The Comics Reporter

April 30, 2009

Go, Look: Right Around Home

another gorgeous re-run from ASIFA

posted 8:25 am PST | Permalink

ICv2.com: Central Park Media Files Chapter Seven Bankruptcy Last Friday

The comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com notes that Central Park Media filed chapter seven bankruptcy last Friday. According to a knowledge of bankruptcy law gleaned on the back of cereal boxes, chapter seven is the liquidation one as opposed to the reorganization that is a part of a chapter eleven filing. The article makes the failure of the anime and yaoi manga pioneer sound like an issue of markets in which it excelled drying up, as debts accrued seem primarily focused on reach-out business that tend to get involved during a business slowdown -- a bank and a law firm. CPM had been in a diminished-employment half-state for a few years now.

posted 8:20 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Warlord Of Io

this is James Turner's new series at SLG; his previous projects were Rex Libris and Nil, which I liked very much

posted 8:15 am PST | Permalink

Hearing The Adults Argue Late At Night

If I'm reading it correctly, a piece at ActuaBD.com hypes a forthcoming Nick Rodwell interview in the magazine Trends-Tendances about the relatively choppy waters in which rests the relationship between publisher Casterman and the organization that looks after the interests of Herge and his great creation Tintin, Moulinsart. Not only do I not have a dog in this fight, it's always hard to tell with certain ActuaBD.com articles who exactly believes what and what's exactly at stake -- the prose tends to get weirdly elliptical. Still, I think it's worth noting for a couple of reasons: someone believes there's a publishing arrangement which lasts until 2053, which I like because that's The Future, I'm mentally bookmarking the notion that Tintin hasn't enjoyed enough success in the international markets it's pursued, and I imagine you're going to see an increasing number of fissures between companies and rights-holders like this as the potency of certain licenses fades.

posted 8:10 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Wolverine Loves Porn

straight porn, that is; plus: what is Storm wearing?

posted 8:05 am PST | Permalink

Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update

* I'm not sure that I linked to this part of Anders Fogh Rasmussen becoming head of NATO despite objections from Turkey that included but certainly were not limited to that the prime minister's conduct during the Danish Cartoons Controversy was suspect: President Obama's role in Rasmussen getting the position and some of the promises made for it to happen.

* here's a breakdown of a recent poll of attitudes held by Danish Muslims. I don't know the players to speak the accuracy of the polls, nor am I one to shake my fist at people who come at certain issues from a completely different worldview than I have, but I figure the more information the better.

* blasphemous libel even sounds awful.

* finally, more from Flemming Rose on the necessity that newspaper be allowed to publish things like the Muhammed cartoons. I agree with that principle, and we hosted those images on CR in order to fulfill our mandate as a news organization. I remain convinced, however, that the reason someone publishes upsetting imagery can be called into question, particularly when that something breaks with the primary role of the institution involved.

posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink

If I Were In NYC, I’d Go To This

posted 7:50 am PST | Permalink

If I Were In NYC, I’d Go To This

posted 7:50 am PST | Permalink

OTBP: Department Of Art #1

posted 7:46 am PST | Permalink

Go, Read: Detailed Fumetto Report

via

posted 7:45 am PST | Permalink

Go, Read: Sweden SPX Reports

Lauren Weinstein, via

Reprodukt Blog

posted 7:45 am PST | Permalink

Go, Look: Gary Panter’s Zomoid

I got this one on my own, Hodler, I swear

posted 7:44 am PST | Permalink

Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* all-around swell guy Batton Lash's The Soddyssey, And Other Tales of Supernatural Law has been nominated for something called a Benjamin Franklin Award; you can read all about it and find appropriate links here.

* following up on their good news regarding their doing a book with Imiri Sakabashira, Drawn and Quarterly runs a bit of work from another forthcoming translation, Susumu Katsumata's Red Snow.

* the critic Tucker Stone profiles Cold Heat by talking to Frank Santoro and making sure there's adequate focus on the contributions of Ben Jones.

* I never link to Mike Sterling's walks through the goofier, junkier aspects of Diamond's Previews catalog, but they're always fairly entertaining. Right now you could contend that there's a bit of edge to such posts in that Diamond has minimums for comics content but seems to find space for all sorts of bizarre crap, most of it related to superhero ephemera. That's not to say that these items don't have to play by the same rules, but that it might be worth noting every now and then that the DM as a whole finds more value in Batroc busts than in Sammy Harkham comics.

* translator and historian Frederik L. Schodt has won The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette award from the government of Japan. Former winner include Tommy Lasorda and George Takei.

* finally, speaking of comics snapshots, here's a line from a Dan DiDio interview that stuck with me mostly because it likely won't stick at all with the hardcore fans now used to this kind of routinely weird stuff: "Aquaman died in the Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis series after he had been transformed into the squid-faced mentor of the new Aquaman." Come to think of it, it's also pretty funny if Aquaman being alive or dead is a not-always-known thing among superhero comics fans so hardcore they're pestering Dan DiDio. Shouldn't he have enough market presence people know if the guy is alive or not? Maybe someone needs to do a site like this one for the Sea King.

posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink

Happy 70th Birthday, Martin Lodewijk!