CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from June 18 to June 24, 2011:
1. Gene Colan, one of the great, stylish artists in mainstream comics history, passed away.
2. Bud Plant, seminal early Direct Market distributor, one-time comics shop chain owner and surpassing catalog businessman, announces his retirement and intention to sell his business.
Quote Of The Week
"I spent every dime I had as a kid on comic books; I read the Sunday Comics and I worshiped MAD Magazine as well. This was the world my parents were not privy to and did not understand; the comics were where I went to be left the fuck alone. I was happy there and everything was possible, and in the Marvel Comics, good didn't always trump over evil. It was a more complicated and believable world. Life wasn't fair, and the guys who were "different" were Heroes. Special abilities were the property of the "other." Special powers were gifted to the suffering, alienated child, and via conferring special gifts to those who were different, the mutants, geeks and outcasts became powerful. It was a compelling message for me as a child."-- Tony Fitzpatrick
*****
today's cover is from the great comic book series Four-Color
Brian McFadden Scores New York Times Gig According to a blog post at Cartoon Movement, Brian McFadden of Big Fat Whale has scored an editorial cartooning gig in the Paper of Record's redesigned "Week In Review" section. McFadden tells Matt Bors that he will be doing a weekly comic, stressing topical humor. The Times had previously run a rotating series of syndicated editorial cartoons. McFadden is to eventually rotate out of the slot in favor of other cartoonists.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Disney Publishing has launched its comics app with a 50-comic backlog and two new comics a week, a program described here.
* over at the site The Adventures of Mr. Phil, you'll find another two pages from the rare David Mazzucchelli short story "Beer Bottle Blues."
* Scott Edelman catches up with Marie Severin, and lets us partially in to see how that comics great is doing.
* not comics: Peter David is asking potential buyers how much he should charge for a forthcoming prose e-book, which may also set the standard for other creators working at the site.
* the DWA site has added a page featuring the late Martin Vaughn-James.
* the folks over at Savage Criticsfinish their extended roundtable on the big companies' event series in progress: Flashpoint and Fear Itself. That one gets real wonky real fast, but I enjoyed it as much as I did the other two. Jog reviews Super 8 along the way.
* the judge overseeing the Borders bankruptcy has given the beleaguered bookstore giant an extension on a certain drastic deadline, although the general outcome looks no brighter.
* finally, I'm not sure why no one has thought about this before, or why I haven't noticed, but I think I'll steal it for next year: Michael Rhode provides a summer comics gift list. Now that I think of it, I guess TCJ used to to the summer reading lists of various pros and comics people, which even as a lad struck me as full of lies. A gift list for the Mothers' Day/Fathers' Day/Graduation Day triumverate seems like a good idea no matter what's been done before.
Go, Read: Artist Tony Fitzpatrick On Superheroes The Chicago-based artist, actor, printmaker and writer Tony Fitzpatrick uses the unveiling of his "Bazooka Hulk" to muse for several paragraphs on the superhero more generally. One of the great things about comics being pushed into something resembling the cultural foreground is that you have people weighing in on them beyond the hardcore people head-over-heels invested in the full flush of their present. The perspective brought by a Fitzpatrick or a Ta-Nehisi Coates isn't less valuable for being based on a now-past, intense relationship with the medium; I think those kinds of perspectives can add a great deal to the general discussion. When Fitzpatrick says of his own comics-reading past, "I spent every dime I had as a kid on comic books; I read the Sunday Comics and I worshipped MAD Magazine as well. This was the world my parents were not privy to and did not understand; the comics were where I went to be left the fuck alone," it's hard not to immediately relate even if you're still hanging in there every Wednesday.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* congratulations to Matt Dembicki for his Trickster winning the Southwest Book Design and Production Award in the graphic novels category as well as Best Of Show.
* the writer and academic Charles Hatfield reviews Paying For It. Hatfield has enjoyed a lengthy critical relationship to Chester Brown's work, and his is one of the reviews to which I've been most looking forward.
* Vera Brosgol lays out a pretty thorough process post here.
* Sean Kleefeld asks after folks' comics-buying habits. I think he's right in suggesting we may see a delayed negative effect related to the economy not recovering as opposed to it going south in the first place -- kind of a comic book industry equivalent of Gannet's personnel cuts earlier this week.
* finally, Abhay Khosla and a bunch of writers from Savage Criticscontinue their batting around of the two mainstream comics events, Fear Itself (Marvel) and Flashpoint (DC Comics). As someone with almost no appetite for those kinds of comics presently, I find these sort of rambling commentaries very useful. I always wonder if thoroughness of the discussion -- that a group of smart people would spend so much time talking about Thomas Wayne -- does more to distort the value of those comics than the content of what's being said.
Bud Plant To Retire; Catalog & On-Line Business For Sale
After 41 years in comics as one of the initial Direct Market distributors and stalwart mail-order companies, Bud Plant has apparently announced his retirement in a letter to his mailing list. Plant at one time operated the largest chain of comic stores in the US, and the industry's third-largest distributor, both of which he sold in 1988. The sale of his distribution company to Diamond vaulted that company to the forefront of the US comics business. The range of Plant's taste, rooted in classic comics illustration standards but also respectful of smaller, promising efforts of the kind he might discover at the 100s of shows he attended, did much to support the early years of the alternative comics and independent comics factions.
Plant would like to transfer his business to a worthy successor. "I am offering Bud Plant Comic Art, also known as Bud's Art Books, for sale. I'm sending this message out to everyone I know in the comic book industry and the book world. This is where I think I'll find the right buyer to take over. I'm hopeful the synergy between my long-established business, and another retailer or publisher, will be evident to the right person," he wrote in the letter.
Plant describes his business philosophy as based on providing the kind of service that he would want from a bookseller; decades of measurable success show how well this strategy has worked for Plant, who plans on continuing to follow several of his interests in business and personal ways.
This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt 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. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
MAR110044 ART OF DOUG SNEYD HC (MR) $39.99
I'd love to see this one: a deluxe, limited, hardcover edition collecting a bunch of the Playboy artist's color work.
APR110022 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #2 NEAL ADAMS CVR $7.99 APR110023 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #2 SANFORD GREENE CVR $7.99
It should be interesting to see how well Dark Horse does with an anthology that's slightly more expensive than the average comic but certainly not in the range of the alt-comics anthology or even the stunt-like superhero ones. I hear the first one did great.
APR110288 ROCKETEER ADVENTURES #2 (OF 4) $3.99
I didn't see the first one, and I'd have to look over any of the comics in the series before buying them, but I have to imagine these are some handsome comics.
MAR110041 SCARY GODMOTHER COMIC BOOK STORIES TP $24.99
Dark Horse and Jill Thompson deepen their Beasts Of Burden-based relationship with a collection of her kids material, priced to move.
OCT101046 ROY ROGERS COLL DAILY & SUNDAY NEWSPAPER STRIPS HC $49.99
I'm not familiar with these strips at all, but apparently there's some Toth in here so I'd want to at least pick this book if I saw it in a store.
APR110788 ARCHIE BABIES OGN $9.95
I'm not sure anyone I know is dying to dig into the content here, but doing an OGN is a different tack for the publisher.
MAR111310 DETROIT METAL CITY GN VOL 09 (MR) $12.99 MAR111322 NAOKI URASAWA 20TH CENTURY BOYS GN VOL 15 (NOTE PRICE) $12.99
Two volumes in two of the best ongoing series -- Detroit Metal City should be near its conclusion.
APR111334 ZIGGY 40 YEARS 1971-2011 HC $24.99
This is a fat, cute little book from Andrews McMeel. I'm not sure what Ziggy's core audience is like, but I can't imagine that core audience not being delighted by this.
MAR111400 DREAMLAND JAPAN WRITINGS ON MODERN MANGA COLL ED $29.95
A new edition of Frederik L. Schodt's mid-'90s book on manga, one of the Mt. Rushmore books about comics.
JAN111194 CAPTAIN EASY HC VOL 02 SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (RES) $39.99
Magnificent color adventure comics from Roy Crane, published as crisply as modern collection technique allow. I'm reading this right now.
*****
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 failed to list your comic, that's on me. I apologize.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
Just one quick one: the appeals court in Copenhagen hearing a request to extend the sentence of Mohamed Geele did just that, making his nine-year sentence a ten-year sentence. Geele was convicted in February of a number of charges concerning his forced entrance into the home of Danish Muhammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard with a pair of weapons. Westergaard entered a panic room provided by authorities and the police wounded and arrested Geele. As was the case with the original sentence, Geele will be expelled from Denmark after its completion.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I didn't catch this at all: Image is going to start using DC's ratings system to label their books. Apparently, the videogame-like DC standards provide the most clarity of the options considered by Image.
* there's a fun, almost breezy interview with Gary Groth lurking somewhere on the new Comic Book Resources site. I'm not sure if there's anything newsworthy -- saying that Fantagraphics should have most of their books available in digital form a year from now is just a shade too vague for me to consider it hard news, although others will disagree -- but it's fun to hear Groth hold forth on recent comics news stories. It's also the deepest he's gone into his reasons for changing things up at The Comics Journal.
* not comics: Gannett is laying off 700 employees. USA Today won't feel the effect, but they'll fire about 700 employees across their other newspaper holdings. It's the economy, apparently.
* First Second is doing a giveaway for Solomon's Thieves. That was a pretty good book, very by-the-numbers Disney-type entertainment (hey, my opinion) but done with a significant amount of craft and verve. I would have devoured it when I was a lad.
* I keep on forgetting to link to that Thor/Muppets mash-up that people are crazy about. FPI blog reminded me.
* if you were going to draw up a list of cartoonists to interview right this very second, you wouldn't get too far in before you listed the team of Ruppert and Mulot.
* finally, the fact that Borders has basically been a financial four-alarm fire for the last several months may have diverted attention that Barnes & Noble hasn't been posting good numbers as of late.
Go, Read: Tim Kreider’s Introduction To His TCJ Cerebus Piece
They've excerpted the beginning chunk of Tim Kreider's massive and insightful essay on Cerebus at TCJ.com. Kreider is one of the very best writers-about-comics, so good it's difficult to imagine doing anything else, even though his critical writing makes up only a small part of the calendar year. I look forward to writing about Cerebus myself, but I suspect that to do it justice I would have to make it the only comic I read for a while. There's so much tangential material to process in the course of reading Sim's work that to be also reading ten, fifteen, forty-five other comics narratives during the course of reading Cerebus would seem to do it an injustice.
Kreider mentions that Cerebus didn't make the TCJ Top 100 list for comics works in the 20th Century. Cerebus was probably the book least well-served by the rules we put into place in compiling the lists. We placed a premium on agreement between writers to keep a critic from rushing in with a personal favorite and getting a work no one else felt strongly about on the list. While there were votes for the comic book overall as well as High Society, Jaka's Story and Church and State, there seemed to be little agreement over which one was worth of inclusion. With the Hernandez Brothers, there was a much greater range of support for certain works. That may not have been the wisest group of standards a magazine has ever put together, but I swear it wasn't a direct blackballing.
* I keep meaning to catch up with Douglas Wolk's survey article on the state of digital comics, but just because I'm unable to consume the thing doesn't mean you should have to wait for me. It struck me on an initial read as sturdy as anything Wolk writes.
* the prolific writer-about-comics Graeme McMillan reads a bunch of "Flashpoint" comics so you don't have to. He's right about a Lois Lane comic, too. That would be one of the eight titles a lot of fans would launch in a modest digital-only initiative, and it didn't seem to make DC's initial 52.
* we should probably be able to pre-order everything at this point. As folks still claim it takes four months to change a catalog address list, I'm not waiting up.
* Brian Chippendale writes about a specific X-Men book, the X-Men generally, and comics even more generally.
* these descriptions of scenes via dialogue from the Green Lantern movie -- okay, not really -- are probably hilarious if you've seen the flick, and they're pretty good if you haven't.
* Bully's Fathers' Day post is something to behold. My goodness, all that scanning, all that finding things to scan...
* finally, Darryl Ayo talks about the downside of collecting with passion -- you may end up with too many comics for the physical space in which you're living. I'm a ruthless culler of comics material and I don't have the collecting gene in the first place, and even I have too many comics. I dream of the day, coming soon, when I can get rid of the whole bunch. I also wonder if that's not going to be a huge, huge appeal of the digital comics age, although I'm certainly not in the first 37,000 people to have that thought.
Palestinian Cartoonist Denied Entrance Into US Program
According to a flurry of bare-bones wire reports like this one, the Palestinian cartoonist Majed Badra had his invitation to a United States training course canceled because of what he was told was the antisemitic and racist nature of his work. The program in question is the International Visitors' Leadership Program; Badra was contacted by the US consulate in Jerusalem. He lives in the Gaza strip.
Badra denies that his cartoons are antisemitic, and says he respects all religions. His cartoons are politically conscious in a way that places him on a side different than that endorsed by the state of Israel. Badra says he had received a visa and made numerous arrangements to attend the program before having his invitation withdrawn. Badra's site is currently down; you can see a selection of his cartoons here.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* so Frank Miller's Holy Terror, a project that started out as a Batman Vs. Osama Bin Laden story, will see publication this Fall at the Bob Schreck-led imprint Legendary. This would put it squarely in the 9/11 10-year anniversary remembrances.
* not comics: in what is good news for no one not receiving residuals of some sort, they're apparently doing a re-release of the Matt Salinger Captain America film around the same time Marvel's new version reaches the world's multiplexes. The two things I remember from that movie is that Captain America seemed compelled to steal cars, and there was a strange environmental message tacked onto the end. Also, that I watched it on Christmas while eating cold ravioli from a thermos like the Fonz.
* over at The Panelists, a quote from Michael Ramirez about the Seattle Times stop on his potential employment tour.
* the writers at Savage Criticsbegins a three-part exploration of this summer's mainstream comics event series, including pulling out a great photo of Marvel creators.
* over at Irrelevant Comics, Yan Basque talks about not buying any new serialized comics when DC makes good on their their same-day digital relaunch this September. It's an interesting reason: Basque feels that the companies do too poor a job in meeting basic obligations creative teams and storylines, and buying trades or even old comics is a way to negotiate being screwed over on a regular basis.
* finally, Bob Temuka writes on why he's positive about the changes at DC Comics, even though he plans on buying exactly one of their 52 new series.
The list of year's winners for the Canadian creator-focused Joe Shuster Awards, was released last night following the awards ceremony, held at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and hosted by Ajay Fry and Teddy Wilson. Todd McFarlane and Chester Brown made up this year's Hall Of Fame list. Koyama Press won publisher of the year.
