Explanatory Video About Karl Stevens' Participation In The Gardner Museum's Botticelli Exhibit
That's a fun and prestigious project in which Stevens has participated I've completely neglected due to blogging malfeasance. I'm trying to carve out time for a short interview with cartoonist and director, so fingers crossed. In the meantime enjoy the above and Rob Salkowitz's article at Forbes.com.
Dylan Horrocks And Michel Vrana Making Available Pickle #11 Through Pre-Ordering Campaign
Here. I think this is pretty straight-forward and easy to understand. I'll enjoy having the issue. I thought Pickle one of the best series of the 1990s, a decade stuffed with quality series. I would love to see similar campaigns for similarly "lost" comics.
This Isn't A Library: New, Notable Releases Into Comics' Direct Market
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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.
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DEC181964 LETTERS TO SURVIVORS GN $15.95
This doesn't feel like a big week at the comics shop for yours truly, and this book of spare, wry, and inventive Cold War-soaked comics from the height of extermination paranoia hits the spot. From the miracle-workers of NYRC.
DEC181917 INCAL OVERSIZED DLX LTD ED $125.00
Another way to own a crucial comics work, and if we've learned anything this decade it's hard to argue against as many entry points on such works as this bizarre, lurching industry can eject from its maw. Whether or not it's the one for you is why we have comics shops, although this may involve them putting it on a counter in front of you off of a safe place on a wall.
DEC180422 HELLBOY COASTER SET $9.99 NOV180280 UMBRELLA ACADEMY COASTER SET $9.99
I don't think comics-related items are the point of comics, and I find baffling the frequency with which bookshelves are festooned with related action figures and toys. I am, however, a significant fan of original comics art and high-end prints, and the occasional three-dimensional item like this one catches my eye. I'm also fond of Christmas ornaments. People should do more of those.
NOV180581 TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP BOOK 01 (MR) $19.99 DEC180604 WILD STORM #20 $3.99 DEC180605 WILD STORM #20 VAR ED $3.99
The most important work related to writer Warren Ellis to own in its best format and the best of the recent comics series related to Warren Ellis in its best format. One thing I like about the Wild Storm adventure comics is that their context is previous comic book written by Ellis or by writers working according to his influence.
DEC188797 DIE #1 3RD PTG (MR) $3.99 OCT180190 EAST OF WEST #41 $3.99 DEC180967 DOCTOR STRANGE #11 $3.99
Three comic-book format comics, including a key third printing of the role-playing game related Die, the increasingly pay-offs filled East Of West and Marvel's competent, confident Doctor Strange which pops in that current line-up.
JAN192170 TRUTH IS FRAGMENTARY TRAVELOGUES & DIARIES GN (RES) $19.99
This is a necessary comics shop restocking of the Gabrielle Bell book at the front end of her current surge to the top of alt-comics expression, and a required work for any modern comics library. Bell is one of those comics about whom devoted readers constantly fret doesn't get enough attention, and they're right.
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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.
* depending on your perspective an article like this one underlines the difficulties in making a cartoon using the visual metaphors most obviously on-hand in any political situation or the indolence of cartoonists in the execution of same, particularly keeping in mind broader sensitivities. It's like a big bag of nobody is winning here.
Your Spectrum 26 Award Finalists The assigned jury has released the finalists for the Spectrum 26 Awards, to be given out next month in Kansas City. It's not an awards program I follow closely, but they do have a comics category and in recent years the industry has slowly swung back to a reinvigorated understanding of comics as a form of visual art.
Planet Comicon will host the late March announcement of winners in Gold and Silver categories, and at least grand winner. More information here. Judges listed here.
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ADVERTISING CATEGORY
* Justin Gerard -- Lair of the Firebreather
* Donato Giancola -- Reach
* Valentin Kopetzki -- After the Flood
* Victo Ngai -- Earth Species Project
* Greg Ruth -- Annihilation variant
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BOOK CATEGORY
* Jaime Jones -- Winter Road
* Vanessa Lemen -- I am the Light
* Yuko Shimizu -- Japanese Tales 1: The Invisible Man
* Chase Stone -- Dragon Lords: Bad Faith
* Francis Vallejo -- Charlie Florida
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COMIC CATEGORY
* Alex Alice -- Castle in the Stars: Book 4, page 1
* Thomas Campi -- Joe Shuster: The Artist Behind Superman cover (pictured)
* Paul Davidson -- Blue Vortex 1
* Kang Minjung -- Kang Hearts Out 1
* Jeffrey Alan Love -- The Thousand Demon Tree
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CONCEPT ART CATEGORY
* Te Hu -- Golden Temple Through Time we Converge: End
* Carlyn Lim -- Dwarf
* Danny Moll -- The Banner Saga 3: Juno in the Black Sun
* Abe Taraky -- Submerged Statue of Tyr
* Zhengyi Wang -- Big Hunt
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DIMENSIONAL CATEGORY
* Matthew Corcoran -- Vivicus
* Paul Komoda -- SwampThing
* Patrick Masson -- Reflection
* Mark Newman -- Gallevarbe
* Dug Stanat -- Justice
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EDITORIAL CATEGORY
* Chris Buzelli -- Structure
* Qiuxin Mao -- The Remains
* Victo Ngai -- Human: Opener
* Tim O'Brien -- Stormy
* Leonardo Santamaria -- How to Collect Customer Feedback the Right Way
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INSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY
* Ed Binkley -- Mantis
* Bastien Lecouffe Deharme -- Etrata
* Jesper Ejsing -- Slippery Bogle
* Tyler Jacobson -- Opt
* John Jude Palencar -- The Nights Watch
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UNPUBLISHED CATEGORY
* Julien Delval -- The Stranger
* Konstantin Marinov Kostadinov -- A Walk in the Woods
* Ronan LE FUR -- Sent by the Gods
* Eric Pfeiffer -- Racing Season in Empire City
* Annie Stegg Gerard -- The Serpent
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: Publishing News
By Tom Spurgeon
* everyone's favorite Brigid Alverson brings word of not one but two Cassie Anderson books this year.
* great news: Fantagraphics will bring back to print many of the classic publications of the just-passed Tomi Ungerer. That's such an admirable publishing effort, and this kind of committed effort is one of the best things about North American comics publishing.
* I'd known for a while that writer Matt Fraction might do a Jimmy Olsen comic with DC, but I hadn't known he'd be partnered with that grandest of his generation's veteran artists, Steve Lieber. That should be fun.
* finally: Monte Beauchamp mentions somewhere in this post's responses that he's building a new BLAB!. Also, I hadn't realized the apocalypses made up a series of articles.
* I always enjoy looking at analyses of hiring patterns at the Big Two and, when they're made available, related companies. I would imagine there are plateaus involved, especially when a segment of an industry doesn't always offer jobs that are an automatic entry into middle class and the culture has elements of resistance to diversity, no matter how stupid or misguided that resistance may be.
* I am heartened by the fact that people continue to give to Barbara Shermund's burial fund, and hope you'll consider it if you haven't yet. It's a great honor to help such a great artist find their final resting place.
* finally: we're getting close to a thousand contributor to the fund serving those who were sued by cartoonist/publisher Cody Pickrodt. That's about $90 a contribution, which strikes me as admirably high for a small-press comics thing. I hope we can push this over the top, and have confidence in its organizers this will be so.
DEC181917 INCAL OVERSIZED DLX LTD ED $125.00
* Todd Klein on 
The assigned jury 
* otbp: I didn't necessarily expect to see 
