of distance to cover in order to make their initial ask. I know this is a year of a lot financial nervousness and a lot of asks, but even $5 would be put to good use by that crew, I bet.
* got a long letter from one of the folks behind this crowd-funder, asking for attention to be driven to their site. I thought the cascade of like-projects as description was interesting, and that the project is already successful with a lot of time left. No surprise if the hot comics-makers of 2025 all have some sort of project like this on in their past.
* finally, Sam Henderson is creating something called Ass Burger.
* Bruce Canwell notes that one advantage of the not-always-good-old-days is that you could go to a bookstore and buy a book and know what it looks like before you get it, which was really key when you're dropping $40-$50 a book like people do routinely for Canwell's Library Of American Comics volumes.
* totally missed that Ta-Nehisi Coates answered a bunch of questions about the comic-book writing part of his current career. I have friends that aren't fond of those comics, thinking them a wordy take on standard recent Marvel tropes, but that's sort of why I like them: I think the 2000s Marvel formula is pretty sturdy, and I'd welcome a lot of different writers doing their take on it.
* finally, a case for graphic novels as the bookstore category of importance growth-wise.
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Cartooning Scenes Where You Wish You Could Attend Or Otherwise Witness One Party Or Social Occasion." This is how they responded.
*****
Dave Knott
* Toronto, early 1990s
* New York, early-mid 1970s
* "Fort Thunder," 1995-2001 (pictured)
* Paris, 1970s
* San Francisco, late 1960s
*****
Sean Kleefeld
1. San Diego, early 1970s
2. New York City, early 1940s (pictured)
3. Warren, Michigan, 1964
4. Portland, Oregon, early 2000s
5. Chicago, early 1990s
1. Seattle, 1990-1994
2. Southern Connecticut, 1960s into 1970s (pictured)
3. New York, mid-1970s
4. San Francisco, late 1960s
5. Los Angeles, mid-1980s
1. Detroit, mid 1960s
2. Quality Comics bullpen, early 1940s
3. Extreme Studios circa 1995 (pictured)
4. Pre-War Shuster Shop
5. Kansas City like 10 years ago
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. New York City 1910s (pictured)
2. Chicago early 2000s
3. New York, early 1940s
4. King Features "East" Connecticut 1970s
5. FORT THUNDER R.I.S.D. 1995-2000
*****
Chris Duffy
1. San Francisco 1910-20
2. Manhattan 1970s
3. Providence/ Fort Thunder 1990s
4. London 1985 (pictured)
5. Lexington, Mass., High School, late 1970s
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Cartooning Scenes You Wish You Could Attend Or Otherwise Witness One Party Or Social Occasion." This is how they responded.
*****
*****
*****
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Seattle, 1990-1994
2. Southern Connecticut, 1960s into 1970s
3. New York, mid-1970s
4. San Francisco, late 1960s
5. Los Angeles, mid-1980s
Go, Buy: Alternative Comics Inventory Reduction Sale
There are wonderful books for nearly every taste at Marc Arsenault's Alternative Comics Inventory Reduction Sale, which is is even fun to say. You should go to the Cupertino location if you're within driving distance, and you should consider an order from the site if you don't. I know I will.
I realize it's weird from some perspectives for sites like this to do sales notices, but like the pre-IDW Top Shelf sale of similar function, this is the kind of thing small companies have to do to survive and function. Plus: look at all the comics!
By Request Extra: Treece Family Could Use Your Help
There is a lot of need out there for a range of things, things like artistic ambition to general support for institutions to the kind of help we lend people to whom we're grateful who find themselves at a confluence of events that have left them short. The story of the family of the artist Jeremy Treece is remarkable for just how abrupt a reversal on multiple fronts can find us all at any time. Please consider helping.
Missed It: SAW Bars Kurt Wolfgang From School, Campus
I'm catching up to this story a bit late and with not a lot of original information, but on Tuesday Sequential Artists Workshop posted that the comics-maker Kurt Wolfgang (the pen name of Kurt Holley) will no longer be a part of their faculty and will not be allowed on SAW's campus. They cite a police report and imply it contain an act of violence against a woman.
I've talked to a few people with some rough knowledge of the situation, all of whom indicated that Wolfgang/Holley has had more than one unpleasant, even potentially violent encounter that gained the attention of authorities.
