CR Newsmaker Interview: Jen Vaughn, On Leaving Fantagraphics
*****
I was told by a mutual friend that Jen Vaughn had given notice at Fantagraphics to pursue freelance opportunities and her own comics. I was surprised: not by the fact that she wanted to do her own comics but I and many others had come to think of Vaughn as a fixture at the venerable alt-publisher. I thought she might be there for another decade or more.
The funny thing is, the other hats I've seen Vaughn wear I can imagine her having done those things for an adult lifetime: her time in Vermont in and around the Center For Cartoon Studies, her freelance work in Seattle where she'll be spending time now, even the brief stopover at Top Shelf... Vaughn is the kind of person that seems right at home wherever she ends up, which is an enviable skill in an industry of devoted outsiders and commitment-phobes.
I reached out to Vaughn for an exit interview. She agreed, and somehow got it done within close proximity to Emerald City Comicon. I edited a tiny bit for preferred style and flow. I've enjoyed working with Jen during her time at the House That Groth And Thompson Built, and look forward to seeing what she does next. -- Tom Spurgeon
*****
TOM SPURGEON: Jen, I'm not clear how you ended up at Fantagraphics in the first place. How did you get the job you just left?
JEN VAUGHN: A combination of luck, building relationships and hard work! I spent three years at the Schulz Library at the Center for Cartoon Studies and set up some PR precedents for the blog concerning new student work, cons, etc. In addition, I interned at Top Shelf with Brett Warnock, working on books by James Kochalka and Brecht Evens. During my time at the Center for Cartoon Studies, Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds came by for Industry Day and I met him there first. Editor Kristy Valenti recognized my name when Jacq suggested me for a newly created position. Jacq Cohen and I had done some sweet sweet karaoke together -- I even made a comic about it -- and she knew that I would be a great addition to the team.
SPURGEON: What were the factors involved in your making that decision to commit to them -- was that always part of the plan, that you'd go to work for a publisher like that?
VAUGHN: The plan was to stay in comics. Period. I've worked with comics and graphics novels at almost every level: handselling Y: the Last Man and Jeffrey Brown at a bookstore (Bookstop in Austin), comic book library, teaching comics to people from age seven to seventy, teaching teachers how to integrate comics in their curriculum, interned a company (Top Shelf), gone to comic book school, drawn -- and printed -- my own comics, wrote for a comics news site (The Beat), had a webcomic for a year and half, organized a small comic con, hosted indie comics -- ye old Nerdlingers -- worked at a comics non-profit, worked at a comics publisher. Basically, the only things left for me are to work at a printer in Asia and be a full-time freelancer. And maybe become a font...
SPURGEON: [laughs] Do you remember now your first impressions of Fantagraphics? What did you have right? Did you make a snap judgment that turned out not to be true? Like I remember I took an instant disliking to the people on staff that would be my closest pals, and vice-versa.
VAUGHN: My first impression was the cozy atmosphere of the office, casual clothing and terrible shag carpet in one of the hallways. For those who don't know, the office is a punk house so Gary Groth's office is a bedroom, the kitchen is also part mailroom, etc. I pretty much knew I would like everyone there. Designer Tony Ong actually went to the same high school as me so we have some very faint fuzzy memories of me renting Blockbuster vids from him. The staff hangs out a lot together, some people go to trivia night together, some drink together, we watch Game of Thrones together. It's pretty dreamy.
SPURGEON: Did you end up doing what you were hired to do? Sometimes at a small company like that there can be a lot of people with overlapping responsibilities or people that volunteer to do stuff and end doing that thing full time. For that matter, what did you like and dislike about the small company aspects of it.
VAUGHN: Fanta went from publishing about 50-60 comics/graphic novels a year to over 100 a year and created my job to help handle the overflow of marketing needed to be done. At first I only managed social media, collected review blurbs and made Flog posts, allowing Mike Baehr at the time -- he's now the print buyer -- to do more book page creation and spend more time on e-mail campaigns, etc. From that, I started to do more events planning and working with the cartoonists on how to promote their books locally or around shows they were attending. Plus, I create inventory list and do all the scheduling for all the trade shows whether it was a one day curated show or the monster that is San Diego Comic-Con. And back in 2012, so basically since I started, I've been the digital comics liaison, making sure metadata for books gets to ComiXology, Sequential and more recently, Google Play. I've always enjoyed the work, it often depends on the book or the cartoonist themselves who make it challenging or easy. At the end of the day, I'm helping get a beautiful book into someone's hands -- maybe someone who didn't know they wanted it -- and that's the best feeling.
SPURGEON: Very few people that work below an executive position in comics make very much money. It's not like a company like Fanta makes money and keeps it from you as much as it doesn't have a lot of money to begin with -- in general, I'd say. It's part of the job, but it makes it tough. Was it tough for you to adapt?
VAUGHN: Not really, I wanted to be on a team for awhile to make things happen. But I've been offered jobs for the last year, and turning them down, because at the time Fanta was right. Things are changing there, hopefully for the better but I've gone to fewer and fewer shows and I have some pretty incredible opportunities that I cannot pass up.
Also, Kristy Valenti and I have a pretty good system of interns -- based on her Q&A set and my no-bullshit here -- that have kept the editorial, PR/Marketing and Design departments going. I could not have done all my work over the past almost three years without the competent, hard-working and sometimes mouthy help of my hand-picked interns: Nomi Kane, Elaine Lin, Lillian Beatty, Emma X, Ryan Brewer, Josie Olney, Vicki Lo, Will Rhodes and Rosie Lockie. I've even lined up a few more choice interns for my replacement.
SPURGEON: How has Seattle been different comics community-wise than Vermont?
VAUGHN: In Vermont, people point at you in the grocery store and say "Aren't you a cartoonist?" It's so small that you have to pretend to be on your phone to get from home to work or the store -- if on foot -- to avoid talking to everyone you. There is a lack of anonymity there, especially if you stay for a few years, and [this] is one of my favorite things about Seattle. I can get through almost any coffee shop drawing day without seeing someone I know -- I did run into Corey Lewis the other day at Elliott Bay Book Company, though. There's some cool drawing nights like Dune -- run by Intruder's Max Clotfelter -- and the Ballard Sketch Group -- run by Seth Goodkind -- both I've tried out but I think the group aspect brings out a braggadocio quality in some people, not all, and often myself included, so being in a huge group of people with poor lighting is not my bag.
I've been spending the last year at a studio in the International District with Brian Thies, Stefano Gaudiano and Moritat, who are mainstream cartoonists/artists. While I came from the mainstream reading world and transitioned to the indie one more or less for school purposes, I find the deadlines and work ethic of mainstream artists more appealing. These guys work hard all day and then go out to dinner together. Stefano's been inking The Walking Dead the whole time, Thies was finishing Star Wars Legacy and is now doing a creator-owned series. Moritat was on Jonah Hex when I met him and is now almost done with his creator-owned book, a hot noir number. They have all be supportive and helpful as I've made my transition.
SPURGEON: How much time have you already carved out for yourself as a freelancer and an artist while working at Fantagraphics? I'm told that you're going to do that work full-time, but I'm interest how you balanced that work with your Fanta work up until now. Have you turned down gigs? How many hours a week could you commit? How tough was it?
VAUGHN: The work-life balance is interesting, I had a good thing going 2012-2013 and then the Kickstarter took over last year and a lot of my free time dried up. Now that that is basically over, I've gotten back to my freelance like Cartozia Tales, an anthology series edited by Isaac Cates with a focus on cartography.
Hours-wise, I'd say I was spending only 6-10 the last six months and it is honestly not enough. I have had to turn down some gigs often because they wanted a fast turnaround -- for good pay -- but knowing I had to be cogent for Fantagraphics the next day meant not staying up until 5 AM to crack out a pin-up or fill-in for someone.
SPURGEON: One thing I think of when I think of you working there is how you were one of the more prominent public faces of the company, repping them on the road at several events. I think you and Jacq were the first people I'd heard of described as "Fantagraphics" that weren't Eric or Gary or Kim. You are that company to a lot of your peers and those even a little a bit younger than you. Did you have that sense as well? Did you feel invested in a way that leaving is that much harder?
VAUGHN: That's what you call "good marketing" then, Tom. [grins wickedly] I'm not sure how to answer this question other than I dearly love the people I worked with in the office, low-res (Jacob Covey), and the cartoonists. The joke is that we spend more time with Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez than our own moms, so it is like a dream come true. The company is small and I've put my say in for a few projects which -- fingers crossed -- might get published so it will be sad not to work with those friends/cartoonists in a professional setting of publisher rep & talent. Ed Luce and I were talking this weekend and he totally understands where I'm coming from since he teaches part-time at CCA. Rachel Edidin -- formerly of Dark Horse -- was one of the first people I met in comics and collaborated with. We had a Sophie Campbell cover for our zine. She's freelancing now too. As much as I'd like to think I helped Fanta, anyone is replaceable. Except for maybe my terrible punning and loud laugh. My only regret is that I still haven't met Richard Sala in person, but he is a man of mystery.
SPURGEON: How did you and Jacq Cohen come to work so well together? Is there something about her people don't know that you think maybe they should?
VAUGHN: Ha! Well, we both don't take shit from people and that includes each other. We are ambitious and motivated. We both like whiskey. We both like dressing like professionals in a work setting like a con -- not necessarily every day at the office -- and had known a lot of different people in the industry so working together was an actual partnership. Jacq likes whiskey, Buffalo Trace or Bulleit bourbon, neat while I prefer one ice cube to open it up. Does that answer the question?
SPURGEON: No, but I like that better. [pause] What comes to mind when I ask about working in the same office as the late Kim Thompson? Do you have a go-to story?
VAUGHN: For awhile, Kim, Eric and I were the early birds to the office. I would come early to leave before it got insufferably hot since neither my work nor home had A/C. As far as stories go... No, honestly, and I wouldn't want to blow any regular office dealings out of proportion in light of his passing. Although... during my "let's clean six years of submissions off the unused staircase" tirade I found quite a bit of Eros submissions. After winnowing them out, I showed two to Eric Reynolds who did his signature shrug and said they looked like they could pass muster, but Kim was the final say. Kim took one look at them, like a nano-second, looked me dead in the eye and said "Not violent enough" and went back to banging on the keyboard. [laughs] I do think despite Kim's more aloof demeanor, he added an essential spice to Fantagraphics, financially, morale-wise, that is missed.
SPURGEON: Another thing I think of when I think of you working there is the big Kickstarter, which I and everyone I know felt had your fingerprints all over it. Can you talk a bit about the work you did on that, how you structured it, if you based it on anything?
VAUGHN: The Kickstarter was both a crazy blessing and the bane of my existence. Like any fundraiser, people are happy to be involved when the money-meter is still ticking. But over the course of 2014 -- since the books didn't even start coming out until six months later -- it became the trigger word for eye-rolling in the office. So I went from a growing social media/events/digital comics position to adding the entire Kickstarter campaign to my day job. Details may bore people but I spent most of my time outside of work clocking some overtime and answering emails, working on the incentives, occasionally answering an irate email sent directly to Eric or Gary instead of working on my comics. There had been a better spread of duties, even though I admittedly took a lot on, but a few other people left Fanta in early 2014 who had sworn their craft hands to me. I had some plans drawn up for Fantagraphics that any fool could have figured out are much much easier to handle should -- Satan Help Us -- Fanta ever have to do another Kickstarter.
SPURGEON: [laughs] You're a desirable publishing/industry employee, but I know you also want to pursue your art. Has that been tough just in general, beyond the practicalities of it, asserting your identity as a cartoonist? Because that's not as high-profile as your work through Fantagraphics.
VAUGHN: Hmm, I don't know about the assert part of the question. You just do it and you either get money for it or something else. Anytime I'm asked to speak, the moderators will make sure to line-item if they want me as either one Jen or the other Jen. People always ask if I sell my comics on the Fantagraphics table which is completely absurd to me. Those are mine, have nothing to do with my day job and that idea seems slimy. But I have signed comics people bring up to me while at the table because I'm not not going to please them.
SPURGEON: Right. So what's first with the extra time? Where are you six months from now?
VAUGHN: Probably working in the aforementioned studio with Gaudiano, Moritat, and Thies. I'm inking two mainstream books and that news will be out soon. They are rad as hell and I'm working with great creative teams, I adore the pencillers especially. Anyone who follows me on Twitter (@thejenya) can hazard a guess. Meanwhile, Ryan K. Lindsay is writing a one-shot comic for me about power struggles, teens and more; can't wait to sink my teeth in his script. Kevin Church promised me a space epic. My own ideas have been bubbling up for a bit so I may throw a thing or two out in the world.
Oh oh oh... also, I have the pleasure of working on a menstruation comic with the Menstrupedia people, who helped raise awareness and break the taboo about speaking about menstruation in India. Rajat Mittal hired me and I got to pick my creative team so Fanta editor Kristy Valenti is helping with rewrites and Fanta designer Keeli McCarthy is helping with some coloring/lettering and design. I'm all about getting paid and passing on some work to other people. And some my first mini-comics were menstruation-related. It is basically the perfect convergence of projects to start out with. My email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if someone is dying to have me do something. My dance card is a bit full now but I have a list of people I want to collaborate with.
*****
* all photos supplied by Vaughn
* I don't know the provenance of the first two, they're just nice photos featuring Vaughn
* the Fantagraphics crew during a portion of her itme there
* Jacq Cohen, Jen Vaughn, Kristy Valenti
* panorama shot of the studio in which Vaughn now works
* example of her art, at least I think so -- someone correct me if I'm wrong
* Vaughn with Eric Reynolds and Jaime Hernandez
* Jacq Cohen, Jen Vaughn
* Vaughn at a signing at Arcane Comics
* Moritat, Vaughn's new studiomate and a longtime Seattle comics presence
* toast time at the 2014 Eisners Afterparty (below)
Festivals Extra: Emerald City Comicon Expands To Four Days In 2016 I'm a little late to this. At the end of their successful 2015 show, Emerald City Comicon announced they'll be moving to a four-day show model from a three-day, starting in 2016. This puts them more in line with owner ReedPOP's shows in Chicago (C2E2) and New York (NYCC), and puts them more on the same ground with the Comic-Con shows in Anaheim and Los Angeles with whom the ReedPOP shows are generally seen to be in competition. In fact, the Emerald City show had already announced for the same, general weekend in 2016 that WonderCon is using for 2015, leading some to believe that the two shows might directly compete. I would imagine that's not going to happen, as WonderCon has bounced around the Spring a bit in recent years, but you never know.
I'm too old and disconnected from the con experience as a con-goer not to let my own preferences color how I look at such news. I mean, I like the three-day show for Seattle, and I have a hard time finding things to do for more than a couple of days at any show. I do think that when you get to four days you are kind of just supplying a longer show experience for devoted fans, as opposed to bringing in a new groups the way that going from two to three days permits (going from one to two the biggest change seems to be which exhbitors can now afford to take a chance with a show).
* the comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com has word that the Supreme Court will pass on hearing the latest appeal from Stan Lee Media. The Internet company, no longer affiliated with the 90+ year old comics creator and public celebrity, has long pressed Lee's assignment of rights to the company as their avenue into Marvel properties that they believe a settlement between Lee and Marvel acknowledged that Lee's rights existed at the time the Internet company was formed. If you don't get that, that's bad writing and also just bad, goofy things happening in the world. If only the judges that came into contact with the case were stoned college students, because that's the only audience with whom SLM's oddball legal logic seemed to have a natural home.
* David Press writes about Warren Ellis and books throwing off "data shadows." He also asserts that 1960s comic books presaged David Foster Wallace's use of footnotes.
* finally, if I already recommended RC Harvey on the late Roy Doty, let me recommend it again. Hard to imagine a better pairing of historian and historical figure. That guy had two George Herrimans.
* JT Dockery talks to the great Gary Panter about meeting and talking to Philip K. Dick. I love specific interviews like this one, and I love it when a comics character of the highest order like Dockery is encouraged to hold forth at length. The result is that Dockery creates a perfect context for the discussion, he lets you know why he cares so much about the subject matter, so you do, too.
* the Comics Journal presents a conversation between Gary Groth and the just-passed Irwin Hasen just as it happened back in 2013: loose, rambling, full of stage directions and digressions. lt's a nice insight into how Hasen's mind works but also provides a glimpse at how Groth was able to connect with so many great mainstream comic book makers of his father's generation: he spoke their language, did his research, knew their icons, ingratiated himself into however they liked to hold forth and within those parameters was free with his opinions in a way that sometimes supplied a much-needed spark. He's the best there's ever been at it.
Did You Know That Brian Heater Has A Podcast Where He Interviews Cartoonists From Time To Time?
I mean, I knew about it, and have even listened to some of what's linked to below. You might not have in part because I never got Brian Heater's podcast in my regular cycle of things I look at and recommend, because my brain works very poorly sometimes. People always assume I'm just mad at them, but it's mostly I just can't close the deal for whatever reason, can't cross over from what I should be doing to actually doing it. My apologies.
Heater was nice enough to send me a note when his podcast got to its 100th episode. Here are the links he sent to the comics-makers he's interviewed along the way.
Congratulations, Brian. I hope there will be many more.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* if you can only read one comics-related piece today, read whatever you want -- holy crap, I'd have to be an asshole to tell you what to do with an entire day's worth of reading. I hope at some point you'll catch up with Nicole Rudick's talk with Victor Moscoso over at Paris Review. I thought it was a blast. Also, more comics fans should follow her on Twitter; everything she writes about comics is really good.
* it's not a closely-related enough story for a full Danish Cartoon or Charlie Hebdo update, but some of the more strident and seemingly intractable impasses of the war between cultures in Europe seem to have gained some heat and evinced greater frustration for the fact of the Hebdo murders. I don't think pressure of this kind was a primary aim, but it seems to have been a primary result. Everything feels strained and impossible now.
* totally certain I've posted that Reich pages are for sale; totally not worried about posting it again. Not a lot of comic book series left like that one.
* here's a pretty old-school deconstruction of the comics sales of the 1940s as they were supposedly upended by comics censorship movements in the 1950s. I trust the hatred that I encountered decades later from the cartoonists of that era to ever dismiss the dramatic effect the censors had on the ability of comics to tell certain kinds of stories. At the same time, logic suggests that there was likely a kaleidoscope of cultural forces at work to move the industry from one period of sales and mainstream expression to another.
