Comics By Request—People, Projects In Need Of Funding
By Tom Spurgeon
* this nice person sent me a link to their Kickstarter, a comic called GYR. Seems pretty straight-forward to me. The nice thing is when you send one of these long-running campaigns I can cut and paste it and run it on multiple column days.
* this would be a good time to buy some JR Williams original art, if you're so inclined. JR's art is great -- his is the first art I bought when I moved to Seattle back in '94.
* Reading Frenzy isn't a comics store as much as it is a 'zine and small-publications shop, but I certainly bought comics and comics-related things there when I lived in the Pacific Northwest and I generally found it a swell place to go. Here's a crowd-funder they're doing. It's hard to imagine Portland without it.
* I totally missed that Radio Comix had a fundraiser because of an accounting snafu. They didn't need my help.
* finally, Jason Lutes wrote me about this interesting-looking project for which he's seeking crowd-funding. I might try to run this link again, but I thought it was interesting for a couple of reasons: one, there haven't been a ton of crowd-funder run by cartoonists of Lutes' caliber and generational profile; two, I think we could see a point where we have a lot of people running secondary projects through crowd-funding mechanisms.
* there was a rolling story last week about the use of terminology in one of the Marvel comic books that was interpreted, sometimes angrily, in the context of a longstanding assertion that Marvel's comics with mutants in them are most effectively regarded in terms of those elements that provide insight into bigotry. I commented on it here to say that I basically think that such a conception is at best a blunt, broad metaphor so of course it's going to break down almost immediately and under tons of circumstances, and that's despite all the legitimate and even enlightening uses for blunt, broad metaphors. The most earnest and thoroughly written article on the matter from the perspective of those that engage with those comics more regularly was probably here; the writer of the comic apologized for snapping at fans here; I agree with most everything David Brothers writes here.
* how on earth did I miss these fun cartoonist portraits by Chris Schweizer? Here's one such post.
* not comics: here's a whiskey named after Loki. As much as whiskey has lied to me in the past, with its promises of no hangovers and that I would be better looking to women if I drank a bit more, this seems entirely appropriate.
* Allan Holtz and company attempt to solve "The Frank Moser Mystery." Those are nice-looking strips.
* here's a piece on the use of Fourth World characters in Lois Lane, of all places. I always loved the way the Fourth World stuff interacts with the rest of the DC material. That stuff is really potent because it's Kirby, but it also settles uneasily into the core of that universe, I think, which is still this Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman triumvirate. It's like DC has this central myth to it and then this other myth, and the other myth is so vital it kind of crashes into the first myth constantly, like an angry storm slapping against a genteel seawall.
1. John Byrne
2. Lewis Trondheim
3. Berke Breathed
4. Marie Severin
5. Matt Wagner
*****
J.E. Cole
1 Jeffrey Catherine Jones
2 Tezuka Osamu
3 Jack Kirby
4 Joe Kubert
5 Siegel and Shuster - Any documentary about these two would have to be called "The Original Sin"
1. Howard Chaykin
2. Alex Nino
3. Hideshi Hino
4. Isabelle Emilie de Tessier (Marie Duval)
5. Phillipe Druillet
*****
topic from Aaron Dumin; thanks, Aaron; also, I chose not to use three that included links to current or past documentary projects, as that way lies madness, and also chose not to use one where all five answers were themselves, because gross
2. NCS announces the divisional slate of its yearly awards, with a ton of familiar-to-comics-culture-followers names joining the usual array of worthy, hard-working people most folks like that haven't heard of, in categories like greeting cards. Two on-line categories this year.
3. WonderCon opens, and thus the convention season entire has undeniably begun. This is that show's second year in Anaheim, which will lead to speculation about the future of that show in that Los Angeles-adjacent city, as opposed to its original home in the Bay Area. There will also be a lot of publishing announcements.
Loser Of The Week
Anyone thinking of running an event near SPX to handle exhibitor overflow, as the independent-oriented show adds space for about 80 more.
Quote Of The Week
"I want to apologize for the inflammatory comments I made on Twitter a few nights ago. I was stung by an accusation made about a character -- i.e., that the point of view expressed by a fictional character in a book I write revealing me to be a racist. It was late at night, my feelings were hurt, and I lashed out in anger without thinking things through. I'm deeply sorry for my unfortunate choice of words and any offense taken to them." -- writer Rick Remender
*****
today's cover is from the all-time series Classics Illustrated