The nominees, with winners in bold:
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK ARTIST
* Camilla D'Errico -- Sky Pirates of Neo Terra #4-5, "Little Red Riding Hood" from Fractured Fables (Image Comics)
* Stuart Immonen -- New Avengers #61-62/Finale/Vol.2 #1-7, "The Avengers" from Origins of Marvel Comics #1, "Second Coming: Prologue" from X-Men -- Second Coming: Prepare (Marvel Comics)
* Jacques Lamontagne -- Aspic 01: La naine aux ectoplasmes (Soleil) * Francis Manapul -- Adventure Comics #6, The Flash #1-6, Superman/Batman #75 (DC Comics)
* Julie Rocheleau -- La fille invisible (Glénat Québec)
* Fiona Staples -- Mystery Society #1-5 (IDW), Northlanders #29 (DC/Vertigo), Fringe: Tales from the Fringe #4 (DC/Wildstorm)
* Cameron Stewart -- Batman and Robin #7-9, 16 (DC Comics), Prince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm (Disney Press)
*****
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK CARTOONIST
* Scott Chantler -- Two Generals (McClelland & Stewart), Three Thieves Book One: Tower of Treasure (Kids Can Press)
* Darwyn Cooke -- Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit, Richard Stark's Parker: The Man with the Getaway Face (IDW), Weird War Tales #1 (DC Comics)
* Pascal Girard -- Jimmy et le Bigfoot (La Pastèque) / Bigfoot (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Jeff Lemire -- Sweet Tooth #5-16 (DC/Vertigo), "A Civilized Thing" from Strange Tales II #1 (Marvel Comics)
* Bryan Lee O'Malley -- Scott Pilgrim Volume Six: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (Oni Press)
* Siris -- Vogue la valise (La Pastèque)
* James Stokoe -- Orc Stain #1-5 (Image Comics), "Silver Surfer" from Strange Tales II #3 (Marvel Comics) * Tin Can Forest (aka Pat Shewchuk and Marek Colek) -- Baba Yaga and the Wolf (Koyama Press)
*****
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK COLORIST
* Brad Anderson -- Dark Horse, DC Comics, Marvel Comics
* Jean Francoise Beaulieu -- Marvel Comics
* Blond -- Boom! Studios, DC Comics, Zenoscope
* Nathan Fairbairn -- DC Comics, Marvel Comics
* Francois Lapierre -- Magasin général Volume Six: Ernest Latulippe (Casterman)
* Dave McCaig -- Clients include: DC Comics, Image/Top Cow, Marvel Comics * Julie Rocheleau -- La fille invisible (Glénat Québec)
*****
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK COVER ARTIST
* Kalman Andrasofszky -- Action Comics #887, R.E.B.E.L.S. #12- 19 (DC Comics), Dazzler, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update #2-5 (Marvel Comics), Artifacts #3 (Image/Top Cow), Stan Lee's Soldier Zero #3 (Boom! Studios)
* Chris Bachalo -- Amazing Spider-Man #630-633, Secret Avengers #4 Variant, X-Men: Curse of the Mutants: Storm & Gambit #1 Variant (Marvel Comics)
* Jacques Lamontagne -- Aspic 01: La naine aux ectoplasmes (Soleil)
* Mike Del Mundo -- Amazing Spider-Man #626, 628 Variant , Daredevil #506 Variant, Heroic Age: One Month to Live #1-5, Hulk: Let the Battle Begin, Klaws of the Panther #1-4, Marvel Heartbreakers, Marvel Zombies 5 #5, Origins of Marvel Comics: X-Men #1, Spider-Girl #1 Variant, S.W.O.R.D. #4-5 (Marvel Comics)
* Jeff Lemire -- Sweet Tooth #5-16 (DC/Vertigo) * Fiona Staples -- Mystery Society #1-5 (IDW), DV8: Gods and Monsters #1-8 (DC/Wildstorm), Superman/Batman #79 (DC Comics), Acts of Violence: An Anthology of Crime Comics (New Reliable Press), Magus #1 (12 Gauge Comics)
* Zviane -- Apnée (POW POW)
*****
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK PUBLISHER
* Les 400 Coups
* Conundrum Press
* Drawn & Quarterly
* Kids Can Press * Koyama Press
* La Pastèque
* Udon Entertainment
*****
OUTSTANDING WEB COMICS CREATOR OR CREATORS
* Attila Adorjany -- Metaphysical Neuroma
* Kate Beaton -- Hark! A Vagrant * Emily Carroll -- His Face All Red, Dream Journals, The Death of José Arcadio, Out the Door, The Hare's Bride
* Karl Kerschl -- The Abominable Charles Christopher
* Drazen Koszjan -- The Happy Undertaker, Friday's Fables
* Simon Roy -- Dead Lands
* Simon Roy & Ed Brisson -- Skimming the Till, Catching Up
* Salgood Sam (aka Max Douglas) -- Dream Life
* Connor Willumsen -- Everett, Hot Brunette, Batman Comic, Explanation for Sator Stuff
*****
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK WRITER OR WRITERS
* Anthony Del Col & Conor McCreery -- Kill Shakespeare #1-8 (IDW)
* Kathryn Immonen -- Heralds #1-5, X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1-4, "Good to be Lucky" from Girl Comics #2, "It's Not Lupus" from Breaking into Comics the Marvel Way #1, "A Chemical Romance" from Marvel Heartbreakers (Marvel Comics)
* Sylvanin Lemay -- Pour en finir avec novembre (Mécanique Générale)
* Jeff Lemire -- Brightest Day: The Atom Special #1, "The Atom" stories in Adventure Comics #516-521, -- "A Look At Things to Come In... Superboy" from Action Comics #892, Superboy #1-2 (DC Comics)
* J. Torres -- Lola: A Ghost Story, Yo Gabba Gabba: Good Night Gabbaland (Oni Press), Batman: The Brave and the Bold #11 (DC/Jonny DC), Disney/Pixar's Wall-E #2-3 (Boom! Studios), "Psyche" from Hack/Slash: Trailers #2 (Image Comics) * Emilie Villeneuve -- La fille invisible (Glénat Québec)
* Jim Zubkavich -- Skullkickers #1-4 (Image Comics), Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki #1-4 (Udon Entertainment)
*****
COMICS FOR KIDS
* Binky To The Rescue by Ashley Spires (Kids Can Press)
* Felice Et Le Flamboyant Bleu by Mikaël (PLB Editions)
* Fishing With Gubby written by Gary Kent, art by Kim La Fave (Harbour Publishing)
* Food Fight: A Graphic Guide Adventure written by Liam O'Donnell, art by Mike Deas (Orca Book Publishers)
* Titi Krapouti & Cie Vol. 1 by Stéphanie Leduc ( Glénat Québec) * Three Thieves Book One: Tower Of Treasure by Scott Chantler (Kids Can Press)
* Two Generals by Scott Chantler (McClelland & Stewart)
*****
THE GENE DAY AWARD FOR SELF-PUBLISHERS
* Jason Bradshaw -- Boredom Pays #2
* Michel Hellman -- Iceberg
* Nick Maandag -- Streakers * John Martz -- Heaven All Day
* Elaine Will -- Look Straight Ahead #1-2
*****
THE HARRY KREMER AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK RETAILER
* Amazing Fantasy (Red Deer, AB)
* Amazing Stories (Saskatoon, SK)
* Another Dimension Comics (Calgary, AB)
* Comic Book Addiction (Whitby, ON)
* The Comic Hunter (Moncton, NB)
* Comic Readers (Downtown Regina, SK)
* Golden Age Collectibles (Vancouver, BC)
* Hill City Comics & Games (Thunder Bay, ON)
* L'Imaginaire (Quebec City, QC) * Planete BD (Montreal, QC)
*****
The following category was previously announced, at the time the nominees list was made available.
Not Comics: Green Lantern Movie Makes Disappointing $53M
Apparently, that's not very good. I don't know anything about the film business even though I know modern pop-culture cognizant people are supposed to pretend they do. I'm not even sure how this has an effect on the comics business in the long term, even though logic dictates that having a first movie launched under the umbrella of a general synergistic strategy between DC and the film and licensing parts of the Warners empire, and having that movie not perform to even diminished expectations, that's probably more bad news than good.
I do know that comics people feel this kind of thing deeply, so you're likely in the next 24-36 hours to have some folks high-fiving about this and other folks ripping into them for being overly negative, and how did your movie do, and that those rips will extend in some cases to anyone that talks about the news at all. I'm sympathetic to all sides. When you're a comics fan you're set up to cheer for factions. At the same time I don't know how this film making $130 million out of the opening gate wouldn't have been a potential positive for the entire industry, given DC's stated aims and the way companies like DC continue to shape comics publishing in ways that depend on their success for the general success of the industry. (I know people will disagree with me on that last point, if not all the broad ideas generated here.)
Do you know what struck me as odd? Was there a Green Lantern book that was the spotlight book for any and all attention the character might have received in the run-up to the movie? I can't detect one by looking at various charts, and it seems to me that finding such a book would have been a priority for DC given how much money they made on Watchmen and even their core Batman trades and more direct, same-theme tie-ins like that Joker thing Lee Bermejo did in 2008. Am I wrong about that? Was there a Green Lantern book that benefited from the publicity?
Update To Paragraph Three: Johanna Draper Carlson -- who tends to know these things -- suggests this book was the focus book, which makes sense to me. I was a bit confused by its placement on the May DM chart and the Amazon sales rankings for "Green Lantern," which potentially -- potentially -- suggests that maybe it didn't do great, but that's way different than implying there wasn't a book DC focused on.
FFF Results Post #259—Kindling
On Friday CR readers were asked to "Name The First Five Comics In Your Collection You Would Give Up For Any Reason." This is how they responded.
Tom Spurgeon
1. Defenders #11
2. The King Is A Fink
3. Tip O'Neill's Tip Sheet
4. My second copy of Cable #53
5. The Comic Book Price Guide 1980, Robert Overstreet
*****
Robert Goodin
1. Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 1
2. Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 2
3. Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 3
4. Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 4
5. Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 5
I actually never bought issue 6. I snapped the spell and my Marvel zombie days were numbered.
*****
Justin J. Major
* Fifth copy of Best American Comics 2007
* Preacher: Gone To Texas tpb
* The Adventures of Big Boy No. 217 (1975)
* Megaton Man Meets The Uncategorizable X+Thems
* Third copy of The Watchmen tpb
*****
William Burns
* Greenberg the Vampire
* Marada the She-Wolf
* Mystic Volume One: Rite of Passage
* Vertigo: First Offenses
* Versus, Vol. 5
1. Razor #2, Red Variant
2. Beach Party #1 (duplicate copy)
3. The Ren & Stimpy Show #24 (duplicate copy)
4. Youngblood #1, 2nd Printing
5. Jake Thrash #1 (duplicate copy)
*****
Michael Grabowski
1. Lost Girls Books One & Two (1995 Kitchen Sink editions)
2. Ersatz Peach
3. Watchmen #1-12
4. In the Studio by Todd Hignite
5. Haunting memories of Sal Buscema-drawn faces. Scowling, always scowling, will they never stop scowling?
*****
Tom Bondurant
1. Second copy of Justice League of America #149 (December 1977)
2. Howard The Duck #32 (January 1986)
3. L.A.W.: Living Assault Weapons #1 (September 1999)
4. Red Robin #1 (August 2009)
5. Justice #1 (October 2005)
*****
Mark Coale
1. Flash Rebirth 1
2. Green Lantern Rebirth 1
3. JL Cry for Freedom 1
4. Strange Kiss 1
5. Infinite Crisis 1
*****
Max Fischer
1. Stitches by David Small
2. Old volumes of CoroCoro Comic
3. Beyblade
4. Gear by Doug TenNapel
5. Stitches by David Small
1) Thundermace #1 (I'm pretty sure I've got a "fan" letter in issue #2)
2) Secret Wars II #1
3) Batman #618-- I still have no idea who Harold is nor do I really care.
4) X-Men #1-- Do I have to give up all 4 copies I have?
5) Avengers #300
*****
Danny Ceballos
1. The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man #4
2. You Don't Look 35, Charlie Brown
3. Young Lions
4. Classics Illustrated -- Crime & Punishment
5. Best American Comics of 2007
*****
Matt Seneca
1. full set of Jeph Loeb's run on Superman/Batman
2. Kitchen Sink Terry and the Pirates collections
3. recolored Jim Steranko collections
4. post-1980s Heavy Metal issues that don't feature Paolo Serpieri art
5. early, embarrassing minicomics I made
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. Uncanny X-Men Annual #7 "POP" Kitty Porn indeed
2. Midnighter #20 Ewwwwwwwww
3. Ultimates #8 -- There goes my childhood
4. (Goddamn) All Star Batman #1
5. Brat Pack GN -- Brrrrrrrr
*****
topic slightly altered from a suggestion by Eric Newsom; thanks, Eric
Not Comics: Louis Armstrong’s Just One Of Those Things
It kills me that Louis Armstrong did the best version of so many songs, in that I'm never quite certain he's all the way present in the lyrics he sings. There are moments in some of his best performances when it feels like Armstrong slides through a word, or a phrase, or an entire line far more for how it sounds than for what it says. It's surprising, then, how this may be the only A-list singer's version of Cole Porter's song that gets at its conversational qualities, the deep sadness that curls at the edges of speech when a man tries to disassemble something good that's happened to him, something he's certain he does not deserve and cannot under any circumstance maintain. Armstrong pushes through the all-time florid sigh of a line "a trip to the moon on gossamer wings" like he knows he has to back away from it immediately but wants it out there anyway. It's a surprisingly nuanced effect from Armstrong's iconic, kids cartoon of a voice. And who can't relate to wanting to have that kind of moment both ways?
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from June 11 to June 17, 2011:
1. Zunar sues the Malaysian government, the Home Ministry and three police officials concerning a 2010 seizure and brief imprisonment due to the satirical nature of his then-latest book.
2. Zapiro has employed the rape metaphor again for an editorial cartoon about laws designed to curtail the freedom of the press, and not everyone in South Africa or the wider international community is enthusiastically on board.
3. A Denmark appeals court is seeking three additional years tacked onto the sentence of Mohammed Geele. Geele was the Somali man arrested, tried and convicted for crimes related to a axe-assisted break-in at Danish Muhammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard's house that sent the septuagenarian into a panic room.
Losers Of The Week
Freelancers that were placing cartoon work at the New York Times, as they're seemingly going back to commissioning work directly.
Quote Of The Week
"Lee told me that when my cartoons first started running, one of the older cartoonists asked him if he owed my family money. And at my first New Yorker party, Charles Saxon came up to me and had things to say about my drawing style. He even asked me, 'Why do you draw the way you do?' And I said, 'Why do you draw the way you do?' Why do you talk the way you do? Why do you dress the way you do? Why is your handwriting the way it is? I don't know. I'm aware that a lot of people probably hate my stuff. But I hate a lot of people's work, too. Everybody has their taste." -- Roz Chast
*****
today's cover is from the great comic book series Four-Color
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: A Publishing News Column By Tom Spurgeon
There's an enormous amount of publishing news out there from the last 10 days or so, much of it overwhelmed by DC's decision to relaunch its entire line and bring on same-day digital at the same time. I beg your forgiveness for the length of what follows.
* above-the-fold item #1: Box Brown is raising money for a kind of project I've been waiting for someone to try: a limited-lifespan publisher devoted to publishing alternative comic books. He already has the cartoonists he wants to use lined up, a heady mix of veterans of this particular form and those that have never tried it before.
* above-the-fold item #2: Mark Siegel is seeking money via Kickstarter for his Sailor Twain project, but with an interesting distinction. While the eventual printed copy will come out from the First Second imprint of which Siegel is the head honcho, Siegel is looking to buttress the on-line serialization of the book through this fundraising campaign, in order to bolster those following it for free that might eventually be looking for the collected edition.
As Siegel explained it to me:
"The book is the book, but the online serial has its own life, and is quite a different experience (besides serializing the story, there's the companion blog, with history and art notes, plus the interactive conversation aboard). From Macmillan's standpoint, First Second is running a few experiments online under its "To Be Continued" banner. There's the Iranian dissident project "Zahra's Paradise," and MK Reed and Jonathan Hill's "Americus," plus the upcoming re-launch of Derek Kirk Kim's "Tune," and of course my own project. In each instance, they're very different approaches, and to a large degree, it's up to each creator to make it stick. My hope is that the webcomic experiment takes off, and we can make a case for it with Macmillan, on a broader basis. With my own Sailor Twain, I get to try a bunch of things which I wouldn't necessarily test on First Second authors -- in case it falls flat and I end up with egg on my face, at least it's just my own face.
So the Kickstarter is meant to support the webcomic, not the book -- though of course, I hope to show that a success there will do good things for the printed book as well.
* above-the-fold item #3: Brigid Alverson has a succinct write up here about how SLG is making some of its content available to digital comics readers through a devoted business partnership. Alverson also looks at existing options to access SLG material.
* PictureBox has for sale a limited-edition Gary Panter book that accompanied a European arts show. It's called The Land Unknown. It's hard for me to imagine a lot of comics fan thats wouldn't want an object that fun-looking on their shelves. Additionally, the publisher has announced a CF art book for Fall 2011, to be called Sediment.
* an omnibus edition of the very fine Osamu Tezuka manga Dororowill come out in February. I think Vertical currently sells it as three volumes.
* I did not know the new Casanova series will be called Casanova: Avaritia nor that it would be four (full-length) issues in length. Now I do.
* cancelling the Uncanny X-Men recently title allows for Marvel to re-launch the Uncanny X-Men title before year's end. I can't imagine that splitting the X-Men into Cyclops- and Wolverine-led factions is as interesting as if you'd split them into Cyclops- and Kitty Pryde-led factions, but maybe that's just me. The one good thing that Marvel does with their stunts these days is more often than not have a good book for people to read that might fall into the promotion for the promotion's sake, and it seems they have a significant degree of confidence in writer Kieron Gillen.
* I'm behind on the bulk of my Kickstarter-related announcements, but it looks like Kind of Blue!didn't need my help at all.
* here's one off the beaten path, and "about comics" rather than comics besides: the writer Matt Maxwell has collected a bunch of his columns about comics into The Collected Full Bleed for kindle users. I love these kinds of efforts generally, and I always get something out of Maxwell's perspective on comics issues.