This will take a bit of work in terms of an actual follow-up story, but I wanted the news of SAW's move as soon as I got it and could find phrasing for what I know because these particular sorts of serious matters deserve immediate attention. SAW's actions seem necessary and appropriate, and I'm particularly fond of the idea implied that custodians of areas in which comics-makers are in contact with each other are subject to additional responsibility in terms of protecting that space.
Wolfgang is best known for his book Where Hats Go and the series Lowjinx. I believe he is both a Xeric and an Ignatz award-winner.
If you get a chance, read this one even if you're not a fan of the work or familiar with the artist. It's just a nightmarish 1-2-3 of circumstances raining down from the heavens on this family. One reason the fight for the full ethical treatment of comics-makers is important is because you want fewer people at risk, but this would rattle just about anyone's situation.
Roger Langridge sent this one in, by the way, and if Roger Langridge points at something we should all go look.
* the digital comics service comiXology has been tipping its hat in the direction of Image's 25th Anniversary in a major way by releasing work from their catalog for the company into its bulk streaming service arena. That's an inducement to join but also a reciprocal arrangement bolstering the service and Image's overall presence in a realm for sales that no comics entity has quite figured all the way out yet.
This Isn’t A Library: New, 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.
*****
DEC161805 PRETENDING IS LYING GN (RES) $24.95
I thought this a lovely story, fascinatingly drawn in a way that distinguishes itself from North American comics working the same territory. Good on 2017 for bringing us a book like this early.
DEC161693 JASON SHIGA DEMON SC GN VOL 02 $19.99
I read all of Demon in a big chunk in an earlier form, so I'm not even sure where this second book of four takes us. It's a fun work, though; Jason Shiga is endlessly creative in a problem-solving way that you don't see with a lot of creative folks. His science fiction story is all rules like a horror movie, and no one unpacks and circumvents rules as quickly and completely as Shiga.
OCT160514 SILLY SYMPHONIES HC VOL 02 COMP DISNEY CLASSICS $49.99
I have no idea what's in here of value; I just don't go that deep with this corner of comics. I'm sort of endlessly fascinated by pre-1940 Disney, though, so nearly all of what's going on here is likely to to be of interest to me.
NOV160619 EAST OF WEST #31 $3.99 DEC160747 WICKED & DIVINE #26 CVR A MCKELVIE & WILSON (MR) $3.99 DEC160984 BLACK WIDOW #11 $3.99 SEP161692 BLUBBER #4 (MR) $3.99 NOV160383 ROM ANNUAL 2017 $7.99 SEP161234 REICH #2 (OF 12) (MR) $3.00
This is a nice bunch of single-issue comics, ranging from two of Image's strongest, to Chris Samnee's great superhero-drawing run, to Gilbert Hernandez being Gilbert Hernandez, to the one IDW licensed property I'd like to check on the most (haven't seen it yet) to the nicely-packaged and under-appreciated Reich. That's a nice little batch of comic books, considering that's not where the thrust of the industry remains in a lot of ways.
OCT161710 OH JOY SEX TOY COLORING BOOK (MR) $11.99
Sure.
NOV161645 POORCRAFT GN VOL 02 WISH YOU WERE HERE $10.00
As is the case with volume one, I have to imagine something in here will be enlightening and/or encouraging for a lot of comics people.
AUG161293 BLEEDING COOL MAGAZINE #25 (MR) $5.99
All respect to their devotion to print, reaching the quarter-century mark.
DEC161863 THRILL POWER OVERLOAD 2000 AD REDUX HC $45.00 This Tripwire review paired with my book made me want to read this 2000 AD history twice as much as did before reading the review, and I was already on board.
DEC160625 BLACK HISTORY IN ITS OWN WORDS HC $16.99
A book of illustration and portraiture by the great Ronald Wimberly, showing off yet another application of his wildly-gifted skill set.
*****
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.
* the latest Street Angel previewed. Jim Rugg's had a very admirable comics career to date, and a big hit or two would really crystallize his standing, I think.
The cartoonist David Sipress writes about staying sane despite maintaining a high news consumption rate in order to do his job, thoughts I think a range of people feel. There are a number of ways to go at this article, including a criticism of the remove it discusses as a totem of privilege. There's also an interesting sideways way of thinking about this in terms of what you do with stories into which the current political situation doesn't automatically intrude, and what means.
For me, though, I'm interested in the fact a very apt cartoonj that Sipress did in the New Yorker style has become viral without being in the New Yorker. I wonder if that's a first, because I assume that's the market for which it was intended. That would be the first time I recall a rejected cartooning having this kind of second life, although maybe I'm not thinking clearly. Anyway, it's the kind of thing that interests me.
Possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations in comics, Tom Scioli has launched a new webcomics, Princess, at his home site. Scioli is also one of those cartoonists with a full-blown profile in both the digital and print comics worlds, something allowed by the level of his productivity in terms of complete pages. It should be fun to watch how this one develops given the amount of print work Scioli has done recently and the way the context for his work has changed as more artists emerge with seemingly similar values.
* Tobias Carroll talks to Phil Hester. Christopher Irving talks to Reilly Brown. Chris Schweizer talks to Jerzy Drozd. J. Chris Campbell talks to Adam from Dollar Bin. Congratulations to them on a 10-year anniversary.
The cartoonist and educator James Sturm wrote in to the site -- and I assume others -- suggestion attention be driven to a project of interest up in Vermont from the Vermont Folk Life Center called "The Most Costly Journey." It's a collaborative effort by a bunch of artists and organizations, I think maybe corralled by Marek Bennett, to document the lives of migrant farm workers in Vermont. That seems a worthy endeavor, and I like the general idea of pointing comics-makers in the direction of people with untold stories.
Zunar Files Successfully To Have Judge Changed In Travel-Related Case Against Government
The Malaysian cartoonist Zunar sent an e-mail earlier today to news sources concerning a successful motion regarding the judge assigned to his travel ban case. Judge Hanifah Farikullah recused herself from the case. According to Zunar's statement, she had already denied challenged by other activists.
Zunar, whose troubles with Malaysian police authorities has made him an international figure in the struggle for political expression via caricature and cartoon criticism, is unable to leave the country due to the ban he now challenges. Zunar also faces sedition charges that if convicted could over 40 years of jail time.
He is seeking to end the ban via certiorari order. It was served to him last October when he was on his way to a forum in Singapore. The most recent travel opportunity he missed was to Switzerland.
The next round of legal hearings in the Sedition Act track is May 11.
As always, our support and best wishes to the cartoonist. Police authorities doubling down on harassment and charges when the courts had reached a point where all parties could disengage makes this look like a pissing contest far more than any serious engagement of the issues brought to bear on the matter. Its continuance far past the dictates of reason suggests another world instance of authoritarian impulse driving actions regardless principle. Zunar's harassment should worry us all.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* Joe Ollmann and Peter Bagge are among the guests at this Bayou Book Festival, I'm told, but I couldn't figure out the site or when they were going there -- don't bother now, I have a 17 minute time limit on these things. At any rate, if you're around, they're both swell guys and fun cartoonists.
* finally, MegaCon has released its top-end guest list and it's as solid as any mainstream-focused show out there. To end where we began, they're also featuring the great Peter Bagge.
* Mark Evanier takes a question about the late, great Dan Spiegle and writes on the Golden Age generation generally. I've known far fewer of them much less well, but the broad observations seem reasonably dead-on to me.
* bundled extra: Huh. I'm still not sure why there wasn't enough juice in the Guardians concept for them to do one series and maybe a couple of spin-offs all in the space opera superhero mode of the first film.
* this is only a preliminary cover for Drew Friedman's Chosen People, which will focus on a range of portraiture.
* Pretending Is Lying is out today, so this preview is more direct advertisement than news as to what's coming, but who cares? That's an excellent book. Any attention it gets is a good thing.
* there will be a Luke Cage comic. I like that character in the comics, but I'm not sure that in a healthy market with a Marvel working on all cylinders that anyone would choose that character for multiple titles.
* finally, Warren Ellis writes promotional material for his forthcoming revamp/relaunch/reworking of the WildStorm properties. I think the "showrunner" set-up is smart, even though it's basically a revamp of old-fashioned editorial fiefdoms with slightly different expectations and support frameworks. The reason I like it for DC right now is it maximizes key talent. Ellis does a good job with this kind of project because he digs in in what seems like a creatively honest fashion -- for all that the characters may trade in cynical outlooks, the work itself never seems cynically concieved.
* I keep forgetting to run this link so I'm going to put it down here just to make sure it gets some attention: Musa Kart is still imprisoned, and apparently still fighting the situation he finds himself in. The idea of Musa Kart as some way out-there radical cartoonist just kills me in that he seems like this nice, middle-of-the-road guy.
Stealing stuff. I'm sorry for the folks to whom this happens and I'm sure there's all sorts of justification, but come on. Let's turn the page on this.
Go, Read: David Harper’s Long Article On Image Comics
I missed the e-mail from David Harper that the his long article on Image is done. It'll be a while before I read it. A young man's insecurity about seeing my own statements has become a middle-aged man's inability to even read the rest of the articles that they're in. I'll work it out.
I sent Harper to Eric Reynolds, and if there's anything in there that's valuable it's probably from Eric. He covered them closely as the News Editor at TCJ, and ensconced at Fantagraphics gives two fucks about any personal backlash as to a characterization he might give.
I don't have any sort of anger towards Image, but I do think most of their genius was to simply find the best financial model to serve artists in the moment. They found a really good one when they started (assuming control on production over series with star-level sales), have come upon one that is particularly appealing right now (big company service and attention, but no claim to media rights), and had some interesting ones pop up at times in between those more significant two. Different people have benefited at different times. Todd seemed best at the lots of money per book model, Jim Lee seemed best at the studio model, I bet we could find some folks who were good at the leverage-your-career model, and Robert Kirkman seems to have benefited most directly from this latest no media rights phase. Liefeld is third best at all the models. Today, I think that's a solid, successful company. Eric Stephenson seems quite good at his job, looking outside-in.
I think what may get to people at times is that there are fewer great books that have come out of these cascading-emphasis set-ups, and one will always hope the opposite would be true. I think others get annoyed at what feels like a mostly needless selective memory from nearly Image person or fan when it comes to motivations and outcomes through the years, and a resulting inability to tell a corporate story that allows a little darkness into the light. I can relate. My Fantagraphics history is sunnier than I thought it was going to be. Art is hard to do and even more than that art is an unlikely outcome for the ways we try to support it.
I assume we'll get one or two histories of Image at some point in the next 15 years that have a book's rigor to them, and I think that'll be okay for everyone. The sky won't fall. I think it's a fine legacy to provide a series of pretty good business models -- and at least two really good business models -- and have that be the core of what happened there, have that be at the center of what Image has added to our cultural history.
Comics By Request: People, Places In Need Of Funding
By Tom Spurgeon
* a nice-seeming, seemingly young person named Ryan Burke wrote in to ask for coverage consideration on his forthcoming work. It looks like a young person's work, anyway, but there's always something appeal about these comics where people are just going for it as best they know how. That's a medium-level ask, and not a slam dunk at all. I hope Mr. Burke gets to do what he wants to do. There are dozens of people like him on these sites if you poke around.
* Sam Henderson wrote in to say that he is working on a big new project through his Patreon site, a site that could use your support. Henderson's the kind of comics talent that would seem to benefit most from direct support, and I hope to figure out my ability to start doing more of that myself for cartoonist like him. It wouldn't hurt things at all if you preceded me.
Go, Read: Giant Article On Scanning Line Art Related To Restoring Dave Sim’s Cerebus
Here. My eyes glaze over with post-Cerebus stuff because it seems like every single thing written is 10 billion words long, but the nice e-mail I got said it was about the scanning of line art from Cerebus, and that kind of technical thing usually ends up being of interest to someone out there. It looks like there's a bunch of articles, actually, and -- aw hell, I don't know.
* Rivka Galchen talks to Mo Willems. Willems is one of our great comics-friendly and cognizant artists, his generation's equivalent of premier picture-book makers to whom comics-makers should pay attention.
* Andrew WK writes about a love for comics, basically the counter-cultural kind: the oddball newspaper strip, MAD, alt-comics with an underground comix perspective. I don't know if his love for comics extends into revisionist superheroes, but having been around in the mid-1990s there were certainly people whose tastes in comics matched that described here. There are even more now. Comics is a medium, not a genre.
