The Comics Reporter

May 24, 2013

Five For Friday #336 -- Memorial Day Edition

Five For Friday #336: Name Three Characters (1-3) And Two Comics Creators (4-5) Whose Deaths Affected You.

1) Elektra
2) Phoenix
3) Phyllis Wallet
4) Archie Goodwin
5) Al Williamson

*****

*****

from a suggestion by Scott Dunbier; this is his list; thanks, Scott

*****
*****

posted 4:00 pm PST | Permalink

Go, Look: A Birdsong Shatters The Still

posted 8:25 am PST | Permalink

Missed It: Michael George Denied Appeal

I missed it, though it's pretty straight-forward: the convicted former retailer and prominent convention organizer Michael George was denied an appeal, an appeal that sounds to me a bit like throwing everything including the kitchen sink that someone might find not-right about that extraordinary cold-case trial and its second round. I imagine it likely the appeals will continue. One thing that was galling to someone in that area to whom I spoke was how agitated George was about saying he was wronged when he declined to testify on his own behalf, which isn't a continuity I necessarily ascribe to, but there you go.

posted 8:20 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Classic Milligan-McCarthy Comics

posted 8:15 am PST | Permalink

Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update

I was super-intrigued that Victor Navasky apparently chose not to reprint the Jyllands-Posten Muhammed cartoons in his book of reviews and essays about various political cartoonists and related issues. It makes sense to me, but not for the reasons cited: I'm not sure seeing the cartoons is as necessary as it was when that story broke. I don't mean that in the "it's google-able way" but straight up the value of seeing that work. That was always a key element of that story to me: seeing these images at that time seemed like it would have been a key step in letting people know about the sheer lunacy of what was going on, and was absolutely justified -- nearly every news organization blinked.

posted 8:10 am PST | Permalink

Not Comics: Alex Schomburg Science Fiction Illustration

posted 8:05 am PST | Permalink

ComiXology Removes Digital Titles From iOS App In Order To Adhere To Stupid-Ass Apple Policies

Superior link-blogger Kevin Melrose has a nice summary post up about the latest moves made by comiXology to comply with Apple's assholular policies considering adult and "inappropriate" content. I guess the silver lining here -- and this is one dim-ass silver lining -- is that the removals do seem to be based on sexual content rather than expressions that someone might see as sexual simply because it comes from folks outside of a very narrow, conservative self-conception.

(To be clear, I get this from comiXology's end and don't get it at all from Apple's; a couple of people have written me to say that it's about the lack of controls that this particular avenue offers, but I'll have to look into that a bit.)

This kind of thing seems like an extraordinary waste of time in this day and age, and deeply unfortunate to the point of my wanting to go back to bed. The idea that companies had to do this out of some sort of understandable, justifiable self-preservation due to the small-p political landscape seems like a canard now; I don't know a lot of reasonable people that would restrict access to material that might have sexual content that adults might want to read. I don't know what to do with this kind of thing other than mock it, wait it out, take my business elsewhere and communicate that to the people involved. So stupid. My apologies to the artists involved for having to live on the same planet as the people making these decisions.

posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: More Joker-Oriented Splash Pages

posted 7:55 am PST | Permalink

Actually, I Post About Sales All The Time

There's one at Fantagraphics this weekend. Buy early before their backstock is depleted.

There is a ton of worthy material on there, but the ones that jumped out at me as books for which I have some measure of special affection are this Trondheim, the Sorel, this Tyler, this Beto, the Kikuo Johnson, this Bob Levin essays book, the Rosenkranz, the Daly, the Mattotti, the Malkasian and oh my goodness the Schrauwen.

posted 7:25 am PST | Permalink

Go, Follow: Adrian Tomine Prints

details and how to buy here

posted 5:30 am PST | Permalink

Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital

By Tom Spurgeon

* a second volume of Danger Country will apparently be up on StudyGroup12 sooner rather than later.

* Heidi MacDonald at The Beat points out that how the purchase of Tumblr is a big comics story, too, because of the number of people using it as a primary platform to both get noticed as comics-makers and to process comics and comics imagery.

* I have to assume I made this a stand-alone post between the time I'm typing this (Monday afternoon) and the time this rolls out (Friday morning) but Drawn.ca RIP. That was a mighty, mighty, on-line source for comics-makers and visual artists.

* it's for her print comics, but apparently Becky Cloonan has a successful web-oriented sales portal for that self-published material.

* it looks like you can get at non-Naruto Masashi Kishimoto work via some digital something or other. This is the kind of hard-hitting, technologically forward reporting this recurring post provides.

* I've been saying they should do something like this with the Legion Of Super-Heroes material at the very least. At this point, however, it might be better if they just tried everything that way.

* finally, Ben Templesmith will provide the cover to Warren Ellis' next e-book.

posted 5:00 am PST | Permalink

If I Were In Portland, I'd Go To This

posted 4:30 am PST | Permalink

If I Were In Phoenix, I'd Go To This

posted 4:30 am PST | Permalink

Forthcoming Comics-Related Events, Through June 2013

Go, Look: Nobody

posted 3:00 am PST | Permalink

Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Heidi MacDonald reminds that it is NCS weekend. Break out the tuxedos! It feels like Rick Kirkman's weekend to me, so let me apologize to Mr. Kirkman right now because I'm always wrong.

* Jeffrey O. Gustafson on Feynman. Tom Bonderant on the Green Lantern-related comics of Geoff Johns. J. Caleb Mozzocco on Green Team #1.

* Michael May suggests that selling out isn't necessarily a bad thing if what you care about is the comics rather than the intellectual property shared by the comic and the movie/tv show. I think he's right. One of the reasons I think tireless work on the behalf of comics is worthwhile is that I would like any money to be made elsewhere to be additional money rather than the primary money made. I wish we valued the contributions of comics-makers independent of their success elsewhere, even on matters in which they have little say. Comics has greater honor as a creative endeavor than we routinely afford it.

* not comics: someone is making a documentary about Michael Netzer; I would watch the heck out of that.

* Mike Munzenrider profiles Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon.

* not comics: this is a cute story about a little girl answering Marvel trivia questions. The superhero universes and all of their detail -- and none of the distressing adult emotional complications of other similarly complex soap operas -- remain vastly appealing to smart young people. It's one of the best arguments that the continuity heavy superhero comics should be reasonably kid-friendly as opposed to that approach ghettoized in their own lines.

* I would have to imagine that there's room for someone to do something with the disco dazzler; I wish those options weren't almost always to fold a character into some team book in a serious, adult, macho way, but I wish for a lot of things.

* hey, someone is living the dream I had every night from ages 11 to 13.

* finally, I haven't seen anything like this Boulet cartoon since Solano Lopez showed up on Saturday of SDCC 1995 with homemade cookies.

posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink

Carmine Infantino Would Have Been 88 Today

posted 1:05 am PST | Permalink

Happy 65th Birthday, Alan Zelenetz!

posted 1:00 am PST | Permalink

Happy 53rd Birthday, Wimbledon Green!

posted 1:00 am PST | Permalink

May 23, 2013

The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Cons, Shows, Events

By Tom Spurgeon

* looks like Motor City was something of a hit. It's a good time for cons, in nearly all of their various incarnations.

* it's ICAF and Phoenix and Vancouver this weekend. Keep an eye on Vancouver... that's a town everyone should want to visit, and could potentially begin to draw major arts- and alt-comics traffic from Portland and Seattle. I know I'd love an excuse to visit in future years. I also thought their space last year was really cool.

* here's an ICAF preview.

* and here's a Fantagraphics Photo Set From TCAF. Still collecting those links.

* finally, kudos to MECAF on their fifth anniversary show last weekend. Here's a report from José-Luis Olivares.

posted 5:00 am PST | Permalink

If I Were In Portland, I'd Go To This

posted 4:30 am PST | Permalink

If I Were In Portland, I'd Go To This

posted 4:30 am PST | Permalink

If I Were In Phoenix, I'd Go To This

posted 4:30 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Gengoroh Tagame Tour Photo Set

posted 3:00 am PST | Permalink

Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Gary Tyrrell passes along word from Fred Gallagher that he's feeling better after a recent surgery to correct a general condition.

* Sean Gaffney on Negiho: Mahora Little Girls. Sean T. Collins on the superhero comics of Kate Beaton.

* when I was a kid, the anti-Batman was Superman.

* here's a list of 42 webcomics you need to read.

* it's always fun to look at a gallery of mainstream comic book images. There are always about five or six pretty good ones in such an array.

* the writer Matt Fraction takes a look at Bob Kane's grave. There's a funny story someone told me once that I can't quite remember about Stan Lee being at another funeral and walking around trying to find Kane's last resting place.

* the Library Of American Comics site has a longish piece up on the "Moon Maid" contests.

* I've seen people talking about a Jason mural but I've never gone to look at it until now and whoa. Yeah, that's nice. I really like the space Jason has carved out for himself in North American comics; I don't have a sense of how he does in any of the European markets

* holy crud, what a great episode of SMMA.

* Matthew Brady has been writing about One Piece in short bursts at his site. I'm glad when someone writes about that comic because it's super-popular and I don't quite understand it.

* so I guess Comics Observer runs suggestions for new readers based on the comics that come out every Wednesday...? That's nice. I wish I'd thought of that. It's always tricky to find that balance between comprehensive coverage and focused recommendation.

* finally, I greatly enjoyed this piece on sometimes comics artist Ray Houlihan, and would have even if he weren't at times a comics artist. The visuals are lovely.

posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink

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