* Desert Island sent out a press release with the line-up for Smoke Signal #9; cover by James Jean, authorized reprint of Wood's "Disneyland Memorial Orgy" now celebrating its 45th anniversary, and this creators line-up:
John Campbell
Ludovic Debeurme
Michael DeForge
Glynnis Fawkes
Matt Furie
Marcellus Hall
Glenn Head
Sam Henderson
Michael Kupperman
Gerald Jablonski
Tim Lane
Jason T. Miles
Max de Radigués
Robert Sergel
Conor Stechschulte
Leslie Stein
Sounds great to me.
* I missed the launch of a new web site devoted to reviews and feature-style pieces: Graphic Eye.
* this is the first time I've heard of an editor being brought on board to help a webcomic make the transition into print, but such a move makes total sense.
* finally, I also totally missed this press release for Donna Barr's on-line comics effort A Little Death.
Haney (1926-2004) was one of the most prominent mainstream comics writers of his day, contributing mostly to DC Comics in a variety of genres including several of the 1960s' best-regarded efforts from that company. He was the co-creator of Metamorpho and The Doom Patrol. Connell is a former Disney Studios artist who began work for Dell Comics and Western Publishing Company in 1950, joining the editorial staff in 1954. He was a prolific writer for that company as an editor, contributing to a variety of character and TV-concept adaptations. He also wrote for the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip.
The selection committee is writer and comics historian Mark Evanier, Charles Kochman of Abrams, cartoonist and comics historian Scott Shaw!, writer Kurt Busiek, and writer and editor Marv Wolfman.
Is 1977’s Annie Musical The Most Successful Comics Adaptation?
Green Lantern at the multiplex and some pre-CCI panel arrangements have me wondering: could the Broadway musical Annie be the most successful adaptation of a comic? I know it's hard to argue with that fat $1 billion-plus from Dark Knight (not to mention that culturally-piercing, award-winning Heath Ledger performance), but Annie has a well-rounded resume:
* 2000+ performances in its original run (blockbuster status)
* 11 Tony nominations and seven wins, including the big three of book, score and musical
* multiple road companies initially and countless performances nationally and internationally since
* big-time remounts on Broadway and in the West End
* forthcoming 35th anniversary remount
* a movie adaptation of its adaptation (Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks)
* a second movie adaptation of its adaptation (Victor Garber as Daddy Warbucks)
* a third movie adaptation of its adaptation in the works (Will Smith as executive producer)
* two shots at a sequel (neither of which was apparently any good, but they don't try twice unless you're a juggernaut)
* two enduring pop songs, "Tomorrow" and "(It's A) Hard-Knock Life"
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Islamic Group Demands Apology For Rape Cartoon
According to this English-language article at the Malaysian Insider, the head of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement has demanded that the publication Utusan Malaysian apologize to that country's Muslim population for a strip about discrepancies in the way rape is treated by religious and police officials.
What's odd and I would posit uniquely troubling is that in this case the criticism isn't based on some element of the cartoon that in a symbolic way is threatening or insulting, but is focused on the message of the cartoon. In the two-panel strip called "Kekeliruan kes rogol" ["Confusion in rape case"], the unnamed cartoonist that police treat rape more seriously than a village head might. It's that idea that seems be at the heart of the complaint that insults Islam. Among the demands of the 4000-member group is that the cartoonist and publisher be charged for portraying the religion in a negative light.
Scott Adams Posts On Rape And Other Natural Instincts
Scott Adams penned a short essay on his blog Wednesday, and if you're thinking, "Well, when that kind of statement leads off a post, that can't be good," you're right. In a piece called "Pegs and Holes," Adams listed "raping" along with "tweeting," "cheating," "behaving badly" and "being offensive" in the same, long, descriptive sentence of ostensibly aberrant behavior. This created an uncomfortable equivalency made worse when (arguably, but I think it's pretty clear) that list of things were later described as "natural instincts" of men. Adams then described a world view where the natural instincts of men are curtailed while equivalent instincts from women are not. In a half-step back on the probable offense scale, but still the kind of thing rich people should hire folks to slap the keyboard out of their hands as they're writing it, the Dilbert cartoonist then went on to describe this curtailment in terms such as castration.
I and most people I know find this kind of thinking shocking and repugnant coming from a grown man, perhaps doubly so a super-successful one like Adams for whom one would guess there's not the usual spur of trying to figure out why life has thwarted them that sometimes results in this kind of expression. It seems flat-out odd that anyone would post something like this for public consumption, let alone that it would come from the keyboard of someone whose income derives from a relationship with an audience that at the very least has to be comfortable with you. Then again, it's not like Adams is a rising talent in any way, and I'm guessing likely sees himself as not threatened by anything like this, not in a severe sense. The ironic thing is that for Adams' worldview to be truth he would have been stopped from saying this kind of thing in the first place or at least would now suffer something more egregious than a flood of attention and a chorus of people calling him an asshole. I'm not holding my breath.
* CBR conducted a poll of its readership about DC's forthcoming title re-launch and the results seem fairly brutal even by the really generous allowances you have to make for that kind of thing.
* Jen Vaughn takes a long look at Bus Griffiths' Now You're Logging, one of the odder comics artifacts of the last 35 years or so. It's a 1930s-style drama about logging, done by a man -- the late Griffiths -- who knew his logging. We profiled him and the book when I worked at The Comics Journal and my memory was he couldn't have been nicer.
* Steven Heller interviews Matt Madden for Imprint about his 99 Ways To Tell A Story.
* it's further unclear exactly what fight about Jim Shooter this post is supposed to be informed by, but it looks like maybe it's the assertion that draconian editorial methods at the company came during his time as Head Honcho as supposed to being all over the place during several of the previous Editor-In-Chief tenures.
* not comics: the Green Lantern movie opens today, which is noteworthy not because it's a superhero film but because it's the first DC attempt in the modern-movie sense to launch a full-blown summer, toy-friendly movie franchise based on someone other than familiar icons Batman and Superman. It's also the first movie to come out via the benefit of the new synergistic relationship DC Comics is supposed to have with Warners, in which what works in the comics is intended to inform what might work on screen and the DC superheroes generally are expected to be a regular, reliable source for franchise movie-making in the post-Harry Potter world. Reviews have been poor.
I still wouldn't count Green Lantern out, both in terms of it becoming the kind of moderate success that a film company and its comics division can argue was a hit, or it becoming an actual hit. The want-to-see has been consistently high; it has the opening weekend essentially all to itself; it's a new concept in a summer where the vast majority of movies in the multiplex have numbers after the title (Super 8 is new but purposefully reminiscent of older films), which is something that's helped Marvel's similar efforts in the recent past; and one can argue that it appeals to a number of key demographics -- my brother says my mom wants to see it. Warners has also played the expectations game in smart fashion on this one, right down to some super-modest box-office predictions. So I think it still has a 15-20 percent chance of performing well enough to save face until the next Christopher Nolan Batman juggernaut hits. I think it even has a chance to be a legitimate, no-context-necessary hit, too -- maybe it's only a 1-in-10 chance, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Certainly all the power that a media company can muster to convince us of the best possible interpretation will come to bear on Monday. It should be intriguing to see.
* I believe I am the last person that looks at comics stuff on-line as part of their living to find this Life Magazine slideshow on MAD. Nothing wrong with being stylishly late when the link is that good.
* over at Daily Cartoonist, Alan Gardner would like to know how you get your news and read your comics.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: News On Cons, Shows, Events By Tom Spurgeon
* fun report here from John Porcellino about the Comics & Medicine conference, apparently held at the Northwestern law school facilities downtown, rather than in Evanston as I'd thought. A lot of good comics people in attendance: Porcellino, Phoebe Gloeckner, Paul Gravett and Scott McCloud among them. That's McCloud and Gravett in the photo swiped here.
* unless I'm missing something, Wizard World Philly is the big comics show of the weekend. If memory serves, that was once Wizard's second-strongest show and nearly an argument all by itself that they were ready to take New York before Reed stepped in front of them. My memory is also that despite its strength relative to other Wizard shows Philly also suffered the most when their convention business became discombobulated a few years back. Anyway, if you scroll back every single person that's appeared on any fantasy or related genre TV show or movie in the last 20 years, there are quite a few comics guests.
* there are also shows in places like Washington, DC and Fort Wayne this weekend. Nice weekend for a convention. There are still a few old people out there with sad, musty connections between summer and funnybook-buying. When I was a kid it was late June that my family took its first day away from being at the lake to spend an afternoon at Shipshewana, where we'd crash the collectibles boxes like fiends.
* wait, of course I'm missing one: the Calgary Entertainment Expo, which I think is where they have the Shuster Awards.
* Diamond has announced the items that it will be distributing to the show as "exclusives," which I take to mean their contribution to the collective of items that people will rush around on the floor of the con trying to pick up before everyone else does. That's not really a part of my convention experience, and it doesn't sound very fun, but I know that a lot of people have a blast scooping these things up and lording it over those that miss out, so there you go.
* here's another Comic-Con exclusive sold in a way that's slightly more in my realm of experience: a "buy it and pick it up at the show" version of that Walt Simonson Thor book that IDW is putting together.
The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is pleased to offer this online form as a way for prospective exhibitors to express their interest in exhibiting in 2011. The BCGF remains a small curated show with limited exhibition space. We will therefore review all of the submitted forms and send out invitations to exhibit. Our only goal is to create the strongest overall show.
The 2011 Festival will occur on Saturday, December 3rd at Mt. Carmel church in Brooklyn (the same venue as 2010) with some additional satellite locations.
-Full tables will be $200 for all exhibitors.
-Half-tables will be available to individual artists for $75. (If you are an individual artist, you will not be allowed to share your half table).
Here is how we will proceed:
1) All interested exhibitors must fill out this form by July 15th, 2011. Even if you've exhibited before, this will let us know that you'd like to come back. Please note: Only prospective exhibitors who submit this form will be considered.
2) At the end of July we will send out a first round of invitations to participate in the festival. If everyone says yes (and pays for their table) the show is full. Simultaneously we will also create a wait list in the event that exhibition spots open up.
3) First-round invitations expire on September 15th, 2011. Any tables available at this time will be offered to wait list exhibitors. Thank you for your attention to these pesky details. We're looking forward to another great fest in 2011!
That sounds like a fun show, and I'm hoping to attend this year.
* finally, we're starting to see more informal SDCC guides springing up here and there. I had fun with this one from Allison Types. If you know you're going to be using a certain hotel bar for your evenings out, scouting it out in the afternoon and learning the waitstaff's names is a genius move. Also, I love the thought of people drinking alcohol as part of a San Diego training regimen.
Analysts: May 2011 Direct Market Estimates
The comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com has offered up 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 May 2011.
My favorite numbers cruncher John Jackson Miller at The Comics Chronicles has begun his analysis of the month here.
I'm not sure you can spin May's results into good news without several leaps of faith or some real narrowcasting in terms of what "good news" means. Sales were down for the Top 300 and no title sold over 100,000. This might not automatically be a worry except that the market is mostly designed to deliver top 20 hits and a stronger Top 300 than total market strength. The difficulty for retailers to profit with a wide array of titles as opposed to a wide variety of titles buttressed by a dozen or so hits increases exponentially in a non-returnable system because of the reduced margin of error in ordering. A lack of titles driving things at the top end can also indicate a weakness in the market in that only a certain hardcore audience is being served. With two line-wide events now begun -- DC's effort not even cresting 90,000 on these charts -- this month seeing depressed numbers means a lot more than a lost January or February, or some months after events fall off. The graphic novel chart is worse on second glance, with the top title going to an expanded comic, basically, as opposed to a $14.95 or $29.95 book that might be a better profit center.
There are book selling more copies further down the line, but I don't think I've read an analysis that qualifies what that means in people-shopping-in-stores terms. (John Jackson Miller would be the most likely person to write such an article; I just haven't seen it.) You can also make the case that the serial comics middle class -- those books selling over 50,000 -- is larger than it was 10 years ago when sales were pretty crappy, but I'm not sure what to make of that, either, except maybe to suggest there are some solid publishing initiatives out there and the failure may be in infrastructure. I'm just not certain of anything right now.
Between the shakiness of the earliest part of the year, Marvel doubling up titles this summer, the overall crappy numbers and DC setting off a paradigm-shift bomb in September, this is going to be one weird year, and potentially a lost one.
Brian Wood and company's latest DMZ collection struck me as a solid creator-driven performer in the midst of a lot of books -- not all of them! -- that looked much more corporate
New York Times To Again Commission Its Own Cartoon Work It's noted by media links god Jim Romenesko here that the New York Times has sent out an e-mail to cartoonists that submit to the Week In Review section saying that they'll no longer be running "outside cartoons" there in favor of directing its own cartoon feature -- "one modeled more on the comic strip or graphic novel" beginning June 26. As also noted by Romenesko, a graphic novel-type feature would hearken back to the few years the NYT Sunday Magazine ran lengthy cartoon serials.
This sounds more controlled to me than the magazine experiment, like something they might commission from a Ward Sutton type, or rotating group of artists, but I honestly haven't heard a single thing about someone working on something like this. As was the case with the comics serials, it should be a nice platform for whatever cartoonist or cartoonists score the gig.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* an appeals court in Denmark has begun a case against Mohammed Geelle, the Somali man convicted for charges surrounding his entering the home of Danish Muhammed caricaturist Kurt Westergaard with an axe and a knife. They're seeking to raise the length of sentence from nine years to 12 years, which strikes me as an odd general mission for a court, but there you go. A verdict is expected next week.
* one writer questions the general response to the Danish Cartoons in terms of it being a beneficial, Muslim response.
* this article suggests that the much-discussed testimony of David Coleman Headley may have kept the jury from convicting Tahawwur Rana on charges related to the Mumbai Massacre.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I certainly don't know the legalities of it, and I would assume they'll be decided, but DC Comics going after the lawyer representing the Siegel and Shuster families, suggesting collusive agreements that have kept those families from signing what DC feels are fine contracts for the families to have with DC, strikes me as the most patronizing strategy possible and suggests that they don't think they can win on the copyright issue.
* James Stokoe's Orc Stain pages make for the best previews. Holy beans. Craig Thompson's collage-like post images are wonderful in a different way, less in support of a specific project or publication than some sort of cracked-open window into the cartoonist's world.
* there are a bunch of weird industry assumptions quivering just beneath the surface in the comments thread underneath this article about the artist Steve Rude being rebuffed for work by DC Comics.
* I like the notion in Jason Aaron's latest column that wannabe comics professionals compare themselves to what they feel are the worst people getting work and not in a very sophisticated way, either. He's also right I think about the low participation threshold generally, and the high premium placed on discovering new talent.
* Sean T. Collins notes that The Beguiling has just made available for sale a bunch of original art from Paul Pope. Pope's original art is super-attractive and The Beguiling does an honorable job representing its partner artists.
Cartoonist Zunar Files Suit Against Government, Officials As promised, earlier today the Malaysian cartoonist Zunar (Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque) filed suit against the Malaysian government, its Home Ministry, and three individuals over the seizure of a painting and 66 books in Fall 2010. Among several claims is that the seizure and accompanying arrest was done in bad faith, and was aimed less at making sure any specific law was obeyed and more at stopping the release of a new book that might contain satirical material of general concern to government officials.
The individuals named were the police officers involved in his arrest and a visit to his publisher in an attempt to seize more books. Zunar is seeking return of the seized material, costs and interests incurred, and a small fee for special damages. The law firm of Daim & Gamany will represent the author.
This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt 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. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
MAR111153 ANYAS GHOST GN $15.99 MAR111155 LEVEL UP GN $15.99 MAR111154 ASTRONAUT ACADEMY ZERO GRAVITY GN $9.99
Fine week for the new mainstream -- graphic novels aimed at a broad audience and focused, I'd say, on rising readers of the last seven to ten years. I think there's enough press saturation on all of these efforts for you to find out more if you want, so let me just say I intend to own all of these.
MAR110034 HELLBOY LIBRARY ED HC VOL 04 CROOKED MAN $49.99
I have no idea which versions of the Mike Mignola Universe comics has the most sales impact, but I remain in awe of the seeming logic of how consistently these always well-crafted efforts roll out in all of their iterations.