By Request Extra: Czap Books Offers Ley Lines Subscriptions
Kevin Czap of Czap Books wrote in to point out that the micro-publisher has announced the schedule for its Ley Lines one-person anthology series, partnered with Grindstone, and that is offering subscription this month in a way that they hope will support the series.
The talent, subject matter, issue number and release date:
* Tommi Parrish, William Blake/Lydia Lunch, #10, February 2017
* Eric Kostiuk Williams, Kylie Minogue, #11, May 2017
* Shreyas R Krishnan, Abida Parveen, #12, August 2017
* Evan Dahm, the Surrealists, #13, November 2017
The cost is $28. I've enjoyed work by all of those cartoonists, although I'm probably less familiar Krishnan and Dahm than I should be.
Czap Books is an interesting boutique publisher and every project they do is worth noting.
This Isn’t A Library: New, 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.
*****
NOV161567 FARMER NEDS COMICS BARN GN JABLONSKI COLLECTION (MR) $30.00
This is a big week for comics from my buying-impulse perspective after a few light ones, so of course I forgot to do this column altogether. I'll slip it back into the time slot in which it should have appeared, but I'm actually writing to you on the weekend. If the coming and going of new comics day has snuffed out the flame of buying a big stack of comics, you owe it to yourself to go back to the comics store and buy this volume of Gerald Jablonski's comics. There is nothing like them in the entire world: deeply funny, profoundly weird and creepily beautiful in their obsessive quality. These comics make Highbone Theater looks like a Curt Swan era Superman funnybook. I caught the initial burst of this phase of Jablonski's long career when at TCJ in the 1990s, and these are some of the most virtuous comics we fought to promote.
DEC161808 KAIJUMAX #1 1 DOLLAR ED $1.00 DEC160627 WALKING DEAD #163 (MR) $0.25 DEC160448 BOX OFFICE POISON COLOR COMICS #2 $3.99 AUG160636 INVINCIBLE #132 $2.99 FEB160867 KARNAK #6 $3.99 DEC161434 ADVENTURE TIME #61 $3.99 DEC161429 GIANT DAYS #23 $3.99 DEC160048 BALTIMORE THE RED KINGDOM #1 $3.99 DEC160357 FLINTSTONES #8 $3.99 DEC160358 FLINTSTONES #8 VAR ED $3.99
A lot of potential buys in the straight-up funnybook world. That Walking Dead comic probably sold a billion copies, but the cut-down Kaijumax might be of more interest to CR readers. That's a funny, odd throwback to the days of high concepts for the sake of high concepts. In this case it's a mash-up of prison drama and giant monster movies. I totally missed the first issue of Alex Robinson in color on his small-stakes drama work, and am eager to see how that version of his art holds color. Invincible #132 is the last deep breath before what should be a fairly packed last final issues. Crimson masks for everyone! Karnak is a weird little comic, the kind that gets into fights on your behalf in seedy bars. It's the only Inhuman anything I've read since the Kirby days that's worked for me in the slightest, and they're a big deal at Marvel now. Adventure Time I noted for the number of issues. I've just started reading Giant Days for its writer John Allison. And there's your Mignola-verse comic, dependable as a stomach ache the morning after the Superbowl. I also just started reading the Flintstones comics and miracle of all miracles it's actually sort of funny. Not groundshaking funny, but funnier than the bulk of satirical work coming out of the indie/alt world right this second.
OCT160035 HE-MAN & MASTERS OF UNIVER SE NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS HC $29.99
There are comics out there for everyone.
DEC160343 DEATH OF HAWKMAN #5 (OF 6) $3.99
I don't know why the hairy-chested brute version of this character hasn't gotten over in a bigger way. It's basically Ancient Astronaut Wolverine, right?
NOV161568 NOT WAVING BUT DRAWING GN CUNEO COLLECTION (MR) $25.00
These Cuneo books are very interestingly -- and filthily -- conceived and draw and I'm glad they exist.
NOV161502 LIGHTRUNNER DOVER ED GN $19.95
I vaguely remember this square-jawed science fiction comic from I'm thinking all the way back in the early '80s as one of those comics I might have looked at a bunch of times and taken a pass on. In a perfect world, this was even a Starblaze graphic novel or two, where all such books lived. Rod Whigham, the GI Joe artist, was the drawer here.
