Go, Listen: Comics Alternative Runs Out Of Guests I talk with Andy and Derek about the 2015 Eisner nominations; I think Andy is the Jim West and Derek is the Artemus Gordon, but that's only a guess; I like the Eisners; this is a photo from 2012
* there's a bunch of new stuff out there on Charlie Hebdo in the light of a group of more than 100 PEN authors protesting the magazine being given a free speech award by that organization and the explosion of withering arguments on all sides. I will try to have a formal round-up post at some point, but it occurs to me that Dylan Horrocks is enough of a significant name in comics that his thoughts are worth getting out there less dependent on my terrible work habits.
The nominees are selected by a committe combining members of the West Coast Comics Club and Comic-Con International. Past winners and assistants to Manning vote on the winner, which is announced during theEisner Awards ceremony, this year held on July 10.
Not Comics: NYT On A Failed Crowdfunding Effort Here. I'm sure there are 10,000 nasty, maybe titanically convincing arguments in response to the points brought up in that article, but it does cover two things that are always intriguing to me about crowd-funding culture. One is that there's such an overlap of personal favor and commercial transaction that just doesn't mix well at times, like with this one when things go sour. The personal doesn't have to be a part of crowd-funding, but it almost always is.
The other is that there's limited recourse if you feel you got screwed on something. The article puts it like this: "Although Kickstarter's terms of use stipulate that any creators unable to satisfy the terms of their agreement with their backers might be subject to legal action, no sane attorney would initiate a class-action suit on a contingency-fee basis against insolvent creators, and no sane backer would ante up the necessary legal fees." The article describes some other options. But if you toss in the fact that in a lot of cases there's not enough money involved to suffer its pursuit, I think that's where a lot of the failed ones end up.
* comiXology put out a press release today about an intiative they call "Refer-A-Friend." It's where you give them your various lists (Facebook, Twitter, E-mail) of pals, and if they sign up you gt $5 credit and they get $5 back when they spend $10. It's easy to make a crack about any program that involves sharing information -- I made one! -- but I like programs like this for that company considering what they want to do: dominate the comics on devices market.
Go, Read: Gerry Conway On Changes With DC’s Compensation Program For Character Use
The writer Gerry Conway talks directly here on what a lot of people have talked around for the last few years: that with the big changes at DC in 2009 the way that compensation has been given out for characters created has changed dramatically, and not in a way that favors the creators. This would be bad enough on its own, but Conway is enabled by the obnoxiousness of how these things are structured now to point out that their logic has some creations not being created by anyone at all. It's pretty amazing.
People were generally complimentary of DC's program and the Levitz Era's solicitousness in making sure as many got paid as possible. It was a start contrast to Marvel's either resistant or abitrary way of deciding who was rewarded for that kind of use. It was depressing when this new system settled into place because no one knew it was happening, including people who continued to praise DC at previous levels. I hope for the best system possible, always favoring the creators over the constructs that have replaced.
Copies Of Maus Pulled From Russian Bookshelves In Anticipation Of Forthcoming Law
I missed the first round of stories on this happening, so we can go right to one of the many that folds in author Art Spiegelman's reaction to Russian bookstores pulling Maus off of shelves in anticipation of possible enforcement of a law that forbids Nazi propaganda. Apparently, the edition has a swastika on its cover. The unfortunate inflexibility of such laws and the dangers for the future should be apparent even if you don't pay attention to what Spiegelman says. And yes, the longstanding problem with publishing work with symbols of this nature in Germany is mentioned.
One thing that's interesting to me is the notion brought up by Spiegelman that this is part of an ever-growing difficulty to freely express oneself, even in ostensibly free countries. I think that's an idea worth engaging. My hunch is that population flow and a kind of Internet-driven forced intimacy have put issues out there that weren't really on the table when a lot of the free-speech principles were assumed, but that they're basically the same issues. Me, I just pray we end up arriving at a consensus that allows a space for speech that people dislike or find personally objectionable. I can't conceive of a better way.
Bundled Extra: Sunday Press Book To Collect White Boy
There aren't a whole lot of big-name, yet-to-be-collected gems in the comics universe -- there are likely far more no-name ones yet to be discovered -- but one of the ones left on the table that might elicit a sharp intake of breath from fans of older work is a collection of Garrett Price's White Boy. Sunday Press Books has announced they will pull that trigger, with a gathering of all the mid-1930s work. They promise a publication date for later this year.
I walked out the other side with a bunch of stuff. For some reason, it humanized this for me to see photos of the original principal players -- not made anyone's actions cool or okay, but just sort of intensified the whole affair by making it something that happened to real people rather than some abstract circumstance on the Internet.
The complete inadequacy of law enforcement officials faced with what seems to me to be obvious and open law-breaking strikes me as almost willful. I'm a 46-year-old that drinks budweiser and watches football games and has never owned a video game and it's pretty clear to me what's going on when it gets explained to me like this. My Mom asked me to explain it and it took her 73-year-old self, a retired marketing executive with a penchant for BBC-TV mystery shows, about 250 seconds to grasp the wrongness here. I think we can do better than just aging past the stupidity involved with how to process these things and do a better job of making sure everyone gets up to speed sooner rather than later.
The deliberate, very specific, self-absorbed to the point of creating a black hole action of the male interviewed is terrifying and basically speaks to everything about the lack of principles involved within the thrust of the broader activities. This guy couldn't deal with the reality presented to him. He wanted to hurt back and to justify his child's version of the universe. He was smart enough to do this in a way that flattered enough people in the sweaty lockerroom that is his industry's standard milieu that they'd rally to his side. There's no principle being enacted in such a scenario, there's only collateral damage.
The final thing that struck me is how very, very, very sad that anyone would listen to such an obviously manipulative howl of babyman pain and hear a clarion call to a supposedly larger purpose. It might be personal, but it always kills me that anyone has the time to fill with this kind of bullshit, the idea that you would actually spend hours of your brief time on the planet acting as a member of a mob. It's less than inspiring; it's less than human.