NOV100462 INVINCIBLE #80 $2.99 MAR118293 SUPER DINOSAUR #1 VAR CVR 3RD PTG $2.99 APR110563 EMMA #4 (OF 5) $3.99 APR110246 NORTHLANDERS #41 (MR) $2.99 APR110933 KIRBY GENESIS #1 $3.99
I'd probably put all of these down and pick up the latest Iron Man instead, but looking at this week's releases it struck me there were a bunch of single-issue comics out at which I'd want a direct look were that available to me. The Northlanders I'd give at least two looks, as being reminded that Brian Wood somehow got DC Comics to publish 50 issues of introspective viking comics has me back on board, and this latest issue features Marian Churchland.
FEB111037 XENOZOIC COMPLETE COLL TP NEW PTG $39.95 APR111056 AL WILLIAMSON ARCHIVES SC VOL 02 $19.95
Again, these are book I'd want to hold in my hands if I were going to a comics shop today. I don't know anything about the Williamson books, but it's been almost exactly a year since that artist passed so he's been on my mind.
APR111142 TEEN ANGELS & NEW MUTANTS SC (MR) $30.95
Steve Bissette's lengthy disquisition into the comics of his friend and peer Rick Veitch. If this is the beginning of the era of renewed Rick Veitch appreciation, I'd be on board for that.
APR110749 WELCOME TO ODDVILLE HC $14.95
I love looking at Jay Stephens' comics, and I believe this is all-ages material from a Canadian weekly. I know it's all-ages, anyway.
*****
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 failed to list your comic, that's on me. I apologize.
Taking A Second Look At The Carmine Infantino Lawsuit
Via Dan Nadel comes this lengthy posting and subsequent musing on the lawsuit filed in the middle of the last decade by Carmine Infantino against DC Comics for a bunch of characters, including nearly all of those affiliated with the title Infantino may be best known in a creative-contribution sense, The Flash. The post has a nice summary of folks' objections -- that Infantino waited until it was more politically expedient and perhaps legally savvy to file suit in the first place, and that some of his claims as to the nature of his contributions (including saying he was assigned covers to inspire writers) and to specific characters that lack a clear creative-credit pedigree, strained credulity. The suit was dismissed in 2004. Still, it stands as both an indication the company may not have always done right by certain major contributors and -- even ironically -- a signifier through the dearth of similar suits that work may have been done by DC to better sew up certain claims: a practice that's been rumored for years.
The post also includes damning analysis from Mike Esposito.
More On New Zapiro Rape Cartoon Featuring Jacob Zuma The editor of South African cartoonist Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro declared the paper's support for a cartoon that extends a previously-used rape metaphor to a free speech issue currently facing the South African press. The initial cartoon, a worldwide sensation, was published in 2006. Shapiro is currently being sued by South African president Jacob Zuma for previous iterations of the cartoon directed at commentary on the legal system. The Mail & Guardian editor, Nic Dawes, pointed out the irony of threatened legal action against the new cartoon, that an obvious expression of free speech in support of free speech would be targeted for censure.
If allowing for a dissenting view is an admirable extension of those principles, Zapiro's newspaper can receive further plaudits for publishing the strongest criticism of its cartoonist's latest effort. Writing for the Mail & Guardian, Michelle Solomon proclaims that rape isn't just another metaphor, primarily because to make it so involves a preliminary act of abstraction that reduces the very real and present horrors of such an action. The Mail & Guardian published the initial cartoon last Friday.
Article: Ronald Searle’s Work Influenced By Time As A POW In WW2 I'm not certain how ultimately truthful it might be, but the general assertion in this article that the British arts were shaped to significant effect by the time a generation of artists, actors and writers spent in POW camps appeals on any number of levels, including but not limited to novelty (I'd never heard it before, anyway). For comics fans, this piece includes an analysis of Ronald Searle's St. Trinian's cartoons as a funhouse mirror of one of those POW camps, including the utility of violence as a way to negotiate one's restricted circumstances. They quote one expert as saying, "In the cartoons some girls are hung upside-down by their ankles, others are stretched on the rack and one of his pictures, showing pupils' decapitated heads on a shelf comes directly from a scene witnessed by Searle himself, of shelves of heads of executed Chinese prisoners." The wartime experiences of artists like Jack Kirby had a deep and significant impact on their art for decades to come, so it makes sense that a POW's experience would have a similar effect; still, I'm not sure I would have ever thought about it otherwise.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I can't imagine anything comics-related you'll read today will delight on the level of this Roz Chast interview at TCJ.com.
* Ryan Sands took a few months off after Japan's earthquake/tsunami from posting at his Same Hat! blog. It's posts like this one and this one that make me really happy he's back.
* Colin Smith talks about an Uncanny X-Men panel and how important nailing certain craft elements can be to a comics-reading experience like that one.
* manga-focused reviewer David P. Welsh takes a walk through the Prix Asie 2011 nominees and discusses maybe getting some of those titles into print over here.
* you have to scroll down a bit, but I liked Augie De Blieck Jr.'s genial review of the latest Lewis Trondheim autobiographical work in English, Approximate Continuum Comics. I think that kind of review captures the abundant pleasures of reading comics the way Trondheim makes them here and in the Little Nothings series, and I think there are a number of people that might enjoy them if they were to try.
* finally, I'm not quite cool enough to figure out the tone and nature of the commentary being made here, but I always like to see comics depictions of small children being hurled through the air.
So I Guess More People Than Me Got A Bunch Of Postcards From The Ladydrawers About Industry Sexism
Heidi MacDonald informs me I'm not as special as I thought I was receiving a series of snail-mail postcards spotlighting sexism-related issues in the comics industry. I have five, all with a Chicago postmark, one of which has this URL written in pen across the front. The name of the site takes its appellation from a class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and maybe a bunch of you will find that site worth bookmarking.
Go, Note: Thomas Nast As Bellwether Of Racial Attitudes I'm more of a "history is decidedly more complex than we envision it, albeit made up of some frighteningly base and simplistic attitudes" guy, so to read an essay like this one from Joan Walsh where the Civil War and post Civil War Reconstruction are seen to be made up of pretty much a singular, continuous national idea made up of vastly complex and nuanced attitudes kinds of runs right up against what I believe in 10,000 ways. Still, there's a brief mention of Thomas Nast here as kind of the embodiment of post-Civil War attitudes towards blacks given suffrage that I'd never seen expressed quite that way before. While I'm not sure they represent a shift in engagement on the issues the way Walsh seems to believe -- I can see someone holding both opinions from the start -- it's certainly something worth noting especially given Nast's reputation as an opinion-former rather than someone whose work reflected the changing world around him.
Missed It: Keiji Nakazawa And The Hibakusha Issue
Totally missed this piece that hit the wires about manga author Keiji Nakazawa of Barefoot Gen and his somewhat sprawling response to the nuclear crisis facing Japan following its major earthquake and tsunami last spring. I expected Nakazawa to strike a hopeful note about the country's ability to put itself back together after being rattled apart, but the specific focus on the ignorance the population has about radiation exposure and how this leads to a unique form of discrimination seemed fascinating to me. In the excerpt provided the author talks a bit about his own recent cancer treatments and his general worry about the disassociation some of his fellow citizens may have brought to the issue of controlling nuclear power.
Go, Read: The Assignment Of BD Titles To Big Companies This ActuaBD.com story about Jean Van Hamme and Thorgal evinces that strange, elliptical quality that many of their features have, but I thought it a fairly compelling peek into a world where creators might cede control of certain assignments and certain characters to bigger media companies and some of the reasons they might prefer to do so.
* Sean Witzke writes about the DC re-launch. I disagree with a lot of what he argues, but it's the most articulate presentation of its basic stance we're likely to see. The writer James Vance comments briefly on the "war" titles here. Don MacPherson analyzes a new Marvel announcement in light of DC's moves, which isn't a mode of analysis I thought we'd see quite yet.
* not comics: intriguing post by Jillian Tamaki about the public art aspect of certain kinds of commercial illustration, and how an artist might orient themselves towards that kind of material.
* congratulations to Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson for seeing their fun Beasts Of Burden series sold to some Hollywood folks for adaptation purposes.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
* this piece on fallout from the Tahawwur Rana trial shows just how politically poisonous that trial was in certain quarters. The evidence-free implication that US foreign policy objectives were achieved in the course of a legal trial -- for instance that prosecutors somehow chose to pursue conviction on the charge related to the Danish cartoons over the charges related to the Mumbai Massacre -- didn't convince me of anything except to maybe be alarmed about what people read into trials where politics are tangentially involved. Maybe that makes me naive, I'm not certain. While I admit the possibility some nefarious set of activities was in play -- it's a fallen world -- I'm always much less convinced when the construction of such an argument depends on a pitch-perfect manipulation of what we just saw into an exact outcome. That feels like building backwards to me. I'm also not sure what planet anyone is on convinced that the emphasis of this particular trial was not on Mumbai but on Copenhagen, which seemed to me to clearly dominate the witness list and time spent in court. I was dying for any focus on Copenhagen.
* the political fall-out remains, however, as India will continue to probe the influence and actions of Pakistani intelligence agency members in the November 28 attacks. The notion that direct interference in Rana's case is a possibility that must be decided against shows just how politically serious this matter has become.
* in case you were wondering, the US will not retry Rana on charges related to the Massacre. Even though acquittals are pretty typically not a springboard to further legal assault, I imagine will fuel the disappointment of those that feel some sort of political end was served.
Zapiro Expands Rape Cartoon Metaphor For New Assault
The immensely popular South African cartoonist Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro) has another cartoon that has garnered international attention: an expansion of his "rape of lady justice" cartoon that this time out suggests that South African President Jacob Zuma is about to do to free speech what he once did to the concept of justice through that country's Protection Of Information Bill. It's worth noting, I think, not because of the amount of "buzz" the cartoon's received but because it's an extension of what's a dreadfully unpleasant and undeniably powerful metaphor -- which has to be a calculated risk -- and that Zuma is currently being sued for the extreme nature of the original. This article unpacks the reception a bit, including how the cartoonist presents an effort like that to his editors.
If you don't know if you qualify as a professional or not, as long as you're honest when submitting I say let the administrators sort that out.
Also please recall that at some point in the balloting the Shannon Wheeler and I believe the Ian Boothby nominations were left off of lists, so if you like those two cartoonists and don't remember voting for them, double-check the ballot and see if you need to re-vote.
Always remember that if nothing else, voting affords you the right to complain about the results.
Not Comics: NYT Talks Comic-Con And Movie Marketing
There was a slightly curious article yesterday in the New York Times about movie and TV publicity efforts at Comic-Con. It reads like one of those stories where the narrative is super-appealing -- "movie studio interest in Comic-Con may be faltering because it's not the home run that it appears to be" -- and then facts are kind of bent, reeds blowing in the wind style, to fit a "balanced" take on that suggested narrative. For one thing, this is hardly a new idea, and was a focus of very similar articles heading into the 2009 show. For another, it seems to me that the conventional wisdom an article like this seeks to debunk is illusory in the first place, and depends on taking seriously the effusive, earlier statements from many of those now doing the debunking. Surprise, surprise: if you're a PR person taking something to the show it's a great opportunity; if you're one that's skipping CCI, it's maybe not as big a deal as you've heard.
It can't be that simple. My experience on the floor of Comic-Con is pretty limited movie- and TV-wise, but I always hear much more conflicted and complicated statements about presentations and promotions from my film-loving friends on the ground than an article like this ever suggests, a range of attitudes that suggests a vastly more complex landscape than a 1, 2, 3 of hit promotions that then succeed or fail to have X, Y, Z effect on bottom-line box office. Also, CCI's David Glanzer cracked me up with his utilitarian take on things, that not every film studio is going to show material, never has, and there is still plenty of interest in using the place as a PR platform by enough of the film studios that the convention can't really fill all the programming slots. Now there's a reduction into basic terms that makes sense.
* Frank Santoro is the best comics-related travel blogger right now by maybe a wide margin, and he should be encouraged in these endeavors as much as is humanly possible. Speaking of TCJ, I like how all over the place the Michael DeForge diary entries were. Here and here are the final two.
* a first look at the May Direct Market numbers indicates that DC Comics lost market share in a month they debuted their summer crossover event.
* a few Marvel folks talk about the X-Men storyline "Schism." I always thought Wolverine was a tough-sell as a leader-figure in the comics because he'd occasionally strip down naked and run with the wolves or something, coming home covered in blood and Dr. Pepper and sentinel oil, activities that are rarely inspiring in someone from whom you're taking orders.
* this live presentation from Geoff Johns and Jim Lee ostensibly about the Superman part of the DC comics re-launch featured a modest number of media/branding buzzwords but not a lot of content on which it would occur to me to make commentary, I'm afraid.
Suddenly Footnotes In Gaza Is The Hottest Book In Alt-Comics three unearthed interviews in one week for a book sixteen months old might indeed be a little odd, but chats with Joe Sacco are welcome any damn time
FFF Results Post #258—Serial Comics
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Comics You Prefer In Their Serial Format." This is how they responded.
*****
Michael Grabowski
1. The Far Side
2. Ernie Pook's Comeek
3. Tales Designed To Thrizzle
4. Uncle Scrooge
5. The Cartoon History of the Universe
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Howard The Duck
2. American Flagg!
3. Fantastic Four
4. Love And Rockets
5. Yummy Fur
*****
Bob Temuka
1. 2000 AD
2. Love and Rockets
3. Grant Morrison's Batman comics
4. Criminal/Incognito by Brubaker and Phillips
5. Eightball
1. Palookaville
2. Incredible Hercules
3. Casanova
4. Tania del Rio's run on Sabrina the Teenage Witch
5. DHP (old and new-- I'm thrilled to see it on the stands again)
1. Little Nemo In Slumberland (the genius of Winsor McCay is that Little Nemo is a story designed to be told in punctuated episodes -- i.e., just as the dreams get good, Nemo wakes up; it was never meant to carry a sustained narrative & is actually diminished when read in big clumps)
2. "Maggie the Mechanic" in Love and Rockets (yeah "Los Locas" is much, much better, but that series & the Palomar stories read better as gns; the early Maggie tales were funny, goofy sci-fic excursions)
3. Deadbone (the b+w series, prior to becoming Deadbone Erotica/Bode's Erotica in full color, was a masterful blend of imaginative world building & philosophical nuance; the full color series had its moments but were mostly stand alone gags)
4. Urusei Yatsura (works best when wondering how she can possibly top the previous episode, yet always does)
5. Arzach (makes no more sense collected than individually, but when serialized one always wondered/hoped the next chapter would have a revealing clue)
1. The Invisibles (I think I list The Invisibles for most of the FFFs I repond to but seriously, those letters pages are essential.)
2. The Maxx
3. Savage Dragon
4. Eightball
5. Promethea
*****
Dave Knott
* King City
* Cerebus
* Doctor Strange (especially the Steve Englehart run)
* Grendel
* The New Teen Titans
Peter Salomne's Folktales And Airships, A Short Documentary About Ben Towle
Don't Know How This Got Into My Bookmarks Folder, But It's Apparently An Unaired Gary Panter Commercial
Trailer To That Forthcoming Tatsumi Movie; I Think I'd Previously Run Snippets
Footage Of Jim Woodring And His Giant Pen From Minneapolis via
Dylan Williams Tells Me This Isn't The Stumptown Comics and Journalism Panel I Thought It Was, But A Similar Panel From The National Conference for Media Reform in Boston. Thanks, Dylan! via
Joe Sacco In Conversation With Chris Hedges; Second Video Includes A Reading via
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from June 4 to June 10, 2011:
1. Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana found guilty on two charges, one related to a planned attack on Danish Cartoons publication Jyllands-Posten that never came off, but involved decapitating staffers.
2. The Malaysia cartoonist Zunar announces his intention to sue his government and its police for next week over an instance of harassment and detention surrounding the release of a satirical cartoon book.
3. DC Comics finishes the initial content offering announcements for its 52-book relaunch with a curiously timed Friday afternoon announcement of Superman-related titles almost certainly intended to negotiate their loss of Superman character elements to the families of the original creators.
Winner Of The Week
Zunar
Loser Of The Week
Tahawwur Rana
Quote Of The Week
"Part of the plan was to decapitate the newspapers' employees and throw their heads out the windows."-- a news report by Tony Arnold at WBEZ on Tahawwur Rana's conviction for a plan against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Copenhagen.
