The pedigree on this book is fascinating to the point that the work itself fails to match it. This is essentially a self-published lithograph comic novella by artist Don Freeman from 1955, a short urban fable about a man who splits into two people to follow both halves of his personality during the day. Upon returning home, Floyd W. Skitzafroid confronts the problems created by this arrangement and comes to a sweet solution. Freeman's picture-making proves to be a lot of fun: it's a complete and recognizable world, and the "acting" of the cartoon figures seems open and generous and funny without slipping into preciousness. The background material by Dave Kiersh about Freeman's identity less as a man divided than one without an artist "country" carries the bulk of one's reading time -- Freeman's cartoon story is not only simple but it's very quickly told and if you're one of those people that counts pages or seconds on the clock you're going to be disappointed. I liked it without loving it, and am more pleased than that to hear about another work in the not-exactly-comics, yes-exactly-comics tradition from half a century ago.
This Isn't A Library: New And Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's 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. But were I in a comic book shop tomorrow I would more than likely pick up the following and look them over. My retailer might not like it, but he'll survive.
*****
SEP083845 RASL TP VOL 01 DRIFT (MR) $13.00
Along with Little Orphan Annie, this would be my pick of the week: Jeff Smith's compelling science fiction adventure story, 112 pages in an over-sized format maybe just a little bit more along the lines of how Smith originally intended the work to be seen until retailer feedback influenced the cartoonist into doing a much more standard-sized comic book for the serialized issues. Anyway, it looks fairly gorgeous, so anything even a little bit bigger is good. I think the pleasure one derives from the way Smith presents the story is going to be a big part of how people process the work. While I still suspect we're a couple of the standard issues away before the book reveals more of itself in a way that would make me feel safe suggesting what it's about, I'm definitely getting one of these.
OCT080036 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #21 $2.99 NOV080048 HELLBOY WILD HUNT #2 (OF 8) $2.99 NOV080053 KULL #3 (OF 6) $2.99 NOV083943 BOYS #26 (MR) $2.99 NOV082328 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #9 DKR $2.99 OCT082300 SWORD #14 (MR) $2.99 NOV082270 WALKING DEAD #57 (RES) (MR) $2.99 NOV080222 SANDMAN DREAM HUNTERS #3 (OF 4) (MR) $2.99
These are the standard-sized comic books that jumped out at me as coming from a pedigree or creators that make them the most likely to be worth a look, even though I'm not reading most of them. I am reading the last three, and it seems to me a sign of real sickness and noise in the current serials marketplace that a Sandman comic isn't at least a bigger deal than this one is. If I were a lawyer or management cog at US Goodrich right now instead of someone that writes about comics, the appearance of a comic book like that would likely be enough to bring me into a comics shop.
SEP080073 KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE TP VOL 08 (MR) $10.95 OCT084075 ME & THE DEVIL BLUES GN VOL 02 $19.95
Similarly, these are the manga series of decided interest with new volumes out.
MAY080050 GROO HELL ON EARTH TP $17.95 OCT080214 AMERICAN SPLENDOR ANOTHER DOLLAR TP (MR) $14.99 NOV082242 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 09 HERE WE REMAIN (MR) $14.99
Finally, here are three trade paperback sized collections in successful series with solid creators behind them that might pique your interest.
NOV082466 AGENTS OF ATLAS TP $24.99 OCT084300 TREASURY 20TH CENTURY MURDER SC VOL 01 LINDBERGH CHILD $9.95
Here are a couple of price-point friendly reprints of books I own in hardcover. The Lindbergh Child book from Rick Geary just seems like a nice volume at that size. The Agents of Atlas softcover features a bunch of bonus material in addition to the reasonably fun Marvel comic book of the same name, starring its 1950s abortive hero re-launch characters, plus those placed into that time period at some point in Marvel's overall publication history, minus the Timely guys, in a modern adventure. Kind of a League Of Extraordinarily Owned Lock Stock and Barrel By Marvel Gentlemen and Ladies.
AUG084173 COMPLETE LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE HC VOL 02 $39.99
I am totally in the bag for Little Orphan Annie. I'd pay another $20 for these collections.
NOV084257 WORMDYE GN (MR) $13.00 NOV084256 FATAL FAUX PAS GN (MR) $10.00
A couple of Secret Acres books, although I can't tell if the first one is just now making it into the catalog or is making it there again in a way that doesn't get it tagged with something. Wormdye has already been well-reviewed, and made quite a few Best of 2008 lists. Fatal Faux Pas is work from CCS buzz boy Samuel Gaskin. I deeply apologize for calling anyone "buzz boy."
*****
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 didn't list your comic, it's because of an overabundance of corn-related products in my food.
When A Story Is A Non-Story But Still A Story: Smell Of Steve's Planet Of Beer
With January and February sales generally representing a down period for the comic industry and with the delayed decision-making process that involves moving books around in a schedule months ahead of time, many folks that cover comics have been keeping a keen eye out for news of books from later on this Spring. In other words, if DC and Marvel have fewer books out in January that's one thing, but if they're keeping a lean schedule in May, that's quite another.
Therefore, it was with some degree of interest that I read a note received in a mass mailing from Brian Sendelbach, a cartoonist I like a lot who creates the Smell of Steve strip that exists both on-line and in a few alt-weeklies and on whose behalf Dark Horse announced they'd be releasing a print collection: Planet of Beer: A Smell of Steve Treasury. Here are the graphs of interest:
As just about everyone in the world doesn't know, I have a book coming out in March. It's called Planet of Beer: A Smell of Steve Treasury, and it's the distillation of many years' worth my weekly comic strip, Smell of Steve.
I'm pretty excited about the book. It's big, it's in full color, and it's the first time all these comic strips will be appearing in one place.
Only one wrinkle: Because of the usual Crappy Economy factors everyone's so familiar with now, Planet of Beer might not get published at all. The publisher, Dark Horse, claims that unless orders go up somewhat, they're going to pull the book.
Beyond the economy thing, it's been a challenge to market Planet of Beer. How do you describe comic strips that feature celebrities such as Nick Nolte and Sammy Hagar (as well as pop culture figures like Fonzie) in starring roles? How do you describe characters like President Carter & Kenny, Black Aquaman, and Bougle Gluce in a way that doesn't sound wacky and contrived? And how do you explain that Smell of Steve started off as a kind of conceptual art project, and ended up as, well... a different kind of conceptual art project?
Anyway, I'm a crappy salesman, and it's a crappy time to be selling anything. So this is no Planet of Beer hard-sell. I'm just letting you know that the book is available for pre-order here...
The rest of the letter gives you a place to pre-order the work; I'll share some of that information below.
The concern, of course, when you read something like this is that DHC might 1) be experiencing notably low pre-orders on a book which while it doesn't fit into its overt webcomics initiative is close enough that you might think sales would be better, 2) be putting one of its authors in a position to help in raising the level of pre-orders or not have the book published, and 3) be doing something similar with books whose creators don't happen to have me on their e-mail mass mailing list.
I asked Dark Horse for comment on both 1) this particular case and 2) if they're making similar requests of other authors concerning other books. Here's what I was given in response, which I'm told to ascribe to "a Dark Horse representative":
"While we were discussing the possibility of postponing the book's release to allow more time for pre-order, and we were encouraging Brian to do what he could on his part to get the word out, we have not yet come to the point where we were discussing the cancellation of the book. We are excited about Planet of Beer and will continue to stand behind it and all of our projects and creators both current and future."
Fair enough. Smoke, but no fire. There was enough initial confusion for there to be some left over, as I sent this along to Brian and received in return a statement from "a Smell of Steve representative":
I like Dark Horse. I've been very happy with my editor, and everybody who I've dealt with at Dark Horse.
I sent the e-mail in order to save my book as a direct response to information I received from Dark Horse regarding the possibility of Planet Of Beer not going to print.
Incidentally, I've been really surprised at the positive response. I feel like Sting in that "Message in a Bottle" song.
So there you have it. No financial Armageddon or book purge, just a struggling volume in a bad economy. I still think Spring publishing plans very much bear watching for signs of wider economic downturn influence, and will do so at every opportunity.
This leads me to a more important point: I really like the Smell of Steve material, and if any of you join me in liking this material or sometimes liking the things I like in general, I'm going to suggest you pre-order it and/or otherwise show support for one of the odder, more idiosyncratic comics of the last 20 years. Brian suggested this Amazon link. There's a petition out there I signed without reading but it involves a boycott and I wish I hadn't. You can probably find that if you want to. I would also direct you to the general web site for more comics, although actually, that's not fully up right now so here's Sendelbach's myspace page. If any retailers or people in position to support the work through press want to be put into contact with Brian and can't find something on the site and don't feel like working with Jacq Cohen at Dark Horse for some strange reason, And if you don't accept my word on these things, it seems as if the writer Warren Ellis likes it, too.
1. ACME Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (self-published, distributed by Drawn & Quarterly)
2. What It Is, Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
3. Little Nothings, Lewis Trondheim (NBM)
4. Bottomless Belly Button, Dash Shaw (Fantagraphics)
5. Inkweed, Chris Wright (Sparkplug Comic Books)
6. Wormdye, Eamon Espey (Secret Acres)
7. Petey and Pussy, John Kerschbaum (Fantagraphics)
8. An Anthology Of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons And True Stories, Vol 2 (Yale University Press), edited by Ivan Brunetti
9. Breakdowns: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young %@&*!, Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
10. Willie and Joe, Bill Mauldin (Fantagraphics)
11. The Hot Breath Of War , Trevor Alixopolous (Sparkplug Comic Books)
12. Bourbon Island 1730, Lewis Trondheim & Appollo (First Second)
13. Alan's War, Emmanuel Guibert (First Second)
14. Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (Drawn & Quarterly)
15. The works of Kevin Huizenga
16. Perla La Loca, Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
17. Beyond Palomar, Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
18. Errand Service, Will Dinski (self-published)
19. Bodyworld, Dash Shaw (webcomic)
20. Against Pain, Ron Rege', Jr (Drawn & Quarterly)
21. Ordinary Victories, Manu Larcenet (NBM)
22. Goddes of War, Lauren Weinstein (Picturebox)
23. Gus & His Gang, Christophe Blain (First Second)
24. Tales Designed To Thrizzle #4, Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics)
25. Capacity, Theo Ellsworth (Secret Acres)
26. Eye Of The Majestic Creature #3, Leslie Stein (self-published)
27. Best American Comics 2008 (Houghton-Mifflin)
28. I Still Live, Annie Murphy (self-published)
29. MOME #12
30. Nocturnal Conspiracies, David B (NBM)
31. Little Things, Jeffrey Brown (Touchstone)
32. The Rabbi's Cat 2, Joann Sfar (Pantheon)
33. Swell, Juliacks (self-published)
34. Spaniel Rage 2008, Vanessa Davis (self-published)
35. Pocket Full Of Rain, Jason (Fantagraphics)
36. The Complete Peanuts 1967-68, Charles Schulz (Fantagraphics)
37. Explainers, Jules Feiffer (Fantagraphics)
38. Where Demented Wented, Rory Hayes (Fantagraphics)
39. The Night Of Your Life, Jesse Reklaw (Dark Horse)
40. Snake Oil, Chuck Forsman (self-published)
41. Estrus Comics #6, Mari Naomi (self-published)
42. Love and Rockets New Stories #1, Los Bros Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
43. Hotwire, Volume 2 (Fantagraphics), edited by Glenn Head
44. Injury Comics #2, Ted May, Jeff Wilson & Jason Robards (Buenaventura)
45. Drawn & Quarterly Showcase #5 (Drawn & Quarterly)
46. Hall Of Best Knowledge, Ray Fenwick (Fantagraphics)
47. Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream, Laura Park (self-published)
48. Grotesque #2, Sergio Ponchionne (Fantagraphics)
49. Windy Corner Magazine #2 (Sparkplug Comic Books)
50. Magic Whistle #11, Sam Henderson (Alternative)
An anonymous author (I think) has posted a few chapters of a Steve Gerber biography on-line for your perusal. I hope this is completed because not only will I be able to read it, I won't have to write one. I was thinking out loud about Gerber the other day, and how far ahead of his time and generally good he was that you can find 1970s serial work he did that's as compelling and runs along the same lines as works out this year by Jonathan Lethem and Grant Morrison.
* Berlin 2, Jason Lutes
* 100 Bullets, Eduardo Risso
* Omega the Unknown, Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple
* Casanova Volume 2, Matt Fraction and Fábio Moon and Gabriel Ba
* American Flagg, Howard Chaykin
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* the writer James Vance gives first-hand testimony as to what donations and giving of the kind that comes from the comics-related Hero Initiative can mean to a family in need and just generally reeling due to fatal illness.
* the cartoonist Dan Goldman is previewing his book with Michael Crowley, '08: A Graphic Diary Of The Campaign Trail, here. Speaking of publicity efforts, Boom!has released two videos to basically promote their promotions for a comic book they're releasing concurrently through MySpace and with a couple of other deals designed to give it some juice in the marketplace. I thought the comic book was fairly ordinary, but there's no denying that whole company seems really fired up about it.
* here's a nice piece up at PWCW surveying the prospect of comics in the classroom through a special focus on the state of Maryland's program designed to do just that.
* finally, Mike Lynch notes that people can start submitting work for consideration in the NCS Division Awards, which are given out every year at their annual meeting. These are the various categorized awards that are sometimes casually talked about in terms of getting a Reuben to distinguish them from the Cartoonist of the Year honor which is getting the Reuben -- but really they're called the NCS Division Awards and it's more and more common just to stick with that appellation.
Midnight Snack: DNAgents Again Title: DNAgents: Industrial Strength Edition Creators: Mark Evanier, Will Meugniot, Al Gordon, Willie Blyberg, Dan Spiegle, Mike Royer, Steve Mitchell, Gerald Forton Publishing Information: Image Comics, softcover, 452 pages, 2008, $24.99 Ordering Numbers: 1582409692 (ISBN10), 9781582409696 (ISBN13)
This is one of those books where I'm more curious about it as a publishing project than I am for the content between the covers. Surely one can find color copies of the original comics for $1.50 or less a copy if the title or its concepts interest you. It's also being published at a time when the comics it most obviously influenced -- the Image comics like Gen 13 that combined teen superhero narratives with a more "adult," cheesecake-driven approach to art and a teen movie take on the sexuality of its characters -- seem on the relative outs right now with the reading public. The content is above average 1980s superhero work, clever but not groundbreaking, featuring reasonably solid figure drawing in service of a specific kind of pre-Internet type staring at half-clothed fantasy good girls. I find the storytelling to be frequently cluttered, and the plots never rise above a kind of broad-shouldered, sturdy serviceability. In the onslaught of superhero titles in which it was initially published, picking up DNAgents was sort of like getting a peanut butter and banana sandwich when 90 percent of what was available was straight-up peanut butter. A far cry from a Reuben, but still: bananas! Now, as a potential library book and on the shelves with a much greater variety of material in a landscape that favors trades that have to convince you they're worth a big purchase over serial storytelling publications that only have to trick you into little ones, the modesty of the non-modest work in this Industrial Strength Edition seems to be hoping enough people out there have an honest predilection for peanut butter.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied and Stacked By Tom Spurgeon
* the anthology Lapin is making another comeback (its third?), with a cover by Florent Ruppert and Jerome Mulot. The focus will be on young cartoonists, as it was in 1992 when the magazine -- through which many of the major alt-comics talents of Europe were introduced to audiences far and wide -- began.
* the best North American news of recent vintage has to be the approximate street date of April given for D&Q's publication of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life, which looks astounding. Please go read about it.
* the former Blog@Newsarama team has reformed under the name Robot 6, hosted by Newsarama rival Comic Book Resources and sponsored by IDW. I imagine this is old news by now (I'm writing this entry back on January 1), but I see this more as a publishing news story than a strong, top-the-blog news story at this point. The official line-up is, according to John Parkin, "myself, Chris Mautner, Kevin Melrose, Melissa Krause, Lisa Fortuner, Tom Bondurant, Tim O'Shea, Michael May, Jennifer de Guzman and our newest addition, Larry Young." I wish them the best of luck.
* finally, the artist Joao Ruas has taken over for James Jean as the cover artist on DC/Vertigo's Fables. That's worth noting, I think, because of how many awards and how much attention Jean won for his cover work on the series. Ruas' first issue is #83. I think there was a bit of a splash when Jean announced his departure last Fall.
Matt Shane of D&Q's Librarie thought what he saw in Paris and Berlin looked not dissimilar to his place of work in Montreal. I've heard that D&Q's store was among those doing bang-up business over the holidays. While most of the comics shops to whom I've reached out (about two dozen total) seemed to be seeing the effects of the recession, about a quarter of them said they had surprisingly strong Decembers. I have no idea what this means, but that's good news, right?
Ben Ostrander is the former owner/publisher of Mojo Press and sent his list in to me with a note that he didn't feel enough people were naming the books he thought superior in the last calendar year:
* Scorchy Smith and the art of Noel Sickles, Noel Sickles
* Gus and His Gang, Chris Blain
* Willie and Joe, Bill Mauldin
* Journey, William Messner-Loebs
* Burma Chronicles, Guy Delisle
* Brush with Passion: The Art & Life of Dave Stevens, Dave Stevens
* Glamourpuss, Dave Simms
* Dororo, Osamu Tezuka
* Three Shadows, Cyril Pedrosa (#1 choice)
1. Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Fantagraphics)
2. Abandoned Cars, Tim Lane (Fantagraphics)
3. Most Outrageous, Bob Levin (Fantagraphics)
4. The comics by Dash Shaw in Mome, Dash Shaw (Fantagraphics)
5. Bitterkomix #15, Various (Jacana Media Ltd)
6. Tonoharu Vol. 1, Lars Martinson (Top Shelf)
7. Capacity, Theo Ellsworth (Secret Acres)
8. Silverfish, David Lapham (DC/Vertigo)
9. The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn (Image Comics)
10. Why I Killed Peter, Alfred and Olivier Ka (NBM)
Confession: I Don't Wish You A Happy Birthday Just Because I Love You
One of the weird things about the previous two weeks where I posted a plea to get birthday information from creators and other comics industry folk making explicit I needed a birth date is that nine out of 10 people responding sent me the birthday without the date of birth. As far as I know, I've never posted anyone's birthday without knowing the year they were born. Noting how old people are in various facets of the industry is something I think is useful in an historical and a news context -- I like to know which creators are in which generation, which are astonishingly young, and which ones are reaching or nearing milestones. If they're an executive or other decision-maker, knowing someone's age helps me figure out the extent of her practical experience within comics history: what they remember, what was once normal to them, and so on.
I swear I'm not a grumpus: if someone gets some personal birthday wishes out of it, some joy of recognition, then I'm happy for that, too! It's Dave Kellett's birthday, today, for example. Happy birthday, Dave. Everyone likes Dave Kellett. I have no idea what Dave's date of birth, is, though, so he doesn't get an entry.
To be clear: I love wishing you a happy birthday, but if it were just about wishing you a happy birthday, I'd send you an e-mail or write on your Facebook wall.
1. Fishtown, Kevin Colden
2. Echo Moonlake, Terry Moore
3. Bourbon Island 1730, Apollo and Lewis Trondheim
4. The Alcoholic, Jonathan Ames & Dean Haspiel
5. Die Sache mit Sorge, Isabel Kreitz
Title: Skitzy
* the cartoonist Dan Goldman is previewing his book with Michael Crowley, '08: A Graphic Diary Of The Campaign Trail, 
Title: DNAgents: Industrial Strength Edition
* the former Blog@Newsarama team 