* not comics: this article that purports to be about forthcoming movie releases not from the Big Two of Marvel and DC reads more like a walk-through of old and forgotten movie deals at points, like one of those entries in an Amazing Heroes Preview Special that's a repeat because no comics were published.
* I'm not even a Star Wars fan, and I found this to be an incredibly weird page.
* Charles Schulz forever. Even an ungenerous appraisal of Peanuts has him doing 30-35 years of top-notch, odd, idiosyncratic, personal and affecting comics.
* this article about a very specific slice of comics fandom intrigued me for being kind of all over the place. I thought there were some nuggets there worth mining, but some of the accusations I had a difficult time tracking and thus weren't very convincing to me.
Congratulations To Alison Bechdel On 12 Tony Nominations To The Broadway Version Of Fun Home
Here. She seems a nice person and a formidable artist with a keen interest in the stage who has really put herself out there with both book and now play. I hope the production wins everything for which it's up.
Foreign Policy: On-Line Calls For Cartoonists To Be Assassinated
It's a pretty self-explanatory article: here. It's also fairly terrifying, as lone wolf, freelance operatives doing this kind of thing seems a more plausible scenario for the US than the kind of operation that took place in Paris in January. I hope police and all affected officials take each one seriously. The moment we cross into murder and threats of murder I wonder if it might help us to treat these squarely as their own thing rather than an admittedly dire extension of free speech and political arguments across a spectrum of ideas. Mostly, I hope no one dies.
Go, Read: PEN America Documents Fueling New Hebdo Battle; The Nib On Trudeau
* the on-line publication The Intercepthas a bunch of letters exchanges that fueled a new stand-off between members about whether or not an award should go to Charlie Hebdo. If I'm reading the arguments correctly, one side is arguing giving them an award as a way to recognize a publication that resisted pressure against an approach it thought important and right, while another fails to see a specific positive being accrued to the magazine beyond that resistance. I'm sure other people would disagree with that characterization.
* here's a different entry point into that material, starting with Salman Rushdie's incindiary slams against those involved with the organization that want to boycott or otherwise protest the award.
It seems to me that none of the various sides are coming at any of these flourishings of these issues in a way willing to let go of rigid stances that might diminish their chances to win the arguments involved in a forceful, dramatic fashion. Certainly no one is going in with the chance that they might have their minds changed. That makes discussion beyond restating priniciples, shouting/dismissing the other side and trying to "catch" opponents in a rhetorical cul-de-sac pretty near impossible.
This may be super-dumb, but if an argument about Hebdo doesn't wish to be analyzed with respect to the murders maybe not bring them up? Even in a roundabout way, I mean. If we're all in agreement that murder is off the table and deplorable no matter what, let's focus our arguments and our discussions on areas of disagreement, or, perhaps, on other aspects of the issues involved where we agree (say the course of police work when new threats come up). It might not make the arguments as dramatic, but at least we'd be focusing on where the arguments are. Right now for the shmear of argumentation involved there's no moving forward to a greater understanding or a more just result or any of the things that might be more preferable than an agitated, unchanging status quo.
* the aggressive anti-Asian racism is hard to take, but visually these early Harvey Kurtzman pages are really appealing-looking, doubly so for someone that's known the aggressively stylized work he did later on.
* Mike Lynch re-runs his unpacking of a 1953 issue of Cartoonist focusing on a bunch of cartoonists taking a few days to vacation together. It was a different time. To my eye there's always something slightly sinister and unpleasant about male-dominated activities from 50, 60, 70 years ago, even though I know this was like stuff my father and my grandfather did and it was usually goofy rather than evil.
* finally, Art Adams draws Marvel's Man-Thing. I wouldn't think that would be a good match, but it is.
Here are a few quick notes on Linework NW 2015, a comics and illustration show that took place in Portland all the way back last weekend -- an eternity in comics time. It was its second year. The primary organizers are Zack Soto and Francois Vigneault.
I'm organizing a festival in Columbus, Ohio called Cartoon Crossroads Columbus so I'm trying to avoid full critical write-ups as it's likely impossible now and maybe even sort of unfair. I was also a guest of the show. Still, I think there might be something of use in just putting my thoughts down, even more limited ones than what I was able to process in year's past. Take everything with a giant salt lick, is what I'm saying, or ignore me altogether. Now that I'm done and returning to this paragraph, I failed keeping this limited in any way. So double down on that salt.
*****
* I had a really good time at this show.
* for those of us on the outside of Portland cartooning looking in, LineworkNW seemed to spin off from the dissatisfaction that some in that city's scene felt for a conception of the long-running Stumptown Comics Fest that seemed to focus on indie-genre and mainstream material in addition to alt- and art-comics. What was to be a kind of separate, focused show became a replacement show when Stumptown ended its convention aspect for a seat at the Rose City show's table as a kind of local resource and programs generator. So what you have in Linework NW is a classic small-press arts show in line with Autoptic or CAKE, but with a special emphasis on illustration and with access to one thing Stumptown did really well -- its very social after-hours in comics-friendly Portland.
* that's probably a C-minus description, but it's as close as I can get.
* this was the first comics show I attended since moving to Columbus about six weeks ago. When I moved to Silver City, New Mexico in the early 2000s, the only shows I thought about doing were San Diego and SPX, and SPX only about every third year or so. This made the 3.5-hour drive to the airport bearable, and even added an adventurous component to the journeys. Since then, cons and festival have exploded into being while old favorites have become stronger. I could easily go to 16-18 shows and get some work done at each one. I will in a year of not particularly wanting to go to show do five or six of them. Having a 15-minute drive to the airport, and knowing that when I got home exhausted I'd be minutes from my own bed, I literally choked up. Not having to plan a whole day on each end is a huge boon for this part of my professional life and may extend it a few years. I'm wholly grateful.
* Port Columbus is one of those adorable regional airports, too. Very little walking. And I got to fly through Minneapolis, which is like Atlanta's mall-style airport, but a nicer, more sedate, laidback mall. Portland's airport is another equally nice one. It's overpraised a bit, but it's still nice. The best thing I like about that one is that the train line is easy to access, easy to use and shoots you down into neighborhoods and intersections where you actually want to go.