*****
today's cover is from the great comic book series Four-Color
Your 2011 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Nominees
This year's nominee list for the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award has been released. They are:
* Janet Lee, artist of Return of the Dapper Men (published by Archaia)
* Adam Hines, writer/artist of Duncan the Wonder Dog (published by AdHouse)
* David Marquez, artist of Days Missing and Syndrome (published by Archaia)
* Paul Roman Martinez, artist of Adventures of the 19XX (published by Kopetkai)
* Nate Simpson, artist of Nonplayer (published by Image)
The winner is named during the Eisner Awards ceremony, held the Friday of Comic-Con International weekend. This year's recipient will be the 30th for the award, which has been given out in the name of the late, great comics craftsman since 1982. If you look at the winners list, it's a pretty interesting mix of people that have gone on to become iconic cartoonists and those that haven't, including people working in all different styles.
1982: Dave Stevens
1983: Jan Duursema
1984: Steve Rude
1985: Scott McCloud
1986: Art Adams
1987: Eric Shanower
1988: Kevin Maguire
1989: Richard Piers Rayner
1990: Dan Brereton
1991: Daerick Gross
1992: Mike Okamoto
1993: Jeff Smith
1994: Gene Ha
1995: Edvin Biukovic
1996: Alexander Maleev
1997: Walt Holcomb
1998: Matt Vander Pool
1999: Jay Anceleto
2000: Alan Bunce
2001: Goran Sudzuka
2002: Tan Eng Huat
2003: Jerome Opena
2004: Eric Wight
2005: Chris Bailey
2006: R. Kikuo Johnson
2007: David Petersen
2008: Cathy Malkasian
2009: Eleanor Davis
2010: Marian Churchland
That run up to the present is as strong a run of winners as any award out there the last half-decade or so, I'd bet, a murderer's row of new talent.
Friday Distraction: Dustin Harbin On Heroes Con 2011
Lengthy convention reports have become enough of a lost art that this rather modest 2500-word piece on Heroes Con 2011 from Dustin Harbin feels like a novella. Harbin is an enterprising indy-alt cartoonist that used to help run Heroes Con, so he does not lack for significant insight.
Zunar To File Suit Against Malaysian Government June 15 The cartoonist Zunar has written a number of news sources announcing his intention to file civil suit against the Malaysian government and its police force for his unlawful arrest and detention in Fall 2010, as well as the seizure of a political cartoon and copies of his book Cartoon-O-Phobia. He will be represented by the group Lawyers for Liberty.
Zunar sent along the following press release, which said the following:
Zunar's Cartoon-O-Phobia civil suit against the Malaysian government and police
On 15 June 2011, 11:00 am, Zunar will be filing a civil suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against the government and the police for his unlawful arrest and detention, and seizure of his books Cartoon-O-Phobia and an original political cartoon drawing in September 2010. Among others, he will be seeking exemplary and aggravated losses and damages, and the return of the books and drawing.
Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque or Zunar as he is better known is a celebrated Malaysian political cartoonist for the past two decades, publishing his work mainly in the opposition press, alternative and online media. His targets have mainly been the Malaysian government and its agencies and other public institutions, highlighting several key themes -- abuse of power and corruption by the police, judiciary, election commission and government officials; excessive government spending; and how the country is turning into a failed state.
Zunar and Malaysiakini (online independent press and publisher of Zunar's cartoons -- both online and print versions) were scheduled to launch the latest compilation of Zunar's political cartoons titled Cartoon-O-Phobia in the evening of 24 September 2010.
In an effort to preempt the launch, the police raided Zunar's office in Kuala Lumpur several hours before the launch, and arrested him on vague grounds of sedition and publishing offences. Despite protestation from Zunar's lawyers, all 66 copies of Cartoon-o-phobia found at the office were seized together with an original political cartoon drawing. He was arrested and brought to several police stations for no apparent reasons before detaining him overnight at a police station in Sepang, about an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur.
The whole arrest and detention process reeked of bad faith as it was clearly done to scuttle the launch as: there was no reason to arrest him as he was prepared to cooperate with the police for questioning; the police could not tell which cartoons were offensive or definitively under what offence; took him to several police stations for no good reason and eventually detaining him out of the city when there is no reason to do so.
Zunar was not questioned during the first 24 hours of detention (another sign of bad faith) and on the next day, the police sought a remand order of 4 days from the Magistrate. However, the Magistrate only allowed another day of remand and in the evening of 25 September, Zunar was released.
Zunar's arrest attracted condemnation from opposition leaders and civil society, and with legal representation, led to his quick release. The police also attempted to seize more copies from the printers and Malaysiakini but could not find any.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein had said that Zunar was arrested because he had supposedly mocked the judiciary, religion as well as the issue regarding the term 'Allah' although the police during arrest while flicking through the book pointed randomly at a few cartoons including those concerning UMNO, the main government party.
So far no criminal charges have been preferred against Zunar. If he is charged, both sedition and printing presses offences carry punishment of up to three years' imprisonment and/or fine.
His previous cartoon books Perak Darul Kartun and 1Funny Malaysia were banned by the Home Ministry in June 2010 when it claimed they were "not suitable and detrimental to public order…influence the people to revolt against the leaders and government policies".
As a result, bookshops and vendors have been reluctant to stock Zunar's books and many have even returned them. Sales have mainly been done online and at events. Failure to challenge the arrest, detention and seizure will mean a further loss of earnings for Zunar and his publishers. More imperatively, it will certainly have a serious chilling effect on the freedom of speech and the media.
This civil suit aims to bring into focus constitutional and human rights arguments, the police's excessive powers and abuses; illiberal and outdated laws like the Sedition Act 1948 and the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984, and collusion between the government and the police.
The civil suit will be brought by Lawyers for Liberty, a human rights and law reform organisation. For more information, please contact Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Campaign Director (fadiahnadwa9@yahoo.com) or Eric Paulsen, Adviser (epaulsenzero@yahoo.com).
Lawyers for Liberty
M34, 2nd Floor
No.1B, Jalan 10/3
46000 Petaling Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
We wish Zunar the best of luck in his civil suit and add this site's modest voice to the chorus of those that find the actions of the Malaysian government deplorable in terms of their treatment of this cartoonist.
Article On Rise Of Turkey’s Erdogan Notes Anti-Cartooning Element This profile of rising international power Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey notes that on multiple occasions the Prime Minister has sued cartoonists that depicted him in a way that was critical of policy. This seems to be part of a general strategy of handling the media that includes auditing recalcitrant corporations, in one case submitting a bill in the billions of dollars range.
There are five prominent instances of the Prime Minister suing a cartoonist or publisher over a cartoons from 2006-2008, best discussed here. Earlier this year Turkish prosecutors sought American cooperation in finding a cartoonist who was using the Internet to distribute anti-Erdogan cartoons (the U.S. declined the request). All of the cases were lost by Erdogan, but represent a potentially chilling effect on cartoonists and other creators that might wish to engage in satirical commentary without setting off on a mentally agonizing odyssey where a significant chunk of income is at risk.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
As noted here yesterday, the trial of Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana saw two of three charges end in conviction, one of three in acquittal. That the trial coverage has been focused on his potential role aiding and abetted confessed terrorism scout David Coleman Headly in activities that supported the Mumbai Massacre should be obvious in headlines like this one, which make it sound like Mr. Rana had a swell day yesterday because he avoided conviction on that charge.
The horrifying bit of news in this round of stories that I'm not sure is all the way new but at the very least didn't have an impact before now: the plot against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper that published the Danish Muhammed Cartoons back in 2005 included a plan to behead employees and toss their heads out of the newsroom window -- you know, the usual thing you wish on someone because they worked on staff of a newspaper that published cartoons to which you object.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Johanna Draper Carlson says that advocacy group Friends Of Lulu has had its tax-exempt status revoked going back to 2010, in a story she's pretty much owned beginning to end.
* there's a reasonable amount of Kirby stuff posted here at CR, but Bully is really good at presenting the King's artwork on-line and this post is no exception.
* this probably deserves its own post, but it's going to get a link here and in next week's "Festival" column instead, mostly because of the threat of rolling blackouts for the next couple of days due to the Arizona wildfires has me trying to put up this Friday "random" as quickly as possible: Chris Butcher gives us the official post-TCAF post, including news that it was a record-breaking show and that next year's event will by May 5-6. I adored attending this year's show, and hope to attend the next one.
* now that's a headline that makes you put a link to an article up on your blog so you can revisit it tomorrow morning.
* Fred Pierce and Warren Simons are two key members of the new Team Valiant.
* the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates follows up his New York Times Op-Ed piece on the new X-Men movie with a lot more in the way of general thoughts about the mutant superteam: here.
Tahawwur Rana Found Guilty On Two Of Three Charges Including Plotting Attack On Jyllands-Posten
News story here. The Chicago-based businessman was cleared of the charge related to the Mumbai Massacre, which seemed to be the major focus of the trial.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: News On Cons, Shows, Events By Tom Spurgeon
* today is the start of the second Comics & Medicine: The Sequential Art Of Illness conference, on Northwestern's campus -- a beautiful place to go to school and a fun place to visit. Phoebe Gloeckner, David Small, Paul Gravett and Scott McCloud are speakers, which is the kind of line-up that most comics shows can only dream about. Say hi to that show's passionate advocate Brian Fies is you make it up to Evanston.
* we're in a typically strange part of the calendar year with traditional comics shows. There's a bunch of shows like Wizard World Philadelphia coming up (that's the weekend after this one), and I think a show in Munich the weekend after that, but even collectively this run of events tends to not make a huge impression on the overall convention landscape and for a certain core comics professional community the next big, big, big show is perceived to be Comic-Con International. I know people will disagree with me and say X, Y, Z show shouldn't be dismissed and I agree, they shouldn't: it's that I think seeing this as a mostly fallow period is a fair appraisal of a certain collective feeling one encounters in comics. Heck, I'd love to go to this show in Fort Wayne the weekend after this one if only to see if my memories of Northern Indiana back-issues boxes holds true.
* Heroes Con was last weekend. Its collective memory can be found down the page and will be archived this weekend in the columns on the right hand side of this site. While I've never believed that the value of comics conventions lies solely or even primarily in the after-hours schmoozefests that pros and certain fans enjoy, given the DC re-launch news and the general rough winter for the industry sales-wise I imagine that a weekend of sharing ideas and encouragement and alcohol was more welcome this year than most.
* speaking of CCI, did you know that Comic-Con International in 2012 was scheduled for half-way through July rather than in its second half? I did not. This may actually provide more balance to the summer; it used to be that the other big show of the summer was Chicago, which squatted on the July 4 weekend or somewhere close -- now that show and Baltimore are in August.
Al Hirschfeld Artwork And Personal Items Up For Auction A couple of wire pieces have picked up on a forthcoming Al Hirschfeld home-items auction. This looks to be stuff that wasn't directed anywhere upon the caricaturist's passing in 2003 but needs to be disposed of after Hirschfeld's home sold for a multi-million dollar price earlier this year. I'm not a buyer of this kind of thing, but there's a little kid in me that if he were to attend a New York play bearing Al Hirschfeld's opera glasses and the pen-light with which Hirschfeld drew studies for all of those pictures would feel like some kind of Vertigo-ish superhero. A lot of this stuff is pretty affordable, but of special interest to comics fans might be a couple of first-run copies of the scene study books through which Hirschfeld receives his most interest as a comics-maker as opposed to a caricaturist and illustrator. They are expected to go for a lot of money.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
The Indian press has covered the trial of Tahawwur Rana more closely than press organizations in the US. Rana is accused of aiding and abetting admitted terrorism advance scout David Coleman Headley. Headley earlier made a plea to avoid the death penalty and extradition, and has since provided reams of information on the activities of terrorist organizations and possible Pakistani intelligence service support of same. This article notes that the jury had a full day of deliberations against Rana yesterday, which should continue today and into the next few until there's a verdict. What's interesting is that one-third of the charges facing Rana are related to a planned assault that never came off against the Jyllands-Posten office in Copenhagen. I can't tell if this wasn't explored at the trial or if it's the coverage that more naturally settled in on the Mumbai Massacre bits.
I Guess It’s Worth Noting They’re Ending Uncanny X-Men There are various reports out there that Marvel is ending its Uncanny X-Men title as part of a new storyline based around a conflict between the Cyclops and Wolverine characters. In other words, it's a strategic publishing move rather than a "this comic is dead-dead-dead" move. This is such a common strategy these days that DC is doing it 52 times this September, including the renumbering of titles that have a longer and more important overall historical pedigree than Marvel's primary mutant title. Still, there's something about the loss of one of the longtime flagship mainstream titles that bears noting. Uncanny X-Men officially took on that title from the original X-Men (they were still uncanny, just not in-the-official-title uncanny) almost right at the end of the John Byrne-on-art-chores run in 1981; a comic called X-Men was latter added to Marvel's roster during the high moment of the speculation craze.
There was a time right before and right after its initial re-naming that the X-Men/Uncanny X-Men series was maybe the most important title in comics: a hardcore fan favorite for a lot of kids and teens reading in the late 1970s and early 1980s that would go on to a life of reading and even working in comics, a crucial item of focused interest at a moment when there weren't a lot of great comics widely available, a comic where issues from just a few years earlier spiked in perceived collectible value in a way that ended a lot of arguments as to why Junior was still reading funnybooks. I know that it was the series brought me back to reading comics again after having grown bored with them as a smaller child; I have no idea what the shape of my life might be like if that series hadn't been published. That particular run was also directly influential, both on the higher-selling X-Men comics to come in the '80s and into the '90s and in providing maybe a half-dozen of the, say, two dozen basic plotlines used in superhero comics even today.
Tahawwur Rana Found Guilty On Two Of Three Charges Including Plotting Attack On Jyllands-Posten Decent summary news story here. Rana was found not guilty of the charges related to the Mumbai Massacre, the focus of the trial.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* our condolences to Seth on the passing of his father, John Henry Gallant: the cartoonist's lovely tribute can be found here.
* there's making a rash set of assumptions about someone's creative choices, there's making that set of assumptions concerning creative choices about an artist of Walt Simonson's caliber, and there's having Walt Simonson show up to respond in full. Me, I'd just stay home.
* the Savage Critics roundtable on Paying For It continues here.
* Mike Lynch alerts us all to a nice-looking, self-published sketchbook from Chris Schweizer, as worth an "Off The Beaten Path" publication as I can imagine.
* the nice folks at Robot 6 have posts on two worthwhile publishing news stories that failed to find their way into the "Bundled" column yesterday, primarily for the general indolence of that column's author: 1) JK Parkin writes about a comic done by the original Vertigo-era Sandman team for the charity the Hero Initiative; 2) DC Comics has apparently canceled the Northlanders comic after 50 issues. I thought that Northlanders comic was entertaining whenever I picked it up, so that's too bad. At the same time, a smarter than usual viking comic book series making it to 50 issues is an achievement in this market or any resembling it.
* now there's a headline that makes you want to read the article.
* the indispensable Chris Sims provides a history of all of DC Comics' reboots and relaunches. Some of them are not equal to the others. I'd never thought about the putting the initial smushing together of the various titles into a continuity with things like Crisis On Infinite Earths, but it seems to me after reading Sims' piece that of course that should be done.
* not comics: every time I read a review of First Classlike this one I think Michael Fassbender would be really good as the lead in a Nexus movie, except there almost certainly won't be a Nexus movie.
* the writer and reviewer Don MacPherson checks in with a few Canadian retailers to see if the postal strike up there is going to have a drastic effect on their business.
* Tony Norman reviews 21, which make perfect sense as he's one of the great city of Pittsburgh's long-time writers about comics. I've always liked Tony Norman.
* it looks like the CF art sale went well enough that the material still available is only available at non-sale prices. That it went well is good to hear, of course.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: A Publishing News Column By Tom Spurgeon
* I don't have anything to say right this moment about DC's line-wide relaunch and same-day digital strategies. I certainly haven't seen anything that's made me second-guess in any way the severe skepticism I expressed here, here, here and here as to the final outcome. You can refresh this Yan Basque post to keep up with official title announcements, or read Sean T. Collins on what the first week or so of announcements told him about the overall initiative.
* that's not an advertisement for this latest effort, in case anyone wondered: it's an old one. Do you think The Atom hated superhero picture day? There was always pressure on him to do something a little odd, a little different for the camera.
* the hobby business news and analysis site ICv2.com has a smart write-up here on a Roger Langridge-written John Carter effort for Marvel, and where it fits into a surprisingly crowded field of similar efforts. I'd be thrilled if Langridge could find a home in the small but potent corner of Marvel that seems aimed squarely at the book market.
* advance reading copies of Craig Thompson's Habibi have begun to show up in reviewer's mailboxes. That should be quite the event when it finally hits shelves.
* missed it: Mick Martin has revived his "Extra Medium" column for Popdose. I'm not familiar with the column or the site, but I've enjoyed Martin's reviews when I've run across them elsewhere.
* finally, 2000 ADhas reached an agreement with dominant North American comics publisher Diamond to make that iconic publication available on a weekly basis rather than in a bundled version month-to-month. It's kind of mind-boggling that 2000 AD, one of the success stories of weekly print distribution in the history of comics, was not available that way for so long -- it gives this bit of news a kind of "well, that's the way it should be, really" flavor. I'm not sure it leads to even a mini-explosion of publications being sold for a number of reasons, including the overall health of the Direct Market system and the calcification of its long-established and very specific predilections. Still, I'm glad for all of the people this helps read that publication that have wanted to read that publication. Besides, general North American comics culture could use as many reliably satisfying ways of interacting with comics as the market can provide.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
Just one, and the expected one: the jury has begun deliberations in the Tahawwur Rana trial. The Chicago businessman is accused of sharing the aims of admitted terrorism advance scout David Coleman Headley in his activities on behalf of various nefarious outcomes. This includes a planned assault that did not come off on the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, for publishing the infamous Danish Muhammed caricatures in 2005. The singular activity that has garnered the most interest is Headley's work in advance of what became the Mumbai Massacre. Rana did not testify, and those in the court believed the case went very well for him. If found innocent, Rana plans a return to Toronto.
Protests Mark 500th Day Of Prageeth’s Ekneligoda’s Disappearance
A mini-flurry of English-language wire reports like this one and this one inform of a political protest and rally in Colombo, Sri Lanka today to mark the 500th day since cartoonist and journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda went missing. Ekneligoda went missing days before the 2010 presidential election; he had criticized the government for its conduct during Sri Lanka's long Civil War.
The Ekneligoda family was initially told that a look into the journalist's disappearance would have to wait until after post-election turmoil settled a bit, and have since been alternately promised information then stonewalled. On the first anniversary of his disappearance earlier this year, Ekneligoda's wife presented the UN with a petition asking for assistance in the matter.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Michael Cavna takes a a look at some of the Representative Weiner editorial cartoons. Cavna is a brave, brave man.
* these were the last Charltons. Hooray for the Internet, because that's an interesting bunch of covers and that's not a question I would have ever thought to ask.
* Brian Hibbs and Team Savage Critics are going to look at one of the obvious Books Of 2011, Paying For It.
* the Fantagraphics blog has always featured strong, consistent content for a publishing site. This may be the best "Things To See" round-up they've ever done.
* a couple of notes related to the processing of comics: David Brothers writes about reviewing a comic at one of those moments when you're involved with something related to one of the themes of the comic, while Bob Temuka writes about firing through a bunch of comics at once.
* Gavok at 4thletter!suggests that part of DC's poor relationship with Alan Moore may be seeking to undo major narrative developments to the wider DC Universe that were written by Moore.
* not comics: I think this is Editor & Publisher's re-launch.
* Ryan Sands kicks in with what has to be this year's final TCAF report -- at least the last one not written by one of the organizers, which I don't think we've seen yet -- and it's a doozy, with a different orientation than most of those I've read.
* finally, Archie's Kevin Keller comic is previewed here. They've put a lot of force and energy into promoting that work, although with a company like Archie that kind of coverage doesn't need to lead to sales in the short-term.
Go, Look: Kate Beaton On The 2011 Reubens something felt slightly wrong about blogging these twitter cartoons, but they're pretty great and GoComics pulled the trigger first
This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt 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. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
FEB110016 BALTIMORE PLAGUE SHIPS HC VOL 01 $24.99
While the rest of us slept, Mike Mignola slowly assumed control of comics.
FEB110042 MISTER X HC BRIDES OF MISTER X & OTHER STORIES $49.99
This is later-run comics material, but I'd be lying if I tried to convince you I wouldn't notice this book on the shelves almost instantaneously, and lying further if I said I wouldn't pick it up and look it over.
MAR110466 LIL ABNER HC VOL 03 $49.99
Not my favorite comic strip -- not in my top 25 -- but a monster hit of its time obviously deserving its pantheon status.
MAR110594 MORNING GLORIES #10 $2.99
This is an intriguing little series in that the creators use this almost laconic pacing in service of a wider story that counts on reader being left in the dark on certain things and tugged along by the desire to figure things out. I have almost no interest in its creepy prep school plot line, but I like those storytelling elements enough I keep reading it.
MAR110812 GLAMOURPUSS #19 $3.00
It's great that there are going to be at least 20 issues of these, a comic I think will be rediscovered by new audience for years to come.
MAR111249 JOE SIMON MAN BEHIND THE COMICS HC $24.95
Possibly intriguing; it all depends on how well they pull it off.
APR110616 KA-ZAR #1 (OF 5) $2.99
I almost always enjoy a Ka-Zar comic book, although if there's a character that's had more stories done about them that's never really had a definitive, exciting, easily-communicable version, our Lord Plunder is probably that guy. I think they need to do something weird with him -- he might have been a better choice for the Daredevil start-absent-in-their-own-comic spotlight.
MAR111299 NARUTO TP VOL 51 $9.99
That's a lot of ninja comics.
FEB111040 DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE HC VOL 01 DEATH VALLEY $29.99 FEB111042 CONGRESS O/T ANIMALS HC $19.99 FEB111041 ISLE OF 100000 GRAVES HC $14.99
Three very good to great books from Fantagraphics, all of which I have to imagine most comics fans want to own. Comics fans I know, anyway. That Mickey Mouse book is probably the book of the week -- although you can never, ever look past Jim Woodring -- as it's practically a billion-dollar casino of gut-level, inky thrills.
JAN111213 NICK CARDY ARTIST AT WAR HC SGN ED $39.99 JAN111214 NICK CARDY ARTIST AT WAR HC SKETCH ED $150.00
The book I'm most curious about seeing, partly because a bunch of wartime sketches from a young Nick Cardy sounds pretty good, partly because the execution of such a book is absolutely crucial in terms of making it an item you want to buy as opposed to put back down on the shelf. No matter if you buy it or not, if your store carries one, thank your store owner for being the kind of store owner that makes such an order.
*****
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 failed to list your comic, that's on me. I apologize.
Comics Masters Course Defended Against Inquisitive MP
Joe Gordon called my attention to this story about a flash of controversy over a comics-related masters course offered at Dundee University. It seems like a political official came at the course with basically the same kind of open "can you believe this?" contempt for the idea of such an endeavor, the kind of thing that Stan Lee used to get on interview shows in the late 1960s. It's fun to follow the links out on this one. I have to admit, I don't think merely questioning building a program off of an interest indicates bias or is even necessarily a bad thing -- I assume the kind of thing accused of this course happens. If the course in question has weight and legitimacy as it more than seems this one does, it should be able to bear up to any such scrutiny and shake it off like a bear drying its fur. That's not to say I'm castigating any of the defenders and the defensive tone assumed: it's clear from years of evidence that comics is a medium uniquely vulnerable to dismissive attack.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
The defense team in the Tahawwur Rana trail rested yesterday after two witnesses were called. Closing arguments are expected to begin today. Attorneys explained the decision not to have Rana testify on his own behalf basically by portraying him as so clueless of the activities of friend David Coleman Headley in a variety of nefarious activities -- including helping to plan an attack that didn't come off on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper office for the Danish cartoons -- that to have him on the stand saying so would have been redundant. It is widely believe that the defense chose to have Rana not testify from a position of strength, that the prosecutor's case against Rana using Headley and subsequent buttressing by various FBI officials ended up not being as strong as folks thought.
Rana did make an appearance in court Monday, as parts of his interrogation video were played by the defense. The two witnesses the defense called were immigration lawyer David Morris, who worked with Rana on business venture similar to those Rana says he believed Headley was performing on his behalf, and computer expert Yaniv Moshe Schiff. Interestingly, Schiff says none of Rana's computer were used to access video of the Mumbai attacks, but one was used to garner information about Jyllands-Posten. It would be ironic if the over-sized nature of the Mumbai Massacre were to obscure other nefariouis activities, but it's too late for Rana to be re-tried now.
Lee J. Ames, 1921-2011 The early comic book artist turned illustrator and "Draw 50" book series creator Lee Judah Ames died the week of May 30 in the Long Island community of Huntington. He was 90 years old. Ames suffered congestive heart failure in the nursing home where he made his residence. He had previously lived in Southern California after several decades in New York; it's unknown when he returned.
Like many of that first generation of comic book illustrators, Ames was as a kid local to the industry (he was born in Manhattan as opposed to one of the outlying boroughs) and showed some measure of ability while still a high school student. His initial desire was to work for the then-surging Disney animation empire, and he found work for a time in Los Angeles doing what he calls minor work on the films Fantasia and Pinocchio. It was on the homesick cartoonist's return to New York City that he began working in comic books, including a stint in the Eisner-Iger shop. His clients during the war included Fiction House, Holyoke and Quality Comics. After the war -- one mini-biography has Ames serving for a couple of years during World War II and reaching lieutenant status -- that client list expanded to Dell, Avon, Lev Gleason and the early EC Comics.
Comics historian Mark Evanier includes Archie, Timely, Harvey and Hillman among Ames' various publishers, and says he worked a long stint on the Classics Illustrated series in the 1950s.
As the 1960s unfolded, Ames began to emphasize the illustration and advertising avenues for his art work. For a time he held a staff position at Doubleday. Ames started the part of his career for which he became best known with the "Draw 50" series at Doubleday, which began with Draw 50 Animals in 1974 and grew to more than 25 books total. These were breezy, practical, exercise-driven art instruction books that seemed particularly adept at channeling the energy and shaping the skill set of self-starting illustrators and cartoonists. Ames developed a third career doing lectures and presentations based on that instructional series and others. A complete list of the Draw 50 books can be found here.
A well-liked member of the illustration and cartooning communities on Long Island, Ames was a founder of the Berndt Toast Gang that met on Thursdays; other members included Creig Flessel and Frank Springer. A post by Mike Lynch on Ames' passing includes photos of the artist at Berndt Toast functions.
Ames was married to his wife, Jocelyn, for more than 50 years. They had a son and a daughter.
According to a single English-language news story that I'm unable to corroborate, the cartoonist and artist Mohamed Al-Zawawi passed away on June 5. He was 75 years old.
Al-Zawawi was born in Benghazi, and began his career in 1963. He initially worked as an art director and cartoonist at Tripoli's Art De La Radio. He had an extremely lively and accomplished cartooning style, which he passed onto various students and future cartoonists at a satirical arts school he founded in Tripoli. He was well-regarded in the region and published outside of Libya given various opportunities. He engendered to express a common man's position in his editorial work.
Al-Zawawi was buried on the same day he passed at the Sidi Hamed cemetery in Tripoli. The ceremony was attended by intellectuals and artists from the Tripoli community.
I think after comparing signatures that the cartoon at top is from the late cartoonist, but I could be completely wrong and if so, my deepest apologies.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Gary Groth interviews Joe Sacco. It's short given the expectations that might come with that pair, but it's solid. If you were to make time for one thing today that's comics coverage-oriented, that'd be the one. That Footnotes In Gaza was a ruthless, city-stomping monster of a book: surely one of the five best of the last five years, and maybe a good deal better.
* speaking of fun things over at TCJ, Michael DeForge has stepped in as their latest cartoon diarist. He talks about his work day in fascinating, off-hand detail. For one thing, it's much longer than mine.
* this first of four pieces is the only time I can recall anyone writing an essay about the San Francisco period in Daredevil. I always assumed they moved Daredevil to San Francisco because of a TV development deal for the character, but I've been told many times since that this is a wrong assumption on my part.
* not comics: so if you really liked that X-Men: First Class movie, what comics should you pick up next? I think Marvel's answer may be Thor.
* I like how Mike Dawson starts these serials in a matter-of-fact way with very little fanfare. For some reason, this makes me think he'll be around a lot longer than if he called attention to every page of art he did.
* this is the first photo I can recall seeing of the expanded comics offerings at Barnes & Noble.
* not comics: congratulations to those involved in getting Essex Countysettled on the road to becoming a film. That's the kind of work that doesn't usually get appreciated in that way.
* finally, the cartoonist Gene Yang recommends a bunch of comics collections that are informed by video games.
Report: Egyptian Conservatives Hack Site Over Cartoon
According to an English-language report on the site Bikyamasr, a group of conservatives hacked a site belonging to the publication Akhbar Al-Youm yesterday out of anger over a Saturday cartoon by Mustafa Hussein and Ahmed Ragab they claim insults Islam. In what isn't exactly a stunning surprise for folks that have followed these kinds of protests for more than five minutes, the cartoon itself was apparently less about insulting Islam generally but making fun of insincere members of the faction whose member hacked. I'm unable to find the cartoon on the site in question, so if anyone out there has access to it .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Hussein's basic profile hardly reads like one from a cartoonist that would toss something out there in a lighthearted or non-serious fashion.
The Inkwell Awards winners were apparently named over the weekend, in conjunction with Charlotte's Heroes Con. They're for inking, and I believe they rely heavily on on-line voting that takes place over an extended period in the Spring. Your winners are:
Bob Shaw was given a silver inkwell trophy for leaving the awards committee after serving three years.
You can read about the awards -- Bob Almond hosted, Dan Panosian spoke -- and the live fundraising auction that followed at the link utilized above. If I'm reading that report correctly, Hanna, Thibert and Nowlan were on hand to receive their awards.
Missed It: Best Festival Photo Cameo So Far This Year
Via the Forbidden Planet blog comes this photo set from Sarah McIntyre from a literary gathering called The Hay Festival that features a walk-through by the Duchess of Cornwall. Hey, why not? I have no idea why this amuses me, but it does. Honestly, it's not even comics-related. Nice looking place for a festival, by the way.
Jason Chatfield Seems To Be Doing Better Than I Am This profile of Jason Chatfield from a week or so ago indicates a pair of pertinent things about the cartoonist and stand-up comedian: he's been able to continue working after a taxi dragged him up the road during a late-night incident a while back, and that he's working with a politician on some sort of reform for that industry. Last time we had checked in on Chatfield -- who was hand-picked in 2007 to continue the Ginger Meggs strip despite his young age and dual ambitions -- in late March, he was pushing at the outward edge of his rehabilitation to get back to the drawing board, not thinking about his stand-up at all, and trying to figure out what to do next in terms of the general issue involved. We wish him luck in completing his therapy.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I totally missed this post featuring Richard Thompson in his tuxedo on NCS Awards night accepting The Reuben and posing for photographs.
* not comics: one has to imagine that on the list of 10 Billion Cartoonist Side Gigs Rated In Order Of Coolness, "doing logos for women's roller derby teams" has to place in the single digits.
* the CBLDF continues its very nice series of interviews with regular volunteers.
* the revelation for me in reading someone revisit DC's self-selected essential graphic novels list is that they actually tweak the thing, for instance dropping The Quitter and adding Pride Of Baghdad. That's not really odd, I guess, although I'd love to know how the provenance of each tweak.
* finally, here's some love for that Akira poster I've seen pop up on sites without my taking the time to look at it. I always thought those summary kinds of posters -- where the images in the poster encompass and entire movie, comic book series, album, whatever -- would be a great way for the companies to support such series and movie some merchandise on top of that.
Five Comics I Hope DC Comics Considers Relaunching
This September DC Comics is rolling out 52 new #1s from its massive library of characters for same-day print and digital release. Although their plans are likely set in stone, they could still make a young boy's dreams come true by announcing any or all of the following:
I prefer DC relaunch this one over, say, the Jimmy Wakely comic they once did because I would never, ever get tired of adding "(Alan Ladd Actual Size)" to every mention of the book I ever made. Because that dude was short, and I find this funny.
This one would be great if they treated today's Broadway stars -- your Billy Crudups, your Audra MacDonalds, your Betty Buckleys, your Will Pattons -- with earnest fascination. Because someone should. Also, they could do like a three-year event storyline centered around the Spider-Man musical.
Michael Kupperman to write.
I have no idea what the hell is going on here, but I know I like it. How is this not a top ten comic right now?
On second thought, this might trend too young for DC's traditional readership.
I'd prefer a spin-off starring Carvelli and Murray, actually, two 35-year-old high schoolers picking fights with similarly aged gangs of youths from sea to shining sea, but anything with the show that taught middle America the Dozens is aces with me. Come to think of it, how has Welcome Back, Kotter not been re-made in movie or television form? How has this not been specifically re-made with Ice Cube playing the title role? Kurtwood Smith is just sitting there waiting to play Woodman, too.
FFF Results Post #257—Benefactors
On Friday, CR readers were asked, "Given A Multi-Million Dollar Budget (By Which I Mean Unlimited In A Practical Sense But Not Unlimited So That It Allows For The Construction Of Absurd Answers), Name Five Comics Projects You'd Fund." This is how they responded.
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Fund From Which Prospective Webcartoonists Can Apply For Loans Or Grants To Initiate Or Upgrade Their Web Presence
2. War Chest For A Non-Profit Company Designed To Publish Serial Alt-Comics
3. A Legal Defense Fund For Cartoonists To Apply For Assistance In Copyright And Trademark Cases
4. The Complete Paul Ollswang
5. Seed Money For A Comics Creators Guild, Focusing On Beneficial Programs That The Professional Community Likely Couldn't Or Wouldn't Be Able To Support
*****
Douglas Wolk
1. Yaddo-style artists' retreat for cartoonists, with free room and board and transportation and comfortable studios
2. Online archive of out-of-print comics and minicomics, to which anyone can submit work they've created and have it scanned, made available to the public as a PDF, and (if submitted in physical form) returned to them
3. Weekly multiple-feature creator-owned sci-fi/adventure comic book by excellent writers and artists, distributed free to middle school students -- sort of a Treasure Chest/vintage 2000 AD kind of situation
4. Cooper Union-style cartooning college that offers a full scholarship to accepted undergrad and master's students, ideally in Portland, Oregon
5. Rachel Hartman offered an unrefusably high salary to create comics full-time
*****
Jeff Flowers
1. The complete Jordi Bernet library in English (including every single Clara de Noche strip).
2. A Trots And Bonnie collection.
3. A Prince Valiant-style reprinting of Jack Katz's First Kingdom.
4. I'd buy the rights to the Elementals and return them to Bill Willingham.
5. Collected editions of Bruce Jones's Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales anthologies (like Russ Cochran did with EC).
*****
Mark Coale
1. Restart my magazine as academic journal for comics and related popular culture
2. Fund retirement home for Golden/Silver Age comics pros and cartoonists
3. Start fund that allows cartoonists to apply for health insurance
4. Big, fat donation to CBLDF
5. Bribe Bob Wayne for DC to make Archives for Danger Trail and 1950s Phantom Stranger
1: I would make sure the Stumptown Comics Foundation had enough in their coffers to grow into the biggest and most amazing comics festival in the world.
2: Stumptown Academy of Comics Art -- a 2-year accredited college focusing on sequential art and comics history, following the lead of the CCS, Joe Kubert school, and SCAD's sequential art department.
3: Create a cartoonist's guild with regional chapters which would offer professional benefits to members, including legal advice and medical insurance.
4: Begin a publishing house specializing in new all-ages material, large monthly anthologies a la Shonen Jump, with dozens of creator-owned stories by different creators, serialized through the year and connected only by theme.
5: Found a lending library and art museum of classic comic art, with rotating displays of different masters (Kirby, Ditko, McCay, Crumb, Williamson, Wrightson, Kelly, &c.)
1. An Internet Library Of all Comics Projects Published Around The World (Past, Present, And Future)
2. A Simple To Use/Easy To Customize Program Of Clip Art/Characters/Animation For Writers Who Can't Draw
3. Bribes To Overturn Recent Draconian U.S. Copyright Laws
4. Kona, Monarch Of The Monster Isle: The Movie (a Cro-Magnon w/an M-60 machine gun vs. a international criminal mastermind w/an army of mutant dinosaurs -- why hasn't this movie already been made?!?!?)
5. My Own Projects
*****
Mark Mayerson
1. Commission a statue of Jack Kirby for the lower east side of Manhattan.
2. Pay Gary Groth to publish all the Gil Kane interviews in book form.
3. Have Google Books digitize every comic book ever published.
4. Restore Walt Kelly's animated film "We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us."
5. Lobby Congress to rewrite the law so that creators must be given a percentage of a copyright and make work for hire illegal.
*****
Michael Grabowski
1. A grant for Dave Sim to complete glamourpuss to his satisfaction regardless of whether it meets Diamond's minimum order threshold.
2. Whatever it takes to publish classic Sunday paper strips in the classic Sunday paper format: weekly tabloids reprinting individual installments.
3. A grant for Steve Bissette to complete Tyrant.
4. Funds to develop a comics TPB rental system in North America.
5. Whatever it would take for Alan Moore to get a do-over on Big Numbers.
*****
Justin J. Major
1. Not-for-profit health insurance corporation for the benefit of comics professionals (loosely defined)
2. Subsidized, scattered-site housing (in Chicago) for comics professionals
3. Legal aid clinic for comics pros (estate planning, document review, intellectual property work, etc)
4. Cartoonists retirement community
5. Comics in the classroom
*****
Danny Ceballos
1. fund an "All Things Lynda Barry Convention" in Wisconsin
2. commission a statue of John Stanley for CCS
3. pay all of the song/lyric licensing fees for CARTER FAMILY COMICS
4. Research into the life and work of George Carlson (and publication of said research and all related comics)
5. produce an animated series of Grant Morrison's DOOM PATROL for PBS
*****
Jeet Heer
1. An annual "MacArthur Genius" type grant for mid-career cartoonists (i.e., people with at least years of work in comics). Ideally the award should go to people like Gary Panter, Lynda Barry, Kim Deitch, etc.
2. An annual Doug Wright style award for American comics, with a nice award ceremony and only three categories (best book, emerging talent, hall of fame).
3. A press devoted to publishing old comic strips that are not commercially viable: i.e., the complete Bungle Family, the Complete Gumps, the complete Felix the Cat.
4. Seed money for a proper comics museum run by academically-trained curators.
5. A press devoted to publishing non-fiction books devoted to comics: i.e. Gary Groth’s memoir, Frank Young’s Life and Art of John Stanley, a book length analysis of Grant Morrison by Douglas Wolk, the collected essays of R. Fiore, Carter Scholz and Tim Kreider.
*****
Nat Gertler
1. A charity providing an ongoing supply of free new comics to children's hospitals... enough so the kids can take them home with them.
2. A legal source setup to provide and review contracts, and to help with copyright and trademark registration, to both creators and small publishers.
3. 'Mazing Man trade paperback series
4. Understanding Comics: The Musical
5. Hire some folks to help me turn the AAUGH.com Collectors Guide to Peanuts Books into a complete wiki-driven fully photoreferenced guide to all editions, variants, and so forth.
*****
Max Fischer
1. The construction of a real-life garden like the one from Yuichi Yokoyama's Garden
2. The $100 million art film that Dan Clowes wanted to make with Michel Gondry
3. Worldwide activist movement calling for people of all nations to put aside their differences and read Love and Rockets
4. Jack Kirby memorial city
5. Rent-free sound-proofed apartment building where poor cartoonists can live and work until they finally break even
1. Funding to create a Hicksville Lighthouse to house Australasian comics/original comic art
2. An international Xeric Fund
3. Fund for artists to apply for travel costs to conventions
4. A free monthly all ages anthology comic for libraries exclusively worldwide
5. The Complete Barry Linton
*****
David Brothers
1. A series of anthology graphic novels based around showcasing comics' best and brightest (working in whatever genre they prefer)
2. Health insurance for needy cartoonists & their families
3. A series of grants to help budding cartoonists make it without starving
4. A program that donates comics for children created by top flight talent directly to libraries
5. An overhaul of every comics company's site to make vital information for consumers easier to access
*****
Ramon De Veyra
* The Complete Paul Pope
* Seed money to set up a cartooning course in my alma mater, with an awesome library
* a publishing company to translate more great classic/current alt/indy comics work from the asian/european markets into english
* project to help save/restore/preserve original comics art from the many talented Filipino creators of the '50s-'80s, translate/publish projects where they can
* company to make awesome merch (toys, shirts, posters, etc.) of indy/alt properties
1. Technological distribution project focusing on teaching Native Peoples how to use computers to make comics for self expression with a centralized database for upload and global reading. Think of the discourse!
2. System of hostels in major cities exclusively for comickers, with alternating floors of studio space and boarding space. Comix productivity during residency would be prerequisite.
3. Lobbying for return of copyright expiration to 14 years.
4. Granting system for Comix-to-Animation. Think Xeric funneling into the National Film Board of Canada.
5. Um... Free Lifetime Health Insurance for every Comicker producing more than 80 pages a year for a 15 (20?) year stretch? Is that too absurd?
*****
Douglass Abramson
1) The Spectre
2) Dr Fate
3) Resurrection Man
4) Gross Pointe
5) Xero
Editor's Note: This came slugged "My Five For Friday," and so it is!
1. The themed anthologies published by Ink and Drink Comics *shameless plug*
2. The CBLDF, as much as possible.
3. Savage Dragon, for as long as Erik Larsen is willing to do it.
4. A complete English-language translation of the rest of Urusei Yatsura, adapted by Gerard Jones.
5. A new work by Masamune Shirow that's an actual story, not just pin-ups or dirty pictures.
1. I'd pay Eddie Campbell to do a b/w autobio strip about his affairs with a girl and her mom
2. I'd pay Dave McKean to do a 10-issue mixed-media comic about an apartment building and the cosmos (and then publish it at a loss-generating cover price)
3. I'd pay Jim Woodring and Mark Martin to each do comics so tonally different that they should never appear in the same volume, and then publish them in the same volume
4. I'd pay Scott McCloud to do a 200-page comic about comics theory
5. I'd pay Alan Moore, Bill Sienkiewicz and Al Columbia to just sit in a room together, uncomfortably
*****
Kiel Phegley
1. As close as you can get to a major mass market kids comics anthology these days – simultaneous aggressive distribution on newsstands and in digital. Chock full with A-list classic strips and creator-owned originals.
2. Lots of really strange gag cartoons in 3-D.
3. Basil Wolverton retrospective hardcovers.
4. Literary agency whose primary role is representing cartoonists to the big book publishers.
5. However much money it takes to get Ben Edlund to come back to comics and do something regularly.
*****
topic tweaked from a twitter suggest by Brian Moore; thanks, Brian
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from May 28 to June 3, 2011:
1. DC announces an ambitious line re-launch, which they will pursue in both traditional print and through same-day digital releases. They further announce the first 11 books to be published in the line, starting with a Geoff Johns/Jim Lee Justice League book. Details slip out about incentives to Direct Market retailers and about the price point on the digital books. Coverage/Commentary: 1, 2, 34.
2. Richard Thompson of Cul De Sacwins The Reuben during the NCS' yearly meeting, this time in Boston. He spent his awards speech cruelly mocking the runners-up. Okay, not really.
3. The trial of Tahawwur Rana finishes the prosecutor's go with four days of testimony from David Coleman Headley and a follow-up day of FBI agents buttressing details from Headley's testimony. Rana is accused of partnering with Headley in order to help carry out various nefarious plots including an attack on Danish Cartoons headquarters the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Case going well enough for Rana that lawyers are expected not to have him testify.
Five For Friday #257: Given A Multi-Million Dollar Budget (By Which I Mean Unlimited In A Practical Sense But Not Unlimited So That It Allows For The Construction Of Absurd Answers), Name Five Comics Projects You'd Fund
1. Fund From Which Prospective Webcartoonists Can Apply For Loans Or Grants To Initiate Or Upgrade Their Web Presence
2. War Chest For A Non-Profit Company Designed To Publish Serial Alt-Comics
3. A Legal Defense Fund For Cartoonists To Apply For Assistance In Copyright And Trademark Cases
4. The Complete Paul Ollswang
5. Seed Money For A Comics Creators Guild, Focusing On Beneficial Programs That The Professional Community Likely Couldn't Or Wouldn't Be Able To Support
*****
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*****
topic tweaked from a twitter suggest by Brian Moore; thanks, Brian
The Association des Critiques et Journalistes de Bande Dessinée has released its nominees list for this year's Prix Asie-ACBD, given out during the extremely popular Japan Expo (this year held between June 30 and July 3). The membership will decide among the following five titles.
Please Remember Hurley’s Heroes In Joplin, Missouri
A timely reminder from Tony Shenton via Josh Blair that the comics shop Hurley's Heroes in Joplin, Missouri, could use support in the form of all-ages comics donation they're passing along to kids in local shelters and those whom the shop is serving as temporary housing.
Great News: Tom Hart Has Collected His Mini-Comics This is the kind of thing that goes into the "Bundled" column, and I'm sure I'll mention it again next week. I figured, though, after a week that felt like an entire, lengthy summer, the good news aspect was worth making its own post. The cartoonist and comics educator Tom Hart has collected his 1990s mini-comics into a self-published effort. These were some of the best comics of their time and some of the best minis ever. They were as much a part of the funnies-making zeitgeist of the early 1990s as just about any comics I can think of, like many of the best efforts of that moment little flashes of the more sustained glory days to come in the next decade as bookstore support and greater, more focused media attention settled in.
A Few, Quick, Bulleted Updates On DC Comics’ Re-Launch * Comics Alliancehas the first article I've seen -- granted I haven't looked really hard -- on the digital pricing elements of DC Comics' line-wide re-launch plans. This should disappoint those that believe DC's best hope was aggressive, single-issue price points that roughly matched consumers' expectations for equivalent content in other media.
* CBRassembles word on the comic book plans for the crucial Green Lantern franchise. While it's unclear how the imminent movie will perform, the comics have certainly sold well for DC over the last half-decade or so. (I told a non-comics reading family member the other day that there were still Green Lantern comics and that they did quite well. His response, for whatever it's worth: "That's ridiculous.")
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* today is the first day of HeroesCon. I wish I were there, but I'm glad to hear the CBLDF will be. If you're going, track down Richard Thompson and congratulate him on his Reuben win. Also look at his originals -- they are to die for, and that's not always the case with a lot of cartoonists these days because so much gets drawn and/or fixed via a computer program.
* Dave Ferraro reports from the front lines of Barnes & Noble attempting a much more focused and intense newsstand coverage program with serial comic books.
* the writer Johanna Draper Carlson notes via Dark Horse publicity that Joyce Farmer and Jill Thompson are the first NCS division award winners in the comic book categories (comic books, graphic novels). There have of course been female winners in other divisions, including I think two winners of the Big Award (Outstanding Cartoonist aka "The Reuben"). I hope no one takes this the wrong way, but it's also sort of nice that few suspected there was a novel aspect to Thompson and Farmer taking home prizes this year.
* a core chunk of Team Marvel discusses its latest mega-series.
* someone let me know when we're all allowed to walk into various Borders location and offer to buy stuff from around the store for pennies on the dollar. Because that sounds like fun.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: News On Cons, Shows, Events By Tom Spurgeon
* this weekend is Heroes Con, the model regional comics show and in many ways the last great traditional North American comics convention for its resolute focus on comic books over all other related media. I can't imagine what a pleasure it would be to be a comics fan and have this show within a four hour drive. Actually, I sort of can from talking to fans at shows past: I've never heard so many matter-of-fact, appreciative con stories. Organizer Shelton Drum is a Prince Of Comics. I wish I were there, and I doubly wish I were there with $200 in my pockets to buy random issues of old funnybooks from the dollar bins.
* if you're going to Heroes Con have fun: both at the show and at the festive, sprawling bar con that takes place at night. Eat some food that's maybe bad for you. Visit the Heroes retail location if you get the chance. Explore the show's now-vibrant small-press section. If you can find anyone who's not insanely busy, pay them to do a sketch for you -- that's a show with a HUGE sketchbook culture, maybe the most potent one I've ever seen. As for the programming, I can't imagine a better panel than one featuring Roger Langridge, Evan Dorkin and Richard "I Just Won The Reuben" Thompson, moderated by Heidi MacDonald. Go to that one.
* last weekend was Phoenix Comicon. Veteran writer-about-comics Marc Mason was on hand and wrote this report.
* there aren't as many thinkpieces and news story about conventions as you might guess given their central and still-growing importance to comics right now. Don't miss this one, then, about the fight to establish a major show in the Los Angeles area, and how that's led to a very crowded scene full of contenders.
New Valiant Comics Gets Capital Infusion; 2012 Launch Set
I can't imagine anything I'd have to say about a return for one-time 1990s comics-publishing mid-major Valiant that isn't already said in CBR's interview with CEO Jason Kothari or in their press release. The newsworthy element is that it's Peter Cuneo's company that is providing the money -- Cuneo is a former Marvel guy that cashed out when Disney bought the company.
