CR Week In Review



The week's most important comics-related news stories, February 4 to February 10, 2006.

1. Protests in Europe, Africa and Asia continue throughout the week, with the publication last Fall of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten the immediate cause, with a low double-digit death toll. Political entities charge Syria and Iran for fueling the riots for political gain. Boycotts begin to hit Danish businesses, particularly dairy. Newspapers go back and forth on whether or not to publish the images -- or in the case of the vast majority of American papers, seem to want to wait it out so they don't have to make the decision. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday.

2. A French company buys the Time Warner Book Group, although it's not as big a deal as it would be for most companies as TWBG basically did the fulfillment end of distribution while the bus was driven from DC proper -- even more so since changes last year with greater marketing and sales attention being brought in-house for the bookstore side of the business. Still, one imagines this could lead to a boost for Diamond staffing levels at least if Diamond gets the business, as would seem most likely. Although the sale spotlights Time Warner's selling division to boost the value of the company, conventional wisdom says DC and its marketing/licensing/movie icons would seem to be safe from a similar move.

3. Greg Thompson named Deputy Director at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which kind of cements their re-location in New York and sets them up for the future.

Winners of the Week
Jihad Momani and Hisham Khalidi, Jordanian newsaper editors that bravely reprinted a few of the cartoons and called for a reasonable, modest response -- and ended up arrested as a result.

Losers of the Week
Any political conservatives insisting that it was the simple depiction of an injured soldier in a Tom Toles cartoon that many in power found insulting, when other cartoons using similar imagery -- but with different messages -- weren't attacked.

Quote of the Week
"Muslims of the world be reasonable."
-- From Jihad Momani's editorial.

From Daryl Cagle's roll of cartoonists dealing with the Danish cartoons controversy. Click through for more.
 
posted 2:44 am PST | Permalink
 

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