en tomspurgeon@yahoo.com 2013-05-22T09:00:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/random_comics_news_story_round_up052213/ * there's a lengthy catch-up with Mike Diana here. It seems stupid from the vantage point of 2013 that people were once so horrified by Diana's art, which was clearly full of pretty basic symbolism and taboo-tweaking; it seems downright insane that 20 years ago people were being prosecuted and convicted for making art like that. * Matt Derman on The 'Nam #8. Justin Giampaoli on The Massive #12. KC Carlson on Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret. Grant Goggans pokes around more Legion Of Super-Heroes. J. Caleb Mozzocco on Batman, Incorporated's first volume. Richard Bruton on Blood Blokes #3 and Thunder Brother: Soap Division #5. Kelly Thompson on Batwoman #20. * Rob Clough takes another look at mentoring as practiced at Center For Cartoon Studies. * Chris Mautner would like to see Swan collected. I always think of that stuff as already collected the way it's published, but I'm all for that material showing up in whatever form Chris would like. * Alex Dueben talks to Peter Bagge. Steve Morris talks to Kate Brown. Casey Gilly talks to Kieron Gillen. I guess there's something in that Gillen interview about people objecting to a scene where teenagers are shown having casual sex...? That seems totally bizarre to me at this late date. * not comics: here are some robot benches from J. Chris Campbell. * finally, every time you think the comics industry sucks balls, it may help to remember it used to suck mega-balls. Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-22T09:00:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/happy_43rd_birthday_mimi_rosenheim/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-22T08:00:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/go_look_hypnotic_midday_movie/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T15:25:01-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/iconic_comics_and_illustration_site_drawnca_calls_it_quits/ John Martz has announced the winding down of the site Drawn! on his tumblr. That was for its entire run a significant site, and by coming on-line in 2005 was particularly in those days when such things were possible a huge traffic generator for a lot of visual artists and comics-makers that were featured there -- think of it as the equivalent to stand-up comedians playing certain late-night variety and talk shows in the 1980s and 1990s. I enjoyed it a lot and stole from it more than most. I would imagine that this is another sign we're in a potential transitional period for on-line culture as it intersects with comics. We're starting to see institutional alterations take hold as companies re-think their incentive models for that kind of work; some self-generated efforts are beginning to cycle out just in terms of what people are doing with their lives; anything that starts now does so in the context of social media efforts as opposed to the landscape that existed in the early 2000s. I don't know where we end up with all of this, but I do know it's something of a shame just for fans of this kind of material that certain efforts won't be with us when we arrive. Thank you to the Drawn! people; I hope they all have a terrific time doing whatever each one wants to do with the time this frees up moving forward. Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T15:20:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/go_look_tramp_stamp/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T15:15:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/bundled_tossed_untied_and_stacked052113/ By Tom Spurgeon * this isn't exactly news, not at this point in their production schedule, but I think this the best-looking of the Tardi series covers to date. We live in an amazing reprint era that it's possible Fantagraphics' excellent treatment of these works isn't front and central in our thinking at all times. * Doug Wright Award winner Nina Bunjevac covers Taddle Creek #30. * it's about a week old now, and we've linked to it in the random news before now, but this interview with Mike Richardson and Joe Casey takes on the work Casey's doing with some of that company's costumed adventure characters. I think that's a fair description of those characters. * let's hope this is the first in a series of such ads, hotter and hotter as they go. * as a fan of the original Rocketeer comics that see that character and that world as tied into the unique expression of creator Dave Stevens, I don't really have an interest in what IDW has been doing with various sequel series. Ditto The Spirit and Will Eisner. Still, I think that IDW has done what seems like a pretty good job of working with the Stevens family and putting out quality comics set in the late cartoonist's world -- it strikes me as an honorable enterprise even if it's one in which I have little interest in the resulting content: the same relationship I have to something like the Leslie Turner Captain Easy. * Steve Morris looks at the end of the latest run for DC's Amethyst character, the kind of character you'd think would find an audience if the market were just adjusted like two degrees towards greater rationality. * Marvel has apparently canceled their Red She-Hulk title. I'm not sure why there needed to be a Red She-Hulk title. I sort of like comics where I can't figure out why they exist. * finally, I found the news that writer James Robinson is leaving DC Comics to be interesting on a lot of levels. I like Robinson, I think he did a lot of good work for that company, and I think that's a company that can ill-afford to lose any talent at all. I didn't really understand his Earth 2 title, but I was surprised by how much I liked his recent Shade mini-series that DC collected. Robinson had a real talent in terms of carving out space in DC's "universe" that allowed for dramatic stakes based on something other than Amanda Waller showing up and the whole thing being plugged into some line-wide storyline about whether or not the DC comics icons are awesome and why. I think that's a real lost art, and given that these are entire worlds, I wish that more creators could create little worlds within the bigger one. I wish him luck in whatever he does next, and would love to see him return to his creator-owned work. Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T15:10:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/seriously_buh_jesse_marsh_draws_a_big_spider/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T15:05:01-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/comicsalliance_hints_at_a_sequel_that_will_be_awesome_but_super_piss_off_fa/ Here. I like Joseph, and I enjoy reading a lot of their writers; it'd be nice if they could get something going. just to be clear: that title is a joke about using Dark Knight imagery, not a sign that I think a new CA would actually infuriate fans Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T15:00:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/go_look_40x/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T14:55:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/placeholder_i_completely_screwed_the_pooch_on_ecbacc_festival_coverage_for_/ Make up for my error, which will be rectified as soon as possible, by looking at the PW story on the targeted-audience show that took place in Philadelphia over the last weekend. Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2013-05-21T14:50:00-08:00