November 29, 2011
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* the post through which friends and well-wishers could donate to the cartoonists Tom Hart and Leela Corman in pass-the-hat fashion targeted at immediate costs in the wake of the tragic loss of their daughter
has an update with a response from the cartoonists.
* Hayley Campbell talks to
Anders Nilsen, and finds a nice structural hook for their conversation. Josie Campbell talks to
Rachel Gluckstern. Kiel Phegley talks to
Axel Alonso, and then to
Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. Dave Richards talks to
James Asmus. Chris Mautner profiles the career of
Grant Morrison. Heidi MacDonald profiles
Jon Klassen.
*
here's another holiday shopping guide.
* Corey Blake
follows up on the ongoing, long-running Bill Mantlo story, and points out some of the efforts of the comics community to help out.
*
drawn shelf porn.
* Rob Clough on
a bunch of mini-comics. Don MacPherson on
Justice League #3. Katherine Dacey on
No Longer Human Vol. 1. Sean Gaffney on
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol. 2. David Uzumeri on
Fantastic Four #600. Todd Allen on
Venom By Rick Remender Vol. 1.
* J. Caleb Mozzocco
walks us through a month of Marvel solicitations, pausing to gape at Thor's hair in the 1990s.
* the hometown paper of the David Langdon
talks to family members about the late cartoonist. You know, I had no idea until he passed that Langdon was still alive, and it surprised me the same way that Glenn Ford's passing did. He was an
extremely popular cartoonist during World War II, and being
Punch's most prolific when they were at their circulation peak isn't anything to sneeze at. Does anyone out there happen to know how many cartoonists were published in
Punch and
The New Yorker?
* Ronald Searle declares his love for reading generally, and Dickens specifically, in
this installment of what I'm guessing is a recurring feature.
* I completely forgot to link in formal fashion here on the blog
to Kiel Phegley's piece last week with Mark Millar on what the successful writer perceives as the dangers of digital/print same day release strategies. I do remember I made a crack somewhere about how late Millar's entering the conversation, and I think that's actually a big factor in determining the value of Millar's position: if the comics companies wanted to establish a double-release schedule they needed to toe that particular line of strategy a couple of years ago. Not making a strong decision left them open to the market's desires, and after a certain point I think they needed to just move in the direction they were already leaning. I think the true value of what Millar is saying lies in the more general notion that digital publication strategies deserve a lot more scrutiny: not just for their effects on the bottom line or on a retailing segment, although that's valuable, but for how the various strategies either reward or fail to reward the creators involved. I have yet to see any company announce that their strategy has been formulated around making creators more money, except in oblique fashion. In fact, I think I've read more spirited defenses of price points and promotional strategy options as necessary
for the company than I've read anyone talking about how the creators benefit. A related point: I really don't have a link for this, but it seems to me some of the digital sales over this last weekend put on display some of the value of
not pricing every comic book at 99 cents -- when you do price them that way, you can get a bump out of it. Can you discount from 99 cents?
* finally, Johanna Draper Carlson
congratulates Charles "Zan" Christensen and Mark Brill for making the 2011 Out100.
posted 1:00 am PST |
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