I'm not sure there's a natural market out there for this material, and as is the case when I look at DC's recent announcements I wonder after the infrastructure both physical and digital that's supposed to deliver this material in a way that would allow it to catch on with fans (I realize those two realms operate in very different ways). Then again, all markets for comics may be vastly different by the time this effort hits the ground running, it's always a sucker's game evaluating the potency someone else's nostalgia, and having a administrative team in place, characters around which to launch stories and the money to do so puts you way up on all the people that lack any and/or all of those things.
This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases To The Comics Direct Market Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt 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. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
MAR111331 LIFE WITH MISTER DANGEROUS GN (RES) $22.00
I best enjoy reading Paul Hornschemeier's work in big chunks like this one, and this Villard effort looks handsome to boot. Definitely the first one I'd paw to my shopkeeper's dismay if I were hitting a comics store today.
APR110033 BPRD DEAD REMEMBERED #3 (OF 3) $3.50 APR110031 HELLBOY THE FURY #1 (OF 3) MIGNOLA CVR $2.99
When the entire serial comics market collapses into a pile of hubris and high-collared superheroes, copies of the Mignola-verse comics will still appear on top of the rubble where the stores used to be.
FEB110027 CITIZEN REX HC (RES) $19.99
This is a Gilbert Hernandez and Mario Hernandez effort from Dark Horse. I know almost nothing it, and I doubt a lot of people have a firm idea what's goin on in its pages beyond a guess based on past collaborations and sample artwork. Everything either of these two men does is at least intriguing, particularly in that Gilbert would be in any rationally selected cartooning Hall Of Fame even if you dropped whole decades of his oeuvre from consideration.
APR111154 PATRICK IN A TEDDY BEARS PICNIC & OTHER STORIES HC $12.95
The Geoffrey Hayes work from Toon has that special something that leads adults to re-read the material even if whatever kids encountering it might not.
FEB111118 TOOTH HC $24.99
I know almost nothing about this except that it's Matt Kindt, one of those cartoonists quietly putting together a stellar body of work.
MAR110390 STUCK RUBBER BABY SC NEW EDITION (MR) $17.99
I don't know where this stands in terms of it being a publishing project -- if it follows a hardcover effort or whatever -- but almost any serious collection of work featuring comics from the last 20 years would want one on its shelves. It was a significant part of the 1994-1995 explosion of quality graphic novels that foretold of the comics publishing reality we have now.
APR110668 CRIMINAL LAST OF INNOCENT #1 (OF 4) (MR) $3.50
The first issue of Ed Brubaker's highly amusing and yet somehow still affecting work about a man willing to kill to get his past back. I interviewed Brubaker here. If there were five series coming out that worked in serial form like this one does, we'd have an entirely different industry.
APR110732 OSBORN TP EVIL INCARCERATED $16.99
I have most of these in comic book form so won't go near the collection, but I liked the comic books: they felt very different in rhythm and tone than anything else out there being done, the kind of superhero comic book I used to fall for hard back in the 1980s. I haven't read the ending yet.
JAN111175 MOOMIN COMPLETE LARS JANSSON COMIC STRIP HC VOL 06 $19.95
And thus ends a very, very fine series of works, with what would strictly be defined as legacy work but that D+Q assures us is more than worth our time. Considering that the entire impetus of providing us fancy volumes of Moomin strips came from their offices, I'm going to trust them on this one.
MAR111104 CONSTRUCTIVE ABANDONMENT HC $15.95
I have a review copy of this one in that part of my library that holds new works to be swept back into my arms and carried to the desk. It looks very pretty. That's an image from it below. I like the gag.
*****
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 failed to list your comic, that's on me. I apologize.
Gene Colan: “There Isn’t Anything I Have To Be Afraid Of”
Clifford Meth reports from a recent visit with Gene Colan on that great comics illustrator's state of mind and ultimately hopeful outlook. You should bookmark this site for first word on sales to benefit Mr. Colan.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
We may be less than a week away from jury verdicts on the various charges facing Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana. Rana is facing charges related to his aiding and abetting David Coleman Headley in various scouting and advance missions for terrorists, including a planned attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper where the Danish Muhammed caricatures were originally published. Because Headley has confessed to a large number of scouting activities that led to the Mumbai Massacre, and because he's claimed Pakistani intelligence services involved, reporters from that part of the world have covered the trial extremely closes. Its centerpiece, Headley's testimony against his childhood friend and the subsequent cross-examination, took up nearly five days of court time.
Yesterday and today was apparently testimony to bolster Headley's testimony that Rana was more involved with the planning and aims of Headley's travel than he claims -- he claims to have been totally duped. This included some of his e-mail through Yahoo, apparently the e-mail of choice when it comes to bizarre activity even tangentially related to the Danish cartoons and other nefarious goings-on.
Today’s DC Comics Launch Announcements Worry Me
I don't want CR to step up and say "yes sir!" every time that DC makes a product announcement with their new linewide re-launch and same-day digital release strategy, but it's probably worth noting they started naming the titles and creative teams today, via kind of a strange information-dump strategy on their main PR web site as opposed to the more traditional team-up with a comics news source or multiples of same.
Again, I'm not the closest watcher of the mainstream comics world, but I have to say it: this seems to me like a really ordinary set of announcements given the stakes. It reads like established DC talent moved here and there rather than anything particularly bold or innovative set loose -- another set of Fall TV programs with shows starring Paula Marshall, Tom Cavanagh and Kelsey Grammer, if you will. To put it to you another way, I don't see a single announcement that couldn't have easily been part of a previous DC initiative. It also seems somewhat indicative of a thin roster, with names already beginning to repeat themselves.
There are positives. I like their Mr. Terrific character okay, although he's not exactly Spider-Man in the high-concept department. It's great to see the artist Cliff Chiang get a prime assignment, for sure. In fact, most of these creators are well-regarded (a few aren't, though, which also strikes me as weird, like there's no break with the past on any level). I'm also sure they're all nice folks, and that they are all going to be working their asses off. And execution is everything, of course. I hope they succeed. For now, I remain skeptical that DC has the talent pool and editorial skill to pull something off in the creative realm to match the opportunity presented by a line-wide relaunch and the genesis of an entirely new sales platform. I remain doubly skeptical that what we're hearing about is the kind of effort that can be maintained two, three, four years down the road. The whole thing worries me, frankly.
We'll know more as more titles are announced: a group of ten with eight really weird concepts and intriguing teams might change the look of the line entire -- we're rumored to get non-cape genre titles, for example. So we'll see. We'll also see how many new creator names pop up to join the older ones, or if the older names begin to repeat themselves with multiple gigs.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* newspaper advertising is down again, and is now at 1984 levels.
* apparently at a recent show the zeitgeist was such that Roger Langridge couldn't even given some art away. It's hard to believe, but it's sort of not hard to believe, too.
* not comics: I found intriguing this post transcribing an old essay about William Russell Flint's painting technique.
* here's a lengthy post at Stripper's Guide about the late-'70s/early '80s Star Trek comic strip and a bit about the specific market in which it tried to gain some traction.
* there's a fine photo here on Facebook of a group of Western publishing cartoonists.
* this cover for a new DC event comic seems funny, sad and funny-sad all at once. I can't figure out who exactly is reading these books, or I guess more to the point, who on earth would find a decapitation cover enough of an inducement to switch from non-buyer to buyer. On the other hand, I can understand why people might find this cover appealing.
* Johanna Draper Carlson suggests that more storytelling decision in mainstream comic book than we realize feel the impact of brand management.
Francine Graton, 1932-2011 Francine Graton, the writer behind the series Les Labourdet and a mostly unofficial contributor to the iconic Michel Valliant comics created by her husband Jean Graton, died in Uccle, Belgium on May 28. She was 79 years old.
Graton was born in Ixelles in 1932. She was Francine Vandenbosch until marrying the cartoonist Jean Graton om 1959, some two years into publication of his most famous work, the automobile racing drama Michel Vaillant. She's credited in a few biographical pieces as someone that contributed story ideas to the Michel Vaillant feature, particularly concerning the comic serial's domestic/soap opera elements. It is also mentioned that she colored the strip for a time. In 1965, she began writing Les Labourdet, a domestic strip featuring art by her husband designed to appeal to female readers -- a soap opera, basically. The strip began in the magazine People and Us Chez Nous. It ran for nine volumes' worth of material.
The Gratons' son Phillipe became his father's natural successor on the various features he did, and in the early 1980s the Gratons consolidated into their own publishing company in order to facilitate the material for which he was best known. It's that company which will eventually re-publish all the Les Labourdet material. In addition to her children, Graton is survived by her husband of more than 50 years.
Apparently There Was Some Sort Of DC Announcement Yesterday
I'm playing catch today on yesterday's humongous story that DC Comics is relaunching its entire line including the addition of same-day digital offering. To be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure how to direct this site's coverage. It's a huge story that deserves to be covered. At the same time, there's a thin line between covering a story and assisting DC in its efforts to publicize what should be a summer-long roll-out for their plans.
In case you missed it and are interested here was my initial take on the matter. I stand behind it as a first take, although I know there's at least one thing in there where I'm going to eventually spin things in a different direction.
I haven't read a lot of the regular-reviewer reactions, but I did plow through this one by Yan Basque. Don MacPherson is another one in that group, and his blog is where I saw the first picture from the revamped Justice League. The Cyborg character from Teen Titans is a key player in this summer's Flashpoint crossover event series, and his inclusion here isn't surprising as much as confirmation they have wider-platform plans for him. That's a sturdy character, although I think the classic version is by far the most appealing iteration and I suspect we're not going to see that one.
Retailer and industry advocate Brian Hibbs had a first take that mostly mirrored my own, here. The comments section underneath that post is worth its own read, as Hibbs has a fairly genteel group of regular comment-makers. A lot of retailers will look to hobby industry news hub ICv2.com, so I've read their twostories thus far as well.
Finally, Ed Brubaker speaks wise. Brubaker is speaking out against the glee expressed that people might go out of business; he's not hating on the future.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: A Publishing News Column By Tom Spurgeon
*****
* look, it's the cover image for D+Q's forthcoming collection of Kate Beaton's comics, Hark! A Vagrant I think that book should do very well for Beaton and for D+Q -- and for my general mood the week it's released.
* here are a couple of ongoing Kickstarter campaigns from folks that are regular CR readers or are willing to lie by saying so: Kevin Bandt with The Carriers -- a Kickstarter campaign that could maybe use a kickstart, although it's how you end that game that counts -- and Keith H. Brown's further-along effort on behalf of a book about Eric Dolphy. Please stop by and check them out, and at least keep them in the back of your mind in case you hit the superfecta at Belmont or something.
* there will apparently be a new edition of Brooklyn Dreams from IDW this Fall. IDW will someday soon have published all the books from the last 30 years that anyone has wondered why a new edition hasn't been done.
* here's some great news presented in classic "publishing announcement" fashion: Fantagraphics has acquired rights to two graphic novels drawn by the famous illustrator Guy Peellaert: The Adventures Of Jodelle (1966) and Pravda (1967). They were key books in the first wave of French-language comics aimed at adult readers, and are really cool objects besides. They are planned for in Spring (Jodelle) and Fall (Pravda) of 2012.
* Vertigo shows off the cover to the 50th issue of Scalped, one supposes in anticipation of being renumbered at #1 and everyone getting a Jim Lee-designed costume. Joking aside, that's a heck of a milestone.
* finally, I've talked about AdHouse Books' publication of Stuart Immonen's Centifolia books here and there, mostly in an attempt to drive attention to the sometimes-hidden breadth of Immonen's career. Another way to look at it, though, is that AdHouse seems to have been pushing the work through a series of special offers, hand-selling and alternative distribution methods, making it this season's prime-time "Off The Beaten Path" book. If you're in Charlotte this weekend for the wonderful Heroes Con, you could do far worse than to track down AdHouse and take a look at those pretty volumes.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Alan Gardner has a nice, concise round-up of pertinent NCS Weekend links, including the flat-out, actual comics industry news that Tom Richmond slips into Jef Keane's place as the society's president.
* the writer Sean Witzke has a Jeet Heer-style post of various observations up here. That Dave Sim put on display one of the sharpest developmental curves in the history of comics is a point worth noting, I think.
* the writer and critic Rob Clough talks about the unique indy-comics tradition of the forthcoming Heroes Con through the prism of a few of the comics he's discovered there.
* Graeme McMillan suggests some work from Oni that one might like to read. I agree with Graeme that Andi Watson is one of those underrated cartoonists whose ever work is interesting and for whom we should always be slightly worried that that the industry isn't doing well enough by them.
The top comics-related news stories from June 18 to June 24, 2011:
* over at the site The Adventures of Mr. Phil, you'll find 
The Chicago-based artist, actor, printmaker and writer Tony Fitzpatrick uses the unveiling of his "Bazooka Hulk" 
* the writer and academic 
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
* there's 
* there's a nice-looking, apparently obscure Mazzucchelli page 
* not comics: in what is good news for no one not receiving residuals of some sort, 
The top comics-related news stories from June 11 to June 17, 2011:
* PictureBox has for sale a limited-edition Gary Panter book that accompanied a European arts show. It's called The Land Unknown. It's hard for me to imagine a lot of comics fan thats wouldn't want an object that fun-looking on their shelves. Additionally, the publisher 
* here's one off the beaten path, and "about comics" rather than comics besides: the writer Matt Maxwell has collected a bunch of his columns about comics into 
* so apparently there are a lot of head injuries in Asterix and apparently 
* not comics: the Green Lantern movie opens today, which is noteworthy not because it's a superhero film but because it's the first DC attempt in the modern-movie sense to launch a full-blown summer, toy-friendly movie franchise based on someone other than familiar icons Batman and Superman. It's also the first movie to come out via the benefit of the new synergistic relationship DC Comics is supposed to have with Warners, in which what works in the comics is intended to inform what might work on screen and the DC superheroes generally are expected to be a regular, reliable source for franchise movie-making in the post-Harry Potter world. Reviews 
By Tom Spurgeon
* 
* James Stokoe's Orc Stain pages 
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
The editor of South African cartoonist Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro 
I'm not certain how ultimately truthful it might be, but the general assertion in 
* Ryan Sands took a few months off after Japan's earthquake/tsunami from posting at his Same Hat! blog. It's posts like 
I'm more of a "history is decidedly more complex than we envision it, albeit made up of some frighteningly base and simplistic attitudes" guy, so to read an essay like 
* 
* I'm not sure I know exactly the point of 
The top comics-related news stories from June 4 to June 10, 2011:
The cartoonist Zunar has written a number of news sources announcing his intention to file civil suit against the Malaysian government and its police force for his unlawful arrest and detention in Fall 2010, as well as the seizure of a political cartoon and copies of his book Cartoon-O-Phobia. He will be represented by the group Lawyers for Liberty.
By Tom Spurgeon
A couple of wire pieces 
There are various reports 
* there's making a rash set of assumptions about someone's creative choices, there's making that set of assumptions concerning creative choices about an artist of Walt Simonson's caliber, and 
By Tom Spurgeon
* 
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
The early comic book artist turned illustrator and "Draw 50" book series creator Lee Judah Ames 
* speaking of fun things over at TCJ, Michael DeForge 
* not comics: one has to imagine that on the list of 10 Billion Cartoonist Side Gigs Rated In Order Of Coolness, "
The top comics-related news stories from May 28 to June 3, 2011:
This is the kind of thing that goes into the "Bundled" column, and I'm sure I'll mention it again next week. I figured, though, after a week that felt like an entire, lengthy summer, the good news aspect was worth making its own post. The cartoonist and comics educator 
* Comics Alliance 
* Sean T. Collins uses the occasion of new, funny work on Spider-Man 
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
Again, I'm not the closest watcher of the mainstream comics world, but I have to say it: this seems to me like a really ordinary set of announcements given the stakes. It reads like established DC talent moved here and there rather than anything particularly bold or innovative set loose -- another set of Fall TV programs with shows starring Paula Marshall, Tom Cavanagh and Kelsey Grammer, if you will. To put it to you another way, I don't see a single announcement that couldn't have easily been part of a previous DC initiative. It also seems somewhat indicative of a thin roster, with names already beginning to repeat themselves.
* apparently at a recent show the zeitgeist was such that Roger Langridge 
Francine Graton, the writer behind the series Les Labourdet and a mostly unofficial contributor to the iconic Michel Valliant comics created by her husband Jean Graton, 
In case you missed it and are interested 
By Tom Spurgeon
* Alan David Doane at Trouble With Comics 
