Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* the writer Don MacPherson talks about the cancellation of the First Look program through which retailers got to see some of the Marvel comic books ahead of time. Article interview subject Randy Lander mentions a retailer-only web site idea that I hadn't heard before, although I'm sure it's widespread knowledge in those circles.

* speaking of Marvel programs, here's an article at CBR about the one-year anniversary of Marvel's digital comics initiative. It doesn't challenge any assumptions, but it does give a pretty fair snapshot as to what they're up to. I don't think I'd really thought about it all at once. You know, as disassociated as I am from the publishing edge of Marvel Comics, I have to say I would probably make greater use of a subscription to this thing than I do similar subscriptions to digital content that placed side by side with a Marvel Comic I'd like better. I'm old enough and life moves so quickly now that six months feels like a long nap, and I have almost no desire to own this stuff on paper. (That's Henry Peter Gyrich, right? Now there's an underrated character design.)

* still not a story.

* also not comics: you know it's bad when you look at a future of newspapers event and you first thought is if all of those people will stay in those jobs between now and the panel.

* the critic and comics consumer advocate Johanna Draper Carlson goes through the judging process for the Isotope mini-comics award. She reveals the number of submissions with which she dealt, how she processed them, and which ones outside of the winner struck her as worth tracking down and checking out.

* I always liked the name Randy.

* not really comics: I enjoyed this interview with former Fantagraphics and Devil's Due (I think) art director Evan Sult focused primarily on his music. He talks a bit about visiting Fort Thunder, which is the almost-comics part. Evan was the first person with whom I worked at Fantagraphics to leave by his own choice to go do something else, which helped inspire my own eventual departure. And yet we're still friends.

* the blogger Sean Kleefeld has started writing about general economic issues in comics, here and here so far.

* looks like Ted Rall may go all Joker on Barack Obama. I think it would have been a much more interesting campaign if John McCain could have been convinced that irrational nihilism was the way to win the election. Well, maybe more convinced. By the way, the thought that no one will have anything funny to say about a new president is deeply stupid, in comics or in other media. Not only do opportunities reveal themselves, you don't have to mock somebody to make them the focal point of humor. That SNL sketch from the 1970s where Jimmy Carter talks someone down from a bad acid trip is worth every single piece of easy savagery in which that show's wallowed in the last several years. The heart of comedy is revealing truth, not expressing contempt.

* apparently, Patrick McDonnell will be interviewed later today on Mr. Media.

* finally, one more not comics: one of the changes a lot of newspapers will likely make in the next few years is to move to somewhere between a two- and four-day-a-week printed version and a 24-hour on-line newsroom. It's interesting in that I think this is the kind of structural change that could have greatly benefited newspapers if done two years ago as a hedge against a downturn, but I'm doubtful it's going to do very well as a coping mechanism. I'm mentioning it here to remind myself to ask how syndicates sell comics to print publications on this schedule. Still, expect to see more papers try it. A lot of major metro dailies already sold their papers in subscription packages that reflected this kind of consumption.
 
posted 6:30 am PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives