Diamond Expands in Memphis

ICv2.com reports on Diamond expanding their warehouse capacity in Memphis. Worth noting is that this move seems driven by increased demand for backlist items.
 
posted 7:11 am PST | Permalink
 

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Book Standard on Gordon Lee Case



This is a nice, lengthy piece about the Gordon Lee case in Rome, Georgia. I don't think I'd heard of a book deal for The Salon, either.
 
posted 7:01 am PST | Permalink
 

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Go, Read: New Webcomics Examiner

The new issue of Webcomics Examiner is always worth a looksee.

I have to offer up a warning, though. You may enjoy it, but I felt stupid for sticking with an extended group commentary piece on webcomics history, which I found desperately in need of a major content edit, light on interesting insights and at times even tiresome. Webcomics is such a relatively new topic for most of us that it's hard to process so much raw, unformed dialogue. There needs to be a major payoff for that extra work, and there just wasn't here. An interview with Andrew Farago about the potential for curating webcomics was much more to my taste.
 
posted 6:31 am PST | Permalink
 

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Webcomic Targets Close-By Cause



For the charity-minded among you out there, Comixpedia reports that cartoonist Michael McKay of Alice Comics is attempting to defray $4000 worth of treatment and related costs for a sick nephew.
 
posted 6:18 am PST | Permalink
 

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Missed It: Ellison Vs. Penny Arcade

Scroll down a bit from here for a pretty amusing story (thanks, K. Thor Jensen).

 
posted 6:08 am PST | Permalink
 

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Primer: Marshall McLuhan on Comics



In case you've ever seen a reference to Marshall McLuhan in a comics interview and wondered what exactly they were discussing, here's a small article with a summary of where the famed media analyst's thinking collides with the words-and-picture medium.
 
posted 5:58 am PST | Permalink
 

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Quick hits
Preview of Stumptown Comics Festival
Jerry Craft Champions Organ/Tissue Donors
Local Comics Publisher Profile: Wicked Good
Prickly City Collected For First Book
 

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Numbers May Lie; Can Words Tell Truth?

One thing that's aggravating about news stories in comics is that no one seems willing, even when things are in dispute, to kick forward a number or fifty in ordere to prove a point. This occurred to me again while reading Matt Brady's interview with Mike S. Miller of Alias. The issue is the departure of a studio citing material breach, which Alias denies.

Brady does a good job creating a rapport with Miller and following up on some leaps of logic. But Miller, by never using an actual number to prove a point, manages to come across as clueless and slimy. The numbers really matter here. A three-figure shift in sales described as "low" can make a big difference as to whether you believe one side or the other. A single-digit shift in a percentages described as "minor" can be the difference between a fair and a draconian policy. Nobody should have to read about a comics dispute fought solely in terms of dubious language like this.
 
posted 6:53 am PST | Permalink
 

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David Maisel Gets Marvel Promotion

There was a time when promotions at Marvel demanded attention because it let you know who was being active where within the company. Now something like this piece on David Maisel involves figuring out if it's a shift in actual responsiblities or if it's a move-around to free up some sort of payment. And didn't Marvel just change its name?
 
posted 6:40 am PST | Permalink
 

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Erik Larsen Challenges Comics’ Manhood

Someone asking everyone else in comics why they're being pussies because they don't create things is too funny for me to rattle off the obvious list of objections.
 
posted 6:28 am PST | Permalink
 

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Quick hits
Not Comics: Neil Gaiman Hits NYT #1
Second Marvel Armed Services Comic Described
First Manga Exhibition in Belgium?
Student Paper Recommends Five Comics
Hey, Someone Reviewed an NBM Book!
Child Draws Newspaper Comic Before You Do
First (I Think) Blutch Book from Futuropolis
Comics-Passionate Physics Professor Profiled
 

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One For The First-Year Yearbook



Today's Question: Who is watching cartoonist James Kochalka and this caricature of Vermont's governor? (Click Photo for Answer)
 
posted 8:49 am PST | Permalink
 

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Joe Casey Talks Steve Englehart



In unpacking the influences on his current Godland series, Joe Casey writes about Steve Englehart's 1970s work on Marvel's Avengers. This is the run where Pat Harrington lookalike Swordsman shows up at headquarters with his hooker girlfriend, some dead people are fought, some pyramids are visited, some time-traveling is done, and eventually someone ends up marrying a sentient plant so that a new Jesus can be born.

Englehart was one of the more interesting mainstream writers of that period, mostly because he was so straightforward -- I can't imagine anyone mining his comics for their oddball potential (like you could do with Gerber or Wein). What you saw was pretty much what you got. Any weirdness to Englehart's comics seemed to come from the general strangeness of the time, and, well, the times were pretty damn strange. My guess is you could extend Casey's point about the superhero=everyman aspect to Marvel's silly cosmic epics to the fact that a lot of the material was written by decidedly non-out there figures.
 
posted 7:55 am PST | Permalink
 

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210-Title Shotaro Ishinomori Project

It's under today's entry (September 28) and sounds pretty staggering, although I'm not sure how to place it in context. Does a lot of work get published this way, and if not, what's the spur here?
 
posted 7:52 am PST | Permalink
 

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Go, Look: Dongery Web Site



If you couldn't make it to this year's Small Press Expo, you can go look through Dongery's site by clicking through the above image and get an idea of one table's worth of comics you missed.
 
posted 7:48 am PST | Permalink
 

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Dave Sim By Subject Matter



For no particular reason, a column scanned from the index of Dave Sim Collected Letters 2004.
 
posted 7:39 am PST | Permalink
 

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Quick hits
Evanier on Ditko/Stanton Get Smart Comic
Marvel Hires Another TV WriterEditorial Cartoon Becomes Tattoo
London Cartoon Exhibition Review
Description of Art Spiegelman Lecture
Local Cartoonist Profile: Suresh Sawat
 

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Ali Dilem: Freedom of Press Trophy

The cartoonist Ali Dilem of the Algerian newspaper Liberte has received the Freedom of Press trophy from the long-running caricature and humor festival at Saint-Just-le Martel. Dilem has made international headlines this year for his struggles to have his work published free of legal harassment.
 
posted 8:12 am PST | Permalink
 

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Go, Read: Profile of Pat Oliphant



This lengthy profile, on the occasion of the great editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant receiving an award in New Mexico, touches on the fascinating issue of access versus accommodation.
 
posted 8:09 am PST | Permalink
 

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Details on That Big LA Exhibit

Brian Walker let slip over the winter that he was going to be involved in a major Los Angeles cartooning exhibit; Editor and Publisher coughs up some details, including the accompanying book from Yale University Press. I don't remember Pete Hamill writing anything of length about comics before.
 
posted 8:04 am PST | Permalink
 

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New Asterix Cover Makes Debut



In case you were wondering, this is what a comic book with eight million copies in its initial printing looks like.
 
posted 8:02 am PST | Permalink
 

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Johnny Ryan Makes ‘05 RS Hot List

Fantagraphics reports Johnny Ryan is the "Hot Cartoonist" on this year's list from Rolling Stone, reinforcing my longtime suspicion that Ryan is just another teenaged starlet crossing over from his Disney Channel television show into the movies and general pop music stardom.
 
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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Quick hits
Inkwell: $70,000+ for Katrina Relief
Village Voice Profiles True Porn 2
LA Times Covers Clint C. Wilson Sr. Passing
Local Cartoonist Profile: Doug MacGregor
Star-Bulletin Profiles Kyle Baker
Evanier Crushes New CCI/LA Rumor w/one Hand
Another Specific Marvel Entertainment License
 

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Manga Sales Down 20% Since ‘94

Anime News Network digs into this year's major publishing report to paint a picture of the manga industry in Japan in 2004. There's a ton that's interesting to not here, if you dive right in or go to it obliquely through smart commentary like David Taylor's. Everyone probably already knew that a slight decline in domestic sales is what has made the worldwide expansion of manga such a boon for these companies. It's also worth remembering that it's such a siginficant portion of the overall publishing market that it works differently -- only a broad readership would make rental policies an issue, for example. Something very much worth reading.
 
posted 8:18 am PST | Permalink
 

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Naruto Cartoon Enjoys Ripple Effect



ICv2.com offers a nice report about how the Cartoon Network's playing of the Naruto anime has led to a mini-explosion of interest in the manga volumes, as reflected on the Bookscan charts. It's interesting to me in that I wonder how if any serials were less than well-served by a rush to put out books, even though this represents a kind of re-start to the publishing effort and as such a counterargument that having a book out there is an impediment. I enjoy the Naruto manga, incidentally. It has pretty airtight emotional-action balance among its leads (the key to any team adventure serial) and the action is depicted in an interesting, thoughtful fashion that manages to hit all the proper dramatic beats without seemig to go through the motions.
 
posted 8:08 am PST | Permalink
 

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