Universal Uclick Launches Phoebe And Her Unicorn In 100+ Publications
I don't cover as many of the strip launches as I might have once upon a time. It seems there are far fewer now, particuarly after the newspaper industry shudder and heave the marked the end of the last decade. My guess is that most syndicates moved from 2-3 launches a year at the beginning of the 2000s to one every 18-24 months, but I could be super-wrong about that. Much of the action in recent years has been in syndicates working with the creative properties to develop opportunities for them in a variety of media, with the occasional solid performer being launched like Dustin.
That Universal Uclick found more than 100 publications to carry Dana Simpson's Phoebe And Her Unicorn marks me as worth noting for a few reasons. One, that's an excellent launch, just by sheer numbers one of the best in that company's history. Two, I believe there's an historical aspect that hasn't been made part of how the strip has been presented, and I'll respect that here, although I'm thrilled by what that represents. Three, the strip has been carried for a long time on GoComics.com under its original name Heavenly Nostrils, and the ability to move it to a more profitable tier must be really exciting for that company in terms of executing that digital strategy. Something that may not be a factor considered with the frequency it deserves is that the ability to work in a space with syndication demands before syndication buyers get to see the strip -- that really has to be a gift to those creators. It's a nearly three-year running start for Simpson, and a chance to work in markets where you already have fans that might defend the specific work if dropped. It seems to be working in this case, certainly.
I note that Simpson is in the Seattle area, which at least in terms of idiosyncratic small-press comics people has enjoyed a significant resurgence and remains one of the great comics communities. Previous works from Simpson stretching back to the early 2000s have adhered much more closely to approaches enjoyed in furry culture, but syndication was an end result long in mind. Now she's there, with much aplomb. Our congratulations to the cartoonist.
Go, Read: How To Become A Cartoonist
Nigel Parkinson works in traditional UK kids' comics. So when asked to give his advice on how to become a cartoonist, he basically explains how he ended up where he is: in some ways it's the world's least helpful column, the description of a unique path hacked through a woodland where the path has closed up and the woods is nearly gone.
On the other hand, there is something to the advice in general. Most cartoonists get to the point of making a living by keeping cartooning until the world curves slightly around them to accommodate that talent and persistence. And Parkinson is right in identifying a second step after being persistent for what may seem like forever: consolidating one's early opportunities and nascent skills until they begin to resemble something like a career.
If it all sounds impossible, it pretty much is -- there's no guarantee that if you do all of these things 100 percent perfectly that the ground won't open under you at some future date right where you standing or right where you need to be standing next for the previous steps to have made any sense at all. I think this is infinitely more so in an era without any real industry of any type; there are very few places into which one can settle, very few pieces of ground guaranteed to be there five years from now.
You also have to be able to draw and write, either surpassingly well at one or professionally able at both. It's really not fair.
* Hannah Means-Shannon talks to Rich Tommaso. I think I already linked to this Sam Marx talk with Ed Luce, but I like Luce so I'm going to risk running it twice rather than look that up. Jason Sacks talks to Nate Powell. Laura Hudson profiles Jason Shiga. Michael Cavna talks to Nate Powell specifically about the passage of laws in Indiana that until they went over like lead balloon were 100 percent presented as providing religious people with the legal backing to petition the courts for exemption from serving people with whose lifestyle they disagree. I still believe that's the intention, by the way, I just don't see another pressing, positive formulation. Powell is based in Bloomington. Paul Gravett talks to Dylan Horrocks and Maurice Vellekoop, both super-nice gentlemen of comics.
* Meryl Jaffe writes about using Aya: Life In Yop City as a way to spotlight its very specific moment in history.
* the always-very-funny Hayley Campbell writes about things learned from working in a comic book store. This is one of my potential careers in hell, so I'm grateful for the article. I hope it's received in a way that matches its bouncy tone rather than as a somber, pre-pogrom declaration of intent.
* Rafi Schwartz points out a contest of potential interest to female comics-makers. I tend to think contests are a bad idea, but I can see how this might be a good one so I want to mention it.
* here's an article that was suggested to me by two of you who roughly had the same idea: that is presented Leroy Neiman as a visual journalist in addition to his more well-known career as a kind of pop painter of sporting events. I think that's true of a lot of the illustrators that were magazine from the 1930s into the 1970s. The way we understand comics now there's work by Steinberg, Hirschfeld and Steadman that clearly fits into a kind of "comics journalism" to use that horrible phrase. That seems true of some of what Neiman was doing.
FFF Results Post #413—A Randys Readers World
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Comics You'd Own If No Comic Cost More Than $2." This is how they responded.
1. Strange Tales #131 (Marvel)
2. Strange Planets #16 (I.W. Publishing)
3. The Mighty Atom and the Pixies #6 (Magazine Enterprises)
4. Eerie #9 (Warren)
5. Harvey Pop Comics #2 (Harvey)
*****
Evan Dorkin
1. Mad: Artist's Edition, IDW
2. Moomin: The Deluxe Anniversary Edition, D&Q
3. Love and Rockets #1, self-published by Los Bros
4. Black Cat Comics #1, Harvey
5. The Eternals Omnibus, Marvel
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Forgotten Fantasy, Sunday Press Books
2. Fantastic Four #25, Marvel
3. The Monster Society Of Evil, Hawk Books
4. Joe Kubert's Tor: Artist's Edition, IDW
5. The Collected Trashman, Fat City And Red Mountain Tribe
1. Trots and Bonnie Collection, National Lampoon
2. Anarcho Dictator Of Death, Fawcett Publications
3. The Monster Society Of Evil, Hawk Books (yeah! me, too!)
4. Blazing Combat, Fantagraphics
5. Bat-Manga! The Secret History Of Batman In Japan, Pantheon
1. Fantastic Four #5, Marvel
2. Air Pirates Funnies #1, Hell Comics
3. The Adventures of Mr. Obidiah Oldbuck, Wilson & Co.
4. Mae West in "The Hip Flipper", Mr. Prolific
5. Vertigo (Lynd Ward), Random House
*****
I wanted specific publications, and I thought it was clear from that description and the examples that this didn't mean boxed sets of multiple publications bound by a slipcase. I'm sorry if I wasn't more clear, but I need to start reigning these in a bit because week to week the answers are getting more and more away from topic. We're also doing an upcoming FFF on slipcased editions. I'm always super-sorry when I can't run something when someone spent the time. Please forgive me. If anyone wants to revise theirs and send it in, I'll put it up top. I don't have a lot of time to argue things anymore, so please know that you're right and I'm wrong.
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from March 21 to March 27, 2015:
1. Two Turkish cartoon-makers were sentenced to jail for insulting Recep Erdogan not through a critical cover but through a supposed hand sign made to portray him as homo sexual. There are no words in that last sentence that aren't depressing. Luckily, the sentence was commuted to a fine which -- while not insignificant -- has to be better than going to jail. This practice needs to end.
2. A New Mexico school library board decides to keep Palomar on the shelves after a parent's complaint that compared the comics masterwork to child porn, a complaint that was given a big platform when a local television ran an idiotic report including the old trick of claiming not being able to show the comic in question. I'm glad calmer heads prevailed.
3. Emerald City Comicon launches, the first major North American convention of the year in the sense that a wide swathe of comics pros attend and the rest of the industry pays attention to it from afar. Conventions are one of the things that works about comics, and the perception of how well they work exceeds even their general effectiveness across the board. They're also increasingly important cultural events as a way to facilitate relationships made on-line that's not on-line.
Winners Of The Week Gen Con. That kind of stand is difficult and comes with some cost.
Losers Of The Week
Everyone that backs the idiotic practice of suing people according to a special law that protects elected officials from insult. Just the dumbest laws ever.
Quote Of The Week
"Marvel was more streetwise and funky. When I visited both companies' headquarters in the early 1990s, Marvel's felt more like a college rec room than a serious business place. DC's on the other hand, by then wholly owned by Time Warner, was a grim, unwelcoming place, with dim lighting and employees talking in hushed tones -- more like a bank than an entertainment company." -- Jonathan Ross
*****
the comic image selected is from the brief but notable 1970s run of Seaboard/Atlas
Two Turkish Cartoonists Sentenced To Jail For Insulting Erdogan; Sentences Reduced, Then Commuted This looks like the best report I can find in English on the outcome of a recent case involving the cartoonists Bahadir Baruter and Azer Aydogan "insulting" that country's president, Recep Erdogan. Those comics makers made a cover for the satirical magazine Penguen in 2014 that included a hand gesture that a Turkish citizen accused of being an indication that the then just-elected Erdogan was homosexual. Erdogan's lawyer joined the case soon after, and help a prosecutor put together what have become the saddest standard story in that country's politics: the "insult to a public official" indictment.
The trial began in Istanbul on March 19. They were sentenced to 14 months in prison on March 24. This was then decreased to 11 months and 20 days because of good behavior, and was finally converted to a fine at approximately $2700 USD. A standard sentence is three months in jail for insult, a year for insulting a public official, and one-sixth more to either standard if the insult is done publicly.
Baruter now faces a second trial for potentially insulting the prosecutor when asserting that the interpretation of the hand gesture may have been related to the prosecutor's subconscious.
A significant number of journalists have been accused, indicted and even convicted of such laws, which free-speech proponents see as being a deterrence against the criticism of sitting officials.
You can see a scan of the offending cover image, hand gesture and all, here.
CBLDF: NM School Library Votes To Keep Palomar On The Shelves
Betsy Gomez has welcome news at the CBLDF web site. In February a parent in Rio Rancho was so troubled by the content of Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar, brought home by her high-school aged child that she took her concerns to a local television station where the ambitious comics masterpiece was called "child porn." The news report didn't even show the images, which made the report seem much more damning.
Luckily, clearer heads eventually prevailed, and on March 16 the review committee in charge of the school libary voted 5-3 to keep the book on the shelves.
The CBLDF joined other concerned organizations in signing a letter drafted by Kids Right To Read Project pointing out the work's literary merit, the problems with taken one point of view as the overriding one and asking that the library apply its stated, dispassionate policy towards processing this kind of complaint.
Go, Look: Fantagraphics Is Having A Sale Right Now
I like running news about sales when it pleases me to do so. It doesn't really rate as "news," but is of functional interest to the vast majority of the comics readers who use this site. Fantagraphics has one going right now, which apparently includes a few TCJs to which I made a small contribution. I think that includes the Fort Thunder issues, although the description on the site does not match the issue number of cover. I really liked writing that essay for then-Managing Editor Milo George.
There's also a bunch of Ignatz format material for sale, and I thought those books were super-attractive as well as containing a lot of great comics. If those have be reprinted elsewhere, it probably won't be the way were printed by that book series.
There's an amazing post here from Evan Dorkin where he talks about finishing work on The Eltingville Comic Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror & Role-Playing Club and his immediate prospects. It's as honest and forthright as Dorkin tends to get on these subjects, which is very. There are elements of getting older in terms of being able to produce work and also having the industry shift to a different place while you remain the same. I think everyone in comics and everyone that love comics and wants creators to do well should read it.
Also, RIP Eltingville. I really enjoyed those comics and look forward to the last installment.
* this nice announcement from Colleen Doran reminds me that every cartoonist I know is trying to deal with the surge in shows they can attend in part by figuring out where they've been recently and balancing that against going to places they haven't be to in years. I can't even imagine the number of factors coming into play.
By Request Extra: Julia Wertz’s Impossible People Fundraising
The cartoonist Julia Wertz is raising money for the completion of her once-abandoned, now-resurrected Impossible People, a planned follow-up to her well-regarded Drinking At The Movies. I guess a big chunk of it was done and then she decided not to proceed further. She needs to revisit the work, expand it, change some things. I think any artist that's working with material that potentially strong and personal is almost best served by a complicated relationship to getting that work done. It indicates that the cartoonist will know the final product worth publishing; it wasn't just the next book.
Wertz is raising money for the book, but unsurprisingly doing it on her own. If you're a fan, I'll hope you visit. I contributed a tiny, mockable amount yesterday so please do better than I did. This is a big year for finding ways to support the art you like that isn't putting off those payment into the future or assuming that someone else will at some point give that artist you like some money. It's also a big year in comics for finding modest, creative ways to help. In that sense, Wertz has done a lot of the work for you.
Gen Con Threatens To Leave Indianapolis Due To Stupid Ass Bill
It's not exactly comics, but it's next door and there's still a certain overlap between the two geek communities and the industries that serve them. Indiana governor Mike Pence has signed into law one of those right-to-discriminate bills that doesn't seem to do anything except provide solace to the side of the culture wars that sees these kinds of things as another exchange in culture wars. He does so in the light of a reach-out from the long-time gaming convention Gen Con, who said earlier this week they'll consider a move elsewhere if the bill is signed.
I imagine this has a long way to go yet. Now that the bill is signed, you're going to get people that suggest something along the lines that Gen Con keep its millions of dollars of business in the state but focus on businesses that make some sort of non-idiocy pledge. A lot of gamers are conservative at heart, and I haven't really heard from that side of things yet, either. I can imagine a split-convention scenario because of that conservative streak, although the reason the show is in Indy isn't tradition (it started in Wisconsin) but because it's a really nice place to have a show like that. Usually when people split because of political reasons they need another reason like loyalty to go on the record supporting the side that looks historically outdated.
It also makes me sad that such a useless-sounding bill is being passed in my home state. Gen Con stepping up in this fashion isn't something I've seen on an institutional level in the comics world; or at least I haven't seen something this dramatic. I think you might now, the way things have begun to sort themselves out. It's also nice to see that those that fear a relocation have a proper appreciation for what that show brings the community in terms of hard dollars.
Crowds Of Pros Hit Seattle As ECCC 2015 Launches Tomorrow
I mentioned early today that this weekend's Emerald City Comicon basically marks the beginning of the conventions/festivals season in North America. As I describe it in that post, I mean in a general way; everyone gets to name their own date for something goofy like that, and no reason to attempt to do so is a bad reason.
Seattle's one of our great comics cities. Fantagraphics is there, there is a whole new wave of young cartoonists and art-makers around the city for whom Fantagraphics was an old company the day they were born, and there is tremendous history of that being a good market for comics and related collectibles -- lot of smart people with a lot of creative habits making a lot of money. The city has taken to the show, at least based on the number of my non-comics friends in Seattle asking me about it each year. It's a well-run show and it combines a modern convention facility with actually being in a cool place. That sucker is right downtown, five blocks from people throwing fish around a marketplace.
I think it's going to be a good weekend, and a potentially great one, for a lot of the people on-hand. The weather is supposed to be nice as opposed to 2013's "Frost Giant Peeing On Everyone For 72 Hours" experience, and that's a lovelier city when it's allowed to show its face a bit. It's also been a crummy winter in terms of the mood of comics, with the worst thing of all being those murders in France.
In addition the usual safe trip and extravagant commercial outcomes, I wish a few things for all my friends and peers in attendance. Anything involving a business please double-check because I don't live there and they might have closed, but in general:
1. Try to leave the convention center and hotel bar a few times. Take advantage of that downtown Seattle location. There are any number of restaurants that aren't eating at the hotel or eating at a chain right in the area. Seattle does really well with little French places for breakfast and lunch, storefront Italian, seafood and divey breakfast-style joints. They also have coffee in the area that is not corporate coffee, even though that's a home-team thing, too. Most of the great coffee places run neighborhood to neighborhood, but there are a few within easier reach: the Pike Street Victrola Coffee is where I get coffee during ECCC. That's really close, but you have to walk away from the water rather than towards it, which might feel counter-intuitive in downtown at the convention center. Vovito Caffe is in the lobby of a nearby hotel. Street Bean Espresso is somewhere around there, too, I think.
Other things to do that don't involve some tourism research are just walking the city, which is beautiful, heading to a bar for a drink, or just kind of poke around and shop if that's your thing. It's a lovely place, very atmospheric. If there are any outside parties being offered, hit them. If you're in a circle that involves local or regional cartoonists, let them show you around.
2. Do enjoy the incredible closeness of the comics scene there, if that's your thing. It's a really nice bar convention in terms of the majority of pros hanging out in a designated area (could be two by now; it's been a couple of years) with liquor. I don't remember which hotel that is. You'll find it. And like I implied, it might be two. However that takes shape, it's nice to kind of hang out with your peers in the widest sense when you. New York and San Diego are a bit too big for this except on rare occasions so it's the super-regional efforts with a line into Indy Comics that seem to provide the best summary statement within four walls as to where we are and what we're up to. It's the kind of show where you meet people for the first time.
There's a lot of stuff to talk about, if this winter on Twitter and in various other outlets was any indication. Sometimes it's good to have those discussions in a different setting, one that forces you to deal with people personally rather than through a computer screen. Your mileage may vary. It's also nice to remember at comics shows that the people around you, many of them are doing That One Thing they've always been dying to do, the thing they hope will make their lives better and have an impression on readers worldwide. It doesn't always work out that way, but this weekend you're around way more people than usual making that attempt. That's always fun, and a little bit exciting. Spend some time in that bar. Invite some you only kind of know out for breakfast.
3. Take the chance to visit all the Northwestern comics pros in attendance. That's a good weekend and great con to meet a bunch of comics professionals. Seattle has a good crew -- everyone say hi to Moritat -- and there are significant communities from Vancouver and especially Portland that attend. It's probably a little more busy than in the past, and a lot of those professionals are now much bigger stars than they were when they started going to Emerald City. It's still a great show to walk right up and introduce yourself to someone whose work you enjoy, particularly if there's a chance you might be able to buy some of it directly from them. They also do a lot of spotlight panels there, and some of those in the past haven't been attended as heavily as the big-star, big-publisher and big-property events, so that's a nice way to hear someone whose work you enjoy hold forth and maybe ask them more than one question.
4. Visit Randys Readers. There will be a time when there is no more Randys Readers at Emerald City. We're all human, and lives go in different directions and eventually end. Hopefully, that year isn't this year. There's a lot of pretty good comics buying to be had at that show. The belle of the ball for my peer group has been Randys Readers, a booth that specializes in lower-grade (but still eminently readable) Silver Age and Bronze Age comics. This is a great thing as demand gets softer for comics that don't have an easy collectible tag, and thanks to that booth I own comics I never would have dreamed of having access to as a kid. I have the last 42 of Jack Kirby's initial amazing run on Fantastic Four, for example, and I didn't pay more than $3 for any single comic. I love it there, and all my Seattle friends go and dump a (mostly) reasonable amount of money. There are similar sections at some of the other booths as well. Bring your lists. Look around.
Everyone have fun! Everyone be safe! Everyone be nice to one another!
Go, Read: Jonathan Ross On That Big Marvel Comics Book From Taschen It's right here.
I haven't read the book, so I can't make comparisons and everyone has a slightly different relationship with the icons of their youth. There are some interesting ideas in Ross' piece, though. The basic continuity of Marvel Comics is something I've never considered, how the conservative editorial philosophies post-1980 (it's hard to imagine Steve Gerber, Miller's Daredevil run or the Claremont/Byrne run on Uncanny X-Men happening after things really settled in with the Shooter era) may have trapped in amber those characters in a way that today's audiences can directly connect with a lot of that original 1960s verve and skill and unvarnished potency as well as their subsequent 1970s young-person pushback and spin. I'd disagree with Ross that the 1960s were distinctive because of the artists' idiosyncrasies -- I just think there were better comics-makers covering more of that line back then than at any time in their history, although the modern era about four or five years ago is going to be potentially remarkable in the rearview window. One interesting thing for someone out there to explore could be a theory that Kirby's basic dominance was so complete that the stylists that did find a way onto the page doing something different -- Ditko, Colan, Adams -- were really striking just having run that editorial gauntlet.
I appreciate Ross' enthusiasm for the comics he loves, and I think he's a fine public witness to the thrills that comics storytelling can bring. Twenty-five years ago, comics people dreamed of celebrities doing this kind of thing.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* as I've said before, I think this weekend is the big launch to the North American convention year. There are conventions earlier on the calendar and for some people the season won't begin until the first show of their preferred type (say MoCCA), and some people adhere to the classic schedule (which means the first con is WonderCon). But this weekend is Emerald City, which is a top ten show for sure and a favorite of a wide swathe of professional comics makers in America. Once a big show goes off, I think we're on our way. I believe this year's ECCC has a chance to be a really good show mood-wise because of the long winter just past and the con's usual blend of enthusiastic customers and effective showrunning. I hope it provides the industry with a shot in the arm.
* the Portland 'Zine Symposium has announced for 2015. That's been a good show for comics people, amid a bunch of good 'zine shows on the west coast that a number of comics people have been able to use. Rob McMonigal encourages your attendance here.
* finally, here are a couple of posters (Jeremy Baum, Mark Zingarelli) for the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo (PIX), which goes this weekend. It's a show I'd forgotten about a bit with all these other shows going. It looks like a good line-up, and that's a vastly underrated comics town.
* I think at 12 years old I would have loved the hype that superhero comics receive now, even if I wonder that I'd be as interested in the actual comics that results. Time is slower when you're a kid -- go back and look at your favorite run of a comic book that seemed to last forever if you don't believe me -- but there's something so abrupt and ambitious and forceful about the way comics constantly reboot in pursuit of incremental sales gains that I really wonder after that reading experience. But the promos? Yeah, I would have adored the comics they put into my head, even if they never came to fruition.
This Isn’t A Library: New And Notable Releases Into 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.
*****
JAN151622 NEMO RIVER OF GHOSTS HC (MR) $14.95
I enjoy these weird, pulpy comics that Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill have been making for years now. They remind me of the vast, pop-culture wasteland on which they riff and which made up a big chunk of the quiet hours of my youth, right down to the effect that there's an unpleasant, impolitic aspect to a lot of what we're given on the page. If this is the last one of these -- and this series has served as a kind of an overlapping counterpoint to the grander Century work -- then I am sad to see it go. Moore and O'Neill are talented, fun creators and this is a publisher they trust to do its best by their efforts. I wish we had more publishing stories like that.
NOV140102 ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN ARCHIVES HC VOL 04 $49.99 NOV140090 ARCHIES PAL JUGHEAD ARCHIVES HC VOL 01 $49.99
Dark Horse has a really quiet reprints program relative to those of their direct publishing peers. It's one that features books that are mostly a bit out of my price range and in most cases a sliver past my actual interest in the projects involved. Still, God bless modern comics that there are Adventures Into The Unknown reprints and a bunch of publishers working the classic Archie material. I want that stuff to be out there although it may be 135 years before I get to see most of it.
DEC148728 EI8HT #1 2ND PTG $3.50 JAN150483 D4VE #2 $3.99
E84D. Jokes aside, and without knowing how many were printed, it's always worth noting which comic books go back to be printed right away, and EI8HT certainly did that. It was how most of the early Image series successes were marked, even though that's a Dark Horse book.
JAN150158 ELFQUEST FINAL QUEST #8 $3.50 JAN150105 GOON ONCE UPON A HARD TIME #2 $3.50 JAN150120 MISTER X RAZED #2 $3.99 JAN150233 MULTIVERSITY ULTRA COMICS #1 $4.99 JAN150582 INVINCIBLE #118 $0.25 JAN150715 THIEF OF THIEVES #27 (MR) $2.99 JAN150615 WALKING DEAD #139 (MR) $2.99 JAN151187 ADVENTURE TIME #38 $3.99 NOV141293 CAPT VICTORY & GALACTIC RANGERS #6 $3.99
It's a little bit of all over the place with the new comics rack, and in terms of that being the store's direct interface with regular customers that's a good thing. I haven't caught up to the last cycle of Elfquest stories, but I will. I was a fan of those first books a long time ago. I believe the Goon series is a last go-round with that character; I could be wrong about that. I'm not the biggest fan of reviving 1980s franchises, but I get it with Mr. X -- that would make a good movie for someone, and I would want it in front of people any chance I could. I'm sure 850 people have made the joke about the Multiversity issue being like The Monster At The End Of The Book. So I'll skip that, totally. I think Invincible underrated as a publishing achievement. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but the degree of difficulty with doing a superhero that feels of a complex part with the big-company superhero universes is immense and there are whole libraries filled with book that tried to hit that mark and failed. Walking Dead continues its transitional storyling; it feels transitional, anyway. I was astonished by the # after the Adventure Time title and good for those creators that have made those comics a success. The Captain Victory series was a Kirby Family-approved effort spearheaded by the writer Joe Casey partnering with an array of artist.
OCT140568 WEIRD LOVE YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT HC $29.99
This is the IDW contribution to this week's admiration society for oddball reprints. It's a Craig Yoe effort. I'm interested in the subject material, and missed the serial phase in the publiation of these oddball horror/romance shorts.
NOV140582 BIG HARD SEX CRIMINALS HC (MR) $39.99
I'm losing a little bit of track on which Sex Criminals book this is, but I guessed that it's about time they did a collection of all the issues to date rather than the trade paperback/hardcover editions and sure enough, that's what is going on here. A lot of people feel deeply connected to this comic, and I've enjoyed the issues I've read quite a bit.
JAN150655 SEX TP VOL 03 BROKEN TOYS (MR) $14.99
I've been reading this Joe Casey written, mostly Piotr Kowalski drawn series in individual comics form, and I've lot track of where the individual stories in the series were. I think that's part of the trick, though, in that the removal of the characters from this specific lifestyle fairly deadens meaning across the board, including the assertive pressure of time as it unfolds in the moment.
JAN151487 BOUNCER BLACK HEARTS HC (MR) $24.95
Jodorowsky-written + Boucq-drawn = Spurgeon-read.
JAN151355 PETER CANNON THUNDERBOLT OMNIBUS TP $29.99
I'd take a look at this book, even though I have no previous experience with the comics here and very little with the character portrayed. Pete Morisi's work is a lot of fun, and I'd like to see how a pretty tried-and-true Eastern mysticism into Western hero idea didn't work, the same way that the Mr. And Mrs. North efforts on film and TV are far more interesting than the successful Thin Man series.
JAN150917 JUST SO HAPPENS GN $17.95 JAN150918 JUST SO HAPPENS HC GN $24.95
This one has been coming our way for quite some time on the kind of old-fashioned publishing circuit that simultaneous worldwide release has made less common. It's a book based on a previous, shorter work that's already been published in Europe including the UK (by Jonathan Cape). It's about an ex-pat returning to Japan and rediscovering cultural differences that might stand out even more now for not living in that milieu anymore. Sounds like pretty straight-forward, worthy subject matter for a lengthy work. It's been well-reviewed, I believe.
*****
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 because I hate you.
* Ken Johnson reviews the new Victor Moscoso show for the New York Times. I know that people see talking about the underground cartoonist as kind of hopeless old-man posturing, but that was a really interesting, groundbreaking group of cartoonists so I'm grateful for every bit of attention they receive these days.
Go, Read: John Kelly On The Alt-Weekly Exhibit At SOI I liked this piece by John Kelly on the recent alt-comics weekly comics show, which in addition to its singular merits marks a potentially important collaboration between Society Of Illustrators and Small Press Expo. I just sort of like the subject matter, and while I might disagree with some of conclusions in the article I'm very grateful to be discussing that vast area of comics achievement at all.
Alt-Weeklies represented a particularly gratifying way to discover cartoonists up through the mid-1990s: these really strange voices would suddenly appear in one of your regular, big-city must-reads. While there was a disposability to it, sure, there was also this flash effect across a local community because of the important place of the alt-weekly in the firmament of how cities operated for culturally-invested souls. I was working in an art gallery when Chris Ware's work first started appearing in a local Chicago publication and people of every orientation and background were very, "Did you see this strip...?" in a way I haven't experienced since. There's almost a greater balkanization of readership and taste within the hardcore comics community than there was within the general local/regional arts culture in which these strips appeared. We'll likely never get that back.
that's just two panels from a random Michael Kupperman strip that made me laugh when I read it in a giant and unwieldy newspaper while consuming an omelet
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Grant Goggans on Savage Vol. 9. Alex Hoffman on UR.
* not comics: Peter Winter writes about some of the broader, conceptual-level reasons why newspapers have had a hard time moving into the Internet era. I agree with most of the point-to-point stuff here, although I think two larger problem with this transitions were how bloated some newspapers were at a functional level and how they're being run for short-term profit. Those few media business I know with traditionally lean staffing and the ability to pivot because they don't have to show a certain level of profit every single quarter seemed to have done far better with those still employing people that work two hours a day and that are penalized if they show a four percent profit when eight was expected.
* some nice person at Blank Slate Books talks to Rob Davis.
* I quite like the formatting on those by-author EC books from Fantagraphics. I'm not sure everyone feels the same way. I'm not sure there's a significant number of people feeling anything where those books are concerned. We're probably a little past the original few waves of fandom and a little before the re-discovery period with that material. I know that I tend to read more of the stories when they're grouped this way. I find a lot of the mainstream anthologies really difficult to penetrate.
* I wasn't sure what was going on here, but when they flashed to a fat guy playing guitar while wearing a singlet, I immediately felt comfortable.
Two Penguen Cartoonists Sued By Erdogan For August 2014 Cover
Turkey's getting-on-two-decade policy of using the court system to suppress free speech including expression in cartoon form continued late last week when two cover cartoonists for the satirical Penguen, Bahadır Baruter and Ozer Aydogan, were sued by former Prime Minister and current President Recep Erdogan under vague insulting-public-officials laws. At issue seems to be the hand gesture of the man above, which lawyers for the president believe is casting aspersions on him as a sign between two gay men.
Erdogan has had only intermittent success applying these laws in speech, social media and cartoon cases, but it hasn't stopped him from trying. Since 2014, over 170 people have been investigated with more than 70 cases entering into the courts. I think it's literallly one of the worst things in the world not involving direct bodily harm: a law with dubious logic unnecessarily brought to bear against a case that it shouldn't cover at the behest of one of the richest and most powerful people in the world against people with relatively little protection and wealth to fight it.
Andy Oliver does a nice job here with making a full article out of what could have been just a few sentences. ELCAF has become one of the to-watch shows, although maybe the lower-profile of that group. Still, it's hard not to think one area in which conventions will grow in the future -- with the presented already over-stuffed -- is publisher-sponsored shows.
Cartoonists: Foot Soldiers For Democracy Showing In Toronto
I haven't heard from anyone that's seen the current festival-circuit documentary Cartoonists: Foot Soldiers For Democracy, even though I swear it's been screened. It's a march through the world of cartoons facing political and social harassment, and I'm dying to see it just to experience how much the Charlie Hebdo murders are a presence (they occurred after the film was made). At any rate, if you want to read an article with about 60 percent of the prominent cartoonists that have faced harassment in recent years starring front and center, this is your piece.
The Best Comics-Related Thing I Saw This Weekend This photo. I clicked on it because I knew that Jiraiya isn't taking photos on his publicity tour behind Massive, so I wanted to know how that was handled. But it ends up it's a very beautiful photo: the lines of Jiraiya's shoulder and the youthfulness of what you can see against Durk Dehner's later-in-life appearance, the rock solid intersection of their embrace.
It's so easy to get caught up in the daily grind of what comics can be and what their constant presence of comics in our lives might portend -- even when the issues and matters involved are important. We sometimes forget what art and making art and being able to express yourself and be affirmed in that expression can mean on a very human level. It's nice to be reminded.
* Mark Evanier reminds that Tuesday morning is the hotel sign-up period for attendees of Comic-Con International. That is something that has changed very, very much over they years. Most of my advice is outdated. For instance, there was period where every browser but Explorer was causing those using them to be delayed. I can't imagine that's true now -- and in fact, I remember the one person who benefited from my advice and that person probably hasn't found their own hotel room in seven years. I recommend getting as many in your party as are going to try and sign up. I recommend researching and having hotels picked out on a list before the registration period. I recommend starting about five minutes early. I recommend prayer.
FFF Results Post #412—Horses And Guns
On Saturday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Specific Publications You Own Or You've Enjoyed That Feature A Traditional Western Genre Setting." This is how they responded.
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Gus And His Gang, First Second
2. Lobo #1, Dell (pictured)
3. Doug Wildey's Rio: The Complete Saga, IDW
4. Jonah Hex #33, DC
5. Bouncer: Raising Cain, Humanoids
*****
Evan Dorkin
1. The Kid Cowboys of Boys Ranch, Marvel
2. Saddle Justice/Gunfighter Slip-Cased EC Set, Gemstone Pub.
3. Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures -- Sheriff of Bullet Valley, Gladstone
4. Lost Cause, Kitchen Sink (pictured)
5. Avengers Vol. 1 #142-143, Marvel
*****
Sean Rogers
1. Four Color #199, Dell
2. Boys Ranch #3, Harvey
3. Four Color #1018, Dell
4. Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book, Ballantine Books
5. Kramers Ergot 5, Gingko Press ("The Hand Of Gold," Pictured)
*****
Sean Kleefeld
1. High Moon, Bottled Lightning
2. Daisy Cutter, Viper
3. Apache Skies, Marvel (pictured)
4. Pecos, Yeti Press
5. Texas History Movies, Pepper Jones Martinez Inc.
*****
John Vest
1. Honkytonk Sue #1, Bob Boze Bell
2. Rango #1, Dell
3. Tex Dawson, Gun-Slinger #1, Marvel (pictured)
4. Rio, Comico
5. All-Star Western #2, DC
1. Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo, DC Comics
2. Haunted Horseman #1, AC Comics
3. Red Range, MoJo Press (pictured)
4. Dead in the West #1-2, Dark Horse Comics
5. Desperadoes #1-5, Image Comics
1. Simon and Kirby's Boy's Ranch (Marvel, reprints of Harvey comics)
2. Basil Wolverton's "Bingbang Buster" in Black Diamond Western (Lev Gleason), collected digitally by digitalcomicmuseum.com
3. Andy Hirsch's Varmints (self-published)
4. Nate Cosby and Chris Eliopoulos' Cow Boy (Archaia)
5. Morris & Goscinny's Lucky Luke: Dalton City (Cinebook)
*****
Ben Towle
1. Dope Rider, High Times
2. Texas History Movies, Dallas Morning News, various collected editions
3. Bat Lash, DC Comics
4. The Paper Man, Catalan
5. Los Tejanos, Fantagraphics (pictured)
*****
Matt Emery
1. Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual #10 (1958), Boardman
2. Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Vol. 1, DC Comics
3. Jonah Hex #50 (Vol 2), DC Comics
4. Secret Origins #21 (Vol 3), DC Comics
5. The Phantom Ranger #205, Frew (pictured)
*****
Michael May
1. Blaze of Glory: The Last Ride of the Western Heroes, Marvel
2. Strangeways: Murder Moon, Highway 62
3. The Ghost Rider, Marvel
4. Scalphunter, DC (pictured)
5. Western Tales of Terror, Hoarse and Buggy
*****
thanks to all that participated; some of you have very odd definitions of traditional western settings
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from March 14 to March 20, 2015:
1. An interesting coda to the Charlie Hebdo story develops as some contributors seek to change the magazine's ownership to reflect an interest from all participants, perhaps as a response to the equal danger in which all participants potentially find themselves from those that wish harm on those related to the publication. A response focused on timing issues, particularly where relatives of a deceased editor are involved.
2. Dave Sim checks himself into hospital, has surgery and spends the remainder of the week in recovery. The health issue provided a window into the artist's support group and core fandom, as projects continue to swirl around the creator, many of which are focused on earlier work. Apparently, there's also been an issue with his hand. We wish him continued speed in his recovery and general good health.
3. Gary Tyrrell notes and then receives confirmation that Topatoco is moving into the convention business, a potential major player with a unique skillset and perspective on the medium entire.
Quote Of The Week
"[Shary] Flenniken's professional practice placed her in competitive, male-dominated counter-culture institutions where she developed a uniquely impactful voice and visual style, while paving the way for others to follow. She successfully made the transition from underground comix to the mainstream distribution of Lampoon and through her work pushed back at much of the institutional sexism that pervaded both milieus."
-- Charles Brownstein
*****
the comic image selected is from the brief but notable 1970s run of Seaboard/Atlas
If I Were In Los Angeles, I’d Go To This for some reason there are no direct links to this event so go to this page and screen search "kaplan," "pond," or "chast"
A Charlie Hebdo Coda: Sides Battle Over Donated Money I haven't seen a ton on this yet, but it's an interesting story. Apparently, over thirty million Euros have been donated to the magazine Charlie Hebdo some two months and change after a significant number of staffers were murdered in an internationally significant event. What to do with that money has led some of the columnists and workers to begin work to make the magazine an entity in which everyone participates in ownership. The pushback from the current owners isn't straight-up "well, we'd like to keep this money" pushback, but more along the lines of "let's wait, let's make sure the magazine comes out, let's pay all the taxes first; this isn't going anywhere."
You could argue both sides pretty easily, I think, and I have no personal opinion here. I would get it, if I were a staffer, wanting to share in profits across the board given that my life was equally at stake. I can also see why these arguments might work more effectively at a later time, perhaps after the deceased co-owner's interests are settled separately. I'm interested to see how this one develops.
Bundled Extra: Yeti Press Announces SuperCakes By Kat Leyh
One of the big differences between now and just five years ago in comics is how many cartoonists are entering the field, at varying levels of ambition. A result is that it has become 100X more important than usual to look at the releases of small boutique publishers who are much more likely to be in a position to serve such talent than some of the bigger groups. I mean, one should also search out this work on its own, in crowd-funded and "just posting it for the hell of it" form, but there's a level of curation that comes from another set of aesthetic concerns looking at something and saying, "Yes, I'll back this."
Go, Read: Brian Hibbs On The Compounded Dangers Of Event Strategies
There's a good piece up right here from the retailer and general industry advocate Brian Hibbs about the hassles-bordering-on-extinction-dangers that Direct Market stores face when there are not one but two superhero comic events going on. Basically, everything they count on for stability week to week is out the window in an event, and it's hard for him -- and me -- to believe there's going to be a counterweight in terms of the events being so awesome that there's this flood of helpful sales. It's a weird consumer mechanism that seems specific to right now: it seems like superhero comics reader want to be told which comics to buy on a certain level, which books are important, but it also seems that that they're skeptical about many of the answers, particularly when they're being urged to volume-buy new and unseen work.
I can't blame those readers, just as I can't blame retailers for potentially being a less than enthusiastic partner that have no choice but to work with what they have.
The 2015 Russ Manning Award is accepting submissions. It's an award for newcomers, defined in explicit, not-messing-around fashion in the material through the link. I recommend people put in for any award for which they're eligible, and would encourage you to participate in this one in that same spirit.
One thing the page on the other side of the link that kicks off this post has that I'm not sure I've seen before now is a list of the past winners. I mean, I know some of them by heart by reading multiple descriptions of the award, but I'm not certain that I'd ever seen all of them on one list. They are:
Missed It: Russian Olive To Red King Prologue i very much admire the immonens' tenacity in carving out time and a space for working in all of the areas of comics that interest them
* the big news of the week business-wise is Topatoco getting into the conventions business. That could be a big deal; they're kind of ideally suited to move into that space, with resources to burn and a collective skill set that takes care of a lot of problems that start-up shows have. They could be a juggernaut.
* the big news of recent vintage arts-and-expression wise is Danielle Corsetto ending her long-running Girls With Slingshots on her own terms and with the creative skill she could bring to bear. Alyssa Rosenberg has a well-deserved exit interview.
* this piece by Brigid Alverson notes that webcomics are a significant factor in the reading history of many of the women readers that are going to have a lifelong relationship with the medium, and that this will engender its own set of values and market proclivities.
* I find it amusing that an article about the recent Batgirl variant cover that was pulled would have a headline that doesn't fit the rest of the article tone-wise. The article's a measured look at the competing forces that drive the overlapping fandoms and creative custodians of DC Comics. I'm not surprised that a big corporate set-up to facilitate a creative enterprise would have competing voices, and I'm not surprised that a company that asks its fans to become really involved with their characters has fans that are really involved in a way that now has greater influence than it might have 30 years ago. What stands out in this case isn't the conflict but the clear contrast between a really goofy set of creative principles -- degrading superheroes as a way of tweaking their baseline positive formula -- and a creative outlook that has a great deal more positivity to it, and I'd say calls for greater attention to plot and detail and nuance. I'm surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more frequently with other disagreements in the forefront.
* finally, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are fascinating to me as a franchise that survives with a severely limited bible -- it's just not a deep universe relative to the kinds of worlds and properties that tend to survive in perpetuity like that one has. So a narrative moment that has fans take notice is something that interests me.
Go, Listen: Older Jessica Abel Interview On Discovering Love And Rockets While In College
There's a nice interview here being re-run with the cartoonist and educator Jessica Abel about her discovery of Jaime Hernandez's work in Love And Rockets as a college freshman. It was brought back to the front lines to pair with a more recent piece on Scott McCloud -- perhaps this one.
I hadn't thought about it before, but the compelling worlds that both Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez created might be really appealing to displaced students grappling with what community means, potentially for the first time. I know when Love And Rockets hit for me, it was some of the depictions of the neighborhood in Death Of Speedy that did it. There was something completely familiar and completely alien to me about the experiences being shared.
It looks like Abel also received some recognition in this for trailblazing in terms of being a prominent alt-cartoonist from an era where that was particularly male-dominated, something I think she deserves and something that's become much more a part of the forefront of comics as it exists right now. Abel had a real force of personality and presence on the page that made a significant impact on people, and for a time she was synonymous with people working in that part of the field.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* no disrespect to South Carolina, but I'd characterize this weekend as kind of a collective intake of breath before the next, which is Emerald City Comic Con and RIPExpo, two major events within their respective world and probably the real kick-off to the convention year. With WonderCon right after, I'd say it's definitely on after that.
* finally, that's a fun new group of guests for this year's Comic-Con. I always forget that becoming a guest like this is a significantly big deal for most of the people with whom these big conventions work, so congratulations to all of you out there that are getting this treatment from the shows you're attending. It's not everything, but it's something worth celebrating. What a privilege.
* not comics: this article reminds us of one of the big truths of the move to digital, a truth that rarely gets mentioned, even though it should: the "cost efficiencies" are such that you can provide the same perceived value in advertising for less money spent overall. That's a pretty unbeatable combination even from the perspective of someone like me who is like the biggest fan of dead media. Here's a little history of digital advertising if you're interested in reading further.
* I'm scrambling to find a way to write about the tremendous risk both mainstream companies are taking in doing these sprawling, away-from-center events at roughly the same time in the same year. My hunch is that they'll do fine, but it's difficult for me to see either strategy providing significant, continuing momentum into the primary lines. In fact, you could argue that isn't the point of either event. I am totally baffled by stories like this one, which doesn't mean much except that I wonder how well these things are communicating to new audiences.
This Isn’t A Library: New And Notable Releases Into 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.
*****
SEP140451 JACK KIRBY MISTER MIRACLE ARTIST ED HC PI
People in comics don't agree much and there's not one thing on which everyone agrees, but the IDW Artist's Edition line is right up there with being in the same room with Sergio Aragones when it comes to the saturation of a high approval rating. I loved Mister Miracle when I was a kid -- I think it's an underrated book in terms of its attractiveness relative to other 1970s Jack Kirby efforts. I also think the done-in-one stories are a class above some of the others that Kirby did during the decade. I look forward to seeing the original art presented like this.
DEC141305 TUKI SAVE THE HUMANS #3 $3.99 JAN150138 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #3 $3.99 JAN150118 MIND MGMT #31 $3.99 JAN150312 BATGIRL ENDGAME #1 $2.99 JAN150705 SATELLITE SAM #12 (MR) $3.50 JAN151161 LUMBERJANES #12 $3.99
These are this week's serial comic-book formatted comics that caught my attention. Jeff Smith's Tuki Save The Human seems to have settled into a workable and lively groove at this point, which means at some point I'll be scrambling back to issues #1-2 to figure out something Smith innocuously introduced that's key to the whole damn saga. It's always a welcome week when something feature Groo comes out, and I want to own every comic book that Sergio Aragone's ever done. The Mind MGMT I put there because I've lost track and suddenly it's 31 issues in. I bet that pays off as a long-form work if you've stuck with it. The Batgirl comics is one that features art by Bengal. A dozen Satellite Sam books is an amount about seven more than I thought we'd get. I enjoy the staging in that comics. Lumberjanes is up to issue #12, which is the best possible age for any comic book.
NOV140041 BALTIMORE HC VOL 05 APOSTLE & WITCH OF HARJU $24.99 JAN150099 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #129 $3.50 OCT140012 BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 10 DEVILS WINGS $19.99
A bigger than usual corner of the right-now market devoted to the Mignola-verse offerings. That is one sturdy corner.
OCT140089 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA LTD ED HC VOL 02 $79.99 OCT140088 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA TP VOL 02 $24.99
Another comfortable place within the larger body of comics is that inhabited by Stan Sakai, who recently returned to serial comics. I don't know how you collecte or read Sakai -- I do it in comic book form rather than this collection, despite how fancy it is -- but I urge you to give him a try if you have any appetite for comics that work for children. It may be the last Saturday afternoon on the porch comic I collect.
DEC140476 ROCKETEER THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES TP $19.99 JAN150631 LAZARUS TP VOL 03 CONCLAVE (MR) $14.99 DEC140684 PROPHET TP VOL 04 JOINING $17.99
This is a strong trio of books featuring kind of standard genre material which as become a comics speciality for the last 30 years or so. I think the Prophet collection may be the last in this recent, popular refashioning of that work. The Lazarus book slows things down a bit, which is welcome. I enjoy that book more than I thought I might from its initial description, and a younger, more genre-invested version of me would have loved it to death. There's a lack of emotional order there that I find really appealing.
OCT140911 AVENGERS BY BUSIEK AND PEREZ OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 $125.00
The Marvel high-end books seem to really work these days, even as it's been seemingly difficult for them to find a $9.95-$14.95 price point that works consistently for what they want to do. This work came when I was adult so there's no nostalgic pull here, but a lot of its kid and teen readers are at just the right age to fill their first bookshelves.
JAN150621 SEXCASTLE OGN (MR) $15.99
This one has a long and heroic journey to print, and I would definitely check it out. This is an Image publication of a book that had its fans both on-line and in a Kickstarter-funded edition, which means those coming to it now will probably bring fresh eyes. It's always interesting to see how the second big audience exposure goes.
DEC141033 BIG NATE SAY GOOD BYE TO DORK CITY TP $9.99
Again, I'm not a reader of this series, but it sells extremely well and it's discussed infrequently even by the dessicated standard of widespread talk within comics about comics for younger readers. At some point I'll buy this in big gulps and swallows.
NOV141555 COMPLETE UNFABULOUS SOCIAL LIFE OF ETHAN GREEN GN $24.99
I remember when the movie version of the long-running strip came out a lot of people went scrambling to figure out where the heck it came from that they hadn't seen it before. Even at that point, it'd been around 15-17 years, just in gay, lesbian and transgeder publications. This was a point where common knowledge even for a hardcore comics fans kind of went as far as Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse and no further. Even doing that research at the time just to locate the strip on my radar led me to only a few comics. I'd welcome a chance to read it all at once, and will scramble for a copy.
DEC141054 PEARLS BEFORE SWINE TP KING OF COMICS $14.99
Potential Reuben winner Stephan Pastis' strip is one of five that should be in every newspaper right now. On a diminished comics pages, it feels like a throwback to the 1980s, at least in terms of consistency and an idiosyncratic approach to art and humor.
JAN150560 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR A MURPHY & HOLLINGSWORTH (MR) $3.50 JAN150561 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR B SCALERA (MR) $3.50 JAN150562 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR C SHALVEY (MR) $3.50 JAN150563 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR D PANOSIAN (MR) $3.50 JAN150564 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR E STAPLES (MR) $3.50 JAN150565 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR F OTTLEY (MR) $3.50
This is the latest of the Mark Millar-written comics series, this time with interior art being provided by Sean Gordon Murphy. Millar's last few efforts have been severely hit and miss, but he seems to get his choice of artists and Murphy can be super-fun. In fact, Murphy may have chosen Milar. I don't know why they do this many comics covers, but I'm sure it provides profits to a few people against system-wide strain. No biggie.
JAN151724 MASTER KEATON GN VOL 02 $19.99
This is the only manga I saw on the list I might check out more closely, mostly because of the presence of a young Naoki Urasawa, on his way to becoming an astonishing, consistently superb cartoonist.
NOV140101 TEX THE LONESOME RIDER HC $49.99
I'm a fiend for later-period Joe Kubert and this effort in the European albums series is one of my favorites. The price point makes me wonder if there was more than one album involved. I can't find a page count anywhere so who knows? I'd sure as hell check out this Dark Horse presentation of this material, though.
JAN151808 PETER BAGGE CONVERSATIONS HC $40.00
Peter Bagge is a great talker that does a lot of interview, so the editing I think would be the thing here; a lot of folks just can't keep up and their interviews suffer for that deference. This is an academic-type book, and hopefully there will be a reappreciation in here that can build to a year long mediation on all things Bagge.
NOV141056 MUSEUM OF MISTAKES FART PARTY COLLECTION TP (MR) $24.00
I'm not sure where I am on what I have of Julia Wertz's and what I don't, but she's a gifted writer supported by an art approach that doesn't get in its way. I wonder if people will read this as 2000s-era nostalgia -- I mean they will eventually, but I wonder if we're there yet. I have a bunch of other copies of books she's done, but I'll buy this one, too.
*****
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 because I hate you.
Go, Look: David Stokes’ Pre-Con Commissions, LSCC 2015 i like the concept behind this cross-section; a number of artists -- across a range of industry accomplishment -- make a lot of money doing pin-up for conventions, including commissioning them ahead of time; this seems to be one show's worth of pin-up for Mr. Stokes
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* nothing much new on Dave Sim this morning (scroll down); he's apparently resting comfortably and can start taking phone calls about six hours from when this post rolled out (10 AM ET). We wish him a speedy and full recovery. I was not aware there was an element of Dave Sim Vs. Medicine involved here as implied in the comments. I haven't kept up with the cartoonist's idiosyncratic belief system. I am glad he sought help.
* Dave Press on re-reading the Casanova books. Like Press, I enjoy how different new editions of those books can be. Casanova is a series that definitely rewards some re-reading, a rare thing for comics with an action-adventure element.
* Andrew Weiss tells a story that I've heard a lot of times from a lot of different people: showing your favorite comic books to someone you've singled out as a cultural or literary arbiter and being told that they're just not very good in the opinion of that person. The most common variation I've heard, maybe a half-dozen times, is someone lugging along to college their various high-end superhero books and the reviews from their hallmates not being kind.
Carol Tilley Receives $20K Award To Further Research Into The Consumption Of Comics By Children
I totally missed this press release-driven article announcing that Carol Tilley has received an academic grant to further her research in to how children have consumed comics historically. That's cool, as I don't know anything about that particularly. There are assumptions we make as to why kids' readership increased and decreased, usually based on our perceptions of content, accessibility and competing media, but not a lot that is fact-based.
I assume Tilley and her research assistants will give us some answers. Congratulations to her and to the increased space for the consideration of comics-based research and funding that comes with any grant or award being given. I look forward to the result.
Moment Of Cerebus: Dave Sim Checks Himself Into Hospital Here. Now you know everything I know. Best wishes and positive thoughts to the highly-skilled cartoonist and self-publishing maverick.
Update: They've updated through that original link to say that Sim will undergo surgery today for a blockage, otherwise not described. All thoughts to the most positive outcome.
* not comics: I enjoyed this article on single-newspaper sales, which I read because of the implications for comics but I bet a lot of people with comics on the mind will read for the idea of charging fewer customers more money and where that gets you over time.
* Joseph Illidge revisits a recent controversy of reader pushback against a Batgirl variant cover that uses the character's violent past in a way that many find exploitative. I don't have opinions of substance about comic-book covers because I just lack that gene that seems necessary to engage with those comics on that level at this point in my life -- I also detest violence-as-solution art so thoroughly it's hard for me to accept 80 percent of mainstream comics covers -- but it does look like a tone-deaf, dumb-in-this-context cover with potentially creepy implications. I get why the artist would make it, for sure; don't get why the editorial framework failed to flag it. It also sounds just... kind of vastly unappealing on this fundamental level. It's interesting art that Alan Moore and Brian Bolland made once upon a time that it can produce such ugly echoes even today. It's hard for me to follow the Internet arguments, for sure, though, on something like this, because they seem to be couched in people offering up entirely valid opinions and then arguing their validity against some nebulous force that they feel is denying them the right to make the argument in question. To me, arguments like this one seem the natural outcome of encouraging the level of fan engagment these big companies appear to prefer, and we should all want people to be engaged with their favorite art on a moral level.
* wait, there's been movement on that one. The artist of the cover, Rafael Albuquerque, has asked the cover be withdrawn and DC complied. With that comes news that some dopes threatened some of the original complainers, which is deplorable. The idea of art that gets run through that particular filter in that way and how desirable that is might have some legs, but that's a difficult conversation to have -- I can see the dopey-ass, alarmist conservative site article someone will run right in my head, clear-as-day. Mostly, I think if you have commodified art to the extent DC and other companies have, it makes perfect sense they react to the perceived marketplace. And if you're an artist going after a considered effect, and that turns out to be impossible, it's perfectly rational to not want to publish.
* finally, Sean Kleefeld writes about the notion that freelancers need to make enough money per time spent that they also have time to get better, and what that implies for that lifestyle.
Uncivilized Books Announces Fall 2015 Schedule Uncivilized Books, the Minneapolis-based boutique publisher owned and operated by Tom Kaczynski, has announced its Fall 2015 schedule via an e-mail distributed early this morning. The offerings include a new collection of work from Sam Alden, a book by Caitlin Skaalrud, and an illustrated prose work featuring art by Lilli Carré. It looks like another strong season, and I admire the restraint that Kaczynski is showing despite so much work out there that could be published right now.
Comics By Request: People, Projects In Need Of Funding By Tom Spurgeon
* I haven't looked back in on the Norm Breyfogle fund since it ended about two weeks ago. It raised about half of its desired goal but since they were asking for $200K that is a significant amount of money that went to the veteran artist's care. I hope that people will let me know about any avenues for additional support. I also hope that we continue a dialogue about such crowd-funders more generally, because I know a ton of you had questions that you didn't want to ask publicly when there was a need. I also hope that everyone with the opportunity to sign up for some sort of health insurance will do so.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update
The artist Lars Vilks has apparently received the Sappho Award from Denmark's Freedom Of Press Society, for his persistence in terms of appearing in public despite various threats against his person. He accepted the award one month to the day from a seminar about the Charlie Hebdo murders that ended with what may have been a specific attempt on Vilks' life.
I have to say, I rarely understand any of the coverage of Vilks. He's not a cartoonist. He's an artist who did a cartoon drawing (some say a series; I've only ever seen the one). He did that drawing/those drawings when there was a near-total understanding of the context that had developed and made likely a specific reception. What I don't understand is how anything he's done has worked in the context of freedom of press, as if he were a staff cartoonist whose work served a mission to inform. It pains me to my core that any artist exercising their freedom of expression has to suffer death threats, and I get slightly sick at the fact that this is extended to understood threats for those appearing in public in close proximity to that person. So I get how it's related, I get how it's awful. I also admire the courage in continuing to operate in public when there are threats against your person, even though I know many disagree. I just don't get the insistence on a positive formulation that insists this was another cartoonist at work. It wasn't.
Go, Read: Piece On Goodman Magazine In The Early ‘40s
I liked most everything Dr. Michael Vassallo posts on his Timely/Atlas blog. Even when it's not about comics and cartooning his focus provides details and context that assist our understanding of the milieu into which comic books were published over their first quarter century as an industry. The most recent column focuses on a specific time, a specific individual and a specific genre of magazine, but spreads out to cover a lot of familiar names and a great deal of popular culture. If you're a fan of the early industry end of comics, this might make for a fine companion on a semi-lengthy coffee break.
In getting settled in my new home I missed two days of creator birthdays. I apologize. Please scroll down if you'd like to see deserving people whose days I hope were fantastic despite my unintentionally cold shoulder.
That great lifelong industry pro Steve Bissette is 60 now! Congratulations to him on this milestone.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* missed this article from Paul Gravett about a big BD original art sale from Sotheby's, but it's still fun to read now.
* not comics: this article is mostly about Spider-Man as a license getting a boost for the character being returned to the Marvel Studios people for his movies but it's also a general reminder that the movies and the hype machine that surrounds movie culture has a real-world impact.
* I thought this was the case for Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane as gone-but-not-forgotten comic work re-exploring, but the comparison made here between it and Gotham Central seems to be about recasting a universe according to the perspective of a supporting character -- which, while true, is a bit drier than what I was originally thinking. It can be both, but I've never read the Marvel series.
FFF Results Post #411—Names And Places
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Comics You Relate To Five Real-World Geographical Locations, Excluding Tokyo, Paris, Chicago, London, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Montreal And Toronto." This is how they responded.
*****
Sean T. Collins
* Blankets, Wisconsin (pictured)
* Gast, Wales
* Zippy the Pinhead, Levittown, NY
* La Tristeza, Juarez
* Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, Rome
1. Blankets, Marathon City
2. Revival, Marathon County
3. American Splendor, Cleveland (pictured)
4. Simonsons' X-Factor, New York
5. Nancy Collins' Swamp Thing, Southern Louisiana
1. Sailor Twain, The Hudson River
2. Hawaiian Dick, Hawaii
3. Man-Thing, Florida Everglades (pictured)
4. Pogo, Okefenokee Swamp
5. Peanuts, Minneapolis/Saint Paul
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Doonesbury, New Haven
2. The Incredible Hulk, New Mexico
3. Jazz Age Chronicles, Boston (pictured)
4. American Splendor, Cleveland
5. Justice League, Detroit
1. Whiteout, Antarctica (pictured)
2. Welcome to Eltingville, Staten Island
3. A.K.A. Goldfish, Cleveland
4. American Splendor, Cleveland
5. Pogo, Okefenokee Swamp
*****
William Burns
* Footnotes From Gaza, Gaza (pictured)
* Burma Chronicles, Burma
* Abina and the Important Men, West Africa
* Howard the Duck, Cleveland
* Cairo, Cairo
*****
Des Devlin
1. X-Presidents, Washington D.C.
2. "Julius Caesar!" (Kurtzman/Wood), Rome (pictured)
3. The Fifth Beatle, Liverpool
4. The Borden Tragedy, Fall River
5. Watchmen, Antarctica
*****
Terry Eisele
* Stumptown, Portland (pictured)
* The Collected Essex County, Essex County, Ontario
* Blink, Columbus
* A Jew In Communist Prague, Prague
* Berlin: City of Stones, Berlin
1. Justice League Antarctica, Antarctica
2. The Invisibles, Liverpool
3. Wonder Woman, Boston
4. Nevada, Las Vegas (pictured)
5. Alice in Sunderland, Sunderland
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from March 7 to March 13, 2015:
1. Yoshihiro Tatsumi passed away. He found a place within his chosen medium for a kind of story he wanted to tell, told those stories, named the expression and become one of its exemplars for the remaining decades of his life.
2. Roz Chast won the autiobiography category at the National Book Critics Circle Awards, a win for her much-lauded and much-nominated Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? and a big deal in terms of this being a traditional prose award.
Winner Of The Week Irwin Hasen. He lived a long and active life, one filled with a great deal of professional accomplishment. He's important to his chosen medium as a prolific creator in multiple forms, as an educator, as a personality and as a one of our last remaining, important links to the comics industry's first big surge in activity and interest. I didn't know him, so I can't tell you if he was happy, but he was described that way by a number of people with whom he came into public contact.
Losers Of The Week
Bonil's harassers. One imagines the death thread far more upsetting, but the harassment seems much more avoidable, particularly as the government agency in question is there to raise the level of the dialogue, not crush it all together.
Roz Chast Won Best Autobiography From National Book Critics Circle
Michael Cavna has a nice piece here on the stupendous accomplishment of Roz Chast winning a category at the NBCC Awards, one of the big ones from prose books. It's deserved and she's been an incredible ambassador for comics as an art form of serious expression. That book is really, really good and I'm delighted to see it pick up honors. And who doesn't love and enjoy Roz Chast?
I think this may be good news for the future, as well, even if it's only a certain kind of book that might get honored this way. I'll take it. I'm happy to see comics awarded this way, and want to see the best of the medium's output awarded every way possible.
A Few Notes From Over At The CBLDF Site
I hope the Eisner Awards judges consider the CBLDF site for its best newsgathering category; I think they've done a consistently good job for a few years now. It's focused on a specific kind of news, but a lot of comics news is focused on a specific kind of news. Here are three news briefs that caught my attention on my latest visit.
* Reginald Hudlin has joined the board of directors. That's a really smart get for them, as Hudlin has comics propers out the wazoo and can also supply insight into other media and how they might approach a problem, handle it, or even help.
* meanwhile, the use of Muhammed cartoons to teach the Danish Muhammed cartoons incident has come up. My thought is that general education wouldn't need to include the drawings themselves but that any sort of advance study would. I was horribly against newspapers not publishing them at the time because even though that's an deeply unpleasant thing to do to some of your readers the mission to inform was deeply distorted without those pictures. I'm not sure that's the same with an educational mission, even as backwards as that sounds. I have no confidence that this will be dealt with in a straight-forward, sympathetic yet smart manner.
Go, Potentially Buy: A Pair Of Bundled Sales
It's hard for me within the mission of this site find a lot of room to run news of sales, but I will get interested in them at times. The site comiXology is running one right now in conjunction with SXSW and their presence there and also an anniversary for the Submit program. These can be devastatingly effective sales not for the thought of getting a bunch of stuff you've never heard of but for getting a small grouping of stuff you've heard of -- here it's the Derf and the Forsman and the Cossé -- and then all the other stuff becomes a throw in. On the other hand, I have no idea how creators get paid when this stuff is bundled, and that matters to a lot of people. Still, I can't imagine this being done against their will. I've bought it.
The other one is a giant digital offering for Bloom County. That works differently in that there are partial offerings for next to no money and then more offerings when certain thresholds are hit. There's a charitable element, too. Bloom County is an interesting strip -- no one's really done anything with the same rhythms that hasn't been outright putrid -- and certainly is a beloved strip for people my age and a little bit older for the reliability and range of its '80s pop culture commentary. It's also worth noting that there haven't been a lot of ways discovered to profit in any way on-line from these comic strips with a long history, and maybe how this one does could point us in a direction worth pursuing.
* J. Caleb Mozzocco on Avengers Vol. 5. Todd Klein on Swampmen. I can't remember if I linked to Alex Hoffman on First Year Healthy, but a second link wouldn't hurt anyone.
Festivals Extra: Lakes And TCAF Plan Guest Exchange PR here. I think there's about a half-dozen shows that may do this kind of thing fairly regularlys -- getting a pre-approved group of talent reduces the time on each organizer's end, and it makes for a nice little burst of publicity. Also, anything that lets me meet Hunt Emerson without leaving the contient, I'm all for it.
Festivals Extra: Comic-Con International Parking Supplier Moves To New Lottery System This is an amazingly comprehensive article about Ace Parking moving to a lottery-type system for parking in San Diego during Comic-Con International. While I imagine this might be seen as yet another sign that San Diego is bursting at the seams trying to host that particular four-day event, I see it as more of a rational reaction story in that I'm sort of amazed it wasn't already like that. You've been warned.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* Davey Nieves has a write-up at The Beat on the Long Beach comics folks putting on a convention in New Jersey. The crowded NJ/NY calendar schedule is a microcosm of con expansion, with seemingly about a half-dozen legitimate efforts trying to find a foothold there. As it's also in late November, it's pushing back the year-end date for mainstream shows, but I imagine we'll have them mid-January to mid-December in two years. I have no idea what the endgame is here.
* Dan Vado's APE has announced another round of exhibitor space sales, an initial round of hotel rezzos and the framework of its outside-but-related programming here.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* collaborator and friend Nate Powell notes John Lewis' appearance on The Daily Show. I thought the second volume of March was much more harrowing and dramatically propulsive than the first.
* Jillian Tamaki comments on her forthcoming tour, noting that her SuperMutant Magic Academy won't be available at the first two stops but her SexCoven will.
* I'm really bad about paying attention to Frank Santoro's tumblr, but it's full of gems.
Go, Read: CBR Posts News Of Diana Schutz’s Retirement Here. That's a story that a lot of folks knew was coming, but I don't want to take away from CBR actually getting the story by describing it or what's said.
Schutz is an extremely nice person and she's had a distinguished, singular career. It's been a point of personal pride to work in the same industry Schutz does. I look forward to whatever she does next, if that's something to be shared.
It's interesting to note that this one is about half and half bookstores and convention stops. I don't cover convention stops within my announcements framework -- I cover the convention more generally -- but I'm rethinking the policy as we get a more diverse audidence with multiple jumping-on points. It's going to be extremely interesting if we can reach a point where it's assumed that the audience for a cartoonist or a comic might just be limited to that specific expression.
This Isn’t A Library: New And Notable Releases Into 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.
*****
JAN150630 HUMANS TP VOL 01 HUMANS FOR LIFE (MR) $9.99 DEC141304 BONE COLOR ED HC VOL 01 TRIBUTE EDITION $14.99 The Humans is the first collection of the Image Comics series by Keenan Marshall Keller and Tom Neely, so the way the rules work unless you're a runaway hit in serial form this is an important publishing moment for that pair. I enjoyed the book more collected than I did apart, and would like to see them continue as long as they want to. I thought the supplementary material was fun, too, particularly the pin-ups. There is absolutely no pressure on the Bone volume to sell well, but there it is. Like I wrote the last time I discussed this book, it's amazing how much energy and power Smith got by introducing elements of what was otherwise a traditional story at non-traditional moments -- the Hero's Journey via Richard McGuire. This one also has fun pin-ups. Craig Thompson! Kate Beaton!
JAN150769 HOWARD THE DUCK #1 $3.99 DEC140722 CASANOVA ACEDIA #2 (MR) $3.99 DEC140730 EAST OF WEST #18 $3.50 JAN150571 SOUTHERN CROSS #1 $2.99 JAN150614 WALKING DEAD #138 (MR) $2.99 JAN150098 ABE SAPIEN #21 $3.50 JAN150401 FBP FEDERAL BUREAU OF PHYSICS #19 (MR) $2.99
The big news of the publishing week for many if not most comics-interested folks is Chip Zdarsky taking on writing duties for a new attempt at Howard The Duck. I thought at one point we'd have to see Howard show up in one of the event series with a gun before he could be fully rehabilitated as a comedy book that tweaked genres, but then I was told Howard had already paid this role twice, so he we are. The art there is by Joe Quinones. All of the Casanova books are worth a look, and I enjoyed the first issue of this latest cycle. East Of West has grown on me quite a bit as I've let it settle into my brain -- my fantasy-processing equipment is a muddy field no one's been taking care of, so crops grow there only with some difficulty. I like Becky Cloonan and I like Becky Cloonan's writing, so I'll take a look at Southern Cross #1, about which I know nothing. Walking Dead, I know what Walking Dead is, and the latest storyline hinges on a young man's first sexual relationship which is where all the best zombie storylines come from. That sounds mean, but I'm joshin'. I always enjoy reading that work. Abe Sapien is your Mignola-verse offering of the week. I mentioned the FBP book because a comic with that clumsy of a title going to issue #19 must have something going on.
JAN150398 ASTRO CITY #21 $3.99 NOV140331 ASTRO CITY PRIVATE LIVES HC $24.99 DEC140407 ASTRO CITY VICTORY TP $16.99
A lot of the Kurt Busiek-written Ross/Anderson-drawn series. I do wonder if it's read differently now by most of its fans. That creative teams hits points just as strongly as they used to, but the context for what they do has changed, in great part due to the work itself changing the superhero genre around it.
DEC140398 TINY TITANS RETURN TO THE TREEHOUSE TP $12.99
I always enjoy these, and pick them up for friends' kids if I can remember to do so. This is a reminder.
DEC141866 EXPLORING CALVIN AND HOBBES SC $19.99
I am greatly, greatly, greatly looking forward to this book accompanying Jenny Robb's well-curated exhibit, particularly its extensive interview with Watterson.
DEC140949 AVENGERS QUICKSILVER TP $34.99
If this had come out when I was nine years old, I might have quit comics forever. I had a negative reaction to that character when I was a kid, probably of all the running, which as a fat kid was a recurring sore point. Anyway, Mr. In-Two-Movie-Series has a book now. I'm betting there will be some griping in those pages
NOV140940 BIG NATE GREATEST HITS TP $12.99
Still selling like mad.
JAN151467 GLORKIAN WARRIOR HC GN VOL 01 DELIVERS A PIZZA $17.99
I love that James Kochalka is no easier to figure out in terms of what he's publishing and when as he was impossible to track when he was making mini-comics on a Xerox machine. His kids' work isn't my primary interest in what he does, but I like him generally and think he's an interesting cartoonists with a lot of foundational craft chops.
JAN151236 LUCKY LUKE TP VOL 50 SEVEN STORIES $11.95
Fifty volumes! And this is for a series that's always done better in the French-language editions for what many believe is cultural reasons.
DEC141662 MEANWHILE #1 $7.95
This might be my primary reason for going to the comic book shop today if I had any money left after the move -- meeting up with Julie Hagerty in Vegas was a dumb move. I'd be reading it just to see it and check its approach, but also to welcome back Gary Spencer Millidge's Strangehaven.
JAN151447 WILLARD MULLIN CASEY AT BAT AND DIAMOND TALES HC $9.99 DEC141507 HURRICANE ISLE HC CAPTAIN EASY & WASH TUBBS $39.99
This is Fantagraphics at its most beloved-uncle, putting out two books that fit squarely into their publishing mission that don't really have the chance of selling as well as they might have 30 years ago. The first is a gfit book of the famous baseball poem featuring Willard Mullin's fun art. Mullin's is all but forgotten now, but I think baseball has a nostalgic thing in and of itself that an old-timey book works in a way that won't be question. Roy Crane most people have heard of but fewer young people, I think, have an interest in his virtues of movement and cartoony figure drawing and his kind of muscular American optimism that's been discredited since its heyday. I still love these comics, though. All of Fantagraphics' Roy Crane books the last few years have been beautiful and this one is no exception.
*****
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 because I hate you.
Bundled Extra: Interview Snippet From Billy Ireland’s Imminent Bill Watterson Retrospective Book
It's not been much-discussed as a publishing event, but I imagine thousands upon thousands of comics fans will make the book emanating from last year's Bill Watterson exhibition at the Billy Ireland one of their major purchases for the year. Within its pages is a brand-new interview with Watterson, interviews with the cartoonist at any time in his life being a rare and precious thing. It's previewed here.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * totally missed that Rob Clough provided an index for his 2014 round-up of reviews of work by CCS-related cartoonists.
* this article was unavailable as a stand-alone, but I liked that Johanna Draper Carlson compared El Deafo to Smile and was direct in stating that publishers are looking for works that appeal in something close to the exact same way as that sales juggernaut.
Yoshihiro Tatsumi, RIP all condolences to his family, friends, professional peers, those inspired by his work and those who worked closely with him during that last period of resurgence and appreciation
It's nice to see the Neyestani again; Uncivilized having two books on the list is an achievement worth noting given the publisher's relative size. The winners in each category will be announced April 6 and receive $1K. Last year's winners were Taiyo Matsumoto for Sunny (print) and Emily Carroll for Out of Skin (web).
My other contact information: phone, e-mail, twitter -- remains the same. I'm probably the worst person to phone in the world. E-mail or direct message via Twitter (not just shouting at me on Twitter where everyone else has to endure it) is probably best. Apologies in advance.
Anything sent to the old address recently or for the next few weeks will be forwarded for sure, but at some point that will stop happening.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Comic Book People 2nears the end of its attempted crowd-funding run. I greatly enjoyed the first book in the series.
* Christopher Caldwell takes a look back at Calvin And Hobbes; I'm not sure I agree with even half of the suppositions tossed out, but I'm glad people are still talking about the work and I look forward to the exhibition catalog from last year's show.
CR Sunday Interview: Keenan Marshall Keller And Tom Neely
*****
I've been following the career of cartoonist and artist Tom Neely for several years, and took an interest when he and Keenan Marshall Keller launched The Humans with Image Comics. The first collected volume of the series arrives in Direct Market stores this week. That first trade is traditionally a crucial time for a work from the publisher, a chance to call attention to the series entire as well as clear a certain amount of market space for the book in question. Adhering closely to the spirit of a half-remembered sub-genre, The Humans is distinguished by Neely and creative partner Keenan Marshall Keller's surge-and-amble pacing and their combined, casual eye for surface decadence. It was fun to read it in one big gulp. -- Tom Spurgeon
*****
TOM SPURGEON: Keenan, I've interviewed Tom in fuller fashion in the past, but I don't know much about you at all. Can you expound a bit on your comics-past, how you ended up where you are education-wise and professionally?
KELLER: I had never drawn a comic until 2009. That's when I started Galactic Breakdown #1. I graduated college and moved from Chicago to L.A. to work in film. Quickly I learned that film sets and Hollywood wasn't for me. For several years I just drew and scribbled with no purpose... Then I was a 1/3rd of an art gallery called The Showcave in Echo Park for a little over a year... But was left feeling empty by that experience. So in 2009 I decided to just make a fuckin' comic already. So I started and finished Galactic Breakdown #1. When I had it finished I was approached by two friends (Kristy Foom and Mario Zoots) whether I'd like to be a part of their art sine publishing imprint Drippy Bone Books and I said yes!
Since then, they have taken a bit of a back seat in DBB while I've been publishing a ton of weirdo freak comics from the likes of Victor Cayro, Pat Aulisio, Derek M Ballard, Box Brown, Mark Mulroney, Shalo P, Josh Bayer and others. Thru doing DBB's I've continued to make and publish my own comics (Galactic Breakdown Series, Force Majeure, Welcome Fever, It's Me -- The Magic, etc.) while having also appearing in a few anthologies (SP7, NO ME, Henry and Glenn Forever & Ever, Hospital Brut 8, 9, 10) along the way. I also still curate art shows including my ongoing Freak Scene shows which focus on the underground freak champions of commix, the 3rd of which might happen in 2016.
SPURGEON: Was there a partnership before the book? Were you looking for something to do together? I know you're both capable of producing solo work -- why partner up for this one?
KELLER: Tom and I are good friends. I respect his work. So when this whole thing came about, it seemed like a no-brainer. Why wouldn't I wanna work and collaborate with a great artist?? Its about getting the best outta each other and pushing this thing to bigger and better heights.
TOM NEELY: Long-boring-heart-breaking-story-short: 2011/12 was a rough year in which two of my best friends and my freelance business partner of 10 years died; my 2nd graphic novel The Wolf died a slow sales death, which killed all my self-publishing goals and aspirations; then my dream gig on Popeye arrived and promptly blew up in my face; and then my marriage ended... pretty much everything I'd been building for 12 years completely fell apart all at once -- When you face all that, literally everything in your life changes...
I was ready to give up, but then I decided to look at it all as a blank slate to try everything different and reinvent myself. And a big part of that was that I needed a new direction for my art. As I was finishing up my Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever, all I wanted to do was draw more comics... Writing/editing/publishing on top of drawing and freelancing was becoming too much for me. I needed to find a way to draw more and make a living at it by cutting out everything else in my life. I was talking to several writer friends like Steve Niles, Sean Collins and Matt Maxwell about collaboration possibilities, got offers to do work on Adventure Time and Spongebob and various Disney titles but nothing really seemed to feel right for me. Then one Wednesday as Keenan and I were having a beer and looking at new comics, he mentioned his idea for a biker gang of ape men and I immediately knew that was IT! I went home that night and immediately started drawing apes on motorcycles and I haven't stopped since. I still have solo work on my future slate, but I'm enjoying the collaboration process very much right now. I'm on the other side, and I'm now happier than ever. This book means a lot to me and I'm putting everything into it to hopefully insure my future in drawing comics.
SPURGEON: Is there a particular creative strength you can identify in the other that you particularly enjoy in your creative partnership?
KELLER: Well, Tom understands comics. He understands the importance in depictions of movement, whether it be in a smile, or walking, smoking, drinking, dancing, trucks, bikes or asses! And has a knack for finding the frozen moments of time to capture in each panel. He's a cartoonist and he embraces all that entails. He's meticulous in his work yet it doesn't hinder him from being fast either!!! He's open for anything and isn't freaked out by some of the stuff I ask him to depict. He usually jumps head first into scripts and makes it better than I could have imagined. We both wanna have fun with this and make a fuckin' killer comic and I think that shows in his artwork throughout the series.
NEELY: Keenan and I have similar enough interests, but different enough point of views, that we are constantly going back and forth bouncing ideas off each other. When we're in the same room together we never stop talking -- I'm sure it's obnoxious as hell to our colorist Kristina Collantes who has to deal with us all the time. Ha! But we push each other to new ideas and greater heights with our work. We've carved out a pretty smooth collaborative process that we like to think is sort of our own take on the Kirby/Lee method -- We hash out plots and characters and ideas together, then Keenan writes a script and hands it over to me. His scripts are rough enough that it allows me to take the "movie director" roll and spend time editing and pushing things around and shaping the story to fit my visual needs. It's a great process for me, because I'm not just a pencil-pusher with a script that dictates all the action -- I'm making all the decisions on the breakdowns and layouts and Keenan even allows me to throw in my own ideas if something in his script doesn't work for me. Once the pencils are all roughed out, Keenan comes back and we finalize all the script and dialogue before I begin inking. I feel like the end product is a book that is equal parts Keenan and Tom... Then there's the colorist Kristina who is adding so much depth and nuance to all of it! I feel like I'm drawing some of the best pages I've ever drawn, and then when I see what she does to them, I'm completely blown away. And that is a fun new experience in making art. It would have been impossible to color this book myself, and it wouldn't be the same in black & white. Her impact on this story can not be understated.
SPURGEON: How is the book as realized than the book as conceptualized? I seem to remember this being in development for a while, but I'm not sure 100 percent about that.
KELLER: I think we're making it better than hope we initially saw it. We did start talking about two years ago and took our time with it. We were both doing other stuff at that time as well, so we'd hang out drinkin' beers, figuring out the characters, style and atmosphere of the idea. But we really didn't start "development" until after our first Image meeting... That's when we realized that we'd have to start getting it done and that Tom would be on a tight schedule!!
NEELY: Sometimes I worry I'm doing something completely off-base from his original vision... But for me, it's been a really fun experience developing the world and the characters and the story together. It's great to bounce ideas off someone as we do and have things take on new shapes. It has evolved a lot through the process, and I think it's all for the better.
SPURGEON: It's interesting when you think about biker movies/bike stories as a genre, or a sub-genre, because I assume I'd seen a bunch of stuff but damned if I could come up with more than like three or four things I've seen -- the Wild Bunch, the Hunter S. Thompson work. Can you both kind of walk me through the highlights of that genre, what specific works speak to you in terms of this one?
NEELY: The Wild Ones, Wild Angels, Psychomania, Northville Cemetery Massacre, Satan's Sadists, Run Angel Run, Hells Angels Forever, Werewolves on Wheels... There are so many! I'm a big vinyl record collector and have been hoarding soundtracks to all these biker films, too. Other exploitation films of the era Roger Corman and Russ Meyer... I could seriously spend all day talking about B-movies from the 70s... But also the underground cartoonists of the time -- S. Clay Wilson, Spain, Greg Irons, Rand Holmes -- those guys really lived their comics! They could draw better than anyone else, but were also unhinged enough to make really interesting personal work while exploring different genres. And their work fluctuates between the beautiful and grotesque and full on comedy. That's what we're trying to do. And similarly to how they were all influenced by E.C. comics and MAD, I have to say I've spent a lot of time rereading those beautiful new Fantagraphics EC books lately. I've been emerging myself in new mainstream comics in the last couple of years and so many comics today just look like story-boards for movies. We wanted this comic to feel very "comic booky" in the old sense without being a work of nostalgia or pastiche. I have to go back to older comics to get a feel for what I'm doing, but then try to make something new out of it.
And then the real biker artists Danny Lyon and David Mann... Keenan loaned me Danny Lyon's book of biker photography at the beginning of this project and it was a big part of all my early character sketches. David Mann is sometimes called Norman Rockwell of the biker world and I've definitely learned a lot about bikes and bikers from studying his work and just recently drew a small tribute to him in issue #5.
SPURGEON: I was a little confused by the self-published issue followed by the Image issue. Was that something you wanted to do, or was that something that happened in terms of the project's development.
KELLER: At first we were going to self publish the entire series. While we were working on the #0 issue we got word that IMAGE wanted to meet with us. So, when we met with Eric and he said he wanted publish it. We explained we had a B&W issue #0 which was outside of the The HUMANS series story arc that we were planing to self release and Eric was totally fine with it. It ended up like being a glorified business card for the series... Bringing people to it. IMAGE is cool like that. They let us do our thing.
NEELY: We originally planned to do a kickstarter for the series and were ready to send the first issue (which became #0) to print when we heard Image was interested. So, it worked out perfect for us -- we sold out of our print-run the day after the Image announcement. First time I've ever sold out of anything I've self-published.
SPURGEON: How did you come into Image's orbit? Why did you think that was a good idea considering the options you had in front of you?
KELLER: Our other options meant self-publishing and or Kick-starter, so I'm stoked that we are with IMAGE. Tom and I have both done the self publishing thing (I'm still doing it) and we both jumped at the chance to get into a different layer of the comics world and subvert and exploit it for all its worth!
NEELY: I'm not sure what other options we had other than self-publishing. Which in retrospect would have been much, much more difficult to do and would have taken us much longer to produce. Image came to us because Charles Brownstein had suggested it to me, and then he mentioned it to Eric. Eric seemed on board from the moment we mentioned the idea. The more we thought about it, the more it seemed like a no-brainer! I never thought I'd be in Image's orbit, but for this book it makes more sense than say Fantagraphics or... I don't even know who else I'd wanna do it with? Its been an odd transition from alternative/underground to a more mainstream publisher, but it's been a great ride and I'm excited to see where it takes us! We have a lot of other ideas we want to develop as well.
SPURGEON: To develop that a little further, this hasn't been one of their super-hits like Saga, or Pretty Deadly, and that's the filter through which we generally get to understand and think about Image. What's it like to be one of the up-and-coming, one of the other creators there?
KELLER: Well, it's tough in some ways. We're not making much money, but who does in comics?? And we'd wish it could find a bigger audience, but Tom and I are both confident and focused on hopefully pushing our way into that stratosphere of the Image world one day. Being a part of Image at any level is pretty great. Our comic gets all over the world printed in large numbers. We have a great support system of people whom are really behind the book and it seems like they have confidence in the title's future as well. I would hope to work with Image more in the future. They don't fuck with your shit. The work is still yours and they give you an opportunity to do well if you can get there. I'm down with Image.
NEELY: On one hand we're successful beyond what either of us have ever done before because we're on Image! I've never sold that many copies of anything before! On the other hand, we're a weird book that isn't gonna appeal to everyone -- the average comic book nerd buying Spider-whatever is not gonna be into The Humans. And being on Image makes a lot of the alternative comics scene just ignore us altogether. But I know there are weirdos out there who want our comics. I see our fanbase increasing on social media. And those fans are the best kind of true fans that really love that The Humans is weird and wrong and violent and gives no fucks! We may not ever see Saga sales numbers, but we hope to find our cult audience and build it so we can continue doing what we're doing. We're trying to do something in the spirit of the underground and bring it to a larger audience. But I don't think our audience normally shops at your neighborhood comic shop. So, even though we're on Image, it's still a hustle to get our book out there and into the right hands. It's not yet a huge leap from self-publishing in that way, but the reach that Image has given us is incomparable. I just hope we make it work so we can keep going. It's been a struggle, but this has been one of the best experiences of my artistic career so far.
SPURGEON: Keenan, in terms of story, is it fair to say that you're working within the genre as you understand it, rather than deconstructing it or commenting on it? One thing I've heard from other readers is that the story feels more straightforward to them than the execution of that story, that it's almost a standard biker story well-executed more than it is a out-of-left-field treatment.
KELLER: Hmmm... I want The HUMANS to be straightforward in it's aim, visceral in its story telling, while exploiting the medium of the comic book for all its worth. Its bad-ass. Its violent. Its funny. Its harsh. Its wrong. You love it. That's all it needs to be. I like the understated and visceral -- two things that are not mutually exclusive. I feel that the problem with a lot of work in genre (especially in comics) is that everyone IS trying to reinvent or deconstruct the tropes and themes of the genres... The fact is, genres work because they are already deconstructed forms of myth telling. There's too much dialogue filler, heavy handed character and buckets of exposition in everything that is see. Comics all want to be an HBO show... We're not going for that. We wanna make a killer comic!
SPURGEON: One element that certainly doesn't fit in with biker stories as I've encountered them is the slavery thing, with the small-h humans. Can I just ask you in broad fashion what that element in the story means to you? Is that a thought-through metaphor or is that just something you've injected without figuring out what it means just yet.
KELLER: We definitely understand what we're doing with the Skins (human beings) and want the ideas and questions that this might represent in the minds of our readers. But at no time are those ideas more important that the pure exploitative use of them as animals in the comic. They are a lower species in this world and are used as such. I'd rather not define the subtext for the audience. It's more important for them to find that in their themselves.
NEELY: I find peoples' reactions to this very entertaining, actually. It's really difficult for people to see themselves as animals. To me it's very simple -- Primates and monkeys are the dominant species and Homo-sapiens humans are animals. So, we treat the homo-sapiens the same way that we in the real world treat our animals -- as livestock, slaves and pets, for lab-experiments and for entertainment like circuses or "skin-fights" which is the ape-world equivalent of dog-fights. This isn't a "Planet of the Apes" scenario where the apes took over. It's just a simple roll reversal. It makes the world weirder and more fun (or disturbing depending on who you are). And on a personal note -- as a 20+ year herbivore, I find it fun to see the rolls reversed. It makes people squeamish to read it because they're faced with a reality that no meat-eater likes to think about. And I'm having a lot of fun with that.
SPURGEON: When I was a kid, I thought of all outlaw films as being about teens. I think that's the way we process them for the most part still. That certainly isn't the case here, Bobby is 30, and there are a number of adults around. Was that important to you, to show the reality of these kinds of life choices rather than show it as a passing phase or something people do at a certain point and then leave?
KELLER: Yeah, these aren't teenage delinquents... These aren't kids having fun looking for their place in life... These are real outsiders whom could give two fucks about their place in life. There are mad fuckers on the fringe of society! Deemed by society as outcasts, misfits, losers, no good punks. Apart they are nothing. But together they are The HUMANS!!! This isn't a passing phase for them. They sold out completely to the idea that the world is fucked and ain't getting no better. So, they might as well RAGE against the dying of their rights. They search for pure freedom through hedonism and debauchery. Satan would be proud of them.
NEELY: It may seem like a passing phase or teenage rebellion to "uptights" and "squares," but you can be an outsider from the world at any age -- I know I have always felt that way. I'm an artist. I don't live my life like normal people and I don't value the same things. When I think of Outlaws I think of cowboys, bikers, pirates, gangsters, and so on... But also artists, musicians, poets, punks, pornstars and anyone else who doesn't fit in and carves their own path or lives "off the grid" in some way. It's more than "outlaw" in the criminal sense to me -- it's more about living a different life than the norm. That's at the heart of this story for me.
SPURGEON: Is there something about the way you write the '60s/early '70s -- I imagine neither one of you was born yet -- from your age perspective that is different? Is there something you feel about that time period that hasn't been adequately expressed in other media?
KELLER: I was born in the '70s but I am not a child of the '70s. We both love movies and comics of that time and both were big influences on us as artists and people... There is a romantic side to setting it in the '70s too because it's like a distant memory of a forgotten planet... We've all grown up seeing representations of that time and it's sooo different from today yet similar to the era we are in now... We just wanted to bring a little of the '70s into the comics world with The HUMANS.
NEELY: I was born in '75, so I barely saw the '70s, but somehow that era is more burned in my brain than any other. There is a romantic affinity for that decade as one of the last eras in America when you could be truly "free." It was a time when rock stars roamed the earth like Gods, independent movies had their hay-day in the grindhouse theaters, social change and the beginning of many of the revolutions that we're still fighting were just beginning, heavy metal and punk and funk and the early forms of hip-hop were born, and even regular people experimented in hedonistic activities like drugs, group sex and going to see the latest art-house porn movie. There was still the last bits of the old West permeating the culture. I'm not saying things were "better back then." There was a lot of bullshit. I love the present, actually -- Now is awesome. Now can be better. But now our world is programmed by corporations, and Art isn't even tertiary to technology and money... I don't live in nostalgia but I love the romantic idea that we lost something important from the '70s and exploring it through this comic is trying to bring a little of that back.
SPURGEON: Tom, your artwork here is interesting in the book because like a lot of comics artists with a single-images background there are moment that are just stop and stare funny, but at the same time, there's a lot of kinetic movement here. How natural is that shift for you? Do you still want to emphasize these specfic moments, is that fun for you? Is that why there are so many double-page spreads.
NEELY: I've largely left the idea of pursuing fine art and painting behind me as comics have become the full focus of my creative energies. The transition has been pretty normal and it's a relief to stop thinking about galleries. The biggest transition for me was switching to drawing comics all day every day to meet a monthly schedule. Doing a book in real time where a book hits the shops only months after I've drawn them, rather than brooding over an artsy graphic novel for years in seclusion are two very different processes. But I also see a lot of similarity in the way I approach pages and breakdowns throughout all of my work.
If you look at my first book The Blot, I think it has a very similar way of pacing, timed out through different kinds of page layouts -- often building to a crescendo of a full splash-page or double-page spread. When I worked on Popeye with Roger Langridge, I learned from his scripts the importance of ending pages on a beat to keep the reader going -- in comedy this works with punchlines, in action or other comics it's about keeping the energy moving forward. When I'm penciling a comic, I'm thinking about timing constantly -- like I have a soundtrack in my head and I want every page to have a rhythm that carries you through. When laying out pages, I tend to work on two-pages at a time, so I'm always thinking about how the reader sees two pages laying next to each other when it's printed, and when they turn the page for a big reveal that propels them to the next... And yes, I do really enjoy moments where I get to tell a lot of story with one single image. It goes back to my love of painting -- especially the lost art of narrative painting. There have been moments in Keenan's script that just beg for it -- like the scene of the party aftermath in issue #3. The boot camp scene that Keenan wrote for #2 would have taken me 8-10 pages to draw as it was written, so it became necessary to turn it into a two-page montage. Or the psychedelic freak-out scenes that give me a lot of room to experiment. I'm always up for a new challenge and pushing myself to do something different and this book has given me plenty of room to spread out and experiment.
SPURGEON: This is really violent work, and the women characters are maybe not as well-developed in their individual agency as the male characters. Has there been any blowback. It seems like an interesting time to create work that kind of slame up against unsympathetic portrayals of any kind. How do you guys see the mood of comics?
KELLER: I don't see the women as under developed... They might not be the focus of our story as of yet, but they play a strong role in the world. As for blowback, we've actually gotten mostly gotten a great response so far. A couple of people were "upset" by seeing an ape cock and some idiot retailers but the comic in the kids section because it had apes on it, then got mad when parents complained, but over-all lots of ladies have come to us saying how much they love the comic. I'd say we're are giving the finger to the world of PC, uber-sensitive, pricks whom want to legislate and censor ideas cause they don't like 'em. I couldn't give any less of a shit if we "offend" people like that. We want to bring some of the underground's filth and fury to a more mainstream world. If sex, drugs and violence scare you then why the fuck are you looking at our comic?!
NEELY: The mood of comics now is very "safe" and overly PC-policed to the point that most artists engage in heavy self censorship. And I think we're both bored with that nonsense. I also think the current cultural climate is constantly looking for things to be offended by. I try to keep myself away from that aspect of the internet because it is a waste of my time. The only blowback I've heard was about the ape-blowjob in issue #1! Fanboys and nerds are afraid of their penises for some reason. But our fan base is very diverse and includes a lot of women, and other sexes, so I don't think we're doing anything offensive. This is the most diverse audience I ever experienced in the alt-comix scene -- both racially and sexually. One friend told me the skin-fights were as good as gay porn! We have some fans demanding "more ape dicks" and "more violence" so we're finding the right audience. Fans popping up all over the world of every nationality. And I think we all wanna see more of our Ape-Mamas and Old Ladies!
As for a perceived lack of development in the female characters, couldn't you say that about every character other than Bobby or Johnny? Why isn't Chief Rugg more well developed? What about that snow-monkey standing behind Abe? His name is Issei and he has a whole back story, too. This story is about Johnny. You don't necessarily get backstories spelled out to you for every character -- But for what they lack in dialogue, I'm trying to give them plenty of character development in their design and visual portrayal. Believe me all of these ladies -- all of the characters -- are fully realized in my notes and designs. They have distinct personalities, individual styles and diverse body types and different kinds of apes, too. Most of the characters are based loosely on friends, some of whom have modeled for me. Hell, the Skabbs have a badass woman named She-Bitch who is modeled after our colorist Kristina. If we were doing anything offensive to women, Kristina would be the first one to slap us on the back of the head.
But overall, people just need to relax. It's a work of fiction. It's about apes and bikers. You're gonna see some stuff that you don't like. But it's just drawings on a page. It's a comic book. It's entertainment. Hopefully you're laughing with us at the violence.
SPURGEON: It looks like with that last story, the skin fight story, that you're prepared to settle in for a while. How much of this material can you do? How dependent are you on market realities for continuing forward.
KELLER:The Humans is planned as a 9 issue series (+ issue 0), so I don't think the market will affect that, but we hope to continue the story with several more story arcs to come.
NEELY: Yeah, we have planned the stories out into four major story arcs released as mini-series or "seasons." Beyond that, we have lots of ideas for one-offs, side stories and more. But it all depends on how well this first series goes. We wanna keep going and expand this universe as long as we're having fun with it and can make it happen.
SPURGEON: Tom, has riding helped in terms of depicting it on the page. Is there something specific you can point that you do differently for your experiences?
NEELY: Yeah -- definitely! I've learned a lot that has informed what I'm doing with the book -- from learning more about motorcycle anatomy to improve on my bike designs, to just the feel of the ride that I want to portray in the book. I see other comics that get so many motorcycle things wrong and it's just obvious the artist has never been on a bike. I wouldn't claim to be a "biker," and I'm not a gearhead at all -- most real bikers would probably call me a hipster poseur or a weekend warrior -- I don't pretend to be anything like our characters, but I do love to ride and I needed that knowledge to be able to pull off this book more accurately.
SPURGEON: I saw you both at CALA -- do you think of there being an LA comics scene? Where do you guys fit in?
KELLER: Hahahaha... Good question.
I don't really fit in with the "L.A. scene". There are some cool and nice cartoonists out here but i just don't see or hang with any of them often, other than Tom. Most of my comic friends live far away... I wouldn't have even gotten in to CALA without Tom. i got turned down for a table. So I'm a square peg.
NEELY: Hahaha... on the flip-side, LA Art Book Fair always rejects me, but gives Keenan a table. So, we've become a two-headed monster that will keep crashing your festivals! Where do we fit in? Have I ever? I have no idea. But I think the scene here is thriving and it's really diverse and I'm really happy to see that. There are so many cartoonists moving here to work at the animation studios now, it's amazing! But we're all so spread out and busy working on all sorts of stuff that it doesn't always feel like a "scene." My "scene" includes all kinds of people -- cartoonists, artists, musicians, models, metal-heads, punks, bikers, writers and other assorted weirdos. People think of LA as all Hollywood bullshit, but I love that LA has such a thriving artistic community all around and since it's one of the last big affordable cities where you can conceivably make it as an artist, it seems like that's growing.
* images from The Humans provided by Tom Neely -- I did my best to find context, but, um, I hope I'm not graded at St. Peter's Gate on that basis. Note that the series' colorist Kristina Collantes did one of the images. One of the thing this series has done -- and a number of Image series have done -- involves the artist's or artists' friends and professional peers contributing pieces using the home team's iconography in pin-ups and back covers. Beyond that, Collantes' contribution is of course regularly key to the look and feel of the series.
Go, Read: Last Week’s Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club Thing
If you're old like I am -- or older -- I'd suggest taking the time to read three long articles about a comics-culture Internet controversy from last week. It's the kind of thing that if you're oriented to web sites and blogs and a few social media sites of the kind that get mentioned on the nightly news you might have missed in its entirety. I missed the whole thing driving a u-haul to Ohio.
I don't really have a strong point of view on this one, at least not one worth declaring on the Internet in summary fashion or unpacking in lengthy essay form. I'm still trying to figure out a lot of the peripheral issues involved, and I'm choked with privilege in a way that makes me a less certain thinker and actor than I might be with another set of broader points and questions. Hopefully, I'll get there.
I think what I find most intriguing in this case isn't the arguments themselves but how the parameters of the arguments seem to have quietly changed in the last few years. It feels like we've gone from discussions of whether or not a specific work art or work of art that functions a certain way should be criticized and how that criticism might be shaped to the idea of whether that art should be criticized (with how assumed), censured or even cease to exist. The latter options seem on the table now in the way they weren't 20 years ago. They no longer surprise me when they show up. I expect them.
As Hennum points out, what happened here doesn't seem to be someone else pushing someone in a stop-doing-your-art direction, which MacDonald argues via criticism of a line of thinking that potential disappointment deserves criticism and perhaps more has dire implications. The result under examination in this case seems self-directed. Artists deciding to stop doing a work because it's not having the intended effect seems a pretty normal part of a lot of artists' process these days. The wisdom of that can be debated as well. I assume has been here.
No matter how you feel, the whole matter strikes me as potentially instructive and well worth one's time. My thanks to those that brought it to my attention.
If anyone has additional thoughts after a day or two of step-back, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
My other contact information: phone, e-mail, twitter -- remains the same. I'm probably the worst person to phone in the world. E-mail or direct message via Twitter (not just shouting at me on Twitter where everyone else has to endure it) is probably best. Apologies in advance.
Anything sent to the old address recently or for the next few weeks will be forwarded for sure, but at some point that will stop happening.
My other contact information: phone, e-mail, twitter -- remains the same. I'm probably the worst person to phone in the world. E-mail or direct message via Twitter (not just shouting at me on Twitter where everyone else has to endure it) is probably best. Apologies in advance.
Anything sent to the old address recently or for the next few weeks will be forwarded for sure, but at some point that will stop happening.
This is welcome news. Kallaugher is a very deserving cartoonist and should win all the awards; he's a throwback to the old days of devotion to craft for effect and real-world displays of creative energy.
The story I always tell about KAL and his split position between the Baltimore Sun and the Economist is that on one particularly long trip hone where I got to play the game "Describe What You Do For A Living To Aging Parents Of Your High School Friends" a bunch of times, KAL's work came up multiple times as someone people were responding to even if they didn't know his name. When someone 10 years younger than me mentioned the Economist work on the same trip, I went looking for the name (it had been escaping me) and have paid attention to him ever since.
The ceremony is May 7 and the award comes with a $15,000 cash prize. The prize is named for Herb Block, a titan of late-century cartooning and a man well-invested in news media stock when that meant something, an active foundation being the result.
Bundled Extra: Fantagraphics Launches A 10-Book Guido Crepax Series In November This almost passed by my radar without comment, but the fact that Fantagraphics is doing a 10-book series with Guido Crepax -- gone now about a dozen years -- is not only obviously news this site should be covering, I dream of a day when this kind of thing is the main focus of what all of us cover. It looks like these books will be on the high end of things, although $75 when a book is more than 440 pages long seems like a fitting price point, and as we're discovering there are cartoonists and projects that appeal to a smaller audience willing to pay a premium and don't have to be priced in order to expand the medium.
The team of people working on these is Manuel EspÃÂrito Santo, Paul Gravett and Tim Pilcher. I'm not sure who's catching this from the Fantagraphics end, but my hunch is that Gary is coordinating and they'll work with an in-house designer. That's a hunch, though; I'll change it if I get better information. The Crepax heirs will apparently be involved in the supplementary material.
Crepax interests me more for the approach to the human form and his sometimes-use of really baroque page layouts more than as someone with whose erotic imagination I'm taken. I do see his influence more than I used to. There was a hefty section of Crepax books in the Fantagraphics library when I was working there in the mid-'90s, which suggests he was of interest to longtime company co-owner Kim Thompson. I'm always happy when Fantagraphics indicates its continuing interest in European comics.
One fact in that press release that kind of surprised me is that apparently none of the English-language Crepax books are in print. The market for erotic comics certainly isn't what is was 20 years ago.
Crepax: Dracula, Frankenstein, And Other Horror Stories will arrive in November.
Caitlin McGurk Accepts Faculty Position At OSU Caitlin McGurk, currently a fixture at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, will be even more of one in the future -- an extended future, it now seems likely, up to all the years that pass until she's retired. The 28-year-old fixture in the alt-/arts- comics community announced yesterday via Facebook that she's on a tenure track after accepting a faculty position at Ohio State University, where the Billy is located.
McGurk did library-related work in a few other comics locations after school and before Columbus, including Marvel Comics and the Center For Cartoon Studies.
Congratulations to McGurk: she's one of comics' hardest-working, best people.
* Bob Temuka looks forward to Bill Griffith's memoir because he believes that Griffith has had an interesting life.
* Johanna Draper Carlson, who has the keenest sense of consumer issues in comics of all the first-generation funnybook bloggers, writes about David Tennant joining the Wizard circuit and the idea of value for an experience a lot of older comics readers and con-goers have a hard time grasping, period. I don't mean that as a sideways putdown, I mention it because we have a harder time in comics grappling with things when they stand outside of our own narrow range of interest, whatever that range might be.
Your Los Angeles Times Book Prize Graphic Novel/Comics Finalists For 2015
The LA Times Book Prizes have announced their category finalists for this year's slate. In recent times, that's included a graphic novels/comics category. This year's it's a pretty loaded group including Jaime Hernandez, book-prize juggernaut Roz Chast, and the best original work I read for the first time last year, Arsene Schauwen. The nominees are:
* Roz Chast, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A Memoir, Bloomsbury
* Jaime Hernandez, The Love Bunglers, Fantagraphics
* Mana Neyestani, An Iranian Metamorphosis, Uncivilized Books
* Olivier Schrauwen, Arsene Schrauwen, Fantagraphics
* Mariko Tamaki (Author), Jillian Tamaki (Illustrator), This One Summer, First Second
I was happy to see Mana Neyestani nominated for his book with Uncivilized. That's an admirable work that I thought might have more penetration into year-end lists than it did.
Congratulations to all nominees; the awards are given out in mid-April.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* you probably already saw that Autoptic announced its first guests, the North American participant in the PFC classes that precede that alt-/art- show. Minneapolis/St. Paul is a great hub for comics, and I think we're all rooting for that powerful group to put together a recurring show that speaks to what they're about, while also giving some of us a chance to visit Minnesota in the summer, when it's beautiful.
* finally, here's another round of guests for Comic-Con International. I really look forward to maybe meeting David Aja and seeing any spotlight panel he might do. Plus: Michael DeForge -- I don't know if he's the first guest of Comic-Con from his generation of alt-comics makers, but he might be. It's kind of frightening to think of that show feeding his visual imagination.
Go, Read: Analysis Of Recent DC Comics Moves
A pair of you forwarded this Tumblr-driven exchange of ideas about the nature of recent changes at DC Comics. The back-and-forth (a limited one, but still) was triggered by the announcement that Andy Khouri has been hired as an editor by DC. Khouri has been critical of some of the content of DC's books after their 2011 New 52 relaunch, and in the initial essay Khouri's hiring had been described as a sop to some sort politically progressive forces without the long-term interests of DC Comics at heart.
The response by Phil Sandifer in the linked-to post is brutal and pretty fun as far as these type of exchanges go. It basically argues (with numbers) that DC has lost all of the sales momentum it gained via the 2011 publishing mega-stunt, notes in don't-even-argue-this fashion that much the content deserved to be criticized, contends that other players in the market increased their market share in a growing market by pursuing policies more in line with Khouri's and his publication's advocacy positions and concludes announced changes to the DC line were thus necessary, not foolish or even political abstractions in play. I enjoyed reading the piece.
I'd probably quibble with a couple things. I think in 2011 DC was going after an audience beyond its traditional one, it was just more of a male gaming-interested, sexualized/violent pop-culture invested audience, a perceived "right next door" audience that resembled the traditional superhero base in most ways except age and perhaps income. This was a specific choice, I think, over more comprehensively targeting a newer, broader audience that includes more female readers, younger readers, and readers of a diverse background more across the board. Part of that was the nature of the stunt. I don't know anyone that's going to buy 52 #1 issues, but I sure know it isn't my high school classmate Angie whose daughter is reading the new Batgirl comics. Part of what hasn't worked may be a misjudged interest in that targeted audience taking on yet another set of expensive purchases over the long haul; another may be a miscalculation as to how suitable certain characters were to this treatment beyond subtly debasing them.
One problem that seemed to reveal itself as the roll-out on the New 52 books continued is that there was seemingly only that original-Image-books-as-kids market being pursued, with maybe a slight effort in the direction of prestige-treatment superhero fans at the top of the line. There was a resounding sameness to those New 52 books. Marvel does this a bit, too, but their "universe" is more cohesive at its core and thus better allows for different perspectives under the bigger tent that is the overall narrative. And even Marvel has had problems producing a lot of titles that keep readers issue after issue (some of this may be their own fault, as the demand on creators to make more issues than is physically problem may strain their talent pool and drain their comics of a creative continuity that Image can offer nearly every time out). There are problems all over, even if they aren't as directly dire as DC's. I would suggest there are probably some deeper structural issues in play that might be beyond resolution by the right editorial approach.
It's probably also worth noting that DC's corporate culture has recently been to do things kind of halfway. Even the New 52 relaunch contained elements of the old books when that was considered maybe something they didn't want to put at risk, and there was a lot of storytelling across the board where you would have these supposedly new characters but the dramatic stakes depended on them being 70-year-old icons in whose history and stature you're fully invested. While it seems like there are a lot of potentially fun superhero books with that new soft reboot post-Convergence -- and I'm grateful for every job that's going to an eager creator that's never had that shot, and I'm happy for every kid that gets to experience a bit more of themselves in these universes that meant something to me when I was that age -- there are also a ton that don't seem to be changing at all, some defiantly so. We'll see how it works out.
I'm all for a diverse array of comics with these big companies because it beats monolithic, ultimately demeaning expressions of culture. I'm all for diversity in hiring across the board it's flat-out and fundamentally the most right thing to do and you just can't limit yourselves to a specific talent pool in what is a ruthless marketplace for eyeballs and attention. I have a hard time generating a lot of affection for commercial properties as the most important vehicle for this, but I know a lot of people disagree. As is the case with all comics, I hope for the best comics we can get and the highest return to the artists possible. I think smart editorial hires and rational creative directions serve that goal. What's to argue?
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I linked to this from Twitter and Facebook, but forgot to on the site: a slightly foul-mouthed boy making his opinion known to the editor that droppped his favorite newspaper comics.
* KC Carlson on Marvel: The Avengers Fault. The Comic Books Are Burning In Hell guys apparently go after The Sculptor pretty hard here.
* not comics: I didn't follow this particular articles/facebook/twitter thing at all, but it seems to be one of those minor controversies where people seem super-charged about the issues involved and where every individual is coming from a place that is probably a bit more nuanced, or at least less certain, than sessions of Internet-shouting might communicate. As someone raised watching plays as much as movies, I have a hard time processing the investment that people seem to have in how films must embody a certain expected reality.
The National Cartoonists Society has announced its nominees for "Outstanding Cartoonist Of The Year" at its yearly awards program. This is the honor probably better known under the broader name of "The Reuben" -- it's the organization's big award, and thus bears the name of the awards-program entire. It's also one of the great two or three comics awards, period, a first-sentence-of-the-obit moment.
My hunch is that all three of those creators will be a Reuben winner at some point. It'll be closer than some people think between all three, although it's hard to look at the year Roz Chast has had behind Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? and not think of her as the front-runner. Still, it's an intriguing group. Congratulations to all three.
A win by Chast and Price would be the first by a woman in 23 years, and only I think the third in the award's history. Someone correct me if I'm wrong there.
The awards program also gives out several more honorary-type awards and a bunch of categorical ones, including this year Mort Drucker and Jeff Keane. The 2015 NCS meeting is the weekend including May 23, in Washington, D.C.
This is a first-wave in that it's basically the North American part of the group will do the PFC program at MCAD before the two-day festival. (Sarah Glidden describes her participation here.) They'll be joined by a few European cartoonists, and then the show itself will have more guests, apparently.
That sounds like a fun thing to experience, and it certainly in on the tiny list of comics "things you get to do." I imagine 15 years from now there will be a ton of workshop opportunities related to festivals, but right now it's a pretty light group and the best seems to be this one. The invited-cartoonist list also provides the backbone for a solid show that we can all attend this August. I hope to be there.
This Isn’t A Library: New And Notable Releases Into 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.
*****
JAN151445 INNER CITY ROMANCE TP (MR) $24.99
Fantagraphics and Patrick Rosenkranz continue their admirable surge of works about and buy various stalwarts of the underground era. I have no idea how this material might work on a modern audience, but I think it's still recognizable when someone is trying to depict the world they see around them with all of the tools at their disposal.
NOV140465 DIAMOND ISLAND TP $29.99
This may be the lightest week in a couple of years for comics in which I'm naturally interested, so this post is going to be looser than usual as I stumble around the shop waiting for my Mom to give me a ride home. This is a book I think with work stretching back for quite a while: kind of a self-generated all-age book that hasn't caught on quite like some others in that category. It carries the IDW imprimatur but I swear I also remember a crowd-funding campaign. At any, it's bright and it's blue and there's enough time in the comic book store if your tastes run close to mine to pick it up and give it a look-over.
JAN150537 WINTERWORLD #0 $3.99 JAN150704 SAGA #26 (MR) $2.99 DEC140766 SUPREME BLUE ROSE #7 (MR) $2.99 JAN151254 BLACKCROSS #1 BLANK AUTHENTIX CVR $10.00 JAN151250 BLACKCROSS #1 CVR A LEE MAIN $3.99 JAN150761 ALL NEW HAWKEYE #1 $3.99 DEC140815 GUARDIANS TEAM-UP #1 $3.99 JAN150097 HELLBOY AND THE BPRD #4 1952 $3.50
Here are some of the comic-book formatted comics that jumped out at me from the list. The return of the Winterworld comics was for a lot of us a chance to stare at Jorge Zaffino's art one more time, but now we're in the part of that project where they print brand-new material. I like both Tommy Lee Edwards and Chuck Dixon as reliable mainstream-mostly performs, and would give this book a shot standing there in the store.I would imagine from a sale standpoint this is a Saga week, that strikes me as an unbelievably strong and consistent book for the stores that have invested in it, and maybe for a few that haven't. Supreme Blue Rose is the writer Warren Ellis ending one of his new cycles of short-burst series (with Tula Lotay) and beginning a new one (with Colton Worley). The All-New Hawkeye is there. With Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez on board, the latest shot at a Hawkeye series would seem to have a reasonable chance at success. Standing in the shadow of the Matt Fraction and (mostly) David Aja run can't be easy, though. Looking to see what Jog write about ICR at TCJ allowed me to learn that Guardians Team-Up #1 will feature Art Adams art. I'm far away from that world, but I haven't detected a glimmer of heat from those Guardians comics since the movie came out, not really: not on their own, anyway. For reliability across the ages, there's Hellboy.
JAN151216 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #24 VIP ULTRA PREMIUM CVR (MR) $29.99 JAN151223 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT BASEBALL CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151224 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT BASKETBALL CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151225 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT BOXING CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151226 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT FOOTBALL CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151227 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT HOCKEY CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151228 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT SOCCER CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151229 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT TENNIS CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151230 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT TRACK CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151231 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #25 SEXY SPORT VOLLEYBALL CVR (MR) $9.99 DEC141272 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #1 DLX COLLECTOR BOX SET (MR) $79.99 DEC141276 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #1 LEATHER CVR (MR) $19.99 JAN151209 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #2 (MR) $3.99 JAN151217 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #2 ALTERNATE HISTORY CVR (MR) $3.99 JAN151212 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #2 AUXILIARY CVR (MR) $3.99 JAN151218 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #2 PREMIUM PURE ART CVR (MR) $9.99 JAN151211 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #2 SULTRY CVR (MR) $3.99 JAN151210 LADY DEATH APOCALYPSE #2 WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99 JAN151214 LADY DEATH DARK HORIZONS DLX COLL BOX SET #1 (MR) $99.99 JAN151215 LADY DEATH ORIGINS ANNUAL #1 COLLECTORS BOX SET (MR) $99.99
This is sort of amazing to me, as it's a row of entries that could have appeared in a similar listing from 20 years ago. I don't understand anything about the way that comics makes this kind of product offering work.
JAN151077 UBER #23 (MR) $3.99 JAN151079 UBER #23 PROPAGANDA POSTER CVR (MR) $3.99 JAN151080 UBER #23 WAR CRIMES CVR (MR) $3.99 JAN151078 UBER #23 WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99
I'm really glad I didn't try to make a dumb app/transportation joke when #1 came out, because I would be exhausted by now.
JAN151803 CHESTER BROWN CONVERSATIONS SC $30.00 JAN151804 COMICS & LANGUAGE REIMAGINING CRITICAL DISCOURSE ON FORM SC $30.00 JAN151805 COMICS & NARRATION SC $30.00 JAN151806 DRAWING FROM LIFE MEMORY & SUBJECTIVITY IN COMICS ART SC $30.00
This was probably the most interesting thing on the list to me: a re-issue of recent comics scholarship works at a price that reminds you that academic prices are even worse. Still, that's an affordable price pint for most fans, particularly when discounted. Comics And Narration is the belle of the ball being from Thierry Groensteen. A book of interviews with Chester Brown sounds promising and perhaps it's excellent; he always seems pretty guarded and studied in interviews to me.
JAN150567 DESCENDER #1 CVR A NGUYEN (MR) $2.99
I didn't have any big book to put down here -- whether that's an oversight or my lack of imagination I'll leave to you -- but this is a comic that's already been sold as a film, and no matter what goes on in the comics shop this week there's an involved element that will be intensely curious about what's inside. It's been well-received so far, at least as far as I can tell.
*****
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 because I hate you.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* you can vote for the top 50 female comics writers and artists via the instructions here. Edwina Dumm sweep of both categories, please.
* Scott Cederlund engages with the idea of comics-makers seeking opportunities in film/TV and what that says about comics-making. One reason I aspire to encourage comics to becomes as rewarding and as responsible to their creators as is humanly possible is I want comics-makers to have as many opportunities without crossing over to other media. That said, any creator who wants opportunities elsewhere and pursues them, that's a perfectly great thing.
* can't remember if I posted a link to this but Michael Taube profiles Seth. We should get new Seth soon, which is always a good thing.
* not comics: Robert Boyd writes about not writing, which I think is something with which many folks struggle at a certain point and one reason why we should always greet any kind of new creation in any discipline as a little bit of victory just for existing.
* finally, Gary Tyrrell reminds that we're nearing the end of Girls With Slingshots, with all the dramatic implications that imminent conclusion brings with it.
The boutique Canadian publisher Conundrum Press announced earlier today it has acquired rights to New Zealand cartoonist Ant Sang's seminal post-alternative graphic novel, Dharma Punks. If there's a work I'd compare it to as a publishing event, it would be when the Hugo Tate material was collected -- it's a largely unknown but widely known-about important book of its time.
Their edition will come out in September of this year. It's 400 pages and will retail for $25 in softcover. It is due in September.
Go, Look: A Bunch Of Syd Hoff I had Syd Hoff as "Stoney Hoff" when I first posted this, a sign of my complete, ridiculous exhaustion. On the other hand, Stoney Hoff is a great name for a cartoonist...
Missed It: Your 2014 Ghastly Awards Winners Terry Moore won three Ghastly Awards for 2014, according to a listing I saw by first going to Kevin Melrose's report at Robot 6. This is a horror comics awards named from Graham Ingels, and is in its fourth year. Al Hewestson and Jack Davis entered the program's hall of fame.
Peter Normanton won the Normanton Award, which is a legacy/future generations honor.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. Lot of talented comics-makers in the list that follows.
Winners in bold.
*****
BEST ONGOING TITLE
* Afterlife with Archie (Archie Comics)
* Crossed: Badlands (Avatar Press)
* Nailbiter (Image Comics)
* Outcast (Image Comics) * Rachel Rising (Abstract Studios)
BEST LIMITED SERIES
* '68: Homefront (Image Comics)
* Caliban (Avatar Press) * Deadworld: Restoration (IDW Publishing)
* The Strain: The Fall (Dark Horse Comics)
* Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland (IDW Publishing)
BEST ONE-SHOT
* Crossed: Special 2014 (Avatar Press)
* Dismal Incantation (Herman Inclusus) * Edgar Allan Poe's Morella and the Murders in the Rue Morgue (Dark Horse Comics)
* Edgar Allan Poe's The Premature Burial (Dark Horse Comics)
* Killogy: Halloween Special (IDW Publishing)
BEST ANTHOLOGY
* Bloke's Terrible Tomb Of Terror #10 (Indy)
* God Is Dead: The Book of Acts -- Alpha (Avatar Press)
* Hellraiser: Bestiary (BOOM! Studios) * In the Dark (Tiny Behemoth Press / IDW Publishing)
* Monstrosity Vol. 2 (Alterna Comics)
BEST SHORT STORY IN AN ANTHOLOGY * "Beneath the Surface" (Blokes Terrible Tomb of Terror #10)
* "Grandeur and Monstrosity" (God Is Dead: The Book of Acts Alpha)
* "Not All There" (In The Dark)
* "Red World" (Grimm Tales of Terror #4)
* "Trial by Cauldron" (Canaan Cult Revival)
BEST OGN
* Carbon (Caliber Comics) * Monsters & Other Stories (Dark Horse Comics)
* The Absence (Titan Comics)
* The Curse Of Ragdoll (Mike Wolfer Entertainment)
* The Shadows of Salamanca (Humanoids Inc.)
BEST ARCHIVAL COLLECTION
* 28 Days Later Omnibus (BOOM! Studios)
* EC Archives:The Vault of Horror Volume 3 (Dark Horse Comics)
* Serenity Rose: 10 Awkward Years (SLG Publishing)
* Swampmen: Muck-Monsters and Their Makers (TwoMorrows Publishing) * The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: The Worst of Eerie Publications (IDW Publishing/Yoe Books)
BEST WRITER
* Alex de Campi (Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight)
* Joe Hill (Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland)
* Joshua Williamson (Nailbiter, Ghosted)
* Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Afterlife with Archie, Sabrina) * Terry Moore (Rachel Rising)
BEST ARTIST
* Ben Templesmith (Squidder) * Francesco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie)
* Herman Inclusus (Dismal Incantation)
* Leonardo Manco (John Carpenter's Asylum)
* Menton3 (Memory Collectors, Nosferatu Wars)
BEST INKER
* Christian DiBari (Cutter)
* John Bivens (Dark Engine)
* Martin Stiff (The Absence) * Mike Wolfer/Dan Parsons (The Curse of Ragdoll)
* Terry Moore (Rachel Rising)
BEST LETTERER
* Herman Inclusus (Dismal Incantation)
* Jack Morelli (Afterlife With Archie)
* Rachel Deering (In the Dark, Creepy, Sabrina) * Terry Moore (Rachel Rising)
* Tyler & Ma'at Crook (Bad Blood)
BEST COLORIST
* Elizabeth Breitweiser (Outcast)
* Francesco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie) * Jay Fotos ('68 Rule of War, '68 Homefront, Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland)
* Kelly Fitzpatrick (Dark Engine)
* Tyler Crook (Bad Blood)
Andy Khouri Joins DC Comics’ Burbank Offices As An Editor I thought I had just plain missed this, but I guess Andy Khouri only recently announced via twitter that he has taken an editorial job at DC Comics. Khouri was just recently Editor-In-Chief (I think that's what they call that position) at the site ComicsAlliance.
That seems like a good hire for them and a good move for him: he knows the material, he knows at the very least the broad parameters of the job, and he knows a lot of the talent with whom he may end up working. I wish Khouri the best of the luck in his new job and hope I get to cover him for as long as he wants to work in comics. Heidi MacDonald says he'll start out working with Brian Cunningham.
How the Burbank offices settle into place for DC should be one of those stories that has a rolling effect over the next few years. They have a very different profile from which to choose from, I think, just talent-pool wise. There's a potential for workplace culture change, although corporate culture in comics can be an enduring thing and that kind of change never means the same thing to more than a few people at a time. It should at least be fun to watch.
Festivals Extra: CALA Announces As A 2-Day Show For 2015
Following a successful one-day effort in 2014, Comic Arts Los Angeles (CALA) has announced a two-day show for December 5-6. I thought that was a fun show with great energy and super-young -- just tons of people I wasn't aware of, which is exciting. I wish them the best with that important one-day to two-day move. It will be in the same downtown location, which I thought was a fun one for a show like that.
Go, Look: No 50-Cent Comic Book Sale For CR This Time
I've just run out of time. I apologize. The logistics of the trades sale killed me time-wise -- also my three-hour sobbing session, but that's standard -- and for some reason they won't let me have this truck for however long I'd like to keep it. See you in Ohio.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* sometimes I forget that Daryl Cagle operates a cartooning syndicate in addition to making cartoons of his own, so it's always nice to be reminded of this when he picks up a new client.
* I don't really care who gets to direct the next Spider-Man movie and as that kind of thing isn't in the purview of this site, I can always skip such stories and move onto the next one. But seeing this article's headline made me wonder who Drew Goddard is, and when I read the article I was struck by how much assumed knowledge there is in terms of the details and the implications of various moves and possibilities. It's a whole different world quite distinct from the comics and not secondary to them as I frequently assume -- without reason, I'm just being dumb. Further, someone who spent several hours on the couch as a teen reading the lastest issue of Amazing Heroes Preview Special as I did probably shouldn't find fault with anyone else's fandom of focused interest.
CBLDF Responds To Challenge Of Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar At High School In Rio Rancho, NM There's a fairly thorough article that went last up Friday at the CBLDF about their initial response to Palomar, the well-regarded book by Gilbert Hernandez published by Fantagraphics, being pulled from circulation. A 14-year-old had checked the book out, unaware of its content. The 14-year-old's mother complained to the school and to local media.
I think the Fund has it right here in that the two things that need to be done are to make sure the school's policies are followed and that they and/or someone in the media not a spitting sensationalist develop a counter-narrative to the ludicrous one that has developed, mostly that Gilbert Hernandez's masterful work qualifies under any resonable person's definition as child pornography. That's just asinine. I'm sure that some people out there in comments-land will stretch this into an argument that all high school libraries should carry Beto's work. It'd be a better world if this were so, but I don't think anyone would begrudge the view that maybe a shared community resource that has to meet a lot of family and young-person needs might not be the best place for that particular book. That said, it's in there, and it's really bad policy to throw books out of libraries based on the summary readings of two or three inidividuals. So hopefully the Fund and/or someone in that community supported by the Fund can make this about policy rather than about scare-tactics and sensational journalism.
Update: I May Have The Comic Book Sale And I May Not
I'm running out of time, and the logistics of the graphic novel part of my emergency comics sale are taking way more time than I thought. If I do have a 50 cent comic book sale, I'll trumpet it all around the Internets, but it may be of a limited time. So if it's important to you, maybe keep this on an open tab? The earliest would be 5 PM tonight. Thanks.
* according to the back-tracking math of superhero comics, Peter Parker is a millennial now. Let the "with great power comes great entitlement" jokes begin.
* this is the application form for the international cartoon competition known as Cartoonale Brugge. I think this might be a page for the competition itself -- it's kind of weirdly not easy to find. I know the awards program has been going on a few years, that it gives cash prizes, that there's no fee to submit and that this year's theme is "freedom." If you're enterprising, I'm sure you can take it the rest of the way home. If I get better information -- won't be difficult -- I'll put it here and in a subsequent post.
* I love the fact that Fantagraphics has such a passion for odd reprint projects, a category into which I'd put this Willard Mullin book. There's some marvelous cartooning in there, though.
I was told by a mutual friend that 
VAUGHN: Probably working in the aforementioned studio with Gaudiano, Moritat, and Thies. I'm inking two mainstream books and that news will be out soon. They are rad as hell and I'm working with great creative teams, I adore the pencillers especially. Anyone who follows me on Twitter (
I'm a little late to this. At the end of their successful 2015 show, Emerald City Comicon 
Institutional
* Sean Kleefeld 
* Sean Gaffney on 
On the other hand, there is something to the advice in general. Most cartoonists get to the point of making a living by keeping cartooning until the world curves slightly around them to accommodate that talent and persistence. And Parkinson is right in identifying a second step after being persistent for what may seem like forever: consolidating one's early opportunities and nascent skills until they begin to resemble something like a career.
* Hannah Means-Shannon talks to 
The top comics-related news stories from March 21 to March 27, 2015:
* Sean Gaffney on 
* Henry Chamberlain on 
NOV140102 ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN ARCHIVES HC VOL 04 $49.99
* Bob Temuka looks at 
I liked 
* Grant Goggans on 
* Todd Klein on 
The top comics-related news stories from March 14 to March 20, 2015:
* Sean Gaffney on 
* Paul O'Brien on 
DEC141305 TUKI SAVE THE HUMANS #3 $3.99
JAN150621 SEXCASTLE OGN (MR) $15.99
* Todd Klein on 
* Charles Brownstein profiles 
* 
* Sean Gaffney on 
The top comics-related news stories from March 7 to March 13, 2015:
Posted In Memory
* 
* 
* always worth linking to 
JAN150769 HOWARD THE DUCK #1 $3.99
DEC141866 EXPLORING CALVIN AND HOBBES SC $19.99
* Paul Constant on 
* totally missed that Rob Clough 
* Todd Klein on 
This almost passed by my radar without comment, but the fact that 
* Kim O'Connor on 
The response by Phil Sandifer in the linked-to post is brutal and pretty fun as far as these type of exchanges go. It basically argues (with numbers) that DC has lost all of the sales momentum it gained via the 2011 publishing mega-stunt, notes in don't-even-argue-this fashion that much the content deserved to be criticized, contends that other players in the market increased their market share in a growing market by pursuing policies more in line with Khouri's and his publication's advocacy positions and concludes 
* KC Carlson on 
JAN150537 WINTERWORLD #0 $3.99
* Bob Temuka on 
Terry Moore won three Ghastly Awards for 2014, according to 
I thought I had just plain missed this, but I guess Andy Khouri 
* J. Caleb Mozzocco on 
* Joe Gordon on 