JUN160571 WIND IN THE WILLOWS HC ILLUS DAVID PETERSEN $24.99
This hits my friendly place that is publishers supporting their talent by backing their non-franchise efforts. It makes perfect sense for Petersen to want to work with that book.
AUG160321 ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN BY AZZARELLO & CHANG HC VOL 01 $125.00 AUG160992 ALPHA FLIGHT BY JOHN BYRNE OMNIBUS HC $100.00 OCT160999 CIVIL WAR II HC $50.00
I only vaguely understand the high-end market, and I usually get there by imagining myself the lawyer I once thought I would be. In that case, I probably would have a bookshelf with fancy hardcovers or work I loved, and I might not be reading widely enough that a John Byrne book might still be appealing to me as one of the better comics I read. I'm not sure anyone liked Civil War II all that much, but every comic is someone's favorite, and that seems to me one way to have a different reading experience with those comics. The Wonder Woman I liked just fine conceptually, although there was something missing in the main character where she felt just slightly offbrand to me -- it was like a pretty good Thundra story. Others will disagree, both directions.
NOV161503 SEEKERS INTO MYSTERY TP (MR) $34.95
The comic-book equivalent of a big-budget movie that was supposed to be a big deal and never took hold, writer JM DeMatteis' version of Peter Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon, only about space people and the nature of life rather than ambulatory carnies. There aren't a whole lot of big projects like this about which so few people have knowledge. I bet they sell some.
DEC161687 EIGHTBALL CARICATURE NINE STORIES TP (CURR PTG) (MR) $16.99
Again with the move to put Clowes books back into the market pre-Wilson. I approve.
NOV161644 POORCRAFT GN VOL 01 $10.00
I liked the pages of this I've seen in the past. Would seem more helpful now than ever.
NOV161967 JUNJI ITOS DISSOLVING CLASSROOM GN (MR) $12.95
Later Ito, still icky to me and slightly less driving than earlier with which I'm familiar. Still, it's hard to imagine fans of anything near this category of work not wanting one.
NOV160483 YOU MIGHT BE AN ARTIST IF HC $19.99
I don't know Laure Purje at all, but the art in this one looks appealing and approachable and I am all for thematically connected short-story collections. That's a great way to be introduced to a talent.
OCT160463 JUDGE DREDD BRENDAN MCCARTHY COLLECTION HC $49.99
Like this, this is probably too much Brendan McCarthy for most people; you might do better with a smaller comic or even a few single images. Still there are very few of the announced 2000 AD repackagings that have the appeal of this one, and it's the first place in the comics shop I'd go to check it out.
NOV161691 LIGHTHOUSE HC $15.99
This is Paco Rota through NBM. It's a very broadly appealing story, although if you've ever seen any movie at any time in your life it's hard not to guess everything that's going to happen from about page 12-on. There's a place for work like this, though.
JUL160616 AMERICAS BEST COMICS ARTIST ED HC $PI JUL160617 AMERICAS BEST COMICS ARTIST ED HC J.H. WILLIAMS III VAR (NET $PI
Alan Moore gathered to himself some of the best artists in mainstream comics on this effort, publishing rights for which were moved to DC Comics before they even started coming out. I imagine all of this stuff will be super-attractive at this size and with that treatment. I believe this to be triply true of the JH Williams III stuff.
*****
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.
* your 2017 comics-category GLAAD award nominees. It's never a bad thing for people to be represented, and I get the argument that there's a crucial importance ascribed to participation in mainstream media. Still, it seems like we're in a different place in terms of what mainstream means and whether or not that representation there of a limited type is really more important than something smaller that engages with a subject more fully or more directly, that a featured character on an NCIS-type show is a bigger deal than Moonlight. That doesn't mean an awards program has to have all this figured out. Congrats to those in the running.
* DC is doing another round of its talent workshops. I know people who have received work from those in a way that's led to a series of opportunities to work for that publisher. I don't know enough about that kind of work right now to know if it's a thing I can suggest people pursue, but it does seem to have allowed a few folks to meet a particular professional goal.