* due to a scheduling snafu, I stayed Friday night at a small motel 25 steps from where the train dropped me off.
* I did a couple of comics things that day. I tromped across Burnside Bridge -- one of the great short city walks -- and went to Periscope Studios for coffee with same-age peers Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker. I very much enjoy talking to those guys. They are great veteran gentlemen of comics and I don't always have insight into that world of comics-making. They agree with me that DC's move from New York to Burbank may be significant and positive in terms of that company's culture, and their recent hires all received a thumbs-up. Mostly we just made cruel, dumb jokes about our betters. Parker always looked over his shoulder to see if someone was standing right behind him, and it struck me that Portland's really the only town stuffed with enough cartoonists that this seems a not-crazy thing to do.
* Parker and Lieber are always very kind to me and generous with their time; everyone at Periscope is. I got to see Jesse Hamm, and it might have been five to ten years since I've seen Jesse. In the small-world department, Jesse is working on something dayjobish with Eric Evans, the former TCJ managing editor. One of the club: like astronauts or Heisman Trophy winners, only with basically no comparable accomplishment involved. I got to meet Leila Del Duca and Terri Nelson; I caught up with Ron Randall at the show.
* they both seem to be doing well, Parker and Lieber, just veteran comics-makers with solid track records and with seemingly as much work as they'd like. Maybe they save their complaining for Heidi. I asked Lieber if he worried about every becoming passe or out of fashion like a lot of older comics-makers fear and he noted that he entered the industry totally out-of-fashion. Good point.
* I liked the half-hour I worked in their offices. I'm told it's not always quiet, but when I was there doing my job of making dumb comments on twitter, the entire place had this low-level hum of hard work. So appealing. I don't think Erika Moen looked up from her pages the entire time I was there. It reminded me of a grand-old sports team, one of those outfits with so many veterans they're kind of boring, with a 38-year-old team captain that still has the goods.
* I'll note that Parker is in the corner of the place and on that day was surrounded by empty desks, which is exactly where all of us would put him, I think.
* I was told that one of the things that place will return to after some discombobulation over the last couple of years is a more active program for young cartoonists -- interns, mentorship, that kind of thing. I can't imagine any young person working there would fail to pick up on the idea that there's not a lot of cheating the work part of comics, not in the main and not for very long. Seeing that as the core of comics is even more helpful, I think. I'm not sure those of us that don't have that level of production in that art form always give it its due.
* the other thing I did was stop by Floating World, where comics people like David Zissou, Annie Murphy, Zack Soto, Jordan Shiveley and Jessica Underhill were gathered, pre-con weekend. That's still a nice store. I hadn't been in since they were doing it as a comic shop/shared studio space. One thing they do really well there is present older comics of interest. I bought a bunch of First Kingdom issues there last time at cover price, and felt like doing the same with some of the Ignatz line they had out. It was nice chatting with everyone.
* then I went to the motel and fell asleep and woke up just in time to convince a non-comics friend to come out and eat with me late-night and then back to bed. I missed what sounds like a pretty good gallery show opening night. It's great that shows are coordinating with galleries for events like that. It's one thing I miss about San Diego now that the downtown San Diego is less stabby and more Hollywood-fuckable.
* I transferred to the Jupiter Hotel for the show itself. The Jupiter is one of those crappy motels converted into a hipster one, with doors you can write on in chalk and water you've never heard off offered in bottles near the bed where they also give you a free condom. There was a box of funky-looking donuts when I dropped my luggage off, and people standing around checking out from a week of a big brewery convention. Is that when regular week-long conventions dissipate, Saturday morning? Makes sense. My hometown company had sponsored one of the tents covering the Jupiter's grounds. The brewery people looked like walking stereoytypes of brewery employees, so I'm figuring that might be true of every industry.
* I sat in the bar and waited for a room and drank Pabst Blue Ribbon and was amazed they didn't have at least one old TV up so I watched Chelsea/United updates on my computer, which is the coolest way to sit at a bar. Max Clotfelter and Tom Van Duesen came up and said hi, which reminded me not to sit in the bar all day. I ended up passing on breakfast and not eating it either day, disappointing my elementary teachers and the Mulligan Stew.
* that neighborhood is astounding for a comics show. It had the Norse Lodge, it has the Jupiter and its prison soap with the middle cut out, it's pretty easily accessible from the city's young person enclaves and reasonably so for everyone else, it's easy to find from the highway, it has about a half-dozen places within easy walking distance for drinks and meals and more of each at a slightly more distant remove for dinner, but it's also not heavily residential so on a weekend there was easy street-parking.
* the crowd at the beginning of the show was solid, I thought; a modest line outside waiting to get in and maybe hoping for the free bag of stuff promised to the first 100 people, I'm not sure.
* okay, the neighborhood was ridiculous enough but the Norse Lodge struck me was even more ludicrously advantageous, about as optimal as you can imagine for a show like this one. It's stil a functioning lodge but its greatest community function seems to be as a rentable dance hall for focused-dance evenings. Like an evening of salsa dancing. At least that's what the bored buy in the office told me. There's a good dance floor/commone area that looks like an elementary school basketball court with a set-up for about 80 tables if you include the stage, there's an upstairs room for the panels that looks like a big theater rehearsal room, about 150 seats in there. And the whole thing drips with characters. You always want more space if you're running a show -- at least most show-runners do -- but it's hard to imagine a more perfect quirky space.
* at this point, things begin to blur. I saw a jovial Chris Pitzer and scored the Sophie Goldstein and Kathryn/Stuart Immonen books. I saw Josh Simmons for the first time in a while, signing his new book. I saw Anna Pederson since she slipped into her new role at the Fantagraphics main office, standing next to a high-energy Jacq Cohen. I saw Lisa Hanawalt and immediately said something weird that had her worried about our upcoming panel. I was given the new issue of the Intruder by that admirable crew of comics folk. I said two words to John Pham and about 20,000 to Sammy Harkham, who had Crickets #4. I got to speak to 1990s Seattle cartooning mainstay JR Williams; we each ran barely remembered names past one another for clues as to what happened to the circles surrounding twenty-years-ago versions of ourselves. David from Telegraph was there, already moving product.
