If you love something the weirdest things will choke you up. I have this severe affection for comics when it works as a publishing business, the thought of there being this modest but very real network of stores that people look forward to visiting (or aisles into which they'll squeeze), physical places for which people carve time out of their lives, that several people are employed by this system of delivery and the money works its way up the chain into the pockets of those that are using it to raise their families, pay their bills, buy things of immediate use. There's something beautiful about that for me, something that simply isn't there when I think about intellectual property development or giving something away for free to reinforce a brand, or when it seems that the only people's stories a medium wants to tell are the stories that end with someone making millions of dollars.
There's always this effort in comics to connect to the past, to remind one of past glories, to rediscover high-minded art from years before, to connect the art form to similar work in other media, and all that's fine. I'd also suggest there's honor in being last, that there's something to the fact that comics was the last art form to make itself up, to create its own myths, to put on long pants and walk outside and start shaking hands. I'm an awful sentimentalist, I know, self-absorbed and patronizing. It's just that for all the comics I download, for all the stars-in-the-making I write about, all the profiles I read and all the newly-minted executives I see congratulated on twitter, for all my mind warps when I see the profiles and the movies and the attention paid to great works, I still remember the exact feeling across the shoulder and through two fingers of pulling a spinner rack from left to right, exactly how much pressure I had to apply to the door of my first comics shop to pop it past the rubber mat bunched up just past the stoop, precisely how the artificial light bounced off a funnybook cover my second store's strange idea of lighting, its angular shelves filled with the black and white comic books that would break its back six months later.
Not to make too much of all that -- there was a horrible grind back then, too, daily inequities out the wazoo, and plenty of exploitation, and restrictions on expression and opportunity and variety and any sane guarantee of quality that could outright destroy an artist's soul and that frequently cast people into ruin. I do sometimes miss the scale, though, the straight-up modesty of a self-contained enterprise that nonetheless touched dozens of people from pen to product. I hope we never lose it.
Deferring To The Readers, I’d Like To Direct Your Attention To The Following Comics-Related Statues
Last week's post about comics-related statues brought with it a number of responses from CR readers about their favorite comics-related statues. It seemed like a natural thing to highlight a few of those choices and the rhetoric employed by those suggesting them.
*****
From Brad Mackay: "Loved the post about comics-related statues today. It brought to mind this one, of Jasper the Bear, a classic comics character by Canadian cartoonist James Simpkins. The statue has been in Jasper, Alberta for decades and has probably outlasted the character's popularity himself. I've never been there, but it's definitely an icon of the town and park; the kind of thing that you take a picture of your Mom hugging. He even has a Twitter feed! What other comics statue can say that?"
From Daniel: "Thanks for your pictures of comics-related statues. I thought you might be interested in this one. It's in Spain and, sadly, it's been vandalized."
*****
From John Burgess: "I don't live there so I couldn't say for sure, but I think these Peanuts statues are permanent now."
*****
From Tim Leong: "Beetle Bailey at the University of Missouri (alma mater!)"
*****
From Gavin Lees: "I used to live across the road from this. He's no Andy Gump or Astro Boy, but he does have the world's only two-legged horse..."
Why I Started Reading Indy Comics
In January 1984, I was 15 years old, we didn't have the Internet, my friends and I were counting the days to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, our HBO watching was monitored, the woods where my older brother's generation had hidden an Alexandrian library's worth of dirty magazines was becoming condos, I had missed hearing at least one entire lecture in every one of my classes to memorize each hair on the back of the necks of women who today are respectable pillars of the community and much-loved mothers to teenagers all over the American Midwest, and every schoolday more likely than not I wore a sweatshirt tied by its sleeves around my waist not for fashion's sake.
And these were my choices at Bright's Book Exchange:
Sorry, Batman. Sorry, Spider-Man. Sorry, Mainstream Comic Books. You never had a chance.
FFF Results Post #199—Bronze Age
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Comics Or Cohesive Runs Of Comics That You Would Give To Someone That Would Encapsulate The Bronze Age And Provide A Gateway To Its Greater Pleasures." This is how they responded.
Tom Spurgeon
1. Arcade (1975-1976)
2. Giant Size X-Men #1, X-Men #94-141, Uncanny X-Men #142-143 (1978-1981)
3. Cerebus: High Society #26-50 (1981-1983)
4. Daredevil #168-191 (1981-1983)
5. As The Kid Goes For Broke, Garry Trudeau (1977)
*****
Chris Baker
1. Swamp Thing #21-56 (1984-1986)
2. Cerebus: High Society #26-50 (1981-1983)
3. New Gods #1-11 (1971-1972)
4. Howard the Duck #1-27 (1976-1978)
5. Daredevil #168-191 (1981-1983)
1) Brave and the Bold #100-130 (1972-1976)
2) Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #29 (1975)
3) The First Kingdom #1-24 (1974-1986)
4) Limited Collector's Edition #C-22 (Tarzan) (1973)
5) The Defenders #20-41 (1975-1976)
1. X-Men #94-143 (1975-1981)
2. Batman #232-244 (1971-1972)
3. Special Marvel Edition #15-16 (1973-1974)
4. Green Lantern #76-89 (1970-1972)
5. Tomb of Dracula #1-70 (1972-1979)
*****
Jim Kingman
* Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76-89 (1970-1972)
* Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth #1-36 (1972-1975)
* The Warlord #1-15 (1975-1978)
* The New Teen Titans #1-44 (1980-1984)
* Crisis On Infinite Earths #1-12 (1985)
* Star Wars #1-107 (1977-1986)
* Saga of the Swamp Thing #21-50 (1984-1986)
* Nexus #1-27 (1981-1986)
* New Teen Titans #1-50 (1980-1985)
* Legion of Super-Heroes #287-313 (1982-1984)
1. Cerebus: High Society #26-50 (1981-1983)
2. Howard the Duck #1-31 (1976-1979)
3. Heavy Metal v1#1-v4#9 (1977-1980)
4. Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary (1972)
5. Andromeda #1-6 (1977-1979)
*****
Robert Martin
1. American Flagg! #1-26 (1983-1985)
Howard Chaykin's pop dystopia is the most accomplished adventure comic of the era, and the epitome of "ground-level" comics.
2. Ka-Zar the Savage #1-34 (1981-1984)
Probably the most underappreciated adventure comic of the period, and one of the entertainingly oddball things to ever come out of Marvel. Bruce Jones made Ka-Zar and Shanna an articulate, bickering pair of equals along the lines of Tracy & Hepburn, with imaginative adventures infused with a genuine spirit of exploration and wonder.
3. New Mutants #18-31 (1984-1985)
Sienkiewicz's art is brilliant, but it's so wackily incongruous with the story material that you wonder if the book's editor ever saw the pages. I don't know if this is the most spectacular example of ultra-sophisticated art dressing up uber-lame stories, but it's certainly my favorite.
4. What If? #1-47 (1977-1984)
Cannot be topped for fanboy-geek appeal, but the editorial requirement for stories with real endings keeps it accessible to curious "civilians."
5. Wolverine #1-4 (1982)
Chris Claremont and Frank Miller give the era's most noteworthy superhero his definitive adventure.
1. Legion of Super-Heroes #280-313 and Baxter series #1-25 (1981-86)
2. Thor #337-372 (1983-86)
3. Howard the Duck # 1-27 (1976-78)
4. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (1970s)
5. X-Men #129-137 (1980)
*****
Joe Schwind
1. Arcade #1-7 (1975-1976)
2. The Far Side Gallery #1-2 (1984-1986)
3. Mister X #1-4 (1984-1985)
4. Raw #1-8 (1980-1986)
5. Weird-O #1-18 (1981-1986)
*****
Gary Usher
1. Captain America #193-214 (1976-77) Kirby
2. World's Finest #244-282 (1977-82) Giants
3. Legion Of Super-Heroes #259-313 (1980-84)
4. Fantastic Four #232-294 (1981-86) Byrne
5. Saga Of The Swamp Thing/Swamp Thing #21-50 (1984-86) Moore
*****
Douglas Wolk
1. Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary (1972)
2. Marvel Treasury Edition #12 (1976)
3. Breakdowns (1977)
4. All-New Collectors' Edition: Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali (1978)
5. Destroy!! (1986)
*****
Stergios Botzakis
1. Strange Tales #178-181, Adam Warlock #9-11 (1975-1976)
2. Saga of the Swamp Thing #21-50 (1983-1986)
3. Nexus #1-27 (1983-1986)
4. Ambush Bug #1-4 (1985)
5. Raw #1-8 (1980-1986)
*****
Jim Rugg
* Master of Kung Fu #38-50 (1976-1977)
* 2001 A Space Odyssey #1-10 (1976-1977)
* Tomb of Dracula #1-70 (1972-1970)
* Saga of the Swamp Thing #21-55, Annual #2 (1983-1986)
* Daredevil #168-191, 227-233 (1981-1983, 1986)
*****
Jim Rugg
* Power Man and Iron Fist #73 (1981)
* Captain America #144 (1971)
* 1st Issue Special #2 (1975)
* 1st Issue Special #6 (1975)
* Incredible Hulk #272 (1982)
*****
I honestly don't understand the half-dozen or so of you that when I say 1970 to 1986 you give me an answer that begins in 1966 or 1968 or one that ends in 1987 or 1990. One of you wrote about a book that fell outside the parameters entirely and then argued its appropriateness like you were presenting a paper at ICAF. It's bizarre. I feel bad you took the time, but I'm almost always going to delete such responses. Please don't feel you have to work extra-hard to win Five For Friday; everybody wins Five For Friday.
Not Comics: Lisa Hanawalt T-Shirt On Sale For Next Several Hours not exactly world-shattering news, I know, but I'd feel bad if you knew this and didn't tell me
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
There's really only one story this time out, but it's a doozy: the Danish daily Politikenhas issued an apology for the reprinting of the Kurt Westergaard bomb-in-turban cartoon in 2008 after assassination plots were revealed against the elderly cartoonist. This is in response to a lawsuit brought about on behalf of several Muslim organizations against the papers that did this. As one might expect, the paper has been savaged by critical remarks, despite unconvincingly trying to play it as an apology against the offense caused by publishing but not a step away from the right to publish. Those who insist on seeing some sort of creeping capitulation to Muslim culture in all thing Danish Cartoons just got the benefits of drinking eight energy drinks.
One problem to my mind is that in general terms the reprinting in 2008 wasn't initially portrayed as the newspapers in question trying to fulfill their informational mandate but as a show of political support for Westergaard. I think the former impulse worth defending to the death and the latter kind of silly, frankly, and not worth the offense it clearly causes. If reporting on Westergaard meant re-publishing the cartoon, so be it. But by their own publicly-expressed formulation, that's not what they were doing. I wish all newspapers including the original publishers of the Danish Cartoons would just be newspapers devoted to disseminating vital and necessary information rather than aspiring to be actors in an episode of grand political theatre -- there have been plenty of opportunities to exercise our passion for the necessity of free speech on behalf of journalistic mission, including several news organizations failing to do so when they should have stepped up in 2006, that it's hard for me to get as excited about arguing it on behalf of a stunt, particularly when arguing those cases seems to be more about wishing there were no repercussions as opposed to their being worth it.
I realize there are many that disagree with me on this.
David Glanzer Of CCI: Con Group Weighing All Options, All Proposals CBRhas a nice, short interview with Comic-Con Director of Marketing and Public Relations David Glanzer over recent news that there are multiple bids for the massive pop-culture convention whose arrangement with facilities in four-decade home San Diego run through only 2012. Glanzer is pretty blunt: there are bids, they're considering all of them, the efforts by San Diego civic leaders are substantial but address real needs, and more people want to go to the show now that the current arrangements can handle. He also mentions that they have to do this while managing their other shows and the forthcoming CCI iterations locked into San Diego, and, it seems to me but it's really my interpretation, seems to be saying that these kinds of discussion were a bit late in the coming. Anyway, it's certainly a must-read for anyone interested in these massive comics-related businesses.
I sympathize with the tensions at work: the surge of interest in the show puts severe pressure on what's a pretty solid infrastructure, and it was clear after two events related to the 2009 show (in the middle of a recession) -- Twilight adherents settled in for their portion of the show like fierce fan warriors despite multiple hardships, and then District 9 and perhaps even Avatar receiving a perceived con bounce -- that there was going to be no forthcoming diminished level of interest in the show as an event and marketing platform. I would look at everything, too.
Studio Foglio Colorist Cheyenne Wright To Be Released From Hospital; Still Likely To Be Facing Bills
According to this post picked by Laura Gjovaag, what was initially feared to be congestive heart failure suffered by Studio Foglio colorist Cheyenne Wright is a virus that mimics symptoms of that kind of systemic collapse. Wright is due to be let out of the hospital today, but will still likely face some significant bills, so this initial posting with ways to help alleviate that hassle would I'm certain still be relevant.
Go, Look: Ed Howard Releases A List Of Top 60 Comics From The ‘00s
Noted film blogger Ed Howard has released a list of top 60 works of the decade, with commentary on each member starting here, moving through here, and ending here. It's a fine list, and worth your time to read every entry if you're a big ol' comics geek like I am.
60. Cerebus, Dave Sim & Gerhard, 1998-2004
59. Sleeper, Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, 2003-2005
58. Popeye and Olive/P+O, Richard McGuire, 2002
57. The Ticking, Renee French, 2007
56. Planetes, Makoto Yukimura, 2001-2004
55. Incanto, Frank Santoro, 2006
54. Lumakick, Richard Hahn, 2002-2004
53. Masterpiece Comics, R. Sikoryak, 2000-2009
52. Tales Designed To Thrizzle, Michael Kupperman, 2005-ongoing
51. The Beast Mother/Mome Stories, Eleanor Davis, 2006/2007-2008
50. Automatic Kafka, Joe Casey & Ashley Wood, 2002-2003
49. Elvis Road, Elvis Studio, 2007
48. 100 Bullets, Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso, 1999-2009
47. Eightball #23: The Death Ray, Daniel Clowes, 2004
46. What It Is, Lynda Barry, 2008
45. Yotsuba&!, Kiyohiko Azuma, 2003-ongoin
44. Skyscrapers Of The Midwest, Joshua Cotter, 2005-2008
43. Powr Mastrs, C.F., 2007-ongoing
42. Abstract Comics: The Anthology, Andrei Molotiu (editor) & various, 2009
41. Asterios Poly, David Mazzucchelli, 2009
40. Y: The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Goran Sudzuka, etc., 2002-2008
39. Sexy Voice and Robo, Iou Kuroda, 2000-2003
38. Likewise, Ariel Schrag, 2009
37. Lost Girls, Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie, 2006
36. Black HOle, Charles Burns, 1993-2004
35. Alias, Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Gaydos, 2001-2005
34. Pluto, Naoki Urasawa, 2003-2009
33. Louis Riel, Chester Brown, 1999-2003
32. A Drifting Life, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, 2009
31. Madman Atomic Comics, Mike Allred, 2007-2009
30. Epileptic/Babel, David B., 1996-2003/2004-2006
29. Chimera #1, Lorenzo Mattotti, 2006
28. Dogs and Water, Anders Nilsen, 2004
27. The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Frank Miller & Lynn Varley, 2001-2002
26. The Squirrel Mother, Megan Kelso, 2001-2006
25. Gyo, Junji Ito, 2001-2002
24. Multiforce, Mat Brinkman, 2000-2005
23. Gogo Monster, Taiyo Matsumoto, 2000
22. How To Be Everywhere, Warren Craghead III, 2007
21. Omega The Unknown, Jonathan Lethem & Farel Dalrymple, 2007
20. The Filth/Seaguy, Grant Morrison, Chris Weston & Gary Erskine, 2002-2003; Grant Morrison & Cameron Stewart, 2004
19. The Blot, Tom Neely, 2007
18. Finder: Dream Sequence, Carla Speed McNeil, 2003
17. Ninja, Brian Chippendale, 2006
16. The Lute String, Jim Woodring, 2005
15. Achewood, Chris Onstad, 2001-ongoing
14. Promethea, Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III, Mick Gray et al, 1999-2005
13. Alias The Cat, Kim Deitch, 2002-2005
12. Bottomless Belly Button/MOME Short Stories, Dash Shaw, 2008-2009
11. Alec/The Fate Of The Artist , Eddie Campbell, 2000-2002/2006
10. Mary-Land, Mary Fleener, 2002-ongoing
9. X-Force/X-Statix, Peter Milligan & Mike Allred, 2001-2004
8. ACME Novelty Library #18-19, Chris Ware, 2007-2008
7. Safe Area Gorazde, Joe Sacco, 2000
6. Asthma, John Hankiewicz, 2002-2006
5. Kramers Ergot, Sammy Harkham (editor) & various, 2003-2008
4. Ganges/Curses/Or Else, Kevin Huizenga, 2007-ongoing/2002-2004/2004-2008
3. New Engineering/Travel, Yuichi Yokoyama, 2004
2. Jimbo In Purgatory, Gary Panter, 2000
1. Love and Rockets Vol. II, Jaime Hernandez, 2000-2008
Several Folks In Comics Shift Uncomfortably As Someone Spends $1 Million+ On First Batman Appearance
Heritage Auctions made the sale. This comes on the heels of someone spending $1M on an equivalent first appearance of Superman, putting the Dark Knight in the lead for which world famous icon can evoke the most cruelty towards people struggling during this recession.
Radical Pulls Nick Simmons Comic Over Strong Accusations Of Rampant Swiping
This is the kind of story that rips through comics like bad meat through the stomachs of those attending a church social, Nick Simmons -- son of Gene Simmons and thus I think a minor reality TV star (I assume he's the kid on the Dr. Pepper commercial with his pop) -- has been widely accused of swiping/tracing/stealing art from the international hit Bleach and passing it off on his own. This may or may not be the ground zero of those accusation; I think it is. What's more important is that by Thursday it gained enough noise and enough people doing comparisons and even overlays for Radical to suspend publication so they can look into the matter. By now we even have a masterpiece post on the matter: Rob Bricken's "Gene Simmons' Kid Nick Is a Comic Creator, a Douchebag Plagiarist, and a Moron." There are in many articles links to these twotweets from Tite Kubo himself, seemingly more baffled than outraged.
As Mr. Bricken suggests, the thought that anyone would swipe art from a comic where fans super-hugely-care about art swiping and where millions of people are reading that work is sort of jaw-dropping. I would assume Viz does nothing (seeing financial remuneration from comics companies is like picking up bread crumbs with a slotted spoon) as long as the book is out of circulation, Radical keeps this work shut down, we perhaps get some sort of equivocating statement from the artist and then there are new issues which may or may not be suddenly less effective, but who knows? The accusation and evidence and outright trial (in nerd court only, which seems to have resulted in a beheading) is story enough, it's so straight-forward and ultimately amusing/wrong. It might also fuel an outlook that celebrity comics authors are mostly up to no good.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Mike Sterling makes his monthly list of things that are more important to the Direct Market than James Turner comics.
* Tim Hodler offers up a few initial notes on The Art Of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets Of Life And Death. A pretty rigid but enlightening fight breaks out in the comments thread on the idea of cropping art for an "Art Of" book, and whether or not this can at times represent an art director's intrusion into the work itself. I think all approaches are valid and can be judged on the result and according to our personal preferences without making from-the-mountain-top proclamations over what's good and what's bad. It does strike me there's a point of which you have to wrangle with the book in front of you as opposed to the book you think should be in front of you.
* Diana Tamblyn has a write up of Seth's appearance at the Dominion art show in London, Ontario for a conversation with curator Andrew Hunter.
* I'm not sure this is worth the exclusivity hype as I'm not aware of any burning competition for publishers at industry meetings of this type, but it's worth noting that Image is sending Robert Kirkman to speak at the forthcoming ComicsPRO meeting in Memphis.
Sri Lankan Journalist, Cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda Has Been Missing One Month
It's been 31 days since the journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing on the even of elections in Sri Lanka, scant days after he capped a series of critical article on the eventual winner. This article provides a summary of the situation, while this one describes a vigil on his behalf. Eknaligoda had been abducted briefly in August 2009. There are medication issues if he's still alive. Eknaligoda's story has gained international attention as an event in the context of any number of abuses of press in the weeks leading up to and directly after the election. Wife Sandhya Eknaligoda has spent much of her time pressing for increased police attention to the matter. Those seeking to help out are directed here.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* Flemming Rose played second in a debate of Europe failing its Muslim population, an event described here. That article goes on to lambaste young British Muslims for their less than inspiring take on the event and, according to the writer, life in general. It's interesting to note because the reaction to the Danish Cartoons Controversy was very different in the UK in that there were high-profile arrests and convictions of those participating in protests. I have to imagine that has had an effect on that community's response.
* here's an example of severe and to my eye not entirely convincing rhetoric regarding Muslim dangers to the US that gathers strength by listing some of the problems and I imagine genuinely lousy situations that European countries have applied. The Danish Cartoons Controversy reference is flat-out false: the re-publication of the imagery when cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was initially targeted by assassins is one such re-publication of that imagery.
* the case against David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana just became a bit more complicated, as there's now a press to shield some of the evidence from early disclosure in order to protect the information-gathering capacity that resulted in that evidence. Rana's attorneys remain aggressive in drawing distinction between their man and Headley.
This may be the kind of thing that only delights me, but in a stash of hugely lucrative railroad posters from throughout British rail history, archivists have found other pieces of art including 84 W. Heath Robinson cartoons. Robinson was in that greatest generation of British book illustrators that did any number of cartoons satirizing modern life through the depiction of over-elaborate and slightly fragile-seeming machines. Although he was extremely prolific, the thought that there were 84 of these things sitting in someone's collection slaughters me.
In Alphabetical Order For Comics Blogger Supreme Neilalien On The Occasion Of His 10th Blogging Anniversary By Tom Spurgeon
I'm not the biggest Dr. Strange fan in the world -- that honor goes to Neilalien -- but I do like the character and think he's perpetually under-served by the caretakers of the Marvel Universe. Below are 21 reasons I like the character. This list is obviously behind the times and more about the character as classically conceived than the latest iteration, which I think has the former Sorcerer Supreme growing a beard, doing some consulting work and watching a lot of Travel Channel on TV while Howard the Duck has taken over his office and Baron Mordo is the reformist mayor of Syracuse, New York. Please take it in the old-school, uninformed, fannish spirit it's offered.
This post is a tribute to Neilalien, whose staggering 10th formal anniversary of blogging comics hits today, making him the Ancient One in a world where the rest of are lucky on our best day to be Jennifer Kale.
*****
1. Baron Mordo Is Loaded With Potential
Wrongly cast as the salutatorian to Dr. Strange's first-in-class and thus by definition a second-rate threat, Baron Mordo is a Marvel heavyweight super-villain in the waiting. A brute with the ability to crack planets, Baron Mordo has trained for more years than Dr. Strange has and nothing about him being the wrong man for the job should automatically means he's less dangerous. Being knocked from succession should have unshackled Mordo from any qualms against strategies or beliefs or trials to bring him greater skill with magic, things that a sorcerer supreme might find repugnant or unsavory. My advice to future Strange scribes is to make Mordo a reactive super-villain, a spoiler rather than a schemer. If Strange imprisons a monster, let Mordo free it. If Strange reverses a curse, let Mordo re-establish it six months later. If he wins a great item of power, let Mordo find a way to get it into his pocket within a year or so. He'll resonate with everyone that ever had a rival that would just not let go.
*****
2. Clea Is The Princess From Another World
She's usually had weird hair and has frequently been drawn.... oddly. Her relationship with Dr. Strange over the years has creepy paternalistic aspects, and the fact that they were drawn together in the swinging '70s didn't help either aspect. She's probably had some sort of plot resolution that's taken her far away from the character's main setting -- I'm guessing she's taken over her home dimension at this point. But at her heart Clea is one of the better Princess From Another World archetypes in all of comics: beautiful, rotten parents, needs assistance, capable of empathy and intimacy ahead of how well we know her. For a guy like Dr. Strange, having someone fall into your life that way would be more devastating than liberating.
*****
3. Dr. Strange Has A Cool Pad
Save perhaps for Nick Fury when he's flying around in his floating aircraft carrier or Spider-Man when he lived next door to Glory Grant, Dr. Strange has the best headquarters/home in the Marvel Universe. Entire stories can be generated from what's resting in the cabinets and drawers, and it's likely the safest spot in a city frequently plunged into horrifying super-battles. If I were a young superhero, I'd bet I'd want to attend a party there the same way young Hollywood actors used to strain for invites to the Playboy Mansion.
*****
4. Dr. Strange Has Cosmic-Leviathan Villains
I'm not a big fan of piles of goo or messes of tentacles or distended eyeballs as superhero bad guys. Still, there are very few Marvel heroes that have hard-to-grasp, larger-than-life cosmic evils in their rogues' galleries, and it's a different mechanism with which to organize a comic book story. That has to count for something.
*****
5. Dr. Strange Has To Live Up To The Example Of The Ancient One
I think it would be weird for this reality to have two human sorcerer supremes in a row -- I guess three, now -- and considering how long he had the job I have to imagine the Ancient One was very good at it in a way that might constantly reflect on Dr. Strange. It would be like following John Wooden as coach of UCLA basketball, or coaching the Penn State Nittany Lions football squad once Joe Paterno retires.
*****
6. Dr. Strange Has Multiple Weaknesses That Don't Have Anything To Do With Monkeying Around With His Power Levels
One thing that seems unsatisfying to Dr. Strange fans is that the character is frequently, artificially de-powered in order to function within modern superhero stories, either by an overriding wave-of-hand character change or via a cute plot that unfolds in the first few pages of an individual comic book. There are obvious ways that Dr. Strange could be challenged during his adventures, ways that don't require he be arbitrarily limited in some way. A first is to frequently have him confronted by terrifying, universe-destroying brutes -- just generally make sure he's challenged. A second is to shift the burden of danger on some sort of client or person or situation that Strange is trying to help. A third is to find some way that Strange's humanity limits the full effectiveness of his powers: perhaps Strange's professional background as a surgeon might lead him to see solutions in terms of excising problems rather than healing them through more systemic change. A fourth is that when compared to Ancient One Strange could still be portrayed as a relatively new #1 Kid In Magic-Town, a second-career guy. He may have even trained less than a lot of older magicians. Making a superhero a super-powered, all-effective Mary Sue and then making him less of one to generate drama is a lot easier than firming up a personality from which a character derives strengths and weaknesses, but that doesn't mean no one should try.
*****
7. Dr. Strange Is A Fighting Champion
I see Dr. Stange being challenged a lot for his supreme bad-ass magic guy title -- when it's his, that is -- and also getting in the equivalent of bar fights with people that just want to take a shot at the biggest guy in the room. It's been a small element of stories in his past. I like the idea that you could have all these fun, potentially well-choreographed fights in the middle of longer stories, at the end of longer stories, whenever it's least convenient.
*****
8. Dr. Strange Is The Gateway Character To Marvel's Magical Comics
Marvel's done a good job of rehabilitating its space-opera arm into a group of modestly successful comics (and, in another sense, a group of active properties). It might be nice to do that with their various magic-related characters, too, with Dr. Strange as an entry-point character or the major character with whom the entry-point character (say Augustyne Phyffe) immediately negotiates.
*****
9. He Has Great Toys
I like the simplicity and pacifistic nature of Dr. Strange's basic tools: an orb, an amulet, a cape, a spirit form. I also like how they haven't really changed in much in all the years, opening up possibilities one way or the other -- he could need to equip himself more extravagantly to beat some particularly nasty foe, or maybe the simplicity of his approach is a strength. There's something eloquent about how Strange equips himself that could be teased out in a variety of different directions.
*****
10. He Has One Of The Three Best Marvel Secret Origins
Dr. Strange may have my favorite Marvel origin story, although the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man origins are recognized as being all-timers for a reason. I like the thought that he had this entire life before seeking out the Ancient One, and how he became the sorcerer supreme in waiting by basically developing a new core of character attributes even as he extended himself beyond anything he'd ever known. I think the "now what" aspects of it might find resonance with a lot of people. I'm talking the classic origin, of course, not whatever knock-kneed Matrix rip-off has been slipped over top of it in recent years.
*****
11. Nightmare Is A Great Minor Villain
Nightmare is one of those few super-villains who is more difficult than dangerous, if that makes any sense, the perfect complementary villain to a universe-swallower. There's little sense on my part that when Dr. Strange fights Nightmare he's risking extinction, and it's rare to get a villain that's intriguing without have to ramp up the personal danger aspects.
*****
12. Stephen Strange Is Still Mostly A Blank Slate
I don't have any sense of how Dr. Strange operates in the real world, or if he does. I got a sense from reading those comics back in the day that he dates, but not much beyond that. Even Iron Fist as a corporation head seems more convincing than Stephen Strange is at however the heck he organizes his time. It might be that he skips having a life outside of work entirely, I'm not sure. It's there for someone good to play with, though. He has such a flamboyant costume that some sort of secondary way to operate on his magic business sojurns might be useful, too.
*****
13. The Application Of Magic To Solve Problems Is Scary
If there's one thing they haven't quite worked out in the Marvel Universe where Dr. Strange is used as a resource of last resort is the cost of using that resource. It seems like being the beneficiary of having the magic guy, say, zap your broken arm would bring with it some scary consequences: open you up to being magic-sensitive for a while, or leave you vulnerable to Baron Mordo snapping his fingers and re-breaking your arm at an inopportune time. There's a lot of creative territory there.
*****
14. The Dread Dormammu Has A Burning Head
I'm not sure I have anything to add here, and I've never had a great sense of Dormammu as a distinctive, all-time bad guy, but that flaming head really works for me. It's the floating high-collar elements that really distinguish the look. If I remember right, the burning head is some sort of honorific that switches to other characters, which I'm not sure I like, but I sure love it on the big guy there. It would be super-creepy to have to deal with a guy whose head was on fire.
*****
15. The Mindless Ones Offer Up One Of The Great Marvel Visuals
Just look at those things. It's like Dr. Strange opened up a dimension populated by creatures drawn by Mat Brinkman. I remember being very impressed as a little kid with the notion that you could have good and bad doing battle over here and then this thing that just didn't care about good and evil crashing their way in.
*****
16. The Next Adventure Can Walk Through The Front Door Any Second Now
The Ancient One lived on top of a mountain and Dr. Strange found him. Dr. Strange lives in the middle of New York City -- he has to be absolutely beset with people. There should be no end to the stories that one can tell with such an influx of characters.
*****
17. The Original Comics Featured Some Of Steve Ditko's Greatest Art
I think we all knew that already, but that doesn't mean it's any less great to look at that stuff and just enjoy the way those stories look.
*****
18. The Original Comics Features Some Of Stan Lee's Most Enjoyable Scripting
All those lovely and ridiculous spell names...
*****
19. The Original Comics Had One Of The Three Best '60s Marvel Multi-Issue Storylines
And probably the most underrated of the three, too.
*****
20. Umar Is A Great, Scary, Female Antagonist
How many middle-aged women bad guys are there in the Marvel or DC universes? The fact that you can do a lot with character-types that don't get utilized otherwise around Marvel is a great strength of the character and his setting.
*****
21. Wong Is Loaded With Potential
Well, sort of. I'm not a huge fan of man-servants, even less so in modern times, but there's something to be said for partnerships that involve a guy taking on the physical, day-to-day jobs with which Dr. Strange can't be bothered and the fact that he provides continuity between this magic-user and the past one.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* these lengthy, scattered Jeet Heer posts sure are something.
* Again With The Comicstakes a look at the legendary "Marvel Benefit Issue" of Coober Skeber, which I think was the magazine's second issue (I should probably just look). That book was a lot of fun but thinking about the politics involved and the cultural acceptance of certain ideas in comics, holy crap that was a long, long, long time ago.
* a huge number of Hergé works are going for sale at auction. I'm not sure this article describes exactly what's going up, but it gives you a rough idea.
* Bob Greenberger says a Howard Chaykin retrospective being planned by Dynamic Forces has been penciled in for a fourth-quarter 2010 release. Details to come.
* Marvel announces another temporary design approach to its Iron Man serial comic book. I like this, because it seems to me it makes the serial comics-reading experience a bit more special than usual, and given the character's prominence in the pop film world it's a good choice for that kind of treatment.
* I apologize for not remembering exactly how I learned about the link to bookmark it, but Valerie D'Orazio's Memoirs Of An Occasional Superheroinecan be found here with I think a new cover.
* you know there's trouble at a comics company when a selected sale price point is so severe it causes the usually mercenary comics consumers out there to step back and go, "can you really sell them that cheap?" Simon Jones unpacks Aurora Publishing's 90 percent off sale and troubling news emanating from the specialty publisher, including the possibility they're not long for the world.
* a couple of press release-driven publishing announcements: IDW announced their Last Unicorn effort will debut its serial iteration at Wonder Con. That looks like it could be pretty, and I remember that being a pretty effective story. Dark Horse made its "here it comes" announcement about its forthcoming The Oddly Compelling Art Of Denis Kitchen, which gives you a look at the cover. Finally, Craig Yoe sent something out on behalf of his Super I.T.C.H. comics history blog, which I thought was an ongoing concern for a while now, but I guess I was wrong. Le Sketch #9, featuring Matthew Thurber, has also slipped out underneath my radar.
* the 1980s syndicated project Holiday Out -- which features work from a number of cartoonists including Grass Green -- is being republished.
* Alan Gardner -- who is doing all the publication news heavy lifting this week! -- finds a Doonesbury promotional video that doesn't connect to a book out there. Yet.
* not comics: I didn't even know that The Onion's cultural review arm AV Club had a local, staffed New York office, so I'm not stunned to learn it's going away. It's still worth noting any change at that publication, I think.
Daily Cartoonist: Thompson, Pastis, Piraro To Battle For ‘10 Reuben Award
Alan Gardner over at Daily Cartoonisthas it on good authority that the three cartoonists that will be finalists for this year's Reuben Award are Stephan Pastis, Dan Piraro and Richard Thompson. That's a really solid group, although I'd put Pastis -- an extremely (and somewhat below the radar for many comics fans) popular and well-liked cartoonist at about the number of years into his strip as cartoonists seem to be when they win the Reuben -- as a clear front-runner. I also thought Thompson was a year or two away from making the finalists group, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
The Reuben is the NCS cartoonist of the year award, and has over time become more of a combination right-now/career award given to top-flight cartoonists by their immediate, strip-dominant peer group. Along with the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, it is the single most prestigious award given out to a cartoonist in North America, and past winners include every dominant, popular strip cartoonist just about ever. The award and division-by-division honors from the NCS are given out on their big Memorial Day weekend shindig/drink fest/shmooze-athon at a ceremony perhaps best known for all the guys dressing up in a tux and all the women being paid attention to by guys in tuxes. The last three winners were Bill Amend, Al Jaffee and Dave Coverly.
Go Read: Ted Adams At ICv2.com
IDW's Ted Adams has done one of those multi-partinterviews at the comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com. It's always interesting to hear from Adams, who's engaged with the various avenues through which his company sells books and because of his company's success can't be automatically dismissed as being a step away from the way things really work in such channels. So when Adams suggests that the Direct Market is being transformed into a vehicle for selling crossover comics, or that a retail culture and infrastructure for selling material on-line is as important as the size of whatever screen for which they're selling it, one hopes that such thoughts won't be pooh-poohed the same way they can from an editorial writer without his hands directly on those matters.
EW Scripps To Make A Randy Moss-Style Judgment On United Media Licensing
According to a short piece in Editor & Publisher -- the best comics-related business piece since their return, by the way -- EW Scripps will explore selling its United Media licensing services or taking on a partner if that's what's best for the ailing media company's bottom line. That is both a reflection of EW Scripps' ability to handle the business and a perception that there has been a recent uptick in the general desirability of deals with media properties like Peanuts and Dilbert.
The Scripps media empire, one of my all-time favorites because it has an old-school 19th Century founder and it's based in Cincinnati, was split in two a couple of years back -- basically old-line newspapers and TV stations and the syndicate stuff on one side and its cable and dish TV offerings on the other. They've been pretty aggressive about making cash judgments in the past in terms of shuttering newspapers, so I have to imagine they will be pretty calculating with this one. I also can't imagine any of us will really be able to tell the difference unless a new buyer has some sort of magic formula to expand such licensing.
The nominees for the eighth annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, which should for obvious reasons be called the "Holy Crap I Want One Of Those Awesome-Looking Rondo Hatton Awards," have been announced. This year includes a Best Horror Comic Book category. Those nominees are:
The Other City’s CCI-Wooing Report
It makes sense that one of the Orange County newspapers would have an article on the potential for Comic-Con International moving to Anaheim at the end of their current contract just like the San Diego paper of record did. So here you go. Major point: they don't think it's likely, either. A few interesting sub-points: CCI reps made the short trip to look at the facilities, their estimated economic impact is I think only about $10 million bucks more than a much criticized figure used by San Diego city officials, they freely admit that it would be a stuffed-hotel situation up there, too.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* TCAF has sent out its official "here we come" PR, including news that they'll be doing a devoted webcomics area. I'll be attending that show, and I look forward to meeting as many people as possible while I'm there, including everyone in the press release I don't already know.
* sales were down at Barnes & Noble's physical store locations. Again.
* the DC blog Graphic Contentinterviews Will Dennis. I'm putting that here just to wonder out loud how an obvious but great title like "Graphic Content" lasted long enough to be snatched up by DC so late in the game?
* I thought this post from Gil Roth tying Frank Santoro's recent post about Moebius into a scene from the documentary Crumb was pretty clever. Plus: what a great scene. It's strange, but I think I like Crumb more now than I did when it first came out, perhaps because I'm no longer stunned to be watching a documentary where knowing Larry Welz's name helps you understand a funny part.
* here's a nice, short interview with Dylan Horrocks at PWCW about the new edition of Hicksville coming out, told through the prism of the cartoonist having to write an introduction for that work after all these years. I'm afraid to ask to do anything with that re-release because I like that book so much my coverage would tend to have a smothering quality to it. So let me just say I greatly recommend this new edition if a) yours needs replacing, or b) the hole in your life that is caused by not having read Hicksville before now needs filling.
* I totally missed this, but the Omaha World-Leaderdropped 13 strips earlier this month to add four. Taking a major hit were legacy and non-humor strips. I could imagine up to fifty papers making similar changes this year.
* finally, here's a longish post, copiously illustrated, about the infamous Rampaging Hulk story where Bruce Banner is accosted in the shower. You know the one.
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 dive in and out of the comic books like Uncle Scrooge in his money bin.
*****
OCT090015 JET SCOTT GN VOL 01 $34.99
Well, this is one I never expected to show up on this list of being collected, even in this ridiculous, everything-you-ever-imagined age of collections. This Jerry Robinson's sci-fi strip from the early to mid-1950s. Comics that didn't quite get over back then tended to run for a couple of years rather than six months, so I bet there's enough for a second volume.
NOV090036 TARZAN THE JESSE MARSH YEARS HC VOL 05 $49.99 NOV090032 TUROK SON OF STONE ARCHIVES HC VOL 05 $49.99
An egotistical man would suggest that Dark Horse is publishing these this week just to facilitate my point about the way collections are right now.
DEC090033 USAGI YOJIMBO #126 NUKEKUBI $3.50
I still read these in comic book form. You'd be surprised the number of superhero-heavy stores where Usagi is one of two or three non-super offerings.
DEC090416 WALKING DEAD #70 (MR) $2.99 DEC090153 BATMAN AND ROBIN #9 $2.99 DEC090277 NORTHLANDERS #25 (MR) $2.99
Three well-regarded mainstream comics not starring a samurai rabbit. Those are exactly the kinds of offerings that having a comics shop nearby would push me over the top in regard to buying them, but since I don't have one nearby it may be a while before I catch up.
NOV090375 COWBOY NINJA VIKING #4 (OF 4) (MR) $3.50 OCT090426 KING CITY #5 (MR) $2.99 OCT090432 VIKING #5 (MR) $2.99
This is three of Image's new/retro magazine-sized comics. All three of them, maybe.
JUL090369 JACK STAFF TP VOL 04 ROCKY REALITIES $17.99 NOV090338 WEIRD WORLD OF JACK STAFF #1 $3.50
I like Paul Grist's superhero comics as much as the next elderly men-in-tights fan, but I hope this new re-launching works because it gives me a headache to follow this work in its various forms.
DEC090598 FANTASTIC FOUR BY JONATHAN HICKMAN PREM HC VOL 01 $19.99
I've read a lot of these in comic book forms, and it's almost locked into place to become the next really memorable run of superhero comics.
NOV090968 BOBOBO-BO BO-BOBO SHONEN JUMP ED GN VOL 03 $9.99
If I still worked at The Comics Journal, I would have interns calling up random shops to ask if they carried this book all the time.
NOV090595 OBAMOUSE $3.99
I knew I detected a front of self-loathing somewhere on the horizon.
*****
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 here, that's because I have a drinking problem. It's tragic, really.
The Difference Between Graphic Novels And Comic Books In 25 Words Although the trend in American circles is to restore the term "comics" to the conversation, a brief interview-style article at the German site Graphic Novel with a Freiburg bookseller having some success with book-length funnybooks in his store nails a major and sometimes neglected difference between comics and the graphic novel formulation: "Den Graphic Novels ist erfreulicherweise gelungen, was die anderen Comics nicht oder kaum geschafft haben: anhaltende Resonanz in den Feuilletons der großen und kleinen Zeitungen." That's roughly that graphic novels have been able to generate sustained press and cultural interest in a way that comics never were able to generate in the pre-graphic novel days -- which is something, you have to admit. In the case of this bookstore, that means a curious customer base that comes in and asks after specific books they see reviewed. Big sellers in this particular store? Alex Robinson, Craig Thompson, Bill Willingham's Fables.
SPX Announce 2010 Dates? Karon Flage Steps Down As Executive Director
In a press release sent out moments ago (well, at least to me), the Small Press Expo has announced September 11-12 as its dates for 2010. I'm not sure that wasn't already known -- maybe this was announced at the beginning of the year unofficially? Maybe I'm getting old PR? Maybe time is bending around the reality-warping singularity that is the New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl? I'm not sure.
Anyway, the press release also came with news of changes on the Executive Committee. Karon Flage will move from Executive Director to Treasurer. Former Assistant Executive Director will now serve as Executive Director. Warren Bernard will remain Media Coordinator but will also become Assistant Executive Director. Maybe that's not new, either, but there you go.
This year's show will be once again held at the North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center, the transition to which was the signature event of Flage's run running the Executive Committee. The show was founded in 1994.
Your LAT Book Prize GN Finalists
The Los Angeles Times has announced its finalists by category for its 2009 Book Prize. A graphic novel category joins the field, bringing the number of overall competitive categories to ten. The winners will be awarded April 23. They've been giving them out since 1980. Here are the graphic novel finalists:
*****
* Luba by Gilbert Hernandez
*****
* GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto
*****
* Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli
*****
* Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley
An Action Comics #1 Goes For $1M I don't cover the collectibles side of comics as much as I should. I might pay attention to it more frequently if I could be convinced it functioned in a way that provided a useful mirror on the art form, but I'm not quite there yet. Anyway, it's hard to deny the power and outlandish energy of a certain kind released by a comic book selling for one million dollars in the middle of a recession, even if it's one of the two best copies of Action Comics of about 100 known. Worth noting is that the comic book apparently went for $150K not too long ago and that this punks a planned huge sale driven by lot of publicity for a Batman-starring comic that was expected to send the single-comic record.
Not Comics: American Cinematographer On John Cassaday’s TV Directorial Gig I fairly blew off the fact that artist John Cassaday directed an episode of the now-canceled television series Dollhouse not because I wish any ill will to Mr. Cassaday but the trivia aspect of him getting that gig, the simple fact of it and the careerist aspects, those didn't really connect back to comics for me. I thought this article in at the American Cinematographer article did a nice job of presenting what that experience was like creatively for the successful comic book illustrator and I believe former film student, from presenting his visuals in a static frame to the differences of collaborating on set versus working something out in a studio to creating visual concepts that are then realized on screen.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* TCJ.com has put up audio files of the Gary Groth and Todd McFarlane interview. I have to admit, I thought they already did this, but it's a good one, rightfully famous for its clash of completely different comics industry mindsets.
* Sean Colins depicts a pretty bleak rhetorical landscape concerning discussion of the latest Marvel event comic. You know, it should be possible to note lower sales by most reasonable comparisons for a book like Siege without people rolling their eyes as if the notion is somehow so ridiculous that it shouldn't be acknowledged. It should just as possible to note that kind of sales data without shrieking that a series leading its market is a bomb.
* I haven't looked at an Overstreet price guide in 10 years -- the last copy I owned kept burning my fingers when I picked it up -- but if I were to suddenly have that desire I'm sure I'd want to pick up one with a good-looking cover instead of those weird Alex Schomburg and Schomburg lookalike covers they seemed to run every year when I was a kid.
* Tom Mason has the content of a 1964 profile of William Overgard. Overgard would go on to do the deliciously oddball Rudy, but most people at that time would know him for his long and distinguished run on Steve Roper.
* via The Beat comes this fantastic submissions letter, which while fairly disturbing still falls short of a letter I once read in front of a comic book shot story proposal starring Tia and Tamra Mowry.
* a few quick site notes: 1) holy crap, you guys know a lot about comics-related statues. 2) I can't decide between my #1 and my #2 for 2009, or I'd have had the stupid list up a month ago. I apologize for any promises I made about its imminence, and will get it up soon. 3) I'm glad Kickstarter.com exists and I'm happy you're working on getting your project out there. But unless it's something really noteworthy I'm probably not going to help you get the word out about the nuts and bolts of your efforts to publish.
* finally, Herbieeven made President Hoover funny. The odd thing is, when I first discovered that Hoover lived until the mid-1960s I wondered if there wasn't some humor there, too. Something about this powerful relic of the past still lurking about, tossing veiled criticisms at the modern age. Now that Carter essentially plays that exact same role, I can safely say it's not an automatic thing.
Missed It (Intentionally): BBC Review Panel On Footnotes In Gaza If it's the same one -- I think it is -- I remember coming across this BBC review panel's focus on Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza and blowing it off because I hadn't read the book yet. Luckily, a commenter on a Sean T. Collins discussion thread reminded me it was there. It's fascinating watching this bunch of people process this particular book.
Your 2010 Japan Expo Nominees
This may have been the year where more people than ever admitted that Japan Expo has become the most important event in Europe for manga publishers. These nominees for the prizes to be given out in July at the Expo were announced at a regional event leading up to the big one, and I suppose gives one a snapshot of what translated French-language manga enjoys traction in that marketplace.
*****
Best Shônen
* Black Butler -- Kana
* Bleach -- Glénat
* Darren Shan -- Pika Édition
* D-Gray.Man -- Glénat
* Hyde & Closer -- Delcourt/Akata
* Letter Bee -- Kana
* Mirai Nikkiv -- Sakka
* Soul Eater -- Kurokawa
*****
Best Shôjo
* Arakure Princesse Yakuza -- 12 BIS
* Koko Debut -- Panini Manga
* Le Sablier -- Kana
* Ma Petite Maitresse -- Soleil Manga
* Otaku Girls -- Doki-Doki
* Private Prince -- Asuka
* RG Veda -- Éditions Tonkam
* Skip Beat! -- Sakka
*****
Best Seinen
* Biomega -- Glénat
* Doubt -- Ki-oon
* Ikigami -- Asuka
* Je ne suis pas mort -- Delcourt/Akata
* Mushishi -- Kana
* Sky Hawk -- Sakka
* Vagabond -- Éditions Tonkam
* Vinland Saga -- Kurokawa
*****
Best Book
* Code Geass, Lelouch of the Rebellion (Tome 1) -- Éditions Tonkam
* Cyborg 009 (Tome 1) -- Glénat
* Dragon Ball (Perfect Edition) -- Glénat
* Heaven's Door -- Glénat
* L'histoire des 3 Adolf (Édition Deluxe) -- Éditions Tonkam
* L'incident de Sakai et autres récits guerriers -- Delcourt/Akata
* RG Veda (Édition Deluxe) -- Éditions Tonkam
* X Day (Édition Deluxe) -- Asuka
Things I Didn’t Know: Tom Beland Returns After Fall Restricts Hand Control I figured that there was some sort of professional reason why Tom Beland's True Story, Swear To God had been discontinued from its Image Comics run -- that the book had failed to find some traction, or the relationship between Beland and Lily Garcia had entered into a different and less amenable to making comic books phase, or that there was work for Beland elsewhere. This CBR article says that it was actually a fall down a flight of stairs that left Beland unable to draw a proper, inky, curved line. Things eventually got better and the comic continues, so that's good news.
No News Equals Bad News For Missing Sri Lankan Cartoonist, Journalist
The BBChas an update on the journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, which is distressing for its almost complete lack of new news. His wife is still pressing for a greater police effort, and the police are still denying that there's much to be done at this point. Eknaligoda went missing a couple of days before the country's recent election. His news organization was subsequently shut down and widespread abuses against the press in the days following the election followed. Although the article doesn't mention them I don't think, there are medication issues involved with the missing person that might also have come to bear.
San Diego Admits Love For CCI
In a big, splashy article that ran in the Union-Tribune and is now up on their San Diego Sign-On site, city officials and business leaders stake out a slightly more aggressive than usual position regarding the desirability of Comic-Con International. Because the con is rattling around at capacity with the only variable being how early the show sells out, this means freeing up hotel space -- both rooms and spillover exhibition space. It's also one of the first articles I can recall (I could be wrong) to openly talk in terms of a competing Anaheim bid for more than a sentence. The ultimate goal for now it seems is to extend the show's relationship with the city to about mid-decade.
I was never one to take personal umbrage at some of the elements that seeped out during more obtuse, past negotiations. While the estimates of money spent per person in town were lower than reasonable, I've never had any doubt after attending a few other professional conventions that comic-con goers likely spent less per person than the other groups. I've also witnessed reams of abominable behavior con-goer to townsfolk over the years, which if any indication of what goes on outside my purview I think would earn the con a slightly difficult reputation -- except that seeking out service people and San Diego natives over the years and trying to egg them on for the purposes of being able to report it in some snarky CR or TCJ piece it's always been my experience a hugely overwhelming percentage of them have been positive about that weekend's place in the city's event calendar.
I hope it stays there. The presence of the films really pushes attendance now. I've heard from multiple people outside the US who want to attend for Twilight and the other movie panels, seeking advice on how best to do it. But as I get older and am less likely to drink beers in a parking lot or have adventures on the con floor or be happy about waiting in a line for more than 20 minutes from a physical standpoint, it's nice to be able to visit such a nice, walkable, warm-weather city with scores of restaurants all of which seems comfortable and familiar to me now. Even more selfishly, I think that someday a multiple-venue comics show dancing in and outside the giant pop-culture redwoods is achievable there and maybe not anywhere else. As always, I trust the con people will make the best decision available to them.
Also, where that hotel guy talks about the losing the short-term gain of charging premium rates for hotel rooms for the sake of long-term gains by keeping the show and its participants? The comics industry proper could take note of that general impulse.
The Only Thing Better Than A 300-Pound Man In A Spider-Man Suit Is If He’s Wearing A Cowboy Hat According to their latest press release, the Gareb Shamus/Wizard Entertainment/Comic Con nexus has announced one more show -- the Nashville Comic Con Wizard World Convention. This was made possible as was the case with earlier convention announcements by the acquisition of a local show, the "Comic & Horror Festival." As is also the case with previous announcements the acquired show's manager will stay on to advise the new Shamus/Wizard effort. This make a fourth show -- after Atlanta, Cincinnati and Cleveland -- without a date. The group has eight shows currently with dates (March, April, June, August, three in October, November). While many have criticized Shamus for overextending his series of comics shows, it seems to me there must be something at the core of such shows where it just works out financially if you can carry certain things within your organizational structure. yeah, I know that headline is mean and glass-housey, but I made you look
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* there's a fine mini-essay here from R. Fiore that contrasts the World Science Fiction Convention with Comic-Con International at the point at which the two conventions diverged, 1984.
* J. Caleb Mozzocco suggests that My Greatest Adventure was a pretty great-looking comic before it was turned over to the Doom Patrol, and it's hard to argue the fact on the evidence provided.
* I'm glad that folks are still catching up to Footnotes in Gaza. That is a fine comic, very troubling for the nature of its subject matter and it kind of slipped out at the beginning of the year. I hope that people beat those drums as long as is necessary for everyone to make a decision one way or the other.
* Jeet Heer looks at a potential syndrome common to many of the greatest mainstream comic book artists.
* I'm trying to work up some enthusiasm here and it's not really happening. I'm happy to hear about the actual project, though, whenever that gets announced.
* Katherine Dacey provides a list of ten great global manga; I'm not quite up on my knowledge of manga culture to understand all of the implications of that designation, but I like some of the books on the list.
* finally, the retailer and industry advocate Brian Hibbs offers up a few thoughts on the new DC regime; Kurt Busiek talks more in terms of leaping to conclusions about future possibilities based on what you might know or think you know about the past.
My Six-Month New DC Team Checklist So the initial rush of news regarding the new executive management team at DC Entertainment has come and gone. Every single professional that can count even one of the five men named to new positions at the powerful media, publishing and intellectual property management company as a friend has seemingly congratulated them. News of a potential move to the west coast has been asked and answered -- if not conclusively. We know that Geoff Johns is mostly remaining where he is, while Dan DiDio and Jim Lee are taking to the skies. We have our first sense of how Diane Nelson operates.
While I was personally disappointed in the lack of specific initiatives announced given the length of time it took to make these announcement and the veteran, in-house status of the majority of the men involved, it also seems likely that these will be forthcoming in another round -- or rounds -- of announcements designed to maximize their publicity bounce. I'm still struck by the relative oddity of having these personnel announcements come on a Thursday in late February, but I have no reason to think that's not just when the announcements were ready to go. DC had a really good week.
What now? I stand behind my statement on Friday that a veteran management team should mean a greater emphasis placed on how things stand six, 12, 18 months in the future than might be the case for a bolt-from-the-blue new hire. With a new hire in publishing as well as the presidency, we might have greater reason to expect a learning curve and therefore might place greater emphasis on here-to unforeseen skill sets being slowly brought to bear. We don't have that. I expect the changes to come much more quickly from this team of seasoned hands. My hope is that we remain as attentive to DC's performance over the next several months as we are right now to its potential for same. Here are three things I'd like to see from the new DC Comics as they move into the immediate future. Call it my six-months checklist.
1. I would like to see a greater display of celerity when it comes to decision-making.
I think this is important both in terms of the obvious positives that can arise from decisive action, and as a necessary vote of confidence that a certain level of responsiveness will be possible in the current executive framework. Taking six months to put together a mostly in-house team and four months to name its members after it was decided a team formulation was the best way to go, that may have been as necessary as DC claims. In then end, I just don't have access to that information. However, like it or not, this does call into question how long the new DC will take making important decisions in the future.
There are two complicating factors here. The first is that for all its potential advantages, a publishing team might take longer to come to agreement on important issues. There are certainly ways around administrative logjam, but they have to be displayed, not simply talked about. The second is that DC, by its own admission, feels they are behind schedule in making use of its characters throughout the various Time Warner platforms -- thus the necessity of these moves in the first place! -- and may be moving at a much slower pace with digital publishing than they were with their pioneering work in bookstores. The clock is ticking.
If six months from now we're still talking about DC in terms of general strategies and reviews of existing structures, that would be a troublesome sign. If instead we see a firm decision about an executive editor in the rear view window, concrete moves into the digital arena and a convention season's worth of announcements that break in easy to qualify ways with those made over the last few summers? That would be a positive sign.
2. I think DC needs to reinvigorate its talent development efforts, but in a way that doesn't simply involve publishing a bunch more titles.
This is a tricky one. When I talk to people that cover or even those that simply attentively read mainstream comics, or when I think about them myself, one thing that seems right out there in the open is that Marvel has been more effective at attracting young talent and making many of them seem important in the wider scheme of what that company is trying to accomplish. I don't even read many mainstream comics, but if I hear Marvel is having a creator's summit, I can envision 80 percent of the room. When I go to conventions and see the DC signings, I'm frequently perplexed over what title to which the creators I'm seeing are currently assigned.
Now, I realize that there could be howls of disagreement over this. And I admit I could be wrong, that I could be accidentally kinder towards Marvel on the issue. But even if you don't see it as a special DC need in terms of existing shortcomings in this area vis-à-vis Marvel, you have to admit talent development is an ongoing need for companies with DC's reach and ambition. A new management team that doesn't pay attention to bringing in creators and making them important to the company in every way their talent -- not their name -- demands isn't going to keep the fresh new smell for very long.
Unfortunately, the easiest way to develop new talent is to give as many creators as possible jobs by expanding publishing efforts. I haven't checked, but I bet that opening the floodgates has at least been suggested as something the new DC is going to explore. The problem is that publishing more comics gets DC locked into the chimera of market share gamesmanship. I would argue that market share issues are divorced from DC's ultimate goal of effective, high-yield property management and stronger sales per effort expended on each comic's behalf. I would further argue such strategies are harmful to a crucial portion of the comics market that as currently constituted in terms of infrastructure and a base audience seems to be choking on a lot of product already. Stuffing as many people onto the dance floor may make the night out seem more intense, but in reality it pushes as many people to the exits as it does closer to the stage. Plugging a bunch of individual comics into heretofore never-seen positions on the Diamond charts doesn't seem a goal worth pursuing.
If by the end of the convention season DC can point to a half-dozen creator and character matches that have heat due to both of those names -- excluding the names "Grant Morrison" or those of the executive management team -- I would consider that a good sign. If monthly comics offerings are up on a title-by-title basis more than 25 percent from 2009, or if high profile assignments are of the kind that have to be unpacked and justified for DC fans rather than simply put out there for people to get enthused about just on the face of them, I think there will still be a lot of work to do and potential harm done.
3. I think the new DC needs to display an aptitude for long-term problem solving and a commitment to same.
Much of the heat that industry players generate among hardcore fans is the back-and-forth of short-term, even reactive efforts. "We're not doing event comics for a while." "We're still doing them better than ever!" "Well, we're really still doing event comics, they're just different." "Not as different as ours." "Rings!" "Variants!" And so on. What gets swept under the rug is bolder action of the kind that by necessity must unfold over several years of effort. Even a company as relatively institutionally invested as DC has been tends to express these commitments in terms of maintaining structures and relationships rather than changing the baselines or driving towards improved outcomes. It's time that changed.
I would like to see a major commitment from the new DC to at least one long-term, not-sexy institutional improvement in or near their publishing core. They certainly have their choice of strategies. Here are three: 1) a commitment to stricter schedule-making in a way that de-emphasizes crowding similar titles on certain dates, doesn't stack potentially series-strengthening runs into mini-series for a reason that isn't clearly obvious and builds an expectation in the audience for when certain books come out; 2) an aggressive program facilitating comic shop store openings that favors neglected areas of coverage and a variety of store models, focused on opportunities provided by the current economy that has led to more people than ever looking towards franchising and small business opportunities; 3) a move towards a proactive digital strategy that involves transparency so that decisions made in terms of price point and timing could be an industry driver and not just a series of in-house contingency plans based on some ill-defined, anticipated event that may or may not ever happen.
If the new team's goal is to make DC the number one comics company in North America, to make a thriving publishing business the heart of intellectual property development across a variety of platforms, they should remember that when Marvel owned the field outright in the 1980s they did so as much through attention to infrastructure as they did to bringing out new X-Men books. They should remember that when DC was in a similar market-dominant position for much of the 1960s it was as much for their control of distribution as it was anything being done with Batman. Many of the great publishing successes of the last decade, from DC's own Watchmen to Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis to Diary of a Wimpy Kid have been existing properties given a second or extended lease on life by the skill their publishers have in escorting such books through a very specific set of marketplaces. Character, creative and format announcements drive publicity; changes at the heart of how an industry works make history. The new team at DC can have the former whenever they like, but the latter is how their legacy will be defined.
For No Particular Reason, I’d Like To Direct Your Attention To The Following Comics-Related Statues * Astro Boy statue at an elementary school in Osaka
I have to imagine there are tons of statues featuring Tezuka and his creations scattered throughout Japan, but this is the one that captured my attention. I know that if there had been a statue of Astro Boy humping a globe outside my elementary school instead of all those trees dedicated to dead teachers, I would have read manga that much sooner and grown up much less frightened of trees.
* statue of Hergé's Head in Angouleme.
I like this one because it looks steal-able. I mean, it looks like it weight 25,000 pounds, but of all the statues here this is the one you'd wake up still drunk at a convention and see it lying on top of the now-destroyed other queen bed. It also reminds me I would definitely watch a television show called Hergé's Head -- where beleaguered office worker Bob Hergé (Tom Cavanaugh) wrestles with mental apparitions resembling various Tintin characters (the Broken Lizard troupe) -- every single week and twice on Hulu.
* Naji Al-Ali statue outside of Ain al-Hilweh camp.
It's the only statue of which I'm aware to feature an assassinated editorial cartoonist who devoted his life to the issue of displacement, which means it's sadly appropriate that the statue was shot in the head and then dragged off somewhere.
* Andy Capp statue.
On the list of 50 things that every comics fan should do before they die, having a beer with the Andy Capp statue comes in at #32, right before "swiping an Inkpot" and right after "go on Halloween as an obscure comics character you have to explain to everyone without having your date hate you." I think people misunderstand Andy Capp. The fact that he's a cheating, alcoholic wife-beater isn't quite as funny as the fact that his strip a warm tribute to working class folk where the main character is a cheating, alcoholic wife-beater. Take a teapot-heated bath in the middle of your living room today.
* the Superman statue in Metropolis, Illinois.
The statue itself has more in common with the the tradition of large miniature golf course obstacles than the art of scuplture, but I bet a lot of happy kids have had their photos taken in front of it, some even dragging their reluctant children into the shot. I hope at some point Superman in the comics has fought a battle against this statue come to life, and if this hasn't happened, it happens right away.
FFF Results Post #198.5—DC5
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five DC Characters You Would Put In Charge of DC Comics, And The Primary Job Each Would Have." This is how they responded.
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Perry White -- Editor In Chief
2. Dream -- Creative Director
3. Danny The Street -- Traveling Convention Headquarters
4. RJ Brande -- Intern Coordinator
5. Zatanna -- Troubleshooter
*****
Dave Knott
* Snapper Carr -- Public Relations Spokesman
* Brainiac -- Web Master
* Triplicate Girl -- Office Manager
* Mongul -- Head of Security
* Bizarro -- New Talent Recruiter
1) Darkseid (Publisher)
2) Snapper Carr (Publisher)
3) Lobo (Publisher)
4) Al Pratt (some nebulous, ill-defined role existing soley to fill out the corporate org chart)
5) Carol Ferris (President)
1. Lucius Fox -- Senior VP, Finance & Operations
2. Promethea -- Chief Creative Officer
3. Amanda Waller -- Talent Coordinator
4. Ozymandias -- Executive VP, Marketing
5. Funky Flashman -- the guy who emcees panels at conventions
*****
Cole Moore Odell
1. Funky Flashman -- Marketing
2. "The Writer" -- Scripter of Batman and Robin, Joe the Barbarian
3. Steve Lombard -- Captain of DC softball team
4. Computo -- Proofreading & Production
5. Amanda Waller -- Publisher
1. Funky Flashman - Editor-In-Chief
2. Goody Rickles - Assistant to the Editor-In-Chief
3. Bat-Mite - Group Editor, Batman Titles
4. Mr. Mxyzptlk - Group Editor, Superman titles
5. Glorious Godfrey - Head of Public Relations
*****
Adam Casey
* Prez -- President
* Sam Simeon -- Art Director
* Mister Miracle -- Production Coordinator
* Brother Power, The Geek -- Spokesman
* Ted Kord -- VP of Sales
1) Sam Simeon from Angel & The Ape: a comic book artist himself, great with talent
2) Kamandi: Used to interacting with talking gorillas but can also handle the animalistic humans
3) Some Guardian of the Universe: branding coordinator, perfect for starting complex interoffice squabbles, great with older, established fans
4) Batman: because he's Batman which is the only successful character the rest of Warner recognizes
5) John Constantine: Publisher. Because the publisher has to be a bastard.
FFF Results Post #198—Thresholds
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Memorable Entryways in Comics." This is how they responded.
Tom Spurgeon
1. Porch/Stoop, Avengers Mansion
2. Tube teleportation system in JLA satellite
3. Charlie Brown's front stoop
4. Reception Area In Baxter Building
5. Rainbow Bridge Heading Into Asgard
1. Boom Tube (Kirby's Fourth World)
2. Negative Zone Portal (Baxter Building) (Fantastic Four)
3. Ptuii Tube (Rog 2000)
4. Wayne Manor Library/Entrance to the Batcave (complete with bust of William Shakespeare) (Batman)
5. Knight's Past storefront (Starman)
*****
Philip Rippke
1. The grandfather clock entrance to the Batcave
2. The stone steps leading down to Munden's Bar
3. The Boom Tube into New Genesis
4. The lobby of the New Eden Police Department's 39th Precinct
5. The door to Kadie's Club Pecos
*****
Rich Tommaso
1. TINTIN -- King Ottokar's Sceptre; cover
2. CEREBUS -- High Society; Telephone book cover
3. ROCCO VARGAS -- Triton; Page One
4. B.P.R.D. -- The Warning; Practically every chapter has a grand entrance!
5. GROO -- The Pescatel Issue
*****
Ali T. Kokmen
1. The courtyard of the Hall of Justice in the old SuperFriends cartoons.
2. The JLA transporter tubes
3. The giant key pointing the way to Superman's Fortress of Solitude
4. The road to the Batcave in the 1960s "Batman" TV show, especially that road barrier that would automatically lower when the Batmobile came by in comically fast motion.
5. The entranceway to the very first comic book specialty store I ever walked into back in the early 80s. Truly, for any comics fan of a certain age, the first time you went to a dedicated comics store--and came to realize that you'd never again have to depend on the vagaries of newsstand distribution, nor endure the disdain of a shopkeeper who'd take your money but never understand your hobby -- ah, that was a moment of as much pure joy as anything first love could offer.
*****
Cole Moore Odell
1. The door to the Fortress of Solitude
2. Detective Jim Corrigan's cement-filled barrel to heaven
3. The windowless, doorless non-entry of Dr. Fate's Salem tower
4. The belt-activated elevator to the top five floors of the Baxter Building
5. The subway tunnel leading to Shazam's cavern
1. That big giant key and lock outside Superman's Fortress of Solitude
2. The "cork" in the bottle city of Kandor
3. Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH--BAT-POLES!
4. The bulging vault door to Scrooge McDuck's money bin
5. Little Annie Fanny's
*****
Johnny Bacardi
1. The stoop at the beginning of Eisner's Spirit story "Ten Seconds" (with the kid bouncing the ball and singing "A, my name is Anna...")
2. The front entrance to Daimon Hellstorm's Fire Lake mansion, esp. in the Ellis/Manco series
3. The front entrance to Rah El Rex's wax museum in Starstruck
4. The door in the Angel Islington's lair in Mike Carey and Glenn Fabry's adaptation of Gaiman's Neverwhere
5. Any of Dr. Strange's trademark Ditkoeque dimensional doorways
*****
Sean T. Collins
The black door in Asahi Elementary School
The school gate of the El-Ameeriah School
The gate to Arkham Asylum
The grandfather clock conecting Wayne Manor to the Batcave
The gates of Mornemont
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. Nightcrawler's Brimstone and BAMF
2. The door to Nexus' Chamber guarded by Kreed and Sinclair
3. The microscope slide that leads to Sub-Atomica in the FF
4. The Entrance to Hell used by Morpheus in Season's of the Mist
5. The "DOOR!!" to the BLEED in Authority
1. Superman's Fortress of Solitude, with that enormous key
2. The Bat-pole entrance to the Batcave
3. Beanish's "Secret Sketch" in Beanworld
4. The Gates of Hell in Sandman #23
5. The Boom Tube in Kirby's New Gods.
1. Temple Bar Gate in Sweeney Todd (Gaiman, Zulli)
2. Sandy's mouth in Swamp Thing 43
3. Little Nemo's Bed
4. The offices of Horizons Unlimited in Steve Canyon
5. Wildwood Cemetery in The Spirit
*****
Robert Stanley Martin
1. The dimensional portals in Ditko's Dr. Strange (take your pick)
2. The doorway to Nite Owl's brownstone in Watchmen
3. The gate to Auschwitz in Maus
4. The skylight to Peter Parker's East Village apartment in the Ross Andru Spider-Man days
5. The door to the Fortress of Solitude in the Weisinger/Schwartz Superman
*****
James C. Langdell
1. Phantom Zone frame floating into the void
2. Chained door to the writer's apartment in Cages
3. Secret tunnel for Batmobile access to the Batcave
4. Distortion Area (access to the Negative Zone)
5. Functional square door labeled "Super Hero Club" leading into an inverted rocket
1. Portal to the Negative Zone
2. Boom Tube opening to anywhere
3. Frank. N. Stein's castle doorway w/welcome mat trap
4. Vault door/diving platform to Scrooge McDuck's money bin.
5. Subway entrance that leads to the wizard Shazam.
*****
Russell Lissau
1. The fake bookcase (or grandfather clock) passage to the Batcave
2. The giant key needed for the Fortress of Solitude's front door
3. The Tardis' front door
4. The Batcave's road through a waterfall for the Batmobile
5. The skylight of Matt Murdock's apartment building
*****
Bill Matheny
1) The Boom Tube from Kirby's Fourth World
2) The Giant Key and Door of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
3) The cool time platform that Reed Richards built in the sixties.
4) The door to Uncle Scrooge's money vault.
5) Ditko's entrance and foyer to Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.
*****
Tom Bondurant
1. The giant golden mountainside door to Superman's Fortress of Solitude (with accompanying "airplane marker" key, of course)
2. The secret elevator, concealed in a giant artificial tree, connecting the Wayne Foundation penthouse with the downtown Batcave
3. Calvin's front door, often thrown open unexpectedly by an overzealous Hobbes
4. Danny the Street's festively masculine storefronts
5. Reed Richards' portal to the Negative Zone
1) The grandfather clock leading from Wayne Manor to the Batcave.
2) The hall of seven sins leading to Shazam's throneroom in the Rock ofEternity.
3) The main foyer of the X-Mansion in Westchester, NY.
4) The SHIELD Helicarrier's flight deck.
5) The foyer of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
*****
Mark Waid
1. The door to Superman's Fortress of Solitude
2. The who-could-this-possibly-fool barberpole-striped road-closed barrier exactly 14 miles outside Gotham City
3. The entrance to Luthor's Lair
4. The gateway to Arkham Asylum
5. The cork to the Bottle City of Kandor
*****
Justin J. Major
1. The grandfather clock entrance to the Batcave (Batman serials)
2. The Shakespeare bust to the bookcase to the Batpoles entrance to the Batcave (Batman TV series)
3. The security gate on the Great Outdoor Fight Arena (Achewood)
4. The Super-Keyed, Super-Locked door to the Fortress of Solitude (Superman)
5. The stoop in Chris Ware's "Building Stories" (Acme Novelty Library)
*****
Jacob Covey
1. Manhole into the sewers of New York City.
2. Transmat in the TCRI building.
3. Living room window of April O'Neil's New York City apartment.
4. Front door to the Northampton barn belonging to Casey Jones' family, specifically on Dec. 19.
5. Newspaper draped over Raphael's face, as he lies unconscious in the shit-fed sewer on, presumably, Dec. 23. This last threshold being
only a metaphorical one demarcating the thinly constructed wall between the debilitating realities of life and the inner torture of youth's frank and fiery idealism.
*****
Stergios Botzakis
1. The Batpole
2. The giant door to Superman's Fortress of Solitude
3. Dagwood Bumstead's front stoop
4. Boom Tube
5. Zeta-Beam
*****
Uriel A. Duran
1) The Fortress of Solitude's classic steel door with huge arrow key
2) Waterfall in front of the Skull Cave
3) Wooly mammoth fossil 'protecting' the unexplored valley where Scrooge McDuck got rich
4) Any window used by Spider-man
5) Boom Tubes
2. Stinko month for DM comic book sales even given that it's January, particularly if you think the performance of event comics (with the expectation they place well over 100K) and the comics "middle class" of standard, strong series and titles selling between 50K and 100K are important measures.
Quote Of The Week
"'No plans about it' sounds like a denial (although one that isn't as clear as Watchmen 2's 'no plans to do that'), but then adding 'right now, that's nothing but rumor' and promising announcements in the coming months seems to backtrack slightly." -- Graeme McMillan
*****
today's cover is from the 1940s-1950s mainstream comics publisher Avon
2. Dirk Deppey has written a compelling, positive post where he expresses optimism about DC's management team. His formulation seems to be that Paul Levitz leaving is the crucial part of any switch-out at top; Jim Lee is to be praised for seeing that CMX didn't enjoy the same, hasty fate as the Minx line; Karen Berger being kept at Vertigo is an affirmation of Vertigo's success and continued importance in a not-broke-don't-fix-it way; and that they're embracing No Fear as a mantra indicates that maybe they're going to get rid of their fear. I don't agree with the bulk of the essay, but there's a lot there worth considering.
3. Has anyone posited a reason why the announcement was made yesterday? I'm coming up blank. The timing of an announcement can tell you a lot about an announcement.
4. If this interview is to be believed, a new Executive Editor isn't automatic, as there will be a comprehensive review of the editorial structure as it now stands.
5. I'm not all that interested in a potential DC Comics move to the West Coast. I think that's a story with a lot more flash in terms of symbolism and history than it would immediately change the course of the company -- the exception being the human story of the potential change in personnel, which may or may not be substantial. That said, I think it fascinating that apparently the decision hasn't been made one way or the other.
6. Apparently, no Watchmen 2; although since there will be a systematic look at DC properties, I guess there still could be. That would have been awesome. I will endeavor to refashion my Dollar Bill/Dr. Manhattan pitch into a Green Team/Rip Hunter mini-series.
7. My initial impression from yesterday remains mostly unchanged. Because they're mostly going with established company veterans, there's not a whole lot in the way of shock-of-the-new reporting and commentary to be done. That throws an even greater emphasis onto tracking how things develop from here -- the difference between electing a new POTUS and re-electing one. I'm still trying to sort out in my head where the mass of complementary skill sets announced yesterday hits head-on the problems DC faces, but as much as the news seems to be about making predictions and choosing sides and endorsing various potential outcomes, the important thing is to see whether or not DC actually confronts those problems and to what effect six or eighteen months from now.
8. I think the most tedious joke honors would have gone to comparing the Lee-Didio set-up to the co-manager plot line from The Office. However, since some people responded to the joke by bizarrely shrieking that The Office was a work of fiction and therefore didn't count, I found it delightful every time.
9. I think the PR/Marketing roll-out and strategy of having the new folks doing tons of short interviews was effective and impressive. I think if there's any criticism to be had of that aspect of the announcement it's in that while you can expect folks to talk in platitudes about these kinds of hires and the issues that face a company you've just moved into new positions to help, the fact that they went with all of these veterans and took so long to make their announcements makes me disappointed there wasn't more focused discussion of specific initiatives.
10. I think the big winner from yesterday is Diane Nelson. I think the nature of the moves flatters her and cements the public perception of who's on top at DC the way another single, bolt-out-of-the-blue announcement like her own might have set up more of a contrast between two people fulfilling dual roles.
Naji Al-Ali Killing Resurfaces In News
I'm not informed enough to sort through what is always a solar system-sized hornet's nest of political ideas and accusations and never-completed investigations, but I did find it fascinating that the 1987 London assassination of the Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali and subsequent falling out between the British government and the Mossad came up during this week's furor over the killing of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
Cartoonist Bill Day Honored At The National Press Foundation Dinner
According to this posting by the Memphis Flyer, former Memphis Commercial-Appeal cartoonist Bill Day was honored at by at the National Press Foundation Awards dinner held on Wednesday. Day received a special citation for his work addressing growing US child mortality rates.
Although Day was let go by the Commercial-Appeal in March 2009, he continues to syndicate his work to various clients, including to newspaper three times a week via United Feature Syndicate.
That Guy Really Hates That Comic Mbutu Mondodo's various attempts to have Tintin Au Congo banned for its distressing and backwards depiction of the Congolese through racist visual constructions has reached a compelling moment: an attempt to plug that effort into the publicity generated by a trip of Belgium's Albert II to the Congo to celebrate 50 years of independence. You don't know whether to nod in admiration or shrink in horror at the PR impulses involved, although it's hard to have any reaction that makes much sense whenever you're freshly confronted with some of the imagery from the comic. I mean, you understand the history involved but yikes.
It's hard to pin down the appeal of Wally Wood. It's not that he's overwhelmingly the comic book's finest craftsman -- he has a dozen or so direct peers, I think, in that way. Wood also never had the sustained period of creativity with an authorial bent that distinguished the careers of people like Jack Kirby. He was involved with some groundbreaking projects, but never as the driving force and always part of a team. Wood's not even comics' saddest story. Shamefully, there are maybe two dozen stories of unrealized talent and unsatisfactory reward as heartbreaking as Wood's. I think the key is that there was something so bouncy and cocksure and potent about Wood's artwork that his troubles seemed that much more poignant, like the sadness of a great clown from the movies no matter what his demeanor was like when the cameras were off. I also have a hunch that his role as solely a craftsman and a hard-luck case that is part of his appeal. He seemed like your friend's cool dad who didn't work a desk job. Wood remains one of the most fascinating figures of 20th Century cartooning, and endlessly worth discussion. Let Nadel's essay put him back squarely in your mind.
* I enjoyed this piece about Matt Wuerker's response to his Herblock Prize win.
* not comics: Chris Allen talks about that Roger Ebert Esquire profile that has driven a great deal of conversation around the Internet. That was a good piece, but I didn't find it as heartbreaking as I hear over and over and over again. I thought it was life-affirming and kind of happy. You can do a lot worse in life than a final act pared down to essentials, partnered with someone you love. The most sorrow that Ebert himself evinced was when remembering Gene Siskel's proud path out of this existence, not anything that's happened to him. For me the saddest part was Disney dumping the set of the TV show after promising to send it to the Smithsonian.
* may God help me, but I like this Dazzler cover and logo. I felt so self-conscious about it I googled it, and I somehow missed CR link fave Sean Collins having my back. There's no reason that couldn't be an ongoing comic and solid second-tier character from them.
* finally, it's brave to add a character to your long-running strip, even braver when you're not the strip's creator, braver yet when you expose yourself to 10,000 "Poochie" jokes.
Ian Scott, 1914-2010 According to a lovely obituary appearing in the Independent, Ian Scott, an editorial cartoonist turned art studio/agency owner, died on January 25 after a fall in his home. His passing came three short months before the 50th anniversary of the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain, an organization of which he was the founder.
He was born Isaac Oskotsky in London in 1914 and eventually studied at the Royal College of Art in the early 1930s. He began contributing art to the Daily Express while still a student, but settled in as an art teacher before working with the Royal Engineers during World War II. He switched to graphic design after the war and soon became a cartoonist with the Daily Sketch and then the News Chronicle. He set up an art agency in the late 1950s specializing in cartoon art and it is that business he wand wife ran together until the late 1980s, representing over 100 artists. The Cartoonists Club was not only a social organization, it offered awards, raised money for charities and published an annual in the early 1960s.
Dan Didio and Jim Lee Named DC Comics Co-Publishers; Geoff Johns Named Chief Creative Officer; EVPs
Break out the DC Trinity jokes: DC Comics has made its long-awaited announcement as to the publishing position since Paul Levitz stepped down: Jim Lee and Dan DiDio as co-publishers. Additionally, Geoff Johns has been named to a position called Chief Creative Officer. DC also named two executive vice-presidents, also pulling from current personnel: John Rood will take the office of "EVP, Sales, Marketing and Business Development" and Patrick Caldon has been named "EVP, Finance and Administration." All of the new officers will report directly to President Diane Nelson.
Comic Book Resourceshas the press release I may or may not receive, which will give you the full benefit of their various comics industry accomplishments written by someone firmly in their corner.
I imagine most professional reaction will focus on congratulating their friends and peers, with a difficult-to-quantify undercurrent of happiness that these are comics people rather than outsiders. I imagine most fan reaction will focus on DiDio, a controversial figure among fans and an out-sized personality of whom I think it's safe to say his history of accomplishments at the company has an alternate reading, at least according to those who cover and follow mainstream comics much more closely than I do. A secondary take will say this is a very conservative set of choices by Time Warner, almost boring in fact, as many thought possible a name either from prose publishing or even from digital publishing that might bring a new skill set to bear on very specific problems facing traditional comics publishing. I still wouldn't characterize any of this as a surprise, though, as Lee and DiDio's names were bandied about from the beginning (Lee more at first; DiDio later and recently) and Johns is highly regarded for his creative successes.
I was promised an interview with the new publisher and Diane Nelson when they settle in; hopefully, that will still happen. I'm happy to go last.
I have to say, though, my first reaction is roughly the second one I mention above -- while this publishing team could put together a killer comic book mini-series, I don't see anything in their collective, displayed skill set that would give me confidence concerning the specific, thorny problems likely to develop in DC's immediate future. I don't expect a lot of people to say that out loud, though.
Martin Rowson: “You Should Only Attack People More Powerful Than You” Martin Rowson gave a speech recently at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad that sounds like it was fairly dripping with one-liners and clever asides. What made me want to draw some attention to it is that he claims a) that cartoons in British newspapers have gotten bigger recently and that b) cartoons in India's newspapers may have lost their traditional broadsheet real estate. This is the first time I can recall any news of how cartoons are being used during this worldwide death-of-print era in those two hugely editorial cartoon-favoring markets.
Go, Look: Johnny Carson and Whitney Darrow’s Misery Is A Blind Date this post indicates the obvious predecessor to this book and really spotlights that lovely Darrow color art
Jim Harmon, 1933-2010 Jim Harmon, the author and old-time radio expert who contributed essays to All In Color For A Dime and its namesake column in the legendary science fiction fanzine Xero, died on February 16. The comics historian and writer Mark Evanier says he was told the cause of death was a heart attack.
Harmon was born in 1933 in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. He said later he received little formal education due to an unspecified health problem but he "read a lot and thought a lot and imagined a lot." In the 1950s and 1960s he wrote extensively for the still-thriving science fiction magazine field, contributing stories to Amazing Stories and Galaxy Science Fiction among others. He was also a crime, mystery and western writer. Harmon began a run of non-fiction work in the late 1960s with The Great Radio Heroes, doing a ton of original research on the era and the industry just as a wave of nostalgia-interested fandom began to enjoy its heyday. He would author at least six similar books before his passing, for a variety of publishers.
In 1970, Harmon contributed the essay "A Swell Bunch Of Guys," about the Justice Society of America, to Don Thompson and Dick Lupoff's seminal, nostalgic comic book history All In Color For A Dime. From 1974 to 1975, he was West Coast editor on Monsters Of the Movies, one of several attempts by Marvel in the 1970s to reposition their line in the ailing newsstand market, this one a take-off of Famous Monsters Of Filmland. Something of a fixture on the nostalgia-driven convention circuit in the 1970s, Evanier's posting suggests that he was able to speak to the crossover between the early major comics properties and their radio shows, an indication of their mainstream status at the time and the source of some back and forth creatively. Harmon won an Inkpot Award granted by the San Diego Comic-Con in 1977.
Meet The Press Announces It Will Provide Credit To Editorial Cartoonists
As expected -- at least as I expected -- the television show Meet The Press will start giving credit to the cartoonists whose work they use on the show to illustrate salient points. It didn't sound like something they were doing maliciously, and giving credit to a cartoon while you're doing it isn't something that's difficult to do while speaking. The first few graphs of this update at Editor & Publisher contain the show's statement on the matter.
* Gil Roth drew my attention to this article in New York that might provide some insight on general Disney culture and how they'll orient themselves towards their acquisition of Marvel. I don't see a Shang Chi movie coming out real soon.
* Dallas Art Newsis getting into the webcomics publishing business. It sounds like a good idea, although the half-assed statement regarding payment isn't as hilarious as the publication's writer seems to think it is. Please read and re-read and get a lawyer to look at any contract offered, folks.
* one big publishing news item of the week -- one that escaped me entirely upon first reading it -- is that Kazu Kibuishi has announced an end to the Flight graphic novel anthologies with an eighth volume. He seems to indicate that the desire of its contributors to pursue individual projects made this move somewhat inevitable. The for-kids spin-off Flight Explorer will be renamed Explorer and continue. The Flight volumes were kind of out of left field successes with a lot of undiscovered -- and in comics' calcified state unused -- talent involved. While some of the more hysterical rhetoric about the books has faded like so many flashpaper fires, I think there's a real legacy of the books as an unlikely publishing success, a lot of the work is very entertaining, and that kind of visually-accomplished, animation-reminiscent, world-cartooning-values work has a place in comics now.
* Marvel has refashioned its Astonishing line, although except for the books starting over at #1 I'm not sure what's changed. The press release is kind of funny because it trumpets the line is new -- okay -- and that it's "pioneered to be the books for both the casual and hardcore fans." Obviously you don't want to cut a book off from any of its readers, but that doesn't make sense in a strategic way except that hardcore fans tend to buy everything that's halfway good starring their favorite characters. Anyway, a nice bunch of names with the initial launch. I'd actually bookmarked this thinking this was the expected re-launch announcement on the kids line, so that's either still coming or a I missed it. Update: Okay, Gabe Roth explained it to me: there's only one Astonishing title right now -- I thought there were three -- so this new line is an expansion from the single X-Men comic bearing that name. You have my most sincere d'oh.
* it looks like they're bringing back recent critical successes Incredible Hercules as Prince of Power and Agents Of Atlas (as Atlas). That's encouraging. One of the first steps in gradually changing the landscape of Direct Market comics sales so that such fan-favorites can get over is to keep them around in one form or another.
* Eduardo Barreto has health issues which will take him off King Features' Judge Parker for a few weeks, perhaps more and perhaps off the strip entirely. KFS is going week by week. Until they know for sure, the art chores on the strip will be handled by Barreto's son and former Judge Parker ghost artist John Heebink. If a change is needed, KFS will go with someone able to take the strip on full-time.
* Comics Comics and Comics Waiting Room have both undergone design/format changes. The Comics Comics re-do is more about the design elements and the CWR is more about moving from an on-line magazine format to a blog-style production.
* First Second announces through the New York Times that it's launching a comic strip about life in contemporary Iran called Zahra's Paradise with an eye on eventual book publication.
* Dustin Harbin has launched his new, slightly longer series of strips here.
* finally, Delcourt is taking another walk down the Star Trek promenade with an album of recent Spock-related stories by the Brothers Tipton and David Messina. That mini-series ran in mid-2009 in North America, published by IDW.
Matt Wuerker of Politico an Arlington, Virginia based political newspaper and syndication hub, has won this year's Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning. He was nominated by his editor-in-chief. Wuerker was one of last year's Pulitzer Prize finalists, and in both cases it's worth noting that his primary platform can be argued to have a greater resonant effect than a direct effect on a wide-ranging readership -- a sign of the drift away from the dominance of the hometown newspaper cartoonist.
Wuerker is the seventh winner of the prize and follows 2009's winner, Pat Bagley. Bagley won a silver trophy and $15,000 after taxes; I would assume something similar is going to Wuerker.
World Cartoonists In Trouble Round-Up
* television reporter and one-time cartoonist Tariq Abu Zaid has been sentenced to jail by the Palestinian Authority for his work with the official Hamas television network. He was sentenced to 18 months for his work for the banned organization.
* it's been more than a month since cartoonist and journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing on the eve of Sri Lankan elections. This article provides a heartbreaking glimpse into the family's efforts to help with information collected by the police. It runs underneath a couple of graphs about tensions being slightly eased in terms of the treatment of journalists generally.
Another High Political Office-Holder In Turkey Sues Because Of A Cartoon
According to a wire report that came out I think yesterday, Prosector Ali Cakir has filed suit against cartoonist Halil Ibrahim Ozdabak from the newspaper Yeni Asya for a caricature published last year of a judge involved in a potentially politically-influenced prosecution of the country's president. The amount sought converts to a little over $13,000.
Although the article buries this a bit down the piece, it looks like the cartoonist will also face potential jail time under prosecution of applicable Turkish Criminal Code involving "insulting personal rights."
Turkey has a distressing history of allowing political official to file suit or have suits filed on their behalf against cartoonists operating within what most US observers accustomed to their own papers would likely think more-than-fair parameters in terms of subject matter and the strategy used to depict the officials in caricatured form. As the article mentions, this particular prosecutor has a history of doing this kind of thing all his own.
The criminal case will begin February 22; the press for compensation will be heard March 23.
Should There Have Been A More Potent Reaction To The Handley Sentencing?
In a fortnight measured by contentious article about Captain America somehow insulting Tea Party advocates, design issues at The Comics Journal, the fact that Meet The Press disrespects editorial cartoonists, and a sprawling chat about what measure of respect we should show Brian Hibbs' reading of Bookscan numbers, an e-mailer to this site who doesn't want their name out there wonders if the entire comics industry has underplayed the chilling value of last week's news that Christopher Handley will be going to jail for receiving comics in the mail and thinking things about them.
I'd say probably, although I think in some traditional structural ways it's understandable: First, it was a story that came out late in the week. Second, the story came in two parts (guilty plea, sentence) over several months and didn't have that bolt of lightning effect as a result. Third, the decision by Handley's lawyer to accept a plea last year made the second inevitable and was deflating in a lot of ways that I think cut into the ease with which folks might have been more purely outraged at the case and its implications.
Still, I think it's good to keep this case in mind, and not let it fade away immediately. I agree wholeheartedly with the statement made by Charles Brownstein here about how and why this thing is a general travesty. I think it's worth reading all follow-up coverage as we catch onto it. And I think it's worth taking in things like RC Harvey's angry editorial here, as well as the 2008 Neil Gaiman post on the matter if you haven't yet. Nothing about such a case should surprise the next time around.
The Beat: Geppi Lawsuit Round-Up
Heidi MacDonald at The Beathas up a nice, succinct posting on several lawsuits in which the owner of the dominant comics industry distributor Diamond is involved. The key thing to remember is that no one sees potential Geppi woes as a necessarily catastrophic event for its comics business -- that business is legally insulated from the others, and Diamond basically functions as long as its biggest mainstream clients want it to function above and beyond its own self-agency. On the other hand, some operational bleed seems much more likely in terms of solving some longstanding Diamond service problems, and any company with an aging owner and an executive group all around the same and slightly younger age bears watching in terms of its long-term future.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* the cartoonist Scott Kurtz talks to Michael Cavna about newspaper syndication vs. webcomics models.
* Johanna Draper Carlson reviews the Will Eisner instructional books that WW Norton re-published in 2008: Comics and Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative. You know, there's an awful lot of Eisner material in circulation right now between DC and Norton, and almost no one talks about them.
* one of the seminal Gary Groth editorials from the late 1980s has been republished at TCJ.com: issue #116's "Black And White And Dead All Over." I think that the black and white explosion and then implosion is in many ways an event in relation to the Direct Market of hobby and comic book stores what Siegel and Shuster signing Superman over to DC was to comic books generally. If you ever hear some of the numbers that that market was able to push through on what kind of titles, you'll spend the next ten minutes shaking your head and wondering what might have happened if the scumbags hadn't shown up.
* Mark Evanier speculates (kind of) on what Jack Kirby might have thought about Captain America vs. the Very Sensitive Tea Party people.
* not comics: over at Daily Cartoonist Alan Gardner picks up on two major hassles awaiting digital tablets in signing up current content providers: 1) publications will not want to price their profitable print editions out of business, 2) they'll want control of subscription information just like they have with the paper product.
* I kind of totally missed this one: Apparently there were complaints that DC wanted to do both of its FCBD offerings at a smaller size, citing that it would be harder to rack and that if you're going to introduce new readers to comics you might as well introduce them to something as close to regular comics as possible. In the end, DC has decided to up the size of the more regular comic-book series lead-in one to normal parameters.
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 be quite surprised, as the nearest one is two and a half hours away. But I would pick up and look at all of these comics, for sure.
*****
[Once again, the Diamond list is not up. I'll use Brian Hibbs' again for continuity -- it's pretty good, and roughly close to the parts of the overall list in which I'm interested for this feature.]
AIR #18
No one that bet against this book is winning that initial bet, not at this point.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #603 DIE HARD YEAR ONE #6 INCREDIBLE HERCULES #141 INVINCIBLE #70 MARVELS EYE OF CAMERA #6 (OF 6) JOE THE BARBARIAN #2 (OF 8)
I think this is the group of mainstream comics my reading on-line would indicate have their critical supporters, and that I enjoy when I get to read them. Robert Kirkman's Invincible is about to enter into an extended issue of run of super-mustachioed dastardly deed and lots of limbs being pulled off. The Joe The Barbarian comic is the Grant Morrison room-as-setting fantasy I haven't seen yet. I'm looking forward to catching up with those Chaykin Die Hard comics at some point, and I'm thinking that issue of Captain America is going to be scrutinized more closely than usual after the Tea Party nonsense with #602. That'd be cool if the Red Skull was in disguise doing production touch-ups at Marvel.
MAGOG #6
I still can't get over the fact that there's a comic book called Magog.
ALMOST SILENT HC
This looks like the book of the week to me: a collection of a bunch of Jason's work in a more standard-sized $25-range bound hardcover package. I really like the little, stand-alone books when it comes to Jason's work, but it's really, really good comics no matter how it's put together.
JACK STAFF TP VOL 04 ROCKY REALITIES
I generally enjoy these, although I tend to have no idea what the hell is going on. I think this may be a re-run.
NAOKI URASAWA 20TH CENTURY BOYS GN VOL 07
I would have guessed this was out already, but at any rate that's a fine series. I'm a bit behind.
BONE HANDBOOK
Jog has this coming out this week, from Midtown's list. This is one of those about-the-comic sourcebooks, and likely something I'll own sooner or later.
*****
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 here, I think I should be graded on a curve.
Go, Look: The Comics Section From That Panorama Newspaper Thing
Jon Adams wrote in to remind me that the comics section from that McSweeney's newspaper project Panorama is now being sold separately for $7. It's too late to look really clever by putting it on your best-of list for 2009, but some of you might want to read the comics.
NBC’s Meet The Press Uses Editorial Cartoons Without Attributing Authors Here's one of those slam-dunk news stories. The television show Meet The Press apparently uses editorial cartoons to illustrate points made on the show, but doesn't credit those cartoons' authors. Apparently Rob Tornoe is the one that brought attention to it. This is obviously a noxious practice, it's almost certain Meet The Press didn't think of it in those terms, and I'm guessing once they do they'll change policy.
Missed It: Universal Press Hits 40th A bunch of you have e-mailed that I totally whiffed on Universal Press Syndicate having its 40th birthday last week, and inaugurating what could be a fun series of on-line anecdotes about their history. I don't know much about the history of the syndicates over the last half-century. Certainly Universal's rise would be a huge story, if not the story. The two things that pop to mind is of course their relationship with Andrews McMeel -- which I believe was a small publishing house one of the two founders worked for that they purchased the first few years in to publish (initially) their cartoon books and eventually became a huge concern across comic strip and into a bunch of other areas -- and their run of hit strip launches from roughly 1970 to 1985: from Doonesbury (their initial hit) through Cathy through For Better Or For Worse through Calvin and Hobbes and Far Side. I think I have that roughly correct. Fascinating company, and yet another reason why Doonesbury is underrated as an historical, industry force.
Through comics historian and writer Mark Evanier comes word that writer Eric Freiwald has died. Best known as a prolific writer on 1950s-1960s family-focused television series, and then an award-winning writer on the soap juggernaut The Young And The Restless Freiwald also wrote a substantial number of stories for Gold Key and Disney. He passed away in his sleep on January 29.
Freiwald met his longtime writing partner, the late Eric Schaefer, in a school for writers. According to this posting on Schaefer by Mark Evanier, both men had relatives in the film industry they hoped to parlay into script sales. Thus began a long partnership. This included a hugely prolific run of comic book writing in the late '50s until the mid-'60s for both the television shows to which they were submitting teleplays and the various Disney movie adaptations when that studio was in some ways at the height of its powers in terms of assured, routine commercial success in the live-action field. According to Evanier, they also worked on some of the standard Disney animal characters and on early issues of Magnus, Robot Fighter. Their writing partnership dissolved in 1984 with Schaefer's retirement.
Freiwald was born in 1927 in Detroit, and served during World War II in the Navy. Although he lived in Southern California for the bulk of his writing career, Prescott moved his family to Prescott, Arizona in 1986.
Eric Freiwald is survived by a wife, one son, two daughters, four grandsons and a great-grandson.
Fort Knox Launched With 25 Papers
Syndicates are notoriously elusive about launches when directly asked, but are frequently quite open about them as a matter of course in presenting those strips to newspapers on down the line. Thus we learn that Paul Jon's Fort Knox launched with 25 papers, which I think needs to be noted as a sign that it's a tough out there right now. It's just a hunch on my part, but I think a strip with a solid conceptual location/milieu like Jon's strip -- military base communities -- would have launched with 10-25 more papers ten years ago. Or maybe not; I'm not all that familiar with the strip on a day-in, day-out basis. And it's always tough to launch a strip with any papers in any market.
* they're putting on-line Mike Dean's lengthy history of the Direct Market starting yesterday. So check back, I guess.
* speaking of TCJ, there's a flurry of activity on their Hooded Utilitarian partner blog about what they perceive as the site's failings: Noah Berlatsky, Ng Suat Tong, Bill Randall. If you have to read one I'd read Suat's or maybe Robert Boyd's comment here because they have long-term relationships with the magazine. Sean T. Collins and Johanna Draper Carlson comment.
* not comics: I imagine this will freak some people around my age the heck out, but it seems like 45 years ago to me. A lot of people my age really liked that film -- really liked it -- but I remember mostly thinking that Judd Nelson's performance was so awful it capsized the movie. In fact, movies-wise I most remember 1985 being the year we got into watching movies at home on the VCR even more so than at first because the popular movies were so, so awful.
* not comics: did you know that they were working on a revamped Superman musical with a brand new book? I sure didn't, but apparently that's the case.
* finally, Sean T. Collins and Marc-Oliver Frisch seem to agree with me that the relative weakness of the high-end top sellers was a worrisome sign for January comics sales. I think the basic logic is this: when you have a Direct Market you've been shaping to generate high-end top sellers and the sales on the latest exact one of those creatures comes in at less than 50 percent of such books from two years ago, you might have a problem. You might have a big problem. I'm not even sure what to advise in the broadest, license-of-punditry sense.
We've now been with our book trade distributor, W.W. Norton, for almost a full decade (our first season with them was the spring of 2001). I think that's enough time for us to sit back with some perspective and confirm Hibbs' cogent argument that the book trade does not offer limitless growth. Let's face it, the notion that any aspect of the print medium -- comics or otherwise -- has limitless potential is probably absurd in 2010.
But it's also enough time to say without question that we'd be out of business without the book trade and that it enables us to reach readers and customers that we otherwise wouldn't reach, whether through indie bookstores, chains, Amazon.com, libraries or educational institutions introducing our work to students. Tom Spurgeon's point that "We live in a world of bookstores and the Direct Market and whatever else works" is spot-on, especially in a time when "Direct Market" essentially means Diamond. Does Brian actually believe we would be better off putting all our eggs in Diamond's basket? Our net revenues between the direct market and book trade remain neck and neck and have for several years now (with the book trade usually edging the DM, as it did in 2009).
I'm not sure what to say specifically this year in regard to Hibbs' essay that's any different than what I've said in years past. Book trade sales for Fantagraphics were surprisingly strong in 2009, given the overall economy -- our total sales were virtually identical to 2008 with roughly the same amount of new items offered. For whatever reason, we seemed to have weathered the recession a bit better than the book trade and direct market as a whole -- which frankly surprises me. I was prepared for a considerably worse 2009. Our book trade sales in 2009 relative to 2008 did not grow or shrink appreciably better or worse than our Direct Market sales in that same time. It seems the economy affected both very similarly in regard to selling Fantagraphics' books, for what it's worth. Our 2009 was actually strong enough that while many businesses were downsizing in 2009, we added staff to our p.r., production and design departments.
Library and academic sales continue to be one area of growth for us. I did a cursory look at a half-dozen titles from the last couple of years, and in some cases, our library/institutional sales can amount to as much as 30-50% of our overall book trade business. This is one stream that does not report to Bookscan, and I don't believe that the Direct Market would be making these sales if W.W. Norton wasn't.
Hibbs singles out Love & Rockets New Stories #2, which he says Bookscan reported 300 and some sales of. Simply put, we've sold about 7000 copies total of that book thus far (more than the series was selling as a "pamphlet"), and the primary return window has passed. Less than half of those have been moved through the Direct Market. So you do the math. L&RNS has been a success for us, thus far.
One other thing I should add that I haven't seen mentioned. Having solid inroads in the book trade has enabled us to publish a number of dream projects that would have been impossible ten years ago without it. Books like Willie & Joe by Bill Mauldin or Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, or our prose line, would have been completely unfeasible in their current incarnations without the book trade, as the direct market would simply not have moved the numbers necessary to cover their considerable costs. The book trade has enabled us to be something closer to what I think Gary, Kim and I envision to be our Platonic Ideal of what Fantagraphics could and should be. It's the reason we have reached a point where projects like The Complete Peanuts are more important to our well-being than Eros Comix. For us, you can't underestimate that importance. I doubt Hibbs sold proportionally as many Willie & Joes relative to Bookscan numbers as he claims he did for L&RNS #2. Not all books are considered equal in regard to what sells where, which necessitates the need for both.
I don't pay attention to Bookscan too closely, but one thing I've gleaned from reading Brian's annual essays is that either he reads way too much into Bookscan numbers, or we pretty dramatically buck the conventional wisdom of what Bookscan "means" in the bigger picture. At this point, your guess is as good as mine as to what the real answer is, I just know that we're happy and grateful to be distributed by both W.W. Norton and Diamond Comics Distributors and hope to continue to work with both for as long as possible.
Tilting at windmills, indeed!
*****
[Editor's Note: I asked Eric for comment on the Love & Rockets New Stories #2 number in Brian's essay for an essay of my own. Unfortunately, my planned piece came out earlier than Eric's response and turned into me yelling at Brian more than it ended up being a cohesive essay. And then, double-reverse-wham-fortunately, Eric ended up writing this very eloquent response that more than stands on its own. CR is grateful to have it, and if any of you out there could hook it up with a link, I think it deserves attention.]
I'm shooting infected e-mail from every address I have, so ignore me for a while. I should have known that attachment promising naked pictures of Jo Anne Worley was too good to be true. If I need to talk to you, I'll phone!
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* a terrorist-set explosion that killed nine and injured 57 has led authorities to question whether or not David Coleman Headley, currently undergoing trial for planning attacks on Danish Cartoons Controversy-related subjects and doing advance scouting for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, may have performed scouting for this attack as well.
* nearly 3000 people Friday protested a Norwegian newspaper's publication of a cartoon depicting Muhammad as a pig. As the article discusses, the publication was an illustration for a related story, not a formal declaration of the Prophet's pig-like nature. Danish Cartoon Controversy fans from way back will recall that one of the factors that led to violent riots concerning the initial cartoons was the inclusion of a fake, photo-shopped cartoon that depicted Muhammad as a pig.
Analysts: January 2010 DM Estimates
The comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com offers their usual array of lists, estimates and analysis regarding the performance of comic books and graphic novels in the Direct Market of comic and hobby shops, this time for January 2010.
There are only two things that leap out at me this time out. One is that only two comic-book comics are over the 100K mark: the first issue of Marvel's current event comic and an anniversary issue of the series at the center of its ongoing event title. There are only 22 comics that sell over 50K, with 17 of those regular series. I'm not one of those that thinks it's automatically awesome when some goofy funnybook shoots up over 350,000 copies, but I like to see a group of individual titles with some heat in addition, a healthy middle class and a bunch of titles selling in the late four-figures early five-figures.
Another is that Walking Dead confirms its states as a true DM hit, crushing the competition three to one with its latest trade collection. I don't think I've seen one of those books dominate its chart like that, although it's clear that the book has performed like the freakin' Nicholas Brothers for a few years now.
Zunar Harassment Better Explained This article in thestar.com marches through what looks like the harassment of the Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar (Zulkiflee Anuar) through the seizure of publications featuring his work both recently and in mid-2009. A couple of points that didn't come out in earlier articles: seizing the publications may circumvent a more standard legal challenge; a review of the work in the standard course of such reviews has been delayed for unknown reasons.
Your 2010 Glyph Awards Nominees
The Glyph Comics Awards, designed to "recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year," have released the names of the comics and creators that make up their 2010 nominee slate. They are:
Story of the Year
* Luke Cage Noir; Mike Benson & Adam Glass, writers; Shawn Martinbrough, artist
* The Original Johnson; Trevor von Eeden, writer and artist
* Unknown Soldier #13-14; Joshua Dysart, writer, Pat Masioni, artist
* War Machine: Iron Heart; Greg Pak, writer, Leonardo Manco, artist
* World of Hurt, Jay Potts, writer and artist
*****
Best Writer
* Joshua Dysart, Unknown Soldier
* Jeremy Love, Bayou
* Greg Pak, War Machine
* Jay Potts, World of Hurt
* Alex Simmons, Archie & Friends
*****
Best Artist
* Chriscross, Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance
* Jeremy Love, Bayou
* Shawn Martinbrough, Luke Cage Noir
* Jay Potts, World of Hurt
* Trevor von Eeden, The Original Johnson
****
Best Male Character
* Black Lightning, Black Lightning Year One; Jen van Meter, writer, Cully Hamner, artist; created by Tony Isabella & Trevor von Eeden
* Isaiah "Pastor" Hurt, World of Hurt; created by Jay Potts, writer and artist
* Jack Johnson; The Original Johnson; Trevor von Eeden, writer and artist; inspired by the life of Jack Johnson
* Luke Cage, Luke Cage Noir; Mike Benson & Adam Glass, writers, Shawn Martinbrough, artist; created by Archie Goodwin & John Romita Sr.
* Moses Lwanga, Unknown Soldier #13-14; Joshua Dysart, writer, Pat Masioni, artist; inspired by the character created by Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert
*****
Best Female Character
* Aya, Aya: The Secrets Come Out; created by Marguerite Abouet, writer, Clement Oubrerie, artist
* Lee Wagstaff, Bayou; created by Jeremy Love, writer and artist
* Michonne, The Walking Dead; created by Robert Kirkman, writer, Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn, artists
* Misty Knight, Immortal Iron Fist; Duane Swierczynski, writer, Travel Foreman & Tom Palmer, artists; created by Tony Isabella & Arvell Jones
* Nola Thomas, NOLA; created by Chris Gorak & Pierluigi Cothran, writers, Damian Couceiro, artist
*****
Rising Star Award
* Jiba Molei Anderson, The Horsemen
* John Aston, Rachel Rage
* Kerry & Tawanda Johnson, Harambee Hills
* Julian Lytle, Ants
* Jay Potts, World of Hurt
*****
Best Reprint Collection
* Aya: The Secrets Come Out; Drawn & Quarterly
* Bayou Vol. 1; DC/Zuda
* Icon: A Hero's Welcome; DC/Milestone
* The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the 21st Century; Dark Horse
* Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool; DC/Milestone
*****
Best Cover
* Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1; Brian Stelfreeze, illustrator
* Luke Cage Noir #1; Tim Bradstreet, illustrator
* The Original Johnson; Trevor von Eeden, illustrator
* Unknown Soldier #8; Dave Johnson, illustrator
* Unknown Soldier #10; Dave Johnson, illustrator
*****
Best Comic Strip
* Bayou; Jeremy Love, writer and artist
* Jump Start; Robb Armstrong, writer and artist
* The K Chronicles; Keith Knight, writer and artist
* The Knight Life; Keith Knight, writer and artist
* World of Hurt; Jay Potts, writer and artist
*****
Fan Award for Best Comic
* Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel; Kevin Grevioux, writer, Mat Broome, Sean Parson & Alvaro Lopez, artists
* Black Lightning Year One; Jen Van Meter, writer, Cully Hamner, artist
* Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink; Eric Wallace, writer, Fabrizio Fiorentino, artist
* Luke Cage Noir; Mike Benson & Adam Glass, writers, Shawn Martinbrough, artist
* War Machine: Iron Heart; Greg Pak, writer, Leonardo Manco, artist
The judges for the 2010 competition are David Brothers, Carol Burrell, Brian Cronin and Katie & Dan Merritt. A ballot for the Fan Award for Best Comic is now open here. The awards will be named during a ceremony held May 15 in Philadelphia as part of that weekend's ECBACC.
Stan Lee Sued For Legal Fees
The well-known Los Angeles entertainment law firm Lavely & Singer has apparently sued Stan Lee for monies owed. The amount sought is undisclosed -- I have no idea why the linked-to article describes it as "heavy" -- and no super-huge lawsuit requiring tons and tons of legal work automatically comes to mind from the 2007-on period mentioned in the piece, so I'd approach this with a grain of salt. Only the lawyers seem to know right now. The firm is a full-service celebrity legal services provider. However, it specializes in the kind of rights issues in which a figure like Lee, with fingers in multiple entertainment pies, is almost perpetually involved. Until I hear something else other than a press release processed through gossip columnists, I won't think much of this in a deeply portentous way, but it's worth keeping an eye out for all of the obvious reasons.
This also makes Lee the first comics figure to flash as a TMZ alert, although I could be wrong about that.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* the arts festival of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art has released their initial guest list and poster art. Panels organizer Brian Heater announces in that same post that David Mazzucchelli will win this year's Klein Award. The show has moved to April this year.
* Scott Edelman has found a great piece of forgotten Marvel history -- the script and some of the storyboards to a corporate "we are marvel and we are awesome" type film that got to the planning stages in the late 1970s.
* memo to Frank Santoro, Dan Nadel and all the others with half an eye out for odder-than-usual mainstream comics art. It's never occurred to me to mention this before, but have any of you tried to walk through some of the secondary Marvel titles 1991-1994? Marvel had a reputation -- a deserved one, I think -- of over-publishing right around then, and while I've not read those books it seems to me there were probably a lot of artists that did short, strange-looking runs for the company as a result. Here's the art reproduced here at a much bigger size, from where I stole it. Just a thought.
* not comics: I really love this analysis of an interview featuring literary figures Kingsley Amis and CS Lewis as a way to comment on how science-fiction fandom both informed comics culture and considered itself generally above that material.
* that Rob Clough list of 100 best comics can be found in two links, here and here. Given they're split 25 and 75, I figure I wasn't being crazy and they just stuffed the last 50 into the second post. Good list, overall.
* here's a cute, old-fashioned feature for Valentine's Day on almost comics couples. The Scarlet Witch, Captain America and Hawkeye were just barely if you squinted sort of a romantic triangle in the double-digit Avengers days, which was awesome only in that Don Heck drew pretty girls making sad faces as well as any mainstream comics artist ever did.