* they had a bar attached to the main room. Which was air conditioned. And a food truck outside selling ice cream. They had first-come first-served vegan pizza on the hour in a green room. Like I said: the physical set-up was really strong.
* the panels went well, I thought. I saw bits of all them and only one seemed poorly executed.
* Lisa Hanawalt was excellent on her panel; that was as smooth as any panel I've ever had. She's in a period of flux directly between books and managing the huge life change that is moving across country and working on a TV show. I did another panel the first day about indie comics people doing genre comics that went only okay. I was not made aware of these panels until the day before I left which kind of kept me out of a focused-image interaction strategy on the panels I moderated. Just shooting the shit can work with a spotlight, but it's more difficult with a broad subject. And while there are a lot of indie talent doing genre comics without the same hangups of the last generation, I'm not sure there's a lot to talk about there. Every generation either does genre work or is informed by it or both. But still, it's fun to talk.
* I was on a Charlie Hebdo panel. I'm not sure anything of value was said, certainly not by me. I was given the question of why this was so affecting, so I got to bring in things like the very specific French-ness of that kind of satire and the fact that the creators that were killed were well-liked members of the cartooning world's mainstream culture, such as it is -- they were not multiple dudes out in the boonies somewhere throwing bombs, but closer to the French version of the Daily Show staff or MAD bullpen. There was a lot of talk about the generational difference in reaction and self-censorship as an act of humility in an increasingly diverse world. For some reason Seinfeld came up twice.
* I tend to agree with every social analysis that points out the horrific struggles that people have and the effects that this kind of cultural hammer can have on folks, intended or unintended. At the same time, I still think the consideration of nuance, intention and context are important when we're deciding how we feel about those actions. I also see this event as a criminal act and a cynically political act designed to foment a certain kind of cultural reaction which benefits a number of people in perpetuating their side of the wider matter. Mostly I can't get past the murder part, and this includes sympathy for what seem to me to be the lost souls that committed those acts. I also realize there are about three things in every one of the last ten sentences for which I could be called out or have my hypocrisies pointed out to me or however the language gets structured by people so much more certain about things than I am. Even my hesitancy reveals something, I'm sure. I'll continue to think about it and maybe my occasional thoughts or actions will be put out there to be scrutinized or criticized but at this point I'm just trying to figure some things out for me. I wish I were of better use to others, and I apologize. Anyway, it was a weird panel. I was at one point going to tell a story I've never told in public but withdrew it because the previous speaker's lengthy tirade would have changed the context. That kind of thing.
* the cartoonist Sam Alden got booed and hissed on that panel for saying he thought self-censorship was a positive. Alden is very young and innocent-looking so this was like seeing Kermit The Frog take a brick to the head. He was talking about the Mahou Shonen Breakfast Club manga incident, where some artists once criticized on about cultural appropriation withdrew their comic. I honestly don't care how artists choose to do or not to do work as long as they're the ones with the final say. It seems weird to boo something like that.
* that night I finally checked into the hotel. It was still light I started watching basketball on TV but as I sat there the light changed outside so you could see into rooms and Chris Pitzer got a laugh out of my pantsless self watching hoops like every old man's nightmare version of himself he banged on the window. I went to the door pantsless -- Steve Ditko style -- to make it look like I meant to do that, but he wasn't fooled.
* ran into Tucker Stone and Jordan Shiveley on my way to dinner. Tucker said he had a pretty sold sales weekend for NoBrow across the boad, no book in particular standing out. He mentioned that Dustin Harbin's dinosaur fold-out at NoBrow sold out of its first edition more quickly than the publisher had thought it would. He told a great story of being snubbed at a comics event and I would not have guessed the person snubbing in 100 years.
* ate that night with Jacq Cohen's army of young cartoonists and comics-makers. I got to hear what Sammy Harkham thinks of Stephen King.
* drank a beer or two with the event photographer at the not-so-secret karaoke party; she was very nice. Caught up with Marc Arsenault, who's been having a rough work year with multiple break-ins. Tried to figure out if the club where Adam Conover was performing late-night was findable and gave up when I was just drunk enough not to read my phone very well. Had a nightcap with Ian MacEwan, another cartoonist whose name I don't remember except that he was a Shannon, and Shannon Wheeler, all of us drinking outside of a bar between the first place and my hotel. Wheeler's twins are 17 now. A local school had done his opera that evening; I'm happy that's still being performed. I was in bed to catch the late-night NBA re-run. Pants on.
* the next day started late, I guess because exhibitors were late. I stayed in the line and I think it was about 25 minutes before we were let in. I would say in the Mad Max-style future that is going to be competition for seats at shows like these that there's a chance organizers will stop indulging so many people in late set-ups, but then again, it's comics, so probably not. People will complain about it, though, that seems practically guaranteed.
* a Korean barbecue truck joined the ice cream truck.
* saw Patrick Rosenkranz, who is killing it right now writing-wise. Please buy everything he does, or at least go watch his videos. He's transferring those from tape himself. Saw a healthy and happy looking Brett Warnock, with son in tow. Waved at Diana Schutz. Saw Milo George -- although that might have been Saturday. Milo's been married since the last time I saw him. "I recommend eloping," he said. Frank Young was definitely Saturday. Three members of TCJ managing editors fraternity. The weekend blurred a bit that way.
* running into Eric Reynolds, on the other hand was definitely on Sunday. He came down from Seattle with one of Linework's guests of honor, Dan Clowes. Clowes was quickly signing to a steady line of super-thrilled people, including a group that flew up from Utah. Fantagraphics sold out of the Complete Eightball slipcovered editions they brought down by about 3 PM. It's a beautiful book.
* saw Jacob Covey, the longtime Fantagraphics designer, now in Astoria, for the first time in ten years or so. That was a pleasant surprise. He's doing more prose book design. They moved to a farm.
* the big switch for Linework NW from Saturday to Sunday is that they were swapping out the vast bulk of their individual vendors, so that like a music festival, the line-up each day was different. The idea is that you give people reasons to come each day, you allow more people to exhibit overall, and you give people an entire day to come and hang out and do other show stuff if they want without worrying about tabling. There was really no confusion or complaining about this, it seemed. I guess they lost a couple of out-of-town exhibitors for whom one day wasn't enough to justify the trip, but Portland of course has eight billion willing exhibitors, and might be one of the few places this kind of strategy makes total sense. I would say it worked well enough to do again. It was a bummer once or twice to recommend something that completely off of the floor now, but nothing unexpected.
* it did seem as if those who were only doing the one day got the hell out of there. Attendance was light in general, I think, compared to last year. The days started well, but the show went to 8 PM and the last hours both days were sparsely attended, particularly Sunday.
* the Clowes panel went pretty well. Clowes is a smart, funny guy and everything he says at a set-up like that is either charming or funny or insightful or all three. I guess... well, I guess people couldn't hear my questions. I thought I was a little quiet but I was apparently just not audible. My apologies to everyone. It's hard for me to tell the difference between a little quiet and complete silence from behind a microphone. I tried to apologize to individuals as the day went on.
* Clowes talked about working for Kim Thompson, and Chicago cityscapes, and the short essays like "I Hate You Deeply" that aren't really something he does anymore (and might not be able to given how things have changed). We talk about the target-rich climate of the 1990s when you could broach a subject and feel like you were the first person to notice something. He talked about the challenge of putting together this collection given all the 1990s printing shenanigans. Clowes talked about his growing comfort with the comics form as he went along, at least in terms of atmospheric and subliminal effect. I had a blast.
* Dave Scroggy sat in the front row.
* spent most of the rest of the day drinking in the small bar off of the main hall, which was amazing in its modest way. It was certainly welcome. It was a total lodge-style bar, in this case run by wisecracking older ladies. It was air conditioned. And it wasn't really ever crowded. I could probably sit around a table and talk to comics people in an after-work setting for three hours a day every day for the rest of my life. I had a great conversation with Dan Clowes about proto-comic shops in Chicago, 1970s pawn shops and the like, the sometimes-terrifying places we looked for old comics when we were kids. I had a lengthy talk with Alvin Buenaventura about a range of topics, including Pigeon Press' books this year, which sound great.. I was glad to hear both Dan and Alvin had a good time in Columbus last year for Dan's exhibition opening.
* my apologies to Roxanne, who introduced herself. I wasn't confused by your name, I thought you were saying you were Ryan Sands and playing a practical joke on me! I'm sorry! Thanks for talking to me.
* saw a lot of people to whom I never spoke, like Ed Luce and Nicole Georges and Andrice Arp. Stuffed room both days.
* I think that show went pretty well. Like I mentioned earlier, there are tremendous natural advantages to a show in that neighborhood in Portland. I think both Zack Soto and Francois Vigneault thought there were fewer people there on either day than on the single day last year. Most people I talked to sold at least pretty well, or up to expectations. The two cartoonists that people talked about on the floor the most were Tom Van Duesen, whom I mentioned earlier, and Ben Duncan. A lot of folks were thrilled to be able to get the new Crickets. Todd Bak -- he says his new USPS day job just means his legs are tired -- had a nice-looking mini there.
* there were some complaints. There always are. Attendance was lighter than some hoped. The set-up hours were limited and apparently the first day no one knew where the tables and chairs were stored in the facility. There was no large central party that took hold despite efforts in that direction and I knew some people that went to bed early as a result on one or both of the nights when they didn't particularly want to. The size of Portland's comics community is such and that particularly west coast brand of isolationism is such that I didn't get a sense of the city backing the show, even the comics-part of the city. Lot of cartoonists I know I didn't see there. I guess some volunteers took off when the day they were supposed to work turned out to be beautiful and warm; we sure could have used a devoted one or two working on the sound at the Dan Clowes panel. The show skewed young to the point that some same-age peers I talked to didn't have anyone on hand they wanted to buy after seeing Dan Clowes. I saw some vendors early on on both days struggle to make change for cash-customers. Some people wondered after any ability to expand that show beyond a floor most first-time viewers thought smaller than they had imagined. One person I know said the show still lacked a signature event or distinguishing characteristic beyond being "the show of this type in Portland." I'm not sure if what the con was selling did well, so worry a bit about the financial hit the organizers might have taken. These all seem details eminently manageable in the future, except maybe the size thing.
* I think that shows overall are really fascinating right now. It's something in comics that generally works, so everyone wants a piece of it. Comics is resources-light, so cakes big enough for everyone to get a slice, well, those are rare. At the same time, we've been at this moment for a few years now, so you're starting to see people question just how many peak experiences are necessary to play a role in having a good year, and wonder out loud if an emphasis on weekend shows might not bring with it a tiny amount of neglect for all the other days on the calendar. The fact that the industry itself is changing makes figuring out if the cons and festivals we're getting are the ones we most need.
* I had a great wind-down dinner at Screen Door with Cohen, Pederson, Reynolds, Buenaventura, Covey and Souther Salazar of all people, wearing a Bogus Dead shirt. If I had had ten thousand guesses who I'd be having dinner with this year I would have guessed 1000 people once and 20 twice before Souther. His wife was there, too, and I don't recall her name, and I apologize. She was smart and funny, and I'm a forgetful creep. First time I've seen Salazar in ten years, although they've been in Portland for a couple of winters now. I ate quickly -- fried chicken, boneless and hammered out like a pork tenderloin -- and jumped in a cab. I took the Red Eye home. It was the first time I ever felt claustrophobic on a flight, which is a bad sign for me, potentially. We'll see. I drove for 12 minutes and in another ten was asleep in my own bed. God bless the America with easy access to airports. God bless our nation of comics.
* those Sony Studios leaks are supposedly a wonderland of grousing and barely coherent cheap shots from people that seem crass and dumb. Stan Lee was one such target.
* Caitlin Moore makes a strong case that two Avengers actors slut-shaming the fictional Black Widow character matters in great part because that character does not get equal representation in terms of solo-movie screen time, publicity exposure or licensed products.