* I forgot to mention this last week when John Porcellino sent out a mass e-mail. Daniel Stafford is doing a documentary on this very important cartoonist, and describes its progress here.
A (Very) Few Notes On Brian Hibbs’s Analysis Of 2009 Bookscan Numbers
1. Brian Hibbs' yearly analysis of Bookscan numbers is interesting in that someone has received that expensive report and put some of its results out there for folks to look at. I know I'm grateful. No one sends me that report. It's fun to see how certain books did on the chart, which books that are sort of like comics get thrown in the mix, which books potentially -- potentially -- underperformed with a super-anemic number.
2. At the same time, Hibbs' qualitative analysis is so infused with this highly insistent defense of the Direct Market -- a group for which Hibbs is a major, self-interested advocate -- and makes use of arguments and lines of analysis Hibbs has been lacerated for making for years now as if he just came up with them for the first time, that's it's difficult for me to recommend it to anyone. I've formally withdrawn this year's CR post recommending it. The framework overwhelms the content.
3. There are three big, sweeping problems to Hibbs' general approach. The first is that I can't figure out who on earth holds the positions he insists on dismantling. For example, at one point he says, "But, regardless of the specific reasons why, the notion that the bookstore market for comics might offer limitless growth seems to be on the rocks." What? Nobody rational or in a difference-making position argues this! Limitless growth? Come on! A few goofy bloggers may have gone over the top five years ago when their own perceived influence and bookstores' initial surge cast a slightly heroic/romantic sheen on an emerging market in a way that generated a torrent of bluster, but no one followed their hysterical "quit throwing good money after bad" advice, nearly everyone I know rolled their eyes at them, and, most importantly, I'm not aware of any of those people arguing that kind of thing anymore. We don't live in a world of bookstores vs. the Direct Market. We live in a world of bookstores and the Direct Market and whatever else works. Everyone that matters knew this years ago.
4. The second is that Hibbs admits the numbers are untrustworthy in a lot of ways -- he doesn't get to all of the ways they're untrustworthy, but he gets to some of them -- and then compares them anyway and goes on to make sweeping statements about the state of the industry based on those comparisons! This is just crazy. Saying some measures are better than none is true. But it's also true that taking two bad numbers and then using them one against the other stands a good chance to compound the distance each resulting measure is divorced from reality.
5. The third sweeping problem is that the bookstore vs. DM argument takes over those sections even when it's not brought up. This is likely a personal weakness on my part, but there it is. When Hibbs brings up the fact that the bookstores will be losing these staggering sales on Watchmen after this surge they enjoyed in 2008 and 2009 leading up to the movie, there's little to no substantial analysis of what this might mean in the bookstore beyond the loss of sales on an imaginary scoreboard. Could this leave bookstores open to someone suggesting they have the next Watchmen in the form of some Green Lantern book? Will they favor the shelving of DC books for a while? Will this make it that much harder for Marvel to kickstart their post-Disney purchase bookstore program? Were stores stuck with Watchmen copies as the cycles worked themselves out? Are they asking for new Watchmen material? I have no idea. Instead of these questions or much better ones, my first thoughts were, "Yeah, but the comic book stores lose that sales surge, too. And they lose the Obama stunt covers!" A business story festooned with nuances gets turned into Thing vs. Hulk and I'm not mature enough to resist the pull.
6. I think Hibbs vastly underplays the recession. It makes perfect sense to me that a market serving relatively casual readers and with deep wounds hampering a market leader is going to be hit hard in a recession. And if everything must be a market to market dick-measuring contest, it also makes perfect sense to me that a market serving relatively casual readers is going to be hit harder in the first 12-15 months of a recession than a market serving the most devoted fans. One thing that made me feel positive about the recession going in is that comic book retailers are hardcore survivors with years of clawing their way across a vicious landscape while their suppliers occasionally throw cinder blocks at them and bookstore owners are basically shareholders with years of unrealistic, walk-in-the-park suburban expansion. If anything, I'm amazed the overall dip was that light.
7. I think Hibbs underplays the effect the quality of books has in a lot of comics' sub-markets. For example, maybe it's just me, but I look at Tokyopop's offerings and nothing really jumps out at me as something that should have sold so much better that Hibbs should be compelled to float the potential of behind-the-scenes chicanery.
8. I think Hibbs overplays a manga "freefall." I've been reading for years that there were potential rough periods ahead for manga. One of them would come at the time when the most popular, crowd-pleasing series finished their initial publication runs or moved from the sweet spots of those series. One of them would come when the first generation of readers aged into another buying-habits stratum. It wasn't unheard of to suggest that they might come together or one right after another, and that they might arrive in the midst of a recession. And here we are. Hibbs acts like he made up this line of thinking that the first manga audience may have aged past certain buying habits, but, again, I've been hearing that for years and I'm not exactly Mr. Plugged-In when it comes to the right to left world.
That's really all I have. I'll try to look at the numbers later on this week as divorced from Hibbs's yearly jeremiad as I can muster, but for now it's difficult to say anything about a framework that just seems all wrong to me when it comes to getting at what these numbers mean. I challenge Hibbs in the years ahead to at some point go an entire year without a single mention of the Direct Market or his own retail work, summoning for these numbers a thorough work-out that doesn't depend on a comparison to another set of numbers. I think the results could be quite compelling.
The Ten Least Likely Candidates To Become The Next Publisher At DC
Anyone can name the 10 most likely candidates to become publisher at DC Comics. You just look at every new media, movie and publishing executive with some sort of relationship to comics or movies made from comics that you possibly can, avoid listing anyone too comic-booky, and every time anybody else brings someone up not on your public list you nod your head sagely and intone that your private sources have told you the same thing.
I'll freely admit I have no idea who'd going to be the next publisher; I don't know any of those people and whenever I ask the people who might know the publisher-to-be-named because they do know these people they throw out some name that's apparently so horrifying I shriek, hang up the phone and ram my head into a wall until I forget what they said.
I believe I have some sort of grasp on who won't be the publisher, though. The following list of people I contend have no chance to hold this office, or really, much of anything similar.
*****
10. Grant Morrison
I'd favor this one happening just for the yearly 65,000-word interview with ICv2.com and because it would allow me to imagine day to day operations at DC would be like that show Bob, only starring Peter Wyngarde instead of Bob Newhart. Unfortunately, I think Morrison has the job he wants and is best suited for. Plus I think he may be unstuck in time.
*****
9. Jim Shooter
I feel in my gut that Jim Shooter has one more go-round in him. He's not even 60 yet! It's just that to be an effective move to make him DC Comics publisher, it would have to be announced somewhere where a group of people could gasp. And there could be thunder. And the lights could flicker. Convention season is too far away.
*****
8. Any Retailer
It's not that I think there aren't retailers out there that could handle a massive corporate position stuffed with responsibilities, it's just that I'm pretty certain we can't spare any retailers right now.
*****
7. Gary Groth and Kim Thompson
Not only are Groth and Thompson already on the west coast, they have the displayed ability to find a giant house with a swimming pool somewhere in North Hollywood to be DC's new headquarters. DC lawyers would scotch this one to avoid a potential 45-second conclusion to the Siegel Family case.
*****
6. Nabile Hage
Nabile Hage briefly ran a comics company in the heady days of the late '80s and early '90s, on whose behalf he would appear in the most terrifying, intimidating clothing and, I swear to God, occasionally climb buildings. This hire would never happen because it would be too awesome.
*****
5. The Winner Of An Elaborate Willie Wonka-style Contest
This is the way I'd go, although 1) you'd need about double the kids to have a chance at one surviving the office visit, and 2) the majority of those "kids" would be sad, 40-year-old men.
*****
4. Conan O'Brien
He needs a job, and it would be a great boon for MAD, in whose office he could probably be found hiding on an almost daily basis. Andy Richter is a comics fan and former Comics Journal subscriber who could make a fine right-hand man. Unfortunately, in comics, working hard and being nice to people doesn't get you everything you hope for; it gets you a one-line credit in a movie that bought someone else's house.
*****
3. Stan Lee
Moving to the West Coast wouldn't be a problem for Stan -- he got a 30-year head start on that. With Stan it's more like it's not quite certain he wasn't named DC publisher already, in some press release among the 18 billion press releases every year announcing new Stan Lee projects.
*****
2. The Childcatcher Of The Great Nation Of Vulgaria
Need a program designed to get kids reading comics? This guy can make kids do just about anything. He also potentially opens up markets in the rich soil that is fictional, English-speaking European nation-states. Massive shortcomings in social media skills and the limits of smell as an editorial decision-making tool doom his candidacy.
*****
1. "Chuck"
In a better world than this one, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson would strive to display her ability to do both her job and the publishing job by hiring an appealing actor with no knowledge of the comics industry and install him as a quirkily handsome figurehead -- if not Zachary Levi, then Matthew Bomer or maybe that nice fella from Ed. Once a week, some combination of Dan DiDio, Rich Johnston and John Hodgman would try to expose the figurehead for what he is, always to be outfoxed by Nelson and the actor, who in turn develop a simmering sexual tension that erupts in season three in a special Angouleme episode.
Unfortunately, this is not that world. Expect someone boring and qualified to be named soon. Whoever it is, I won't have heard about it from my sources.
*****
All art used without permission and with much love for each individual; I'm certainly happy to take anything down if that's a problem. As always, any jibe you feel was aimed at you was probably aimed at someone else entirely.
1. Supergirl (the cute one from Wednesday Comics)
2. Big Barda
3. Lois Lane (in All Star Superman #3)
4. Power Girl as drawn by Darwyn Cooke, please
5. Lulu Belle (from Wash Tubbs)
1. Angel (from Love & Rockets)
2. Devil Girl
3. Little Lotta
4. Panama Fattie
5. Platinum
*****
Marc Burkhardt
1. Wonder Woman -- I don't think anyone other than William Moulton Marston really "gets" the character, but when it comes to strong women in comics the might is spelled out in Princess Diana's codename.
2. Mary Marvel -- The original Supergirl.
3. Rene Titanon -- Greatest Women's Wrestling Champ of all time, well... next to Trish Stratus anyway.
4. M -- Her background is as tangled and tortured as any X character, but I always found Monet St. Croix's haughty attitude a refreshing change from the usual super-heroine pluck.
5. Mammy Yokum -- The Lil Abner matriarch possesses the deadliest left-hook in comics, the "Goodnight Irene"
*****
Damian Duffy
1. Chelo
2. She Hulk (strong enough to break the 4th wall!)
3. Pearl Penalosa (Ultra)
4. Irma Geddon (yeah, not technically super strong, but she does have nuclear missiles on her back)
5. Misty Knight
****
Justin J. Major
1) Big Barda
2) She-Hulk
3) Andromeda (Legion of Superheroes)
4) Wonder Woman (Golden Age)
5) Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers)
*****
thanks to all that participated. as always, anything that I think would need explaining to a 10-year-old, I just delete
Quote Of The Week
"But the market we have is the market we have, and has been for decades now -- it's the marketplace we made, and it's a very Darwinistic beast. -- Tom Brevoort
*****
today's cover is from the 1940s-1950s mainstream comics publisher Avon
ANN: Christopher Handley Sentenced To Six Months Jail Followed By Supervised Release And Probation Anime News Network was I believe first out of the gate comics-wise with a report that Christopher Handley was sentenced yesterday to six months in prison followed by degrees of supervised release. He must also forfeit his computer, the seized materials in question, and attend a treatment program supervised by his eventual probation officer.
Handley is the Iowa Man who plead guilty nine months ago to possession of obscene materials. These books -- listed in the ANN report -- were seized by postal officials in 2006, which led to Handley's home being searched. More than 1000 items were seized at the home, including 80 items that were retained by officials for their case against Handley.
The ensuing case saw the prosecution press for Handley on his manga consumption habit, allowing for artistic merit in the case of some works but using Handley's admitted prurient motivations for seeking out that manga as a way to castigate any literary value those works might have. The defense took a strong line against the prosecution of imagery that did not include photographic images of actual minors. The ANN reports talk of documents released in conjunction with the decision that describe Handley as an armed services veteran and bible study attendee.
CR contacted Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, for comment. "Today's news of Christopher Handley's sentencing is a heartbreaking conclusion to a case that should never have occurred in the first place. Documents now in the public record show that Christopher is a devoted citizen, who did his best to serve his family and country. He is not and has never been a threat to society. The only victim in this case is Handley himself, who has been found guilty of a kind of thought crime. It's a sad day when an American is put in prison because of his taste in art and fiction. It is our fervent hope that no one else should suffer that same fate. Our prayers are with Christopher and his family in the trying months ahead."
Rob Rogers Talks About His Recent Controversial Police Brutality Cartoon Editor & Publisherhas a short interview in feature-form with Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about his recent cartoon drawing attention to the racial implications of a well-publicized beating of a local man. The most interesting thing about the chat is that Rogers asserts the multiple-beat progression of the cartoon allowed for greater back and forth than a single-panel statement, which is totally logicall but something I'd never heard before. Anyway, that's an important story that sounds like it's ending at the criticism-made-known level -- which is where most such issues should end, I think.
Go, Read: Tom Brevoort Interview
Sean T. Collins interviews Tom Brevoort, in part about a wonderfully fascinating and not exactly top-of-the-news topic: the longtime editor's presence on-line and the accumulation of statements he's made that you normally wouldn't get from a mainstream comics editor's office. There's also just enough overarching Marvel strategy stuff to satisfy those of us who don't follow that material on a day-to-day basis. Plus Brevoort pats me on the head and sends me to the corner. Ouch!
The real estate developer and Indiana Pacers NBA franchise owner Herb Simon has purchased Kirkus Reviews, keeping the venerable book review source and graphic novel review publication pioneer from the chopping block due to cuts at former owner The Nielsen Company. The company will change its name to Kirkus Media, keep its print iteration and bolster its on-line offerings. Simon is a longtime Kirkus Reviews reader, and is retaining current editorial team leaders Elaine Szewczyk and Eric Liebetrau, pictured above.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I sure hope Geoff Johns' smack talk here doesn't mean every mainstream comics promotional effort from now on is going to sound like a wrestling interview.
* it's hard not to enjoy what seems like a recent wave of unearthed Charles Schulz ephemera, like this golf advertisement.
* missed it: Mason Mastroianni now signs his name to his grandfather's strip, B.C.. That's awesome, as you only see that on legacy strips a part of the time. Also awesome is that Mastroianni is apparently a member of the stylish workplace attire club.
* I'm about a decade too old to fully understand the humor of these GI Joe valentines, but my generation just got down unleashing 20 years of Scooby Doo and Good Times jokes, so it's not like I get to complain.
* Rob Clough has released his list of top 100 comics for the '00s, although it's odd in that there are only 50 of them. Oh, well. I started writing this before I noticed they had the posts mis-titled, so you're only going to get the first fifty from me. You can go look up the rest at TCJ if they ever post them. As far as that first 50, theyare:
1. Ice Haven, Daniel Clowes (Pantheon)
2. Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
3. Safe Area Gorazde, Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics)
4. Snake & Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret, Michael Kupperman (Harper)
5. Non #5, Jordan Crane (Red Ink Press)
6. Epileptic, David B. (Pantheon)
7. Asthma, John Hankiewicz (Sparkplug Comic Books)
8. Recidivist #3, Zak Sally (La Mano)
9. Supermonster #14/Or Else #2, Kevin Huizenga (Drawn & Quarterly)
10. You'll Never Know, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)
11. Footnotes in Gaza, Joe Sacco (Metropolitan)
12. 1-800-MICE, Matthew Thurber (PictureBox)
13. Cecil and Jordan in New York: Stories, Gabrielle Bell (Drawn & Quarterly)
14. Little Nothings, Lewis Trondheim (NBM)
15. What it Is, Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
16. Kramers Ergot #4, Sammy Harkham (Avodah Press)
17. Schizo #4, Ivan Brunetti (Fantagraphics)
18. The Frank Book, Jim Woodring (Fantagraphics)
19. Willie and Joe: The WWII Years, Bill Mauldin (Fantagraphics)
20. Petey and Pussy, John Kerschbaum (Fantagraphics)
21. Wormdye, Eamon Espey (Secret Acres)
22. Bughouse, Steve Lafler (Top Shelf)
23. I Killed Adolf Hitler, Jason (Fantagraphics)
24. The Imp #4, Dan Raeburn (self-published)
25. We are on Our Own, Miriam Katin (Drawn & Quarterly)
26. Spaniel Rage, Vanessa Davis (Buenaventura Press)
27. Eiland #4, Tobias Tycho Schalken & Stefan JH Van Dinther (Bries)
28. Bookhunter, Jason Shiga (Sparkplug Comic Books)
29. The Mother's Mouth, Dash Shaw (Alternative)
30. The Complete Peanuts Vol. 1, Charles Schulz (Fantagraphics)
31. Kampung Boy, Lat (First Second)
32. Dungeon: Zenith Vol. 1, Lewis Trondheim & Joann Sfar (NBM)
33. Hey, Wait..., Jason (Fantagraphics)
34. Ironclad, Dan Zettwoch (self-published)
35. Get A Life, Philippe Dupuy & Charles Berberian (Drawn & Quarterly)
36. The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, Phoebe Gloeckner (Frog Press)
37. The Squirrel Mother: Stories, Megan Kelso (Fantagraphics)
38. Eightball #23: The Death Ray, Dan Clowes (Fantagraphics)
39. The Three Paradoxes, Paul Hornschemeier (Fantagraphics)
40. An Anthology Of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons And True Stories Vol. 1, Ivan Brunetti (Yale)
41. Drawn And Quarterly Vol. 4, Chris Oliveros (Drawn & Quarterly)
42. Inkweed, Chris Wright (Sparkplug Comic Books)
43. Late Bloomer, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)
44. Louis Riel, Chester Brown (Drawn & Quarterly)
45. Mcsweeney's Quarterly Concern #13, Chris Ware (McSweeney's)
46. Mome Vol. 12, Eric Reynolds & Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
47. Six Hundred Seventy-Six Apparitions Of Killoffer, Killoffer (Typocrat)
48. The Rabbi's Cat, Joann Sfar (Pantheon)
49. We All Die Alone, Mark Newgarden (Fantagraphics)
50. Wimbledon Green, Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
That's a good list. Clough writes a blurb for each choice, so please follow those first two links. I'll run links to a a third and fourth post at some point assuming they show up on TCJ.com. They may already be on there somewhere; it's a confusing place.
At Least Now We Have Evidence That Political People Are Even Goofier In The Head Than Comics People
So the story about an obtusely negative, super-minor reference to Tea Party advocates in an issue of Captain America has wound its way through the usual mish-mash of electronic media firebrands and the mostly strident dumbasses who attend them. I suppose a comics fan interested in this stuff should read this pretty typical howl and Joe Quesada's admirably calm and rational response. This includes an explanation as to what happened -- a last-minute production add that referenced a Tea Party-specific sign -- and an admission that not catching it earlier was a mistake.
This reminds me of 25 years ago when some of the kids in my church group got upset by a scene in Ghostbusters where Ernie Hudson quotes the Bible, except that things get processed differently now. Things like this get processed as if they really matter to people other than 14-year-olds obsessed with identity issues, which I find idiotic and sad. It's not that there aren't wonky side issues galore. A cultural observer not wanting to turn off his computer and go back to bed with every keystroke could probably work up something of value about the expectation that something like Captain America comics should be blandly neutral when it comes to political issues, or that during the decade that the Brubaker Captain America recalls, the 1970s, Marvel used goofy codewords like "Maggia" as stand-ins and whether or not this would have worked here, or the trouble with deriving political points out of minutiae while ignoring the politics of the superhero generally.
Mostly it just depresses me. Marvel shouldn't be pressed to apologize for inadvertently pissing people off -- it's art. Art isn't there to support anyone's self-conception, and a lot of the better art out there challenges that kind of thing every chance it gets. Everyone should learn to live with it. Not only should Ed and Joe and Marvel be believed when they offer an explanation, they shouldn't have to offer one. They shouldn't have to see their explanation interpreted as a broader apology, either, which is doubly unfair. In the end, they should feel free to have Captain America fight The Teabagger if that's what they want. Or the evil twins Hope and Change. Whatever. I promise you the republic will survive. Also, it struck me as super creepy that Ed Brubaker's tweets were dug up in this Fox News article not just as the interesting sidelight they're portrayed as being but as a kind of broad implication that maybe he shouldn't be believed when he says this specific thing was unintentional. How do you answer that? I suppose no one expects an answer. While someone out there will certainly suggest this proves comics' relevance, I don't think there's any victory to be had in becoming the latest pile of chum feeding the snapping leviathans of American political churn. What a stupid story.
DCD Truck Accident In Plattsburgh
The comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com notes a truck accident near Diamond Comic Distributor's Plattsburgh, New York warehouse involved injuries to at least someone involved, and, much less importantly, damaged some of the comics being hauled. Given the difficulty of delivering comics to an East Coast blanketed in record-setting snow and the closure of the Timonium, Maryland headquarters during the bulk of this period, the loss of several comics and further delays in getting them to stores obviously puts more stress on a system already under strain, should lead to some interest in the financial hit this could mean to a company that fired a round of employees only a year ago, and might throw a spotlight a bit further down the road on the tension in a system operating under taut, little-margin-for-error, conditions. For now, let's hope no one's injuries were so serious that recovery is in doubt.
Comic Shop Crime Blotter Update
* the reliable Amber Hunt notes that oral arguments were heard in a Michigan court Tuesday in the appeal of a set-aside conviction of former prominent Pittsburgh area comic shop owner and convention organizer Michael George. George was convicted of several crimes involving the murder of his then-wife Barbara in their Michigan comic shop in 1990, before having that conviction set aside by a judge who believed there were instances of prosecutorial misconduct concerning a photo shown in court and an interview that never made it there. Hunt does a fine job pounding through the broad strokes of what's going on. I'd like to know if George's children were on hand, as they were supportive during the original trial, but it's not like that is news. A decision should be made in the next four weeks or so.
* Comic Shop owner Domenic Giorgio of Vaughan, Ontario's A Dragon's Realm saw charges related to possessing child pornography added to existing charges regarding voyeurism. Giorgio was arrested last summer on charges alleging he was using a video camera set up to spy on a female patron in the shop's bathroom. The computer used to do this apparently contained files leading to the new charges. Giorgio is also charged with assault from an altercation after the initial event.
R. Crumb’s Genesis Sells 120,000 Copies Calvin Reid has one of those nice, brief, authoritative sales profiles up at PW for WW Norton's The Book Of Genesis Illustrated. According to Reid's piece, the book has sold 120,000 copies, has enjoyed brisk sales in foreign markets, has added foreign markets since initial sales, and has led to the sale of a refurbished The Sweeter Side of Crumb to Norton for future publication. That book of drawings -- the focus of which is pretty clear given the title and Crumb's reputation for the sexual and occasional grotesque -- was published in its initial form in 2006.
Two comments: First, after all the hype for Genesis, I actually think that book was underplayed a bit in comics circles, perhaps because a lot of typical opinion-makers were slow in catching up to it. I think I've encountered more "I finally got around to this book and it blew me away" confessionals on this book than on anything I can remember for a long, long time. Second, I think it's worth pointing out that the performance of this book marked a good year for major releases from the art comics-interested New York prose publishers after a what I believe were perceived as a couple of down seasons.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* ICv2.com runs word from Marvel executive David Gabriel that their swap-out/fuck you to DC Comics has resulted in a number of responses. Um... good? I don't know how to process that one. The market is in such a precarious state generally that any incentive used for anything other than a modest reward to such retailers feels like exploitation to me, whether it's rings or books at the core of the giveaway.
* here's a long profile of Jack Kent that that talks about his career after comic strip cartooning. Someone should put them back into print. At the very least, it'd be another group of books for Tom Devlin to sell in his store.
* Charles Yoakum points out that even if crossovers increase sales, they can also lose a certain kind of reader.
* if you are any kind of fan of Americana and/or comic strips, I dare you to click this link and then not smile at the picture that pops up. I mean, come on. That picture's all the best parts about being eight years old and checking out the world where adults live and think it seems safe and cool and awesome.
Filling In The Accidental Teabagger Signs Will Be The New Avengers Silhouettes
Before everyone starts doing fake signs in the Captain America panel that drew the ire of Fox News, I just wanted to point out Marvel missed an opportunity to publish the much more terrifying protest of nothing depicted above. It looks like something Steve Gerber might have slipped in there.
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 run around touching some of them with my filthy, filthy fingers.
*****
[I'm going to use Brian Hibbs' list from here, because I can't find one of Diamond's. It's the same list, there just aren't that many diamond codes and numbers along with them.]
MARAT SADE JOURNALS ULTIMATE REVISED ED KING SPECIAL EDITION HC
These are two major reprint projects that might make you grumpy if you already had older editions and might make you happy if you've never purchased them or have the money to buy the best version now available.
NEWAVE UNDERGROUND MINI COMIX O/T 80S HC
This is Michael Dowers' massive book tribute to the Xerox-wielding second underground generation that almost never was. A really good book and quite effective as raw
NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE TP ULTIMATE COLLECTION
Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen being stupid, mean and funny.
PHONOGRAM 2 #7 (OF 7) SINGLES CLUB BPRD KING OF FEAR #2 (OF 5) DMZ #50 MUPPET SHOW #2 DAYTRIPPER #3 (OF 10) GROO HOGS OF HORDER #3 (OF 4) BATMAN AND ROBIN #8
This is a my short, culled list of serial comic books with at least some sort of critical imprimatur. DMZ getting to #50 seems like a big deal to me in this comics climate. There is another muppet show book out this week that's probably good, but the one listed above is the Roger Langridge ongoing.
WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED #40
This an always welcome sight, although I have to admit that at this point I really do look at them before deciding whether I want to buy one.
CHOCOLATE CHEEKS GN FROM THE ASHES TP VOL 01 MESMO DELIVERY GN VOL 01
This is an interesting group of books because they all have different paths to their trade paperback status. Stevie Weissman's Chocolate Cheeks was I believe serialized on-line. Bob Fingerman's From The Ashes had a more traditional single-issues run in comic book form. Mesmo Delivery had a previous self-published version that I believe got a bump by making a convention direct hand-sale debut. And here they all are now.
LITTLE NOTHINGS GN VOL 03 UNEASY HAPPINESS
If I did picks of the week, this third volume of NBM's English-language translation of Lewis Trondheim's diary comics would be it. I get a lot of pleasure out of these comics, maybe more than anything regularly (once a year) on the stands. I can't find a big enough image of the cover to put in this post, however.
[I will practically guarantee you that there will not be 100 percent coverage of the above books given the recent snows, so shop politely]
*****
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 here, I consider it a failing.
The cartoonist notes that the book has been out on the market for a while, and that much of the content had been previously published without incident. This is the second confiscation the cartoonist has faced in recent months, seeing over 400 copies of his Gedung Kartun magazine seized from his office, followed by seizure of the printing plates from the press that printed the publication. He suggests that the common link is that both made reference to a high official's alleged involvement in the Altantuya Shaaribuu murder.
Go, Look: Frank Santoro At FIBD 2010
It may not be the most complete Angouleme report out there, but it's probably the most endearing I've read. That's a drawing he did at signings, by the way, about 100 times. Told you were there were different expectations for European signings.
New Comics Day Will Feel The Impact Of Snow; How Much No One Knows
The Diamond Comic Distributor headquarter in Timonium, Maryland, saw power restored yesterday in a week of comics deliveries that should be one of the more interesting ones to come down the pike in a while because of massive snows in the mid-Atlantic states. CR e-mailed off the record with a number of stores and store managers earlier this week, and the general mood seemed hopeful and determined not to suffer any break in service if possible from those in affected areas and an expression of solidarity from those who aren't.
While it looks like Diamond has dug in and managed to send a battery comics to its stores this week, much to its credit, there are a few more elements to the delivery and display of comics that could come into play. The first is that there may be UPS delivery problems on an individual basis -- one manager to whom we spoke was worried that UPS might look at the physical situation on his street and around his store and decide to keep going in the manner that UPS drivers sometimes make such decisions -- and the second is that there could be physical plant issues with some of the stores being unable to provide heat and staff. As to the latter, the timing of the weekend storms has mitigated that potential problem and I haven't yet heard of anyone skipping a week. One or two stores said Tuesday they may shift to a Thursday re-open.
Jog noted that the Midtown Comics list was missing at least two prominent releases that were on, say, Brian Hibbs' list. It's unlikely that this will make a major difference beyond an adjustment for very specific books having to wait a week.
A longtime comics fan and acquaintance of Neal Adams, Mahr held a position at the Israel/New York-based company Comverse Technology, where in the 1990s he was able to commission design and animation work from various cartoonists. He would eventually establish Mahrwood Press in 2004 in order to pursue comics projects more directly. The description of the company on its site was "a leading publisher of quality illustrated literature for the orthodox Jewish public as well as the general public."
Artists contributing to work in the Mahrwood line or working on projects for the publisher included Michael Netzer, Joe Kubert, Joe Rubinstein and Sofia Fedorov-Polonsky. Titles included Junior Pirates: Beginnings, Nagdila Tales of the Golden Age, Quest For The Mysterious Cloth and Yaakov and Isaac.
Mahrwood's highest-profile project was Balm In Gilead, an anthology featuring text and visual literature, designed to aid Israeli children displaced by the events of the 2006 Lebanon War. It was edited by Clifford Meth and included a number of well-known comics personalities, many with Jewish roots. Among those appearing were Neal Adams, Jon Bogdanove, Dave Cockrum, Jack Dann, Jeffrey Jones, Michael W. Kaluta, Joe Kubert, Stan Lee, Michael Netzer, Robin Riggs and Marv Wolfman.
Mahr would also become CEO at Jerusalem's Targum Press, an Orthodox Jew English-language publishing company based in Jerusalem.
"Eric almost single-handedly established and maintained the Orthodox Jewish comics publishing niche," Meth told CR. "He was a delightful man -- passionate yet soft-spoken, business-like yet warm. I cared deeply for him and find myself profoundly moved by his passing."
Michael Netzer wrote in a post published on his web site that Mahr was "A man with a heart of gold as big as his ambition. A giver at every turn. A father and husband cherished by family, friends, acquaintances and colleagues. There was not a time that Sofia and I met with Eric, that we didn't talk on and on about the uplifting experience he left us with. About that soft-hearted man with a zest for life and a vision for tomorrow, to match the expanse of the worlds he toiled to bridge together and enhance."
That same post by Michael Netzer says that Mahr collapsed while giving a eulogy for a family member.
Mahr is survived by a wife, a brother, a sister, three sons, a daughter and two grandchildren. He will be buried in Israel.
A Laguna Beach community news article indicates that Frank Interlandi, the twin brother of the late Playboy cartoonist Phil Interlandi and a successful cartoonist and painter in his own right, died on Thursday, February 4 in San Diego.
Interlandi was one of the mid-20th Century cartoonists to find initial success as a college publication cartoonist, creating the popular Interlude With Interlandi feature that ran in the Daily Iowan when he was there, a strip later collected and sold in college bookstores nationwide. Interlandi was also a student at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, attending at the same time as his brother. Interlandi graduated from the Des Moines campus in 1952. He struck up a syndication relationship with the Des Moines Daily Register and the Los Angeles Times with whom he published for more than 30 years. Jetpraised the pro-Civil Rights sentiment of a 1961 effort. At top is an Interlandi cartoon that appeared after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968.
Interlandi followed his brother to Laguna Beach in the early 1950s and became part of the Laguna Beach "street gang" of cartoonists that included Virgil Partch and Ed Nofziger. The cartoonists would meet regularly during the mid-day at local Laguna Beach restaurants/watering holes. A 1974 photo of Interlandi with other Laguna Beach art figures, with Interlandi holding a fish, can be found here. Their mid-day meetings ended some time after Partch's passing in 1984.
Allan Holtz profiled a mid-'50s syndicated panel effort from Interlandi called The Cynic's Cornerin a post at his Stripper's Guide, citing the feature's attractive double-line. An example of one of those works rests below, although it's seen to best advantage at Holtz's site.
Family sources report that Frank Interlandi was also a well-regarded painter, working primarily in abstract expressionism. He exhibited for several years at galleries and through the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts.
A memorial service is planed for Heisler Park on Friday, February 12. It will be followed by an informal gathering of friends at "street gang" favorite the Marine Room, where several examples of Interlandi's work are on display. Frank Interlandi was 85 years old.
additional photography supplied by the family: Frank and Phil Interlandi, Frank Interlandi, and Frank Interlandi standing near a painted self-portrait.
* longtime industry watcher and reviewer Don MacPherson puts on the steeltoes and has a go at the planned Wizard/Shamus series of shows. I don't know, I think there's a place for a series of superhero-obsessed minor comics shows in theory, and it's hard to begrudge the group calling them comic cons when the bleed between comics and fantasy media of all kinds seems to matter to almost no one. I do hope that there's severe scrutiny of these shows.
* not comics: above and beyond its comics content, the only thing that's really interesting to me about the Superman movie thing is how confidently movie people seem to be in assigning failure and success to efforts that seem to my eye enormously complex. I thought Superman Returns was a not-good movie, but my hunch is that it was not-good according to a few things in conception (creepy emo Superman; the stalkerish devotion to the original, writing such a dull Lex Luthor) and a bunch of things in execution (casting everyone young, most of the performances, an unsatisfying climax, a Lois Lane that looked like she needed Superman to bring her bowls of soup and a blanket, cold set after cold set, and a deathly pace). It's going to take a bunch of similar things going right to make a good movie, and yet the reporting keeps on suggesting there's a magic bullet out there. I can't imagine a single hire or single approach gets a Superman movie over, not anymore.
* here's a list of fixes/solutions/efforts to make Wordpress more comics friendly. I'm so in need of such of a list I don't even know how to describe one.
* Rob Clough has released his choices for Top 50 of 2009, in twoparts. They are:
1. You'll Never Know, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)
2. Footnotes In Gaza, Joe Sacco (Metropolitan)
3. 1-800-Mice #3, Matthew Thurber (Picturebox)
4. Cecil And Jordan In New York: Stories, Gabrielle Bell (Drawn &Quarterly)
5. Little Nothings: The Prisoner Syndrome, Lewis Trondheim (NBM)
6. Like A Dog, Zak Sally (Fantagraphics)
7. Map Of My Heart, John Porcellino (Drawn & Quarterly).
8. The Book Of Genesis Illustrated, Robert Crumb (WW Norton)
9. Masterpiece Comics, R.Sikoryak (Drawn & Quarterly)
10. Tales Designed To Thrizzle Vol. 1, Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics)
11. The Tablet strips of Vanessa Davis
13. I Want You, Lisa Hanawalt (Buenaventura Press)
14. Monsters, Ken Dahl (Secret Acres)
15. Sublife #2, John Pham (Fantagraphics)
16. Syncopated, edited by Brendan Burford
17. Ho! , Ivan Brunetti (Fantagraphics)
18. Follow Me, Jesse Moynihan (Bodega)
19. George Sprott, Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
20. Be A Nose! , Art Spiegelman (McSweeney's)
21. AD: New Orleans After The Deluge, Josh Neufeld (Pantheon)
22. The Secret Science Alliance, Eleanor Davis (Bloomsbury)
23. PS Comics, Minty Lewis (Secret Acres)
24. Yearbooks, Nicholas Breutzman (D Cloud)
25. Covered In Confusion, Will Dinski (self-published) 26. The Aviatrix #1, Eric Haven (Buenaventura Press)
27. Ten Thousand Things To Do, Jesse Reklaw (six self-published minicomics)
28. Just So You Know #1, Joey Sayers (self-published)
29. The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972, Charles Schulz (Fantagraphics)
30. Nine Ways To Disappear, Lilli Carré (Little Otsu)
31. Mome Vol. 14, edited by Eric Reynolds & Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
32. The Mourning Star Vol. 2, Kaz Strzepek (Bodega)
33. The Gigantic Robot, Tom Gauld (Buenaventura Press)
34. Injury Comics #3, Ted May, et al. (Buenaventura Press)
35. Likewise, Ariel Schrag (Touchstone Books)
36. Ghost Comics, edited by Ed Choy Moorman
37. Department Of Art #1, Dunja Jankovic (Sparkplug Comic Books)
38. The Bun Field, Amanda Vahamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
39. Uptight #2, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)
40. Wizzywig Vol. 2, Ed Piskor (self-published)
41. Rock That Never Sleeps, Juliacks and Olga Volozova (Sparkplug Comic Books)
42. Funny Misshapen Body, Jeffrey Brown (Touchstone Books)
43. Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, Joe Daly (Fantagraphics)
44. Important Comics, Dina Kelberman (self-published)
45.Happy Hooligan Vol. I, Frederick Opper (NBM)
46. Everybody Is Stupid Except For Me, Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics)
47. Dungeon Zenith Vol. 3, Lewis Trondheim, Johan Sfar & Boulet
48. Science Fiction Classics, edited by Tom Pomplun (Eureka Productions)
49. Mineshaft #24, edited by Everett Rand & Gioia Palmieri (self-published)
50. Love And Rockets: New Stories #2, Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
Clough says he's also done a top 100 for the '00s, which has yet to be scheduled by TCJ.
Burne Hogarth, Bob Montana Named To Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall Of Fame; Other Nominees Announced
Comics artist and educator Burne Hogarth and Archie creator Bob Montana were the judges' choices for the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall Of Fame, it was announced today.
Burne Hogarth began drawing comics for King Features in 1934 on their Pieces Of Eight feature. In 1936, he took over the extremely popular Tarzan offering, holding onto that gig -- with a brief post WWII interruption -- until 1950. His popularity on the assignment transformed his life. A cartooning school for returning veterans he co-founded eventually became the School of Visual Arts. He would later also teach at Parsons School Of Design and at Otis School in California. He authored a series of well-regarded anatomy and drawing books, starting with Dynamic Anatomy in 1958, and authored a early entrant into the modern graphic novel movement with 1972's Tarzan Of The Apes. His considerable artistic talents may have been overshadowed in some circles by his championship-talker status. He died in 1996.
Bob Montana created Archie for Pep Comics in 1941. The feature became popular enough to spin off into its own title in 1942, and Montana's creations would eventually serve as the foundation for the Archie Comics empire. After serving in World War II, Montana took over the daily and Sunday Archie strips, then serving 700 newspaper clients. He would die in 1975.
Longtime Eisner Awards followers may make note of three figures probably best known for their work in the 1970s making an appearance, continuing a trend of such creators slowly bleeding into a pre-1970s dominant awards slate. There is also a woodcuts representative (Frans Masereel) and a cartoonist who worked in Japan's manga industry (Yoshihiro Tatsumi). In that sense, this year's slate may be the awards program's best, most diverse line-up of nominees.
The 2010 Eisner Awards judging panel is Craig Fisher, Francisca Goldsmith, John Hogan, James Hudnall and Wayne Winsett. They were assisted by the students of Center For Cartoon Studies, organized by their instructor Steve Bissette.
The ceremony is scheduled for July 23 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel.
* this is something that escaped my attention the first time around: Joe Ollmann has a new web site up, including a link to a PDF preview to a book that I think has since landed at D&Q. I've always liked his work. That's two panels of it below.
* I totally missed that L'Employe du Moi released a book last November by Cole Johnson called Hush-Hush.
* I'm not sure if I missed the deadline on this, but it couldn't hurt to ask if it's the kind of thing that interests you:
"Vanderbilt University's new national literary magazine, Nashville Review, is currently accepting submissions of comics and excerpts from graphic novels. Contributors are offered a flat fee of $100, and their work will be featured alongside an interview with Maira Kalman, author of The Principles Of Uncertainty and And The Pursuit Of Happiness. Work can be submitted as an attachment to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)"
* finally, Jennifer Hayden's webcomic Underwire will be collected into print form by Top Shelf in 2011. I don't have a link for that; I got it as an e-mail. Top Shelf is also the publisher of Hayden's The Story Of My Tits -- that's one due in 2012.
9e Art Now Primarily On-Line?
Domnigos Isabelinho sent me a short note this morning indicating that 9e Art, the longtime serious French comics revue from the Centre Centre national de la bande dessinée et de l'image and the publisher Editions de l'An 2, has gone on-line in a major way -- equivalent to the recent move by TCJ.com, even though the resulting sites look very, very different.
My problem is I can't all the way figure out if this is true, at least not in with the confidence and added information that would allow me to provide authoritative context. (It's not like I think Domingos is lying to me.) Nothing on the new site is rigorously dated, and I had no comprehension of an earlier web presence to compare the two. I can say it looks like work is just beginning to build at the site -- Dan Clowes interview, Chris Ware critical clearinghouse -- and as I recall the last issue of the print magazine was released in early 2009.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* Kurt Westergaard reminds the press that the bomb-in-turban image that is sometimes reported in shorthand as a depiction of Muhammad? Not Muhammad.
* I wasn't sure people really made that mistake, but it appears they do.
* finally, this article suggests that Christopher Hitchens is making a big deal of some state department statement that expresses regret over the insult caused by the Danish Cartoons in a lecture-circuit stump speech on free expression. That just seems silly to me, although Hitchens tends to be a pretty rigorous argument-maker.
Why Can’t We Wait To Process The Success Or Failure Of Comics-Related Projects?
There's an article up on New York Times this morning about the print runs for graphic novel efforts focused on successful prose efforts from Stephanie Meyer and Janet Evanovich. Something about these articles hits me as funny, however. While I prefer this kind of article to those about celebrities doing comic books, as there's at least a print run that's resulted from these projects and with the celebrity comics it's generally just an assumption of copies sold or status transfered that usually doesn't materialize, I'm still a bit weirded out by folding a success/failure mechanism into the PR for a project that has yet to hit the stands. Complicating matters is that these companies tend not to participate in any business story tracking the success or failure of this kind of investment unless there's further PR gain as they define it; ask after a project that seem to have a heavy presence in the discount bins and you get defensive posturing and no comments and a real push to go do something else. Some companies reap PR benefits through claims while following a policy of obfuscation when it comes to providing any kind of standard information that might lead to a more solid conclusion from a third party. There's also nothing in these initial articles about the sorts of contractual issues that could weigh heavily on the ultimate success of even the biggest print run. So, you know, good for these companies and their giant print runs -- which isn't anything new in the French market, by the way -- and I imagine they'll be successful. It just strikes me as odd that we can't wait until it actually happens to say so.
* Comics Comicsgets into the teaser game, and I prefer their strategy of posting photos of the Pointer Sisters over pin-ups of superheroes. Speaking of which, there's like eight protuberances on this thing that could be penises.
* that first picture could also illustrate an article on what happens to comic book company interns.
* everyone should be excited about the New Yorkercelebrating an anniversary with four kick-ass covers from top-of-the-line comics talent.
* not comics: this list of comic book movies coming out in 2010 forgot this one.
* not comics: sometimes it's easy to forget that one of comics' great advantages is that you don't read them in a room full of your ill-behaved fellow townspeople who can't stop talking to one another despite your intense mental projections of face-stabbing. I'm serious, if this whole planetary civilization thing takes a turn for the worse I think we can all take a few seconds of solace knowing that various things we saw at movie theaters and in lines at the airport will soon come to an end.
* I'm enjoying these (the softcovers) right now, even though it didn't help me process a certain joke in the Joe Casey interview and I'm still not totally convinced the enterprise entire is any good. I wonder if 20 years from now comics readers will appreciate some of the really oddball mainstream comics machinations -- like giving the Fourth World to Jim Starlin and then taking it back again -- the way we appreciate some of the peculiarities of 1970s superhero pulp.
Another Week, Another Convention Purchased by Shamus/Wizard Nexus This time it's the North Coast Comic Con in Cleveland, which will be relaunched as the Cleveland Comic Con Wizard World Convention. As has been the case with some of the previous shows purchased, the person from whom this show was purchased will both consult on the now-bigger show and retain the freedom to run local events of their own.
This brings to 11 the number of shows now offered under the umbrella shared in some manner by Gareb Shamus and his Wizard brand, as well as bearing the words "comic" and "con" in the title. While some critics see this as Shamus dangerously overstepping his investment into such shows after a strategy of bigger, quarterly show fairly crashed and burned (or at least crashed and smoked a bit) over the last three years, I suspect they've hit on a model that's at least very hard not to keep in the black and are trying to lock in a kind of continual convention presence business that should be a place to rest their brand as print publication continues to vomit blood and they work through whatever investment capital might have all by itself been able to get a web site over and profitable 10 years ago.
Maus Becomes In-House German Federal Agency Offering, Curriculum Component I could be looking at this story all wrong, but it seems to be saying that Maus has since 2008 been an ingrained part of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, an educational institution seemingly designed to support a certain kind of democracy-underlined civic discourse. In terms of its educational mission, it seems to available as a stand-alone -- kind of Scholastic-style take-home books program, only with a bureaucratic stamp of approval -- and as a part of a wider educational program more generally about the issues it confronts. I'm not sure why that resonates beyond the obvious, but it's not a joke to suggest that Semitic issues of any kind are difficult to parse through governmental agencies regardless of the history involved. Also: I wasn't sure that Maus could become any more of an institution as a work of art, but this suggests I was wrong.
Zapiro Brings Back The Shower Head As many expected, a recent international news story of South African President Jacob Zuma linked to a 20th childhas resulted in longtime critic Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro breaking out his most devastating visual cudgel: a showerhead attached to his head and to certain figures related to the political powerhouse. The showerhead was initially put atop Zuma's head to remind readers of his statements regarding taking a shower after sex to remove himself from the possibility of catching AIDS -- a statement widely castigated in light of South Africa's general struggle against the ravages of the disease. It has since become shorthand for Zapiro's general attitude towards the elected official at any one time.
The showerhead was put on top of babies in the above cartoon -- a direct reference to the 20 children issue, of course -- and reportedly is back on Zapiro's head in the most recent, showing the president giving his state of the nation address. One assumes that cartoon will eventually show up here.
The Zapiro/Zuma relationship is likely the world's most pointed and brutal cartoonist vs. politician stand-off right now. It is certainly its highest-profile such relationship. The cartoonist has been criticized for the nature of his coverage of the South African President, while at the same time the severity of the portrayal has brought the already-popular cartoonist an extended wave of international media interest.
IFJ Backs Sri Lankan Media Protests
The International Federation of Journalists has expressed solidarity with Sri Lankan journalists who are calling for worldwide attention to what they believe is intense suppression following the recent presidential election. Cited among their leading items of concerns is the missing cartoonist and journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, who disappeared in the run-up to the election and whose publication was shut down immediately afterward. A lengthy statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission about Eknaligoda calls for increased police transparency into an investigation of what they believe is clearly a politically motivated act.
[I believe both links may activate a loud audio message, so please be warned]
Changing On-Line Ad Landscape Ends Jen Contino’s Run At The Pulse
Rick Veitch has fully confirmed on the message boards hosted by the site he shares with Steve Conley, Comicon.com, that they've go let full-time reporter for that site's Pulse news organization, Jen Contino, after eight years. The issue had been raised on those same boards after a period of inactivity at the long-time independent news site, and had been addressed by Heidi MacDonald at her blog including initial confirmation by Veitch and Contino.
"Ever since the Great Recession hit, Internet advertising has taken a nosedive," explains Veitch in his posting. "And it cost real money to get real talent like Jen's." Veitch went on to explain that both Contino and Steve Conley had been unsuccessful in finding new advertising in the tough current market, and that one of the site's previous advertisers had stopped paying the site owing "a rather large amount of money." Veitch complimented Contino on eight years of service to the Pulse site and publicly recommended her to anyone that might be hiring.
In addition to the changes with the well-liked Contino and to the long-time Internet news source for which she worked, the story's also notable for being one of maybe a half-dozen industry moves to directly cite outside economic pressure since December 2008 and the first major one in a while. There were a flurry of personnel moves at Diamond, DC, Dark Horse and Viz between January and April of 2009 that directly cited the current recession as a partial or outright cause, but not many if any outside of already-plagued enterprises (newspapers, alt-weeklies) since then.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* another plea for Giant Robot, including news that they lost their Diamond listing in recent months.
* my friend Gil Roth reminded me I never ran a link to this AV Club interview with Terry Gilliam from a few weeks back that has stuff about Harvey Kurtzman at the end. I read it, I just never posted about it.
* with the help of a list of famous cartoonists' addresses linked-to from this site a while back, Dave Kellett of Sheldon fame writes in to say he was able to track down one of George McManus' Los Angeles homes.
* I sort of missed this update on the MacMillan/Amazon.com thing. I don't think MacMillan mostly winning that tussle ends the idea of the $9.95 book, it just ends Amazon.com being able to force it directly. I also don't think it's going to take any book publisher to perceive that they're losing sales to illegal downloads for another price point to be considered -- I have to imagine they'll have pretty good information about what they're selling and if the figures suck, there will have to be a reconsideration of price point. I also don't know why this sort of range of prices and hashing it out in the marketplace is such a bad thing.
1. Great British Fantasy Comic Book Heroes, Phil Clarke & Mike Higgs (Ugly Duckling Press)
2. The Toon Treasury of Children's Comics, Art Spieglman & Françoise Mouly (Abrams)
3. From Headrack To Claude, Howard Cruse (Nifty Kitsch Press)
4. L'Eternaute, Hector Oesterheld & Solano Lopez (Vertige Graphic)
5. Poem Strip, Dino Buzzati (New York Review of Books Classics)
6. The Brinkley Girls, Trina Robbins (Fantagraphics)
7. The Collected Doug Wright: Volume One, Doug Wright (Drawn & Quarterly)
8. Antonio Rubino, The Italian Maestro of Children's Comics, Antonio Rubino (Editions de l'An 2)
9. The Sandman, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby (DC)
10. The Best of Simon & Kirby, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby (Titan Books)
11. The Fat Freddy's Cat Omnibus, Gilbert Shelton (Knockabout Comics)
12. Tarzan, Jesse Marsh (Dark Horse)
13. Blake & Mortimer Vol 6: S.O.S. Meteors, Edgar P. Jacobs (Cinebook)
14. Arman & Ilva, The Tjong-Khing & Lo Hartog van Banda (Sherpa)
15. The Misadventures of JaneDon Freeman & Norman Pett (Titan Books)
16. Four Frightened Women, George Harmon Coxe (Pure Imagination)
As always, Gravett's reviews are 98 percent of the fun, so please hit that original link.
* this post comparing the guest list for the Reed and Wizard shows is mean and hilarious.
* wouldn't some decade in there Bruce Wayne be tempted to go with a different animal, maybe something that hunts during the daytime?
CR Sunday Interview: Checking In With The Comics Writer Joe Casey It's our hope that we can run a lot more interviews at CR, including some with recurring interview subjects -- folks with whom we'll check back in given an opportunity or story hook. Interviewing a person a couple of times a year instead of one time and then never again allows for a different perspective on various issues, one we've been sorely lacking.
I've been sort of talking to the writer Joe Casey since 2003 this way already, and when I saw a recent interview of his at Comic Book Resources, I thought it raised some interesting questions about a mainstream creator's relationship to the work as it's presented on the market. -- Tom Spurgeon
TOM SPURGEON: Joe, you did an interview in support of a story you did for DC's Superman/Batman title. Some curious issues were raised in that interview. Let me see if I have straight what kind of set you off: you're writing this run on Superman/Batman and that it's being sold as a title much more directly relating to a 2001 crossover called "Our Worlds At War" than you intended for it to be while writing it. Walk me through this stuff, if you can; this is foreign territory for me.
JOE CASEY: It's certainly not up to me to delve into the editorial thinking up at DC. They do what they do and more power to them. It started simply enough: I was hired to write the book for this arc and possible future ones. I love the characters, I was stoked, it was a good time. It was suggested that the new approach to this book would be -- since it's somehow (and inexplicably) forbidden for it to exist in or even reflect current DC continuity -- tying in to past "events" and showing, I dunno, untold stories relating to those events. I wasn't completely thrilled, but I'm generally a get-along guy when it comes to WFH and figured I could fulfill the mandate while still telling a story that could stand on its own. An evergreen story, as they say.
So, that's what I did. I was vague about specifics, so readers who weren't familiar with the "Our Worlds At War" event wouldn't be lost. A modern writer's trick, basically, serving two masters... the Continuity Buff and the Casual Reader. Anyway, I thought I'd struck the right balance in the story. The mild surprise came when the printed book hit the stands, and this "Our Worlds At War Aftermath" banner was splashed across the top of the cover. I had no idea they were going that far in the branding of it, and it puts an onus on the story inside that, frankly, isn't there.
SPURGEON: Am I right in that your objection seems to be that it's kind of insane to sell a comic as a an extension on a nine-year-old crossover, and doubly so if that's not really how the story functions?
CASEY: Well, the "banner branding" is par for the course at both big publishers these days, whether it's "Blackest Night" or "Siege" or "Dark Reign"... but in this case I don't think enough time has passed for that particular story to be pushed from a nostalgic, marketing angle. Had it been more under the radar -- in other words, sans banner -- I think it would've been fine. Now, that's just one man's opinion... but I just went through this on the "Final Crisis: Aftermath" book I wrote last year.
DC did four of those mini-series, and despite all of them being pretty good (in my opinion), they didn't sell. And it was the way they didn't sell that wasn't simply indicative of content or the creatives involved. Was that because of the branding? We'll never know. At the end of the day, I don't "object" as much as I look at it and feel like certain retailers, certain readers are going to be turned off from even sampling what I think (I hope, heh) is a pretty fun story because the branding is such a turn off. Obviously, DC can sell their books whichever way they choose, and with the "Blackest Night" books they've done a pretty good job of it... but when it's also something that I've worked hard on, something that's got my name on it and something I can get tagged for, I'm going to have an opinion, especially when asked. I was asked, I answered.
SPURGEON: An excerpted answer from your CBR interview that didn't make the final piece somehow ended up on Rich Johnston's Bleeding Cool. In it you assert retailers are now facing a challenge to sell a book with a nine-year-old banner on the cover...
CASEY: Well, that was a bit of snark in the heat of the moment, I'll fully admit. But that doesn't mean I don't think it's true. It would certainly suck if sales on the book trend downward -- more than normal in this market -- over the course of this story, based on the branding alone. Now, I'll take on the responsibility if the story I wrote is shit, but that's not exactly what retailers have to go on, in terms of how to pre-order a book.
My company now publishes books through Image, we've got the MOA bullet on everything we do, so I think I have at least some perspective on marketing and selling books. And, for chrissakes, here's a book that teams up two of the greatest icons in popular culture and it's not selling much as it is... it's just a shame that we live in a world where a book like this doesn't sell to the masses on concept alone. Hey, maybe all this shit stirring will give the Superman/Batman book some much-needed press... it sure as hell needs it.
SPURGEON: Let me access some of the marketing knowledge you've picked up over the years. Other than the specific corrective we're talking about -- the labeling -- do you feel there's a general way to market something like this comic or the Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance that you that comics misses out on? Do you feel similarly frustrated by things like the state of the retail infrastructure -- the number of stores and the geographical coverage they provide?
CASEY: Well, the Direct Market and how to properly work it will never be an exact science. Once you accept that, you're well on your way to a healthier, happier life. It's still the wild, wild west out there. And it's not always a matter of knowing what works... that's a crap shoot. It's more about knowing what doesn't work and avoiding repeat mistakes. Marketing trends in comics are rarely ahead of the curve... it's usually a situation where an approach gets driven into the ground to the point where it's painfully obvious that it's no longer effective.
I can tell you one thing... I don't promote my creator-owned work until it's pretty much written and done. That way, I know what the fuck I'm talking about when I talk about it. At the very least, retailers are clear on what I'm selling. The promotion is based on actual content, not wishful thinking on what you hope it might be. But when you're willing to brand or label something before it's written or drawn, before you even know what it is and then try to shove it down the retail community's throat... well, that's a problem. Maybe it's just me...
SPURGEON: Before we get too far away from it, I have to ask: do you suspect that that excerpt wasn't included because it was more controversial than usual?
CASEY: Oh, I wouldn't think so. I know the guys at CBR pretty well and there's a degree of trust there but the thing is... when I'm willing to go on the record with something, it's because I want it out there. And if there's an objection to anything that I've said -- from either CBR or even DC, on any grounds -- I'd prefer to be notified beforehand, not simply edited without my knowledge. Even in the instances where I'm having a laugh, don't edit me... because that tone might be part of the message I'm putting out there. Don't run the piece if you choose, but don't edit me. Frankly, the questions I was asked were fairly innocent, indicative of a run-of-the-mill PR piece and I guess they caught me on a day when I felt like delivering some truth. I don't think it's much of a slam against anyone to say, "Wow, what a bizarre marketing strategy... I probably wouldn't have done that." Especially when I'd seen retailer reaction since the book came out that expressed exactly that sentiment in a much harsher manner. The guys at CBR have offered up their apologies over this situation, which are completely unnecessary, as far as I'm concerned. I'm cool with Jonah and his crew, always have been.
SPURGEON: This seems to fit into a perspective you unpacked in our initial interview back in 2003 about how the comics industry tends to treat creators in a brusque, unserious fashion -- that you're not treated professionally, as full creative partners. Do you think that this is an example of this? Has that generally improved since we did that interview several years back?
CASEY: Nah, but none of this has anything to do with me. On the one hand, comics is -- to use your eloquent words -- a "brusque, unserious" business. On the other hand, people are trying to do their jobs and more power to them. It's always fun to play the home version of the game, though. What's improved -- and it gets better every year -- is my attitude toward these situations that occasionally crop up.
As much as it's good fun talking about all this stuff now, these are not things that keep me up at night, Tom. It's still a fascinating, disingenuous, ass-kissing industry and if people knew the basic, day-to-day operating chaos of their favorite companies, they'd shit a brick. Or fall over laughing. And in those rare moments when even I'm too depraved to fit in, I just turn around with the guys in my company and sell another TV show or whatever. It's almost comical, and certainly ironic... by finally becoming part of the mainstream entertainment landscape, the comics industry has managed to actually minimize itself in a way that I find imminently exploitable.
SPURGEON: In addition to the power to turn around and sell TV shows, how have you been, Joe? Are you excited to see Gødland wrap up? I know you like to mix up your work whenever possible: what's next in terms of the role that Gødland plays?
CASEY:Gødland is rolling along, careening toward a conclusion that is hopefully going to blow people away. It's funny how something that started so freewheeling is becoming more and more precious as we get to the end. It's going to be a cool couple of months coming up. Aside from the regular series, the 5th trade collection is out soon, and we've got the 2nd Celestial Edition coming this summer.
Finishing Gødland is just the tip of the creator-owned iceberg. There's a lot of stuff that'll be announced over the next couple of months. I love the WFH stuff as much as the next guy... but I think we've finally reached that tipping point where comicbook creators are able to plant our flag and be known for the original concepts we create... as opposed to being known for the company-owned concepts we're hired to resuscitate. Sin City has far surpassed Batman in Frank Miller's oeuvre. I know I've gotten more mileage -- both professionally and personally -- out of something like Gødland than I ever got from writing the X-Men. That's how it should be, right...?
SPURGEON: Joe, while I have you, let me ask you this as a pro that's become as you say much more involved in mainstream media. Do you have a specific perspective on what Marvel's change in ownership and DC's change in emphasis and publishing management might mean for those companies? Is there anything that people haven't considered yet about these supposedly ground-shaking moves?
CASEY: I look at Disney/Marvel and any WB/DC moves -- such as they are -- as more examples of this grand game of Corporate Pac-Man, which is simply indicative of the world we live in now. It's fun to watch the demolition derby in full bloom. And I'm sure the people involved will be able to walk around like the big shots they are because of all that money at stake. That's great for them. I'm still on the side of the Artist, and trying my best to live that life. The Man Of Action Multi-Media Juggernaut has reps that look out for our business interests, so we can spend our time making shit up. Y'know, creating more things. Wait... we're talking about mergers and management and corporate synergy... must... stay... awake...
[edited because I didn't get a reference]
*****
[Editor's Note: just to be as clear as possible, CR's since confirmed that the writer of Joe's article performed the edits in question on their own dime and neither CBR nor DC Comics had anything to do with how that profile appeared.]
I Am All About Re-Launched Watchmen Series Proposal For Dollar Bill: Bank On It, Four-Issue Limited Series From The New DC Comics
Good-Guy Characters
* Dollar Bill -- Bill Brady is a University Of Kansas all-star athlete turned corporate superhero. He likes working at banks, doing calisthenics in the park and eating at automats. He dislikes "people that are two-faced", comfortable costumes and people that attended the University of Missouri.
* Current "C" Calloway -- Neighborhood bank messenger and honorary Dollar Bill sidekick. Carries a roll of dimes in each small fist.
* Adelaide Crapot -- Teller at the First National Bank; joins Dollar Bill at times during lengthy presentation of bank services. Responsible for supplying Dollar Bill's secret headquarters/cubicle.
* Dr. Manhattan -- Naked blue man from the future largely disinterested in banks and banking but also able to stand up and get himself a magazine from the other room while remaining seated on the john, which impresses Dollar Bill to no end. Occasionally hides in past loafing around Dollar Bill's apartment, citing "huge dollops of aggravating bullshit" allegedly awaiting him in the future.
Bad-Guy Characters
* any and all who evince ignorance of banking regulations or general banking conduct
* complicated entryways
* entryways
* poor people
Issue to Issue Plot Synopsis
Issue #1 ("Cash Of Two Worlds") -- Bill called into Manhattan branch of First National Bank to explain in measured, earnest tones that while dollars are legal currency, pennies are not necessarily legal tender and thus any landlord is fully within their rights not to accept a pile of pennies as payment for back rent. In exciting action scene, Dollar Bill shown holding open door of bank for several customers, leading bank president to consider putting in revolving door.
Issue #2 ("Even A Pauper... Can Cry") -- Dollar Bill once again called into bank to explain in measured, earnest tones how you can guarantee a lack of signature and cash a check even if someone planned it so that they'd have more time to find the money to cover the check they just wrote, and two or three other ways to legally screw over desperate poor people. Dollar Bill catches his cape in pastrami sandwich door at Automat.
Issue #3 ("This Man, This Bank, This Salami-Man Somewhere In Close Proximity To The Bank") -- Dollar Bill once more called into bank where, while taking an extended break from explaining banking things to people in order to do some push-ups in a back vault and eat an egg salad sandwich from the Automat, he meets up with Dr. Manhattan, a naked, blue hero from the future and part-time Dollar Bill roommate. Dr. Manhattan takes Dollar Bill and Current C back to the founding of the Banco di San Giorgio in 1407 Genoa. Using measured, earnest tones, Dollar Bill explains to the 15th Century bankers the proper use of calendars as a deposit inducement, then temporarily catches his cape in large, ornate door. Dr. Manhattan creates life forms from local meat products that are defeated and eaten by Current C.
Issue #4 ("Whatever Happened To The Marker I Borrowed?") -- Dollar Bill's special yellow marker he uses to mark bills goes missing. Dollar Bill gets new marker from office supply cabinet with help of Adelaide Crapot. Dollar Bill muses on moving back to Lawrence and coaching high school track but takes time to explain to a set of customers in measured, earnest tones the difference between nominal and periodic rates. Current C trades in dime rolls for Silk Spectre Tijuana Bible drawn by failed pirate cartoonist Joe Shuster. Dollar Bill leaves by side entrance as new door being put into place, temporarily catching his cape on his way out.
Merchandising/Sales Opportunities
* set of collectible playing cards featuring Dollar Bill in various muscular poses on one side and sections of text from the Emergency Banking Relief Act on the other
* super-tight cape
* spinner rack of Dollar Bill comics to be placed in every bank lobby in America; cost and reach of program to be explained sometime in the future, although just by asking I can tell you hate comics and don't want them to succeed
* since Facebook wasn't invented in the 1940s, fans paying $14,000 for brass and glass ticker tape machines will be supplied with updates as to Dollar Bill's status, his Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show live-tickering and the up to the second collectible value of his comic
Contact
* a richly rewarding contract may be added as an attachment to any e-mail sent to tom@comicsreporter.com
Did You Know There Was A Full Translation Of L’Autoroute Du Soleil At Comic Influx?
Because I sure didn't. Granted it's a text translation that you can use to read Baru's award-winning comic, not a translated version of the work. It's just that I said last week that the massive tome hadn't been translated into English, so I was wrong.
1) Tarzan
2) Doc Savage
3) Guido (Strong Guy) in one of the mutant books. Never actually read one, but I really like the name.
4) Superman (simply because he can crush coal to make diamonds).
5) All time favourite: Wonder Wart Hog
1. The Thing
2. The Thing
3. The Thing
4. The Thing
5. The Hulk
sent in by J.G. Brin
*****
Bill Matheny
1. Popeye
2. Captain Marvel
3. 70's era Luke Cage
4. SuperGoof
5. The Bi-Beast - Between the name and design, I always laugh when I see this "thing".
*****
Ali Kokmen
#1. The Red Basher (from Scott McCloud's DESTROY!!)
#2. The Thing
#3. Hercules (Marvel's version, especially as done by Bob Layton)
#4. Mongul
#5. Superman
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. Popeye
2. The All-Star Superman
3. Kirby-Lee Mighty Thor
4. Destruction from Sandman
5. The Beast (Fables or X-Men, I'm flexible)
*****
Sean T. Collins
The Hulk
Bizarro
Marv
Conquest
Bane
*****
Justin J. Major
1. Ferro Lad (Legion of Superheroes)
2. Colossus (The Uncanny X-Men)
3. Iron (The Metal Men)
4. Robotman (Doom Patrol)
5. Robot (the All-Star Squadron)
*****
William Burns
1. Tom Strong
2. Incredible Hercules
3. Thor
4. Mr. Hyde, LOEG version
5. Hellboy
*****
Stergios Botzakis
1. Incredible Hercules
2. The Thing
3. Joe Fixit
4. Mr. Monster
5. Ultra Boy
*****
Tom Bondurant
1. Superman
2. Luther Ironheart
3. Mr. Hyde (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)
4. The Thing
5. The "Dr. Banner" Hulk
1. The Destroyer
2. The Wrecker
3. The Rhino
4. What the hell, the Thing
5. What the heller, the Hulk
*****
David Welsh
1. Chad from "Bleach"
2. Wonder Man during the early days of his acting career
3. Armstrong from "Fullmetal Alchemist"
4. Luke Cage in Gerber's "Defenders"
5. Strong Guy
First Thought Of The Day
For some reason I think the only outcome of people saying that Angouleme is becoming less important for manga is that there may be a mangaka grand prix winner in three years. I'm always wrong about BD-related stuff, though.
Quote Of The Week
"At festivals like this you find yourself jet-lagged in a taxi with Jose Munoz and you're thinking, 'Holy shit, what do I ask Jose Munoz? What do I ask Jose Munoz?!' and you end up just bugging him about random things." -- Dash Shaw
*****
today's cover is from the 1940s-1950s mainstream comics publisher Avon
Rob Rogers Cartoon Elicits Strong Response From Police Order The headline in the linked-to report may be a bit troublesome in that it could too easily link the incident in question to recent cartoon controversies, but I think the article's narrative seems solid: Rob Rogersmade a strong statement about a local black man's confrontation with white police officers, and the police department organization now confronts that opinion and its implication. This would distinguish itself from similar cartoons that face criticism in the important way that it was Rogers' intention to make the statement he did rather than some sort of misreading or misstep or mishap on the cartoonist's part that the editor or the cartoonist himself has to now try and spin. That's a very different thing. I like that Rogers has dug in and he's right: it's his job to do cartoons on important issues. Whether or not he's doing his job well is an open venue for criticism, as always, but I hope that Pittsburgh readers and civic leaders see this kind of thing differently than some cartoonist not in control of their communicative faculties for whatever reason. I think an editorial cartoonist willing to make strong stands and to unpack them through comics and cartooning is something to be treasured, not apologized for.
Distressing International Free Speech News Updates With Cartoonist Elements
* Afrik.com has a long post up about the deteriorating press freedom situation in Morocco. Two things of note in there. First is that the publication Le Journal Hebdomadaire is being forced out of business by an avalanche of debt that some folks think is being wielded against the publication. That publication was criticized during the Danish Cartoons Controversy by rumors that said it had run the cartoons when all it had done was run a photo of someone reading them with the cartoons themselves blacked out. Second is that last Fall's fine to Akhbar al-Youm and suspended sentences for the paper's editor and cartoonist over a cartoon depicting the king's cousin is a significant sign of how far things have devolved in that country in terms of its press freedoms.
* the cartoonist and journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda is still missing in Sri Lankan, as articles about the situation tend to speak more and more about the wider context of press abuses following that country's recent presidential election. The newest information I've been able to glean from casual asides in news reports is that Eknaligoda does have some health issues that makes holding him for a long time a very risky proposition, if that's what's taken place.
LAT Redesign Draws Comics Fans’ Ire; Sylvia Was Among Tribune Cuts
A couple of people have e-mailed me this page of complaints from LA Times readers about a recent re-design's impact upon the comics page. Like many newspapers, the Timeshas gone smaller in its overall size or in the size of its comics section, but in doing so didn't swap out any comics, or at least not enough comics that they don't subsequently appear to be pretty darn small.
It's worth noting that the Chicago Tribune responded to similar complaints by dropping a half-dozen strips and increasing the size of those that remain. Two of those strips were Lio and Get Fuzzy, which are popular, modern strips and I have to admit are the ones that caught my initial attention when the list came out. But taking a second look one of the strips to be cut February 8 is Nicole Hollander's Sylvia, which is another story altogether. Sylvia is one of those strips about which I think it's safe to suggest basically needs its flagship appearance -- in the Tribune -- to remain viable as a syndicate project. It's also a Tribune Media Services strip, which basically indicates an act of no-confidence on the syndicate's part by putting it on the Tribune chopping block. While it's not the mini-sensation it was in the immediate post-Cathy world, Sylvia remains one of the two or three strips --the others being even older offerings, like the sports pages' Gil Thorp -- that distinguish the newspaper's overall comics offerings. Hollander is exhorting her fans to write in and maybe save the strip from the chopping block, as described in the graphic above and in this article in the Chicago Reader. I'm going to see if I can sneak in a vote of support somehow. I don't read the Tribune anymore, but Sylvia heading to the dustbin of history potentially would be like losing a neighbor.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* the president of the college whose newspaper insulted the apparently crime-ridden town of Saginaw, Michigan by asserting that it was a crime-ridden town in a jokey fashion apologized for its publication. It's almost as if they were holding a gun to his head. Get it?
* hey, E&P: it's not that people don't have the attention spans to watch ads, it's that they don't want to watch ads -- doubly so if they feel one was sprung on them.
* finally, there's a long interview with Matt Fraction at Techland about his work on the forthcoming movie-related game that I think would be enjoyable to anyone who reads his superhero comics. That description of Thor sounds like a lot of fun, although I wish he had told the interviewer what hasn't worked with the title over the years because that's something I've never been able to figure out, either.
Go, Read: Joe Sacco Profiled By LAT There's something deeply funny and slightly sad that the celebrity-style author profile may have outlasted the kind of deeply penetrating, considered and considerable journalistic work built over several years' time that qualifies Joe Sacco for such a profile, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy the result. The article reminds us that Sacco is an innovator as well as a throwback, and while other articles have suggested a couple of next assignments for Sacco it may be that we'll never see anything as massive and comprehensive as Footnotes In Gaza again.
Adventures In Cartooning, a collaborative effort between Alexis Frederick-Frost, Andrew Arnold and James Sturm, has won the 2010 Gryphon Award for Children's Literature. The award, focused on work that appeals to kids between kindergarten and the fourth grade, is given out annually by an organization called the Center For Children's Books and includes a $1000 prize. Adventures In Cartooning was also a collaboration on the publishing level between the Center For Cartoon Studies and First Second Books. It subject matter was the creative act of turning a set of ideas into an actual comic book, with some attention paid to both the inspirational and craft elements involved. As far as I'm able to tell, it's the first graphic novel to receive the prize.
Sri Lankan Cartoonist/Journalist Still Missing; Investigation, Rumors Continue
According to various reports coming out of the region, the Sri Lankan cartoonist and journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda is still missing with no clue as to his whereabouts. Eknaligoda did not come home on January 24, and no one has heard from him since. This article indicates that the police are continuing their investigation, notes that foreign embassies have been alerted with the hope they might pressure the government and relates a potentially chilling anecdote of Eknaligoda being led somewhere on the date in question. Eknaligoda had been kidnapped for a few hours in August 2009, but nothing about the pattern as this situation has developed indicates the same kind of situation. The wider news story is that the missing cartoonist and journalist may be part of a sustained anti-press move by the recently re-elected Sri Lankan government -- Eknaligoda went missing either on or right up against election eve, and had written negative opinion pieces about the eventual incumbent winner.
Like A Plant Stuffed With Good-News Tarantulas, DC Set To Explode
It's no secret that whispers and rumors of a new publisher at DC Comics have surged and faded over the last few weeks like a ghost radio playing in the upstairs room of a haunted house. Now according to a much e-mailed link (at least to me), Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes apparently said a couple of days ago that any number of announcements are due in terms of the film and video side of things, which one would guess would come with some sort of committed partnership from the publishing arm. In other words, it would be a fine time to announce a publisher. It would be a good thing -- and an important one -- to know even in broad strokes just how DC's comics publishing will move forward for the immediate present, if that's going to be part of it. I do wonder about radical transformation. While there's always a possibility for a game-changing move of some sort, what seems more likely at this point with some of the moves already made is some sort re-arranging of furniture with a lot of words like synergy and tentpole being used, buttressed by the occasional new initiative like the stand-alone Superman and Batman to-bookstore books. It seems to me that comics sort of works in this weird and hard to change way, fashioned out of the greater retail landscape stone drip by drip over three decades and that it's really difficult to revolutionize anything created in that fashion. I could be really, really wrong, though, and usually am.
According to gossip, any new publishing initiative announced in the coming weeks may include a sustained Watchmen initiative resulting in sequels and prequels to a comic a) many believe has enjoyed its considerable power over the years in part because it's a single and undiluted work, b) would re-irritate a considerable part of the creative community that believes Alan Moore wasn't dealt with fairly on the project over the years. My worry is we might see a version of Watchmen where the costumes look like hard plastic, Rorschach practices spinning kung-fu, the violence is excessive and all over the place instead of measured and thematically important, Lee Iaccoca makes a cameo and everyone is slightly better looking than they were in the original comic except maybe for Ozymandias. That would be awful.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* longtime Marvel editor Tom Breevort writes about emotional truth in mainstream comic books. I'm sure it's intended for all comic books, and that the lessons apply, but the fact that he's conceiving of this notion from a vantage point deep within that part of the comics industry makes it interesting to me.
* speaking of Angouleme, the French-language comics news clearinghouse ActuaBD.com catches a jubilant Baru just after the formal announcement that he won the Grand Prix and will serve as the next festival's president. Baru promises a rock-and-roll 38th festival and makes a funny joke that the award will allow him to live one more year despite constant thoughts of suicide since Nicolas Sarkozy's election.
* does anyone else think it's terribly funny that the ultimate danger in Robert Kirkman's Invincible universe is a bunch of super-powered dickweeds bearing mustaches? That Kirkman is able to infuse his comic with humor on that level without infuriating the kinds of fans that take their superheroes deathly seriously is as much a testament to his success with that title as anything else he's ever done.
* going against conventional wisdom yet again, the suddenly comics-championing Chicago Tribuneis increasing the size of some of its comics. The bad news is that they're dumping six, including two I thought were generally popular: Get Fuzzy and Lio.
* finally, a bit of not comics: via Patrick Rosenkranz comes word that that antique pool cue featuring S. Clay Wilson's art -- the cue I know I've heard about before but can't remember when or where -- is up for sale. To say that's a unique piece is understating things, even if it falls outside the standard purview of this site.
* I can't remember if I knew that Fantagraphics is publishing Buz Sawyer in addition to Wash Tubbs. I don't think I did; I think that's an honest-to-goodness product announcement. Even if I forgot, who cares as long as we get nice volumes of Buz Sawyer? I'm with the comics orthodoxy that Buz Sawyer is the lesser of the two great achievements in Roy Crane's long career, but it's a fun strip and frequently stunning-looking.
* in case you missed it, here are the details about the new edition of Dylan Horrocks' mighty Hicksville.
* a new issue of Johnny Ryan's always-funny New Character Paradeis out and available for order.
* Scholastic's comics-related 2010 looks like this right now: The Bone Handbook and Raina Telgemeier's Smile in February; Doug TenNapel's Ghostopolis and the new Bone: Tall Tales collection (plus new material) in July; Bone: Quest For The Spark Vol. 1 this Fall.
* John Romita Jr. will join Brian Bendis on the new Avengers title, coming out later this Spring as Marvel relaunches that now-central franchise for storyline purposes. I bet Romita Jr. is that girl that's so pretty she never gets asked out, but that's okay because her father/editor is always setting her up on dates. Okay, I don't bet that. Also, I suppose someone out there is complaining about Captain America packing heat.
* the cartoonist Paul Rainey sent out a mass e-mail saying that he'll end his series There's No Time Like The Present with issue #13. The comic is available through issue #11 at Rainey's site.
* finally, the cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley assures us that the final volume in his Scott Pilgrim series will be out before the movie. The movie opens in the US on August 13. That's great news.
Go, Read: Report On David Levine’s Brooklyn-Based Memorial Service
I thought this piece on Monday's service celebrating the life and accomplishments of the late David Levine one of the better memorial service reports I've ever read. I couldn't tell you why; something about the tone. The service itself sounds like it was well-attended, modest in reflection of its subject, properly laudatory in terms of his work and frequently humorous. We should maybe strive to send our best artists to their great reward with something along the lines of this dignified-sounding experience, as opposed to our more customary attempts to connect ourselves to such figures through personal anecdote and general nostalgia.
Missed It: Diamond Gem Awards They're not generally flattering of the comics art form, but they don't care: the Gem Awards handed out by industry-dominant distributor Diamond Comic Distributors provides a yearly view of the Direct Market straight from the merchandise pallet. This year's awards came out last Thursday. DC was the big winner with 10 various awards. With IDW pushing into big-boy land in terms of market share, Boom! Studios took home the under-four percent publisher award. DC's dominance here makes some sense in light of Marvel's continued huge market share because DC had the best-received solo-series launch (Batman and Robin) and they were more overt about pushing their Blackest Night mega-series as such, where Marvel seemed more reluctant to travel down that road in 2009. IDW's Parker: The Hunter joins Abrams' Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics and Top Shelf's LOEG: Century #1 as critically well-received books to receive an award for their sales performance.
* 2009 Comic Book Publisher of the Year Over 4%: DC Comics
* 2009 Comic Book Publisher of the Year Under 4%: BOOM! Studios
* 2009 Backlist Publisher of the Year: DC Comics
* 2009 Manga Publisher of the Year: VIZ Media
* 2009 Toy Manufacturer of the Year: DC Direct
* 2009 Game Manufacturer of the Year: Wizards of the Coast (WotC)
* 2009 Sports Card Manufacturer of the Year: The Upper Deck Company
* 2009 Non-Sports Card Manufacturer of the Year: Rittenhouse Archives
* 2009 Video Manufacturer of the Year: Warner Home Video
* 2009 Comic Book of the Year Under $3.00:Batman and Robin #1 (DC Comics)
* 2009 Comic Book of the Year Over $3.00:Blackest Night #1 (DC Comics)
* 2009 Licensed Comic of the Year:Buffy the Vampire Slayer #22 (Dark Horse Comics)
* 2009 Licensed TP or HC of the Year:Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 TP Volume 4: Time of Your Life (Dark Horse Comics)
* 2009 Original GN of the Year: Richard Starks' Parker: The Hunter HC (IDW)
* 2009 Indie GN of the Year:League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: Century #1 – 1910 (TopShelf Productions)
* 2009 Manga TP of the Year:Naruto TP Volume 45 (Viz Media)
* 2009 Reprint TP or HC of the Year:Watchmen TP (DC Comics)
* 2009 Anthology TP of the Year:Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics HC (Abrams Comicarts)
* 2009 Trade Book of the Year: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies SC (Chronicle Books)
* 2009 Magazine of the Year: DC Super-Hero Figurine Collection (Eaglemoss Publications)
* 2009 Toy Product of the Year: Hot Toys' The Dark Knight 1/6 Scale Joker (DC Direct)
* 2009 Toy Line of the Year:Blackest Night (DC Direct)
* 2009 Collectible Statue of the Year: Cover Girls of the DCU Statue: Wonder Woman (DC Direct)
* 2009 Mini-Bust of the Year: Heroes of the DCU: Superman Bust (DC Direct)
* 2009 Sports Card Product of the Year: Topps 2009 Series 1 Hobby MLB T/C Box (Topps)
* 2009 Non-Sports Card Product of the Year: X-Men Archives T/C Box (Rittenhouse)
* 2009 Game Product of the Year: Magic: The Gathering TCG 2010 Core Set (Wizards of the Coast)
* 2009 Audio / Visual Media of the Year:Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog DVD (New Video)
A Couple Of Notes Regarding Marvel
* it's easy to mis-analyze this article from the Orlando Sentinel about the risks Marvel faces assuming ownership of characters that Universal Orlando depends upon to keep their share of that region's theme park market. It sounds less like some sort of potential roadblock situation than it does a tense but eminently negotiable roadmap: Universal Orlando is going to be pressed to pay the fees that Disney will charge according to the parameters of the deal moving forward; Disney must be careful to employ overt methods and/or strict corporate discipline not to take advantage of information gained about Universal's enterprises that could lead to monopoly-related charges against the dominant theme-park company. An interesting wire act, but the article makes it sound doable.
* I thought this interview with Peter Cuneo as self-congratulatory as might be expected, but still a pretty solid and easy to understand talk of basic strategies that got the company from the down point of 1999 to the high point of 2009. As CR has long stressed, the quality and consistency of the licensing relationships have been as much a factor in Marvel's decade-long surge as the movie deals -- which as Cuneo points out, are really two sides of a general licensing-heavy strategy. I also thought it interesting that Cuneo sees part of the company's success in *avoiding* Internet Economy One at a point where a lot of people were telling them to dive in with both feet. If you've ever wondered what the main factor is in Marvel's cautious approach to Internet Economy Two, I bet that's it.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Sean Collins writes a report from the A Diary Of A Teenage Girl Attention-Raiser/Fund-Getter.
* CR reader Kevin Tadge wrote in to point out a comic he doesn't know if anyone's talked about and I don't know, either. "This might be old news, but I haven't seen it talked about anywhere, ever... I found a Yuichi Yokoyama eComic that seems to be some sort of feature in an environmentalist thing... (I don't speak Japanese) Anyways, there's no dialogue, only his usual sound effects. Thought people might be interested..." Thank, Kevin. I'm happy to make it a re-run if this was all the rage several months ago.
* go here to see a wonderful-looking 1967 Greg Irons rock poster featuring the Marvel character Dr. Strange.
* one thing I forgot to say when I talked about promotional teaser images yesterday and how much I would have liked them as a kid: for some reason comics news sources seem to treat the release of such images as legitimate news way, way more than they do prose articles that say the exact same thing. I don't know exactly why that it is, but I'm guessing that's another reason why mainstream companies employ the strategy. I've long followed a rule suggested to me by a former co-worker that if it could be a newspaper story in the world in the comic book, it's probably not a story for me to run in the world where we read that comic book. Your mileage may vary.
* while I'm writing vaguely strident bullet points today, let me state for the record that CR isn't a PR platform for people to raise money to publish their comic books. I'll run news of charity sales, and I'll occasionally take note of a project that happens to be in the fundraising stage, and I could see myself doing something like taking note of a creator pursuing that kind of avenue for publication that were previously published in more traditional ways, but in general I can't turn this site into an avenue by which people facilitate their latest attempts to do the basic comic book publishing thing. It seems to me that way lies madness. Sincere good luck to everyone in their efforts and I hope to provide appropriate coverage further down the line, if you're not still totally mad at me.
* Meltdown Comics steals newspaper content. I haven't seen something stepping that far over the line in years. (via) Update: They've apparently changed it; owner Gaston Dominguez-Letelier took full responsibility. I didn't mean to be such a nag; I was just surprised by it! Meltdown is the only comic store in which I've spent more than $200 since 1994 and if they don't throw me out the moment they see me I'll still spend as much money as I can there.
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 run my fingers through them.
*****
OCT090026 LITTLE LULU TP VOL 22 BIG DIPPER CLUB $14.99
22? Wow.
DEC090620 DOMINIC FORTUNE IT CAN HAPPEN HERE AND NOW TP (MR) $19.99
A big slab of Howard Chaykin by way of Marvel Comics.
DEC090267 DEMO VOL 2 #1 (OF 6) (MR) $2.99 NOV090527 CRIMINAL SINNERS #4 (MR) $3.50 DEC090497 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #23 $2.99
This is what jumps out at me as far as mainstream serial comics of quality this week. That Demo comic I'm guessing is the series returning to the stands.
DEC090881 AMELIA EARHART THIS BROAD OCEAN HC $17.99
This is the latest in the Disney/Hyperion/CCS comics biographies for young audience. Sarah Stewart Taylor writes; Ben Towles makes with the art.
OCT091069 AMELIA RULES S&S ED TP VOL 03 SUPERHEROES $10.99
A popular title aimed at kids that I do not read.
NOV090950 ONE PIECE TP VOL 29 $9.99 NOV090951 ONE PIECE TP VOL 30 $9.99 NOV090952 ONE PIECE TP VOL 31 $9.99 NOV090953 ONE PIECE TP VOL 32 $9.99 NOV090954 ONE PIECE TP VOL 33 $9.99
The One Piece flood begins -- this is like that sales move to catch Naruto up with its anime counterpart, only without that extra edge of sales fervor surrounding Naruto. I guess we'll see if it works for a title like the very popular One Piece, although I don't think the publisher will be forthcoming if it doesn't work.
DEC090874 SMILE HC $21.99 DEC090873 SMILE SC $10.99
You don't see a bunch of simultaneous hardcover/softcover releases, but it looks like that's what Scholastic is doing for Raina Telgemeier's story of adolescence through dental trauma.
*****
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 here, it's probably because it gave me a paper cut.
John Porcellino Launches A Blog important only in that's it's John Porcellino, alt-comics' poet laureate and the patron saint of the mini-comic; bookmark it twice just to be sure
Mike Rhode: DC Papers Offering Only 65 Percent Of 2007’s Comics Content This post from Mike Rhode at Washington City Paper is definitely enlightening as it focuses on a single newspaper market, the Washington DC area, and simply counts the number of comics offerings in May 2007 and in January 2010. He subsequently lists them for comparison's sake. The picture of the revised itty-bitty comics section is worth its own half-day in bed depression-wise, too. One thing I didn't know is that there hasn't been a Richard's Poor Almanac this year; that feature passing from view would be worth noting if that's what's happened.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
I didn't want to wait too many more days for additional news to pair with a link to this interview with/profile of Kurt Westergaard, who began last month being attacked in his home by a 28-year-old Somali man intent on doing him harm because of his role in making one of the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Unlike some examples of its type, this interview/profile is stuffed with news: Westergaard has returned to the home where he was attacked, his wife was once removed from her teaching position, he wants to meet with his attacker and there are signs of deep support from the people of Denmark regarding his situation.
On Yesterday’s Bill Watterson Interview Michael Cavna talks to the interviewer. As many people have complained to me that the John Campanelli didn't ask about any question to give us a clue as to how Watterson fills his day now will probably be a little more disappointed that Cavna didn't ask Campanelli about why this line of questioning was left out entirely. Like I said yesterday, that's a great get. I love Watterson getting in front of the "heir to JD Salinger" stuff, too.
City Of Erlangen Makes Budget Cuts For Internationaler Comic Salon Erlangen
Here's a drawback to a much-lauded and frequently European model of civic involvement in comics festivals: when the city is hurting, the festival feels the panel. This article indicates that the city of Erlangen in Germany has cut its contribution to the budget of its international Comic Salon by 50,000 Euros, leading an organizer to proclaim (in German) that this is basically not enough to live and not enough to die. Less lucky was the city's puppetry festival, whose strings were cut completely. The salon is scheduled for early June. (thanks, Stefan Dinter)
Shamus/Wizard Nexus Buys Cincy Show
It looks like the organization that is going by some combination of the words "Comic Con" "Gareb Shamus" and "Wizard World" has added a tenth convention to an alignment of smaller shows that seems to be going monthly. It also looks like I'm officially off of Wizard's PR list. This time it's a collector's show in Cincinnati that will now be transformed into the aggressive mix of current superhero comics, scantily clad women (2D, 3D or both), sports, semi-sports and general guy pop culture that is this brand of show. This is a slightly more interesting choice than usual in that the Queen City is not a major area for conventions -- Cincinnati is not even in the top 50 US cities population-wise -- but it could potentially attract fans from a number of Midwestern states and comics-friendly cities like Louisville, Indianapolis and Columbus.
* I bet if I still read a lot of superhero comics, I would think the employment of teaser images pretty cheesy. At something of a remove, I think it's kind of appropriate that these plotlines are hinted at through specific imagery. I can imagine myself as a kid looking at still images of Colonel Logan of the Canadian Resistance Army or something similar and wondering what the hell is going on and enjoying every second.
* the great R. Fiore talks cartoony vs. realistic comics art.
* not comics: go here for Whitney Matheson's report on a fundraiser/attention-getter for the attempt to bring The Diary Of A Teenage Girl onto a New York stage.
* it's hard not to hate the single-letter formatting of this piece, which made the whole thing feel like a memo stolen off of someone's desk, but interview subjects don't come better right now than Ruppert and Mulot.
* the Penny Arcade guys have won a gaming industry award based in part on their gaming-related strip and based in part on their convention and charity work.
Go, Bookmark: Mark Siegel’s Sailor Twain, Or The Mermaid In The Hudson I'm all for people in high editorial positions like First Second Editorial Director Mark Siegel continuing to pursue and put out for public consumption their own efforts in the art form, and this looks like a splendid on-line platform. Click through the image.
Here, Look: Darwyn Cooke Speaks On Parker At The Smithsonian Scott Dunbier was nice enough to pass along a few photos taken by Darwyn Cooke's wife Marsha on the occasion of the cartoonist and artist speaking at the Smithsonian on behalf of his book Parker: The Hunter. That is a big stage, both literally and figuratively, and the placement of such books in bookstores like the one at the museum is still new enough to be slightly mind-blowing in certain ways. Here's a report from a blogger who happened to stumble into the show while spending a day at the institution, and came away delighted.
Anime News Networkcaught word Friday through Japanese media sources that Keiko Tobe, a mangaka best known for creating the autism-related drama With The Light, died on January 28 after a lengthy illness that by January of 2009 had progressed to point of a work stoppage that was never rescinded, leaving her major work incomplete. She was 52 years old. As far as I can tell, the exact nature of Tobe's illness was never revealed to the press.
According to public sources, Tobe was born in the Kansai region of Japan in 1957. Like many eventual cartoonists, she displayed a precociousness in terms of creating her own, amateur work, and had an older sibling that was more advanced in terms of that artistic pursuit to help spur her on. The genesis of With The Light came when her younger of two sons had a classmate with autism, and her reaction to the hopes and desires of that student's parents.
Tobe launched her story in 2000, focusing on the Azuma family and mother Sachiko as she negotiated an occasionally-indifferent husband and a society that struggles with the needs of her autistic older child, Hikaru. Its title in Japan is translated as For Mrs., and it was collected in that country by Akita Shoten into 14 volumes to date. In addition to touching on some of the universal concerns facing parents with autistic children, Tobe's work delved into specific of Japan's attitudes towards autism and attempted at all times to show sympathy for how people with autism perceive and face the world.
The story won a prize for excellence in 2004 from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and was the basis of an award-winning television drama that same year. In 2007, it was picked by emerging Yen Press as one of its offerings, debuting on bookstore shelves in collected form in September of that year. It received a number of similarly sympathetic reviews. Deb Aoki of About.com praised the story's artwork, general authority on the issues portrayed and ability to reach new audiences even as she strongly criticized many of its melodramatic elements including two-dimensional characterizations. With The Light's first volume sold well enough for Yen to commit to future books, eventually putting out ten of the Japanese editions' worth of comics in five English-language volumes.
The series had been discontinued in January of last year due to the cartoonist's illness.
A private memorial service restricted to close family members was scheduled.
Amazon/Macmillan Weekend Slap Fight
In what felt to many like the first flurry of gunfire at Lexington and Concord and to others like the extended pie fight from the movie The Great Race, Amazon.com and Macmillan went at it over the weekend on the matter of pricing e-books, with Amazon.com temporarily dropping new books from the mega-publisher in any form before releasing a statement saying those rights will be returned to the publisher. This included Macmillan's comics offerings. Amazon.com has since thrown in the towel on this particular skirmish, without steeping away from what it sees are the principles involved. Many see this tussle as a sign of things to come.
To my mind, there is so much bad faith exhibited on both sides of the pricing argument that it's hard to dig through and assign blame to one side or the other here, although many people are certainly happy to take a fierce stand in that fashion. The strongest argument the book publishers seem to have is that in the end they should have the right to set their sales point at whatever they'd like, whether or not people end up wanting to buy the material. A secondary argument of distinction would be that it's bad to let people set pricing policies if there's a potential they're doing so while losing money. The strongest argument that Amazon.com and its supporters seem to have is their price point -- $9.95 -- as a general criticism against a broad insistence by book publishers that prices need to be some reasonable percentage of current, suggested publisher pricing for its books in print. That assertion doesn't tend to take into account what most people see as basic realities of that pricing -- that it's initially artificially inflated to allow/encourage chain discounting, for instance -- and fails to justify in thorough fashion an infrastructure that is only one year removed from being profiled in mainstream media as adjusting to lean economic times by downgrading where they take authors for fancy lunches. There are also serious doubts that the publishing infrastructure as it exists right now currently and consistently provides the kind of editing and publicity services by which such entities used to justify their percentage of the bottom lines.
CR contacted First Second Editorial Director Mark Siegel for a response as to his comics-publishing group's view on the matter. He was nice enough to pass along Macmillan CEO John Sargent's take on the tussle as of Saturday as he received it himself. That can be read here and, one assumes, a variety of places by now.
There are any number of additional avenues to look at the story, such as holding up the recording industry as a mirror and seeing the publishers as the music companies that were happy to see Apple develop an on-line store until it decided on pricing, or seeing Amazon.com as scrambling to have a similar influence before they're jostling for such influence with an army of tablet-makers and perhaps the publishers themselves. Take your pick. I think for comics there are a few stories. One is that many comics are handled by big book publishers that are going to be at the forefront of these battles. I wouldn't want to release my big graphic novel during a six-week version of an Amazon freeze-out similar to this one. Another is that this a potential cold splash of water in the face for cartoonists dealing with book publishers who are learning there are some times that isn't always awesome, a general where and how to publish concern up there with one like such publishers letting material go out of print much, much sooner than traditional comics publishers. Still another issue for comics is that it's a sign that company infrastructures in all media are going to be held accountable for what they deliver and what they cost.
Angouleme Festival Wraps Up For ‘10 We're going to run a Collective Memory which should scroll out shortly after this posting, but we also wanted to remind you of our coverage of what sounds like a serene weekend enjoying some of the best the art form -- both in Europe and all over the world -- has to offer in one of its annual, biggest showcases: BartBeatyreporteddaily and provided a festival preview worthy of bookmarking for subsequent years. Jean-Jacques Sempé won a special prize to open the show. Baru won the grand prix and Riad Sattouf won the best book honors. Congratulations to Festival President Blutch and the organizers on what sounds like a sublimely pleasant show.
If there's a story coming out on Monday in addition to the above, it's probably the visit of French culture minister Frederic Mitterrrand, his semi-elliptical statements on the future of the show, his accepting an award at the festival's close, and what all of that means for the likelihood that 2010's financial mini-crisis repeating in 2011.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Jeet Heer looks at the issue of readers making unintentional visual connections in comics, by way of Ivan Brunetti's writing on the subject.
* David Lasky with some IT Crowd fan art. It's a cute enough little drawing I'd be delighted to republish the whole thing here but that wouldn't be fair to Dave; you should go to his site to look at it. As far as I know, Lasky's book with Frank Young about the Carter Family is still due for a Spring roll-out.
1. Pluto, Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
2. Footnotes In Gaza, Joe Sacco (Metropolitan)
3. Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
4. Far Arden, Kevin Cannon (Top Shelf)
5. Parker: The Hunter, Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
6. Driven By Lemons, Josh Cotter (AdHouse)
7. The Act-I-Vate Primer, Various (IDW)
8. Low Moon, Jason (Fantagraphics)
9. Monsters, Ken Dahl (Secret Acres)
10. You'll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)
11. George Sprott (1894-1975), Seth (D&Q)
12. 100 Bullets, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (DC/Vertigo)
13. 20th Century Boys, Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
14. Battlefields, Garth Ennis et al (Dynamite)
15. The Photographer, Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefevre (First Second)
16. Beasts of Burden, Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
17. Empowered, Adam Warren (Dark Horse)
18. The Umbrella Academy: Dallas, Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba (Dark Horse)
19. Grandville, Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse)
20. Stuffed!, Glenn Eichler and Nick Bertozzi (First Second)
There are descriptions and many review links available in the post, so I hope you'll click through and spend some time reading it.
* this is so last week, but here are my Comics Industry Lanterns:
Red = Gary Groth Orange = Ron Perelman Yellow = Jim Shooter Green = Stan Lee (hey, you rewrite your life story at age 38 and tell me it's not an act of supreme willpower) Blue = Jack Kirby Indigo = Peter Laird Violet = Jonathan Ross Black Lantern Avatar = Dr. Frederic Wertham Black Lantern Guardian = Estes Kefauver
* Tim Hodler 
* Again With The Comics 
* Keith Knight 
* Tom Devlin 
* 
Although the trend in American circles is to restore the term "comics" to the conversation, 
I don't cover the collectibles side of comics as much as I should. I might pay attention to it more frequently if I could be convinced it functioned in a way that provided a useful mirror on the art form, but I'm not quite there yet. Anyway, it's hard to deny the power and outlandish energy of a certain kind released by 
I fairly blew off the fact that artist John Cassaday directed an episode of the now-canceled television series Dollhouse not because I wish any ill will to Mr. Cassaday but the trivia aspect of him getting that gig, the simple fact of it and the careerist aspects, those didn't really connect back to comics for me. I thought 
* Sean Colins 
I figured that there was some sort of professional reason why Tom Beland's True Story, Swear To God had been discontinued from its Image Comics run -- that the book had failed to find some traction, or the relationship between Beland and Lily Garcia had entered into a different and less amenable to making comic books phase, or that there was work for Beland elsewhere. 
I was never one to take personal umbrage at some of the elements that seeped out during more obtuse, past negotiations. While the estimates of money spent per person in town were lower than reasonable, I've never had any doubt after attending a few other professional conventions that comic-con goers likely spent less per person than the other groups. I've also witnessed reams of abominable behavior con-goer to townsfolk over the years, which if any indication of what goes on outside my purview I think would earn the con a slightly difficult reputation -- except that seeking out service people and San Diego natives over the years and trying to egg them on for the purposes of being able to report it in some snarky CR or TCJ piece it's always been my experience a hugely overwhelming percentage of them have been positive about that weekend's place in the city's event calendar.
According to their latest press release, the Gareb Shamus/Wizard Entertainment/Comic Con nexus has announced one more show -- the Nashville Comic Con Wizard World Convention. This was made possible as was the case with earlier convention announcements by the acquisition of a local show, the "Comic & Horror Festival." As is also the case with previous announcements the acquired show's manager will stay on to advise the new Shamus/Wizard effort. This make a fourth show -- after Atlanta, Cincinnati and Cleveland -- without a date. The group has eight shows currently with dates (March, April, June, August, three in October, November). While many have criticized Shamus for overextending his series of comics shows, it seems to me there must be something at the core of such shows where it just works out financially if you can carry certain things within your organizational structure.
* J. Caleb Mozzocco 
So 
I think this is important both in terms of the obvious positives that can arise from decisive action, and as a necessary vote of confidence that a certain level of responsiveness will be possible in the current executive framework. Taking six months to put together a mostly in-house team and four months to name its members after it was decided a team formulation was the best way to go, that may have been as necessary as DC claims. In then end, I just don't have access to that information. However, like it or not, this does call into question how long the new DC will take making important decisions in the future.
This is a tricky one. When I talk to people that cover or even those that simply attentively read mainstream comics, or when I think about them myself, one thing that seems right out there in the open is that Marvel has been more effective at attracting young talent and making many of them seem important in the wider scheme of what that company is trying to accomplish. I don't even read many mainstream comics, but if I hear Marvel is having a creator's summit, I can envision 80 percent of the room. When I go to conventions and see the DC signings, I'm frequently perplexed over what title to which the creators I'm seeing are currently assigned. 
Much of the heat that industry players generate among hardcore fans is the back-and-forth of short-term, even reactive efforts. "We're not doing event comics for a while." "We're still doing them better than ever!" "Well, we're really still doing event comics, they're just different." "Not as different as ours." "Rings!" "Variants!" And so on. What gets swept under the rug is bolder action of the kind that by necessity must unfold over several years of effort. Even a company as relatively institutionally invested as DC has been tends to express these commitments in terms of maintaining structures and relationships rather than changing the baselines or driving towards improved outcomes. It's time that changed.
Mbutu Mondodo's various attempts to have Tintin Au Congo banned for its distressing and backwards depiction of the Congolese through racist visual constructions has reached a compelling moment: 
There's 
* Matt Brady 
Martin Rowson 
Harmon was born in 1933 in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. He said later he received little formal education due to an unspecified health problem but he "read a lot and thought a lot and imagined a lot." In the 1950s and 1960s he wrote extensively for the still-thriving science fiction magazine field, contributing stories to Amazing Stories and Galaxy Science Fiction among others. He was also a crime, mystery and western writer. Harmon began a run of non-fiction work in the late 1960s with The Great Radio Heroes, doing a ton of original research on the era and the industry just as a wave of nostalgia-interested fandom began to enjoy its heyday. He would author at least six similar books before his passing, for a variety of publishers. 
* Gil Roth drew my attention to 
* one big publishing news item of the week -- one that escaped me entirely upon first reading it -- is that 
* First Second 
* 
A bunch of you have e-mailed that I totally whiffed on 
Freiwald met his longtime writing partner, the late Eric Schaefer, in a school for writers. According to 
* the artist Theo Ellsworth 
But it's also enough time to say without question that we'd be out of business without the book trade and that it enables us to reach readers and customers that we otherwise wouldn't reach, whether through indie bookstores, chains, 
One other thing I should add that I haven't seen mentioned. Having solid inroads in the book trade has enabled us to publish a number of dream projects that would have been impossible ten years ago without it. Books like 
* 
* memo to Frank Santoro, Dan Nadel and all the others with half an eye out for odder-than-usual mainstream comics art. It's never occurred to me to mention this before, but have any of you tried to walk through some of the secondary Marvel titles 1991-1994? Marvel had a reputation -- a deserved one, I think -- of over-publishing right around then, and while I've not read those books it seems to me there were probably a lot of artists that did short, strange-looking runs for the company as a result. 
* 
5. The third sweeping problem is that the bookstore vs. DM argument takes over those sections even when it's not brought up. This is likely a personal weakness on my part, but there it is. When Hibbs brings up the fact that the bookstores will be losing these staggering sales on Watchmen after this surge they enjoyed in 2008 and 2009 leading up to the movie, there's little to no substantial analysis of what this might mean in the bookstore beyond the loss of sales on an imaginary scoreboard. Could this leave bookstores open to someone suggesting they have the next Watchmen in the form of some Green Lantern book? Will they favor the shelving of DC books for a while? Will this make it that much harder for Marvel to kickstart their post-Disney purchase bookstore program? Were stores stuck with Watchmen copies as the cycles worked themselves out? Are they asking for new Watchmen material? I have no idea. Instead of these questions or much better ones, my first thoughts were, "Yeah, but the comic book stores lose that sales surge, too. And they lose the Obama stunt covers!" A business story festooned with nuances gets turned into Thing vs. Hulk and I'm not mature enough to resist the pull.
* it's hard not to enjoy what seems like a recent wave of unearthed Charles Schulz ephemera, 
* the writer Matt Fraction 
Calvin Reid 
* 
A longtime comics fan and acquaintance of Neal Adams, Mahr held a position at the Israel/New York-based company 
Interlandi was one of the mid-20th Century cartoonists to find initial success as a college publication cartoonist, creating the popular Interlude With Interlandi feature that ran in the Daily Iowan when he was there, a strip later collected and sold in college bookstores nationwide. Interlandi was also a student at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, attending at the same time as his brother. Interlandi graduated from the Des Moines campus in 1952. He struck up a syndication relationship with the Des Moines Daily Register and the Los Angeles Times with whom he published for more than 30 years. Jet 
Interlandi followed his brother to Laguna Beach in the early 1950s and became part of the Laguna Beach "street gang" of cartoonists that included Virgil Partch and Ed Nofziger. The cartoonists would meet regularly during the mid-day at local Laguna Beach restaurants/watering holes. A 1974 photo of Interlandi with other Laguna Beach art figures, with Interlandi holding a fish, can be found 
Family sources report that Frank Interlandi was also a well-regarded painter, working primarily in abstract expressionism. He exhibited for several years at galleries and through the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts. 
* retailer and prominent industry blogger Chris Butcher 
* 
1. You'll Never Know, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)
26. The Aviatrix #1, Eric Haven (Buenaventura Press)
* Yen Press 
My problem is I can't all the way figure out if this is true, at least not in with the confidence and added information that would allow me to provide authoritative context. (It's not like I think Domingos is lying to me.) Nothing on the new site is rigorously dated, and I had no comprehension of an earlier web presence to compare the two. I can say it looks like work is just beginning to build at the site -- 
* I'm not sure how on earth I missed an interview with Joe Sacco that's as lively and thoughtful 
This brings to 11 the number of shows now offered under the umbrella shared in some manner by Gareb Shamus and his Wizard brand, as well as bearing the words "comic" and "con" in the title. While some critics see this as Shamus dangerously overstepping his investment into such shows after a strategy of bigger, quarterly show fairly crashed and burned (or at least crashed and smoked a bit) over the last three years, I suspect they've hit on a model that's at least very hard not to keep in the black and are trying to lock in a kind of continual convention presence business that should be a place to rest their brand as print publication continues to vomit blood and they work through whatever investment capital might have all by itself been able to get a web site over and profitable 10 years ago. 
I could be looking at 
As many expected, a recent international news story of South African President Jacob Zuma 
* things I didn't know, episode #1,857,912: 
* Fantagraphics has 
It's our hope that we can run a lot more interviews at CR, including some with recurring interview subjects -- folks with whom we'll check back in given an opportunity or story hook. Interviewing a person a couple of times a year instead of one time and then never again allows for a different perspective on various issues, one we've been sorely lacking.
SPURGEON: Am I right in that your objection seems to be that it's kind of insane to sell a comic as a an extension on a nine-year-old crossover, and doubly so if that's not really how the story functions?
Series Proposal For Dollar Bill: Bank On It, Four-Issue Limited Series From The New DC Comics
The headline in the linked-to report may be a bit troublesome in that it could too easily link the incident in question to recent cartoon controversies, but I think 
It's worth noting that the Chicago Tribune responded to similar complaints by dropping a half-dozen strips and increasing the size of those that remain. Two of those strips were Lio and Get Fuzzy, which are popular, modern strips and I have to admit are the ones that caught my initial attention when the list came out. But taking a second look one of the strips to be cut February 8 is Nicole Hollander's Sylvia, which is another story altogether. Sylvia is one of those strips about which I think it's safe to suggest basically needs its flagship appearance -- in the Tribune -- to remain viable as a syndicate project. It's also a Tribune Media Services strip, which basically indicates an act of no-confidence on the syndicate's part by putting it on the Tribune chopping block. While it's not the mini-sensation it was in the immediate post-Cathy world, Sylvia remains one of the two or three strips --the others being even older offerings, like the sports pages' Gil Thorp -- that distinguish the newspaper's overall comics offerings. Hollander is exhorting her fans to write in and maybe save the strip from the chopping block, as described in the graphic above and in 
Institutional
* 
There's something deeply funny and slightly sad that the celebrity-style author profile may have outlasted the kind of deeply penetrating, considered and considerable journalistic work built over several years' time that qualifies Joe Sacco for such a profile, but 
* the cartoonist Dash Shaw's 
* a new issue of Johnny Ryan's always-funny New Character Parade 
* here's some more publishing news that's immediate instead of coming soon: 
They're not generally flattering of the comics art form, but they don't care: the Gem Awards handed out by industry-dominant distributor Diamond Comic Distributors provides a yearly view of the Direct Market straight from the merchandise pallet. 
* CR reader Kevin Tadge wrote in 
* the great R. Fiore 
Tobe launched her story in 2000, focusing on the Azuma family and mother Sachiko as she negotiated an occasionally-indifferent husband and a society that struggles with the needs of her autistic older child, Hikaru. Its title in Japan is translated as For Mrs., and it was collected in that country by Akita Shoten into 14 volumes to date. In addition to touching on some of the universal concerns facing parents with autistic children, Tobe's work delved into specific of Japan's attitudes towards autism and attempted at all times to show sympathy for how people with autism perceive and face the world. 
To my mind, there is so much bad faith exhibited on both sides of the pricing argument that it's hard to dig through and assign blame to one side or the other here, although many people are certainly happy to take a fierce stand in that fashion. The strongest argument the book publishers seem to have is that in the end they should have the right to set their sales point at whatever they'd like, whether or not people end up wanting to buy the material. A secondary argument of distinction would be that it's bad to let people set pricing policies if there's a potential they're doing so while losing money. The strongest argument that Amazon.com and its supporters seem to have is their price point -- $9.95 -- as a general criticism against a broad insistence by book publishers that prices need to be some reasonable percentage of current, suggested publisher pricing for its books in print. That assertion doesn't tend to take into account what most people see as basic realities of that pricing -- that it's initially artificially inflated to allow/encourage chain discounting, for instance -- and fails to justify in thorough fashion an infrastructure that is only one year removed from being profiled in mainstream media as adjusting to lean economic times by downgrading where they take authors for fancy lunches. There are also serious doubts that the publishing infrastructure as it exists right now currently and consistently provides the kind of editing and publicity services by which such entities used to justify their percentage of the bottom lines.
We're going to run a Collective Memory which should scroll out shortly after this posting, but we also wanted to remind you of our coverage of what sounds like a serene weekend enjoying some of the best the art form -- both in Europe and all over the world -- has to offer in one of its annual, biggest showcases: 
* David Lasky with some IT Crowd fan art. It's a cute enough little drawing I'd be delighted to republish the whole thing here but that wouldn't be fair to Dave; 
* cartoonist, retailer, scenemaker Dustin Harbin 