* here's where to meet the cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks on the road in 2015. She's very nice.
* Francois Vigneault shows off a cover idea for Titan #2, which will be out before the end of summer.
From James Sturm of Center For Cartoon Studies: "Every year CCS freshman have two weeks to create a comic in a predetermined classic-comic format. Little Lost is one of the best comics this assignment has produced. I hope you agree it's worth getting a few more eyeballs on."
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from April 18 to April 24, 2015:
1. Adam Zyglis wins the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Zyglis is the cartoonist at Buffalo News, and is part of the dying breed of staff cartoonists still set up out there. Kudos to the News for staffing that position.
3. DC announces a third series in the Frank Miller Dark Knight Cycle, to be called Dark Knight: Master Race. This is news for DC and for Frank Miller, given their success in the past combining for Batman-related projects, but also is a sign that the Fall season will be a hot one in the comics shops, with Marvel starting back up with their regular series after a summer of Secret Wars.
Winner Of The Week
I'd say Zyglis by a hair. It's still one of the three great honors in comics, and there's none bigger for someone that makes the kinds of comics Zyglis does. Lots of positive news stories this week, though.
Losers Of The Week The New 52 initiative. It had its day and served its purpose, but that's not a happy ending.
Quote Of The Week
"When you write something, the goal is that your perfectly-crafted web posse will have your back. And if someone critiques you, that same perfectly-crafted web posse will defend you, regardless if your piece was good or shit; if the critique of you was accurate or unfair. That's not happening because anyone particularly knows or likes anyone, it's just that -- at some point -- it’s everyone’s turn to be judged. And everyone's scared to get destroyed, because the culture now is that any slip up can prove fatal." -- Rembert Browne
*****
the comic image selected is from the brief but notable 1970s run of Seaboard/Atlas
Missed It: Roz Chast Receives $250,000 Heinz Award
The much-lauded, longtime New Yorker fixture turned super-successful graphic novelist Roz Chast will receive $250,000 from the Heinz Foundation as part of a prize program designed to target creative thinkers about critical issues. In Chast's the issue is adult health care, via her award-winning graphic novel, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
The article notes her absolute surprise at receiving the award; she thought she was going to be asked to donate a cartoon.
Congratulations to Chast, one of the great ambassadors for the medium of comics, and kudos to Heinz for being smart enough to recognize the quality of that work.
Bundled Extra: DC Comics Announces Third Book In Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Series For Fall 2015 This is a pretty straight-forward press release -- at least far as it goes. Frank Miller will be working with writer Brian Azzarello on a third Dark Knight series, after what is now called The Dark Knight Returns and its sequel The Dark Knight Strikes again. No artist has yet been selected; they hope to begin the eight issues to run every two weeks starting sometime this Fall.
There will be an extremely high curiosity factor here, with the original series' place near or at the top of superhero-reworkings of the 1980s and the sequel's place as a baffling rejoinder to that series. I'm one of the 10 percent that quite liked DKSA, but it did not do well with audience members expecting more of the original's imaginative, gritty noir take on those superheroes.
My memory is that this specific project has been rumored for a while, but with Scott Snyder as the co-writer rather than Azzarello. I could be completely wrong about that. I'm old now, like Miller's Bruce Wayne. I think you can also interpret this as a classic gesture on DC's part to block some of the market momentum that should be flowing Marvel's way post its Secret Wars phase. As for Miller not providing the art, it might be worth noting that one of the other great Batman stories of all time involved Miller just writing. So I don't know, sounds fun to me; I'll keep an eye out for it.
Go, Look: ICAF Call For Treasurer
The International Comic Arts Forum is putting out a call for someone to fill their Treasurer positions. It is unpaid. I suppose the kind of person to whom this might appeal is an academic who wants to be involved with ICAF, perhaps in order to advance their own career in the weird sort-of structured world that is comics academia.
A Pair Of Articles Related To Recent Internet Tussles
* Rich Johnston's Bleeding Cool site has put together a bunch of tweets from a small group of working comics professionals battling over whether or not they'd want or be able to work together after personal political beliefs and decisions are examined.
* I don't know enough about marketing/product/content initiatives like DC Super Hero Girls to know if it's going to succeed or not. I can predict one or two objections -- like I'm sure that some people don't want toys for girls cordoned off from the rest of the "universes" and "worlds" and toy lines. The primary fun I have is looking at a line like DC through the eyes of a toy company or a content creators that wants to do something with them, which characters get singled o ut.
* here are some of the times Batman wore armor. That jumped out at me because you'd think storyline-wise that would be a weird thing but apparently it's not. On a lot of levels, the big superhero characters are pretty exhausted.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* we're right in the thick of it now, with multiple mainstream shows and at least a pair of art comics festival in the rear view mirror. This week it's C2E2, with the entire of art comics focused ahead on TCAF, a couple of weeks from now.
* there was some high idiocy at the Calgary show, instigated by people too dumb to know that free speech doesn't include harassment and acting out. So pathetic. That is quietly one of the most successful shows going, by the way.
* this small festival in Berlin looks like it was a lot of fun. It took place last weekend. That was a very busy weekend although not even half the number of shows that the weekend before could claim.
* the writer/editor Rachel Edidin has a lengthy and heartfelt essay up here about the Bobby Drake/Iceman character in Marvel's various X-Men comic being revealed as gay.
* finally, I always like these articles where writers attempt to comprehend digital vs. print based in part on their consumption preferences. I do this, too.
Your 2015 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominations
I'll write something that's like a respectable news story when I get the rest of this formatted, but there's no reason you should wait. Congratulations to all nominees. You can see their PR here.
Best Short Story
* Beginning's End, Rina Ayuyang, muthamagazine.com
* Corpse on the Imjin! by Peter Kuper, in Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World (Simon & Schuster)
* Rule Number One, Lee Bermejo, in Batman Black And White #3 (DC)
* The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Max Landis & Jock, in Adventures of Superman #14 (DC)
* When the Darkness Presses, Emily Carroll, self-published http://emcarroll.com/comics/darkness/
*****
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
* Astro City #16: Wish I May by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson (Vertigo/DC)
* Beasts of Burden: Hunters and Gatherers, Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
* Madman in Your Face 3D Special, Mike Allred (Image)
* Marvel 75th Anniversary Celebration #1 (Marvel)
* The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1, Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely (DC)
*****
Best Continuing Series
* Astro City, Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson (Vertigo)
* Bandette, Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain)
* Hawkeye, Matt Fraction & David Aja (Marvel)
* Saga, Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples (Image)
* Southern Bastards, Jason Aaron & Jason Latour (Image)
* The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, & Stefano Gaudiano (Image/Skybound)
*****
Best Limited Series
* Daredevil: Road Warrior, Mark Waid & Peter Krause (Marvel Infinite Comics)
* Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland, Eric Shanower & Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
* The Multiversity, Grant Morrison et al. (DC)
* The Private Eye, Brian K. Vaughan & Marcos Martin (Panel Syndicate)
* The Sandman: Overture, Neil Gaiman & J. H. Williams III (Vertigo/DC)
Best New Series
* The Fade Out, Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips (Image)
* Lumberjanes, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, & Brooke A. Allen (BOOM! Box)
* Ms. Marvel, G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona (Marvel)
* Rocket Raccoon, Skottie Young (Marvel)
* The Wicked + The Divine, Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie (Image)
*****
Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7)
* BirdCatDog, Lee Nordling & Meritxell Bosch (Lerner/Graphic Universe)
* A Cat Named Tim And Other Stories, John Martz (Koyama Press)
* Hello Kitty, Hello 40: A Celebration in 40 Stories, edited by Traci N. Todd & Elizabeth Kawasaki (VIZ)
* Mermin, Book Three: Deep Dives, Joey Weiser (Oni)
* The Zoo Box, Ariel Cohn & Aron Nels Steinke (First Second)
*****
Best Publication for Kids (ages 8-12)
* Batman Li'l Gotham, vol. 2, Derek Fridolfs & Dustin Nguyen (DC)
* El Deafo, Cece Bell (Amulet/Abrams)
* I Was the Cat, Paul Tobin & Benjamin Dewey (Oni)
* Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland, Eric Shanower & Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
* Tiny Titans: Return to the Treehouse, Art Baltazar & Franco (DC)
*****
Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)
* Doomboy, Tony Sandoval (Magnetic Press)
* The Dumbest Idea Ever, Jimmy Gownley (Graphix/Scholastic)
* Lumberjanes, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, & Brooke A. Allen (BOOM! Box)
* Meteor Men, Jeff Parker & Sandy Jarrell (Oni)
* The Shadow Hero, Gene Luen Yang & Sonny Liew (First Second)
* The Wrenchies, Farel Dalrymple (First Second)
*****
Best Humor Publication
* The Complete Cul de Sac, Richard Thompson (Andrews McMeel)
* Dog Butts and Love. And Stuff Like That. And Cats. by Jim Benton (NBM)
* Groo vs. Conan, Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, & Tom Yeates (Dark Horse)
* Rocket Raccoon, Skottie Young (Marvel)
* Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Nick Spencer & Steve Lieber (Marvel)
*****
Best Digital/Web Comic
* Bandette, Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover, Monkeybrain/comiXology.com
* Failing Sky by Dax Tran-Caffee, http://failingsky.com
* The Last Mechanical Monster, Brian Fies, http://lastmechanicalmonster.blogspot.com
* Nimona, Noelle Stephenson, http://gingerhaze.com/nimona/comic
* The Private Eye by Brian Vaughan & Marcos Martin http://panelsyndicate.com/ÂÂ
*****
Best Anthology
* In the Dark: A Horror Anthology, edited by Rachel Deering (Tiny Behemoth Press/IDW)
* Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, edited by Josh O'Neill, Andrew Carl, & Chris Stevens (Locust Moon)
* Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It, edited by Anne Ishii, Chip Kidd, & Graham Kolbeins (Fantagraphics)
* Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World, edited by Monte Beauchamp (Simon & Schuster)
* To End All Wars: The Graphic Anthology of The First World War, edited by Jonathan Clode & John Stuart Clark (Soaring Penguin)
*****
Best Reality-Based Work
* Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury)
* Dragon's Breath and Other True Stories, MariNaomi (2d Cloud/Uncivilized Books)
* El Deafo by Cece Bell (Amulet/Abrams)
* Hip Hop Family Tree, vol. 2, Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)
* Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, Nathan Hale (Abrams)
* To End All Wars: The Graphic Anthology of The First World War, edited by Jonathan Clode & John Stuart Clark (Soaring Penguin)
*****
Best Graphic Album -- New
* The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil, Stephen Collins (Picador)
* Here, Richard McGuire (Pantheon)
* Kill My Mother, Jules Feiffer (Liveright)
* The Motherless Oven, Rob Davis (SelfMadeHero)
* Seconds, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Ballantine Books)
* This One Summer, Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki (First Second)
*****
Best Graphic Album -- Reprint
* Dave Dorman's Wasted Lands Omnibus (Magnetic Press)
* How to Be Happy, Eleanor Davis (Fantagraphics)
* Jim, Jim Woodring (Fantagraphics)
* Sock Monkey Treasury, Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics)
* Through the Woods, Emily Carroll (McElderry Books)
*****
Best Archival Collection/Project -- Strips (at least 20 years old)
* Winsor McCay's Complete Little Nemo, edited by Alexander Braun (TASCHEN)
* Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan: The Sunday Comics, 1933-1935, Hal Foster, edited by Brendan Wright (Dark Horse)
* Moomin: The Deluxe Anniversary Edition, Tove Jansson, edited by Tom Devlin (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Pogo, vol. 3: Evidence to the Contrary, Walt Kelly, edited by Carolyn Kelly & Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
* Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vols. 5-6, Floyd Gottfredson, edited by David Gerstein & Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
*****
Best Archival Collection/Project -- Comic Books (at least 20 Years Old)
* The Complete ZAP Comix Box Set, edited by Gary Groth, with Mike Catron (Fantagraphics)
* Steranko Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist's Edition, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
* Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Trail of the Unicorn, Carl Barks, edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
* Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Son of the Son, Don Rosa, edited by David Gerstein (Fantagraphics)
* Walt Kelly's Pogo: The Complete Dell Comics, vols. 1-2, edited by Daniel Herman (Hermes)
* Witzend by Wallace Wood et al., edited by Gary Groth, with Mike Catron (Fantagraphics)
*****
Best U.S. Edition of International Material
* Beautiful Darkness, Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoet (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Blacksad: Amarillo, Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse)
* Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn, Hugo Pratt (IDW/Euro Comics)
* Jaybird, Lauri & Jaakko Ahonen (Dark Horse/SAF)
* The Leaning Girl, Benoit Peeters & Francois Schuiten (Alaxis Press)
*****
Best U.S. Edition of International Material -- Asia
* All You Need Is Kill, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Ryosuke Takeuchi, Takeshi Obata & Yoshitoshi Abe (VIZ)
* In Clothes Called Fat, Moyoco Anno (Vertical)
* Master Keaton, vol 1, Naoki Urasawa, Hokusei Katsushika, & Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ)
* One-Punch Man, One & Yusuke Murata (VIZ)
* Showa 1939-1944 and Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan, Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Mamoru Hosoda & Yu (Yen Press)
*****
Best Writer
* Jason Aaron, Original Sin, Thor, Men of Wrath (Marvel); Southern Bastards (Image)
* Kelly Sue DeConnick, Captain Marvel (Marvel); Pretty Deadly (Image)
* Grant Morrison, The Multiversity (DC); Annihilator (Legendary Comics)
* Brian K. Vaughan, Saga (Image); Private Eye (Panel Syndicate)
* G. Willow Wilson, Ms. Marvel (Marvel)
* Gene Luen Yang, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Dark Horse); The Shadow Hero (First Second)
*****
Best Writer/Artist
* Sergio Aragonés, Sergio Aragonés Funnies (Bongo); Groo vs. Conan (Dark Horse)
* Charles Burns, Sugar Skull (Pantheon)
* Stephen Collins, The Giant Beard That Was Evil (Picador)
* Richard McGuire, Here (Pantheon)
* Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo: Senso, Usagi Yojimbo Color Special: The Artist (Dark Horse)
* Raina Telgemeier, Sisters (Graphix/Scholastic)
Best Penciller/Inker
* Adrian Alphona, Ms. Marvel (Marvel)
* Mike Allred, Silver Surfer (Marvel); Madman in Your Face 3D Special (Image)
* Frank Quitely, Multiversity (DC)
* François Schuiten, The Leaning Girl (Alaxis Press)
* Fiona Staples, Saga (Image)
* Babs Tarr, Batgirl (DC)
Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)
* Lauri & Jaakko Ahonen, Jaybird (Dark Horse)
* Colleen Coover, Bandette (Monkeybrain)
* Mike Del Mundo, Elektra (Marvel)
* Juanjo Guarnido, Blacksad: Amarillo (Dark Horse)
* J. H. Williams III, The Sandman: Overture (Vertigo/DC)
*****
Best Cover Artist
* Darwyn Cooke, DC Comics Darwyn Cooke Month Variant Covers (DC)
* Mike Del Mundo, Elektra, X-Men: Legacy, A+X, Dexter, Dexter Down Under (Marvel)
* Francesco Francavilla, Afterlife with Archie (Archie); Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight (Dark Horse); The Twilight Zone, Django/Zorro (Dynamite); X-Files (IDW)
* Jamie McKelvie/Matthew Wilson, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); Ms. Marvel (Marvel)
* Phil Noto, Black Widow (Marvel)
* Alex Ross, Astro City (Vertigo/DC); Batman 66: The Lost Episode, Batman 66 Meets Green Hornet (DC/Dynamite)
*****
Best Coloring
* Laura Allred, Silver Surfer (Marvel); Madman in Your Face 3D Special (Image)
* Nelson Daniel, Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland, Judge Dredd, Wild Blue Yonder (IDW)
* Lovern Kindzierski, The Graveyard Book, vols. 1-2 (Harper)
* Matthew Petz, The Leg (Top Shelf)
* Dave Stewart, Hellboy in Hell, BPRD, Abe Sapien, Baltimore, Lobster Johnson, Witchfinder, Shaolin Cowboy, Aliens: Fire and Stone, DHP (Dark Horse)
* Matthew Wilson, Adventures of Superman (DC); The Wicked + The Divine (Image), Daredevil, Thor (Marvel)
*****
Best Lettering
* Joe Caramagna, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil (Marvel)
* Todd Klein, Fables, The Sandman: Overture, The Unwritten (Vertigo/DC); Nemo: The Roses of Berlin (Top Shelf)
* Max, Vapor (Fantagraphics)
* Jack Morelli, Afterlife with Archie, ArchieBetty and Veronica, etc. (Archie)
* Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo: Senso, Usagi Yojimbo Color Special: The Artist (Dark Horse)
*****
Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
* Alter Ego, edited by Roy Thomas (TwoMorrows)
* Comic Book Creator, edited by Jon B. Cooke (TwoMorrows)
* Comic Book Resources, edited by Jonah Weiland, www.comicbookresources.com
* Comics Alliance, edited by Andy Khouri, Caleb Goellner, Andrew Wheeler, & Joe Hughes, www.comicsalliance.com
* tcj.com, edited by Dan Nadel & Timothy Hodler (Fantagraphics)
*****
Best Comics-Related Book
* Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas (4 vols.), edited by M. Keith Booker (ABC-CLIO)
* Creeping Death from Neptune: The Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton, Greg Sadowski (Fantagraphics)
* Genius Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth, vol. 3, Dean Mullaney & Bruce Canwell (IDW/LOAC)
* What Fools These Mortals Be: The Story of Puck, Michael Alexander Kahn & Richard Samuel West (IDW/LOAC)
* 75 Years of Marvel Comics: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen, Roy Thomas & Josh Baker (TASCHEN)
*****
Best Scholarly/Academic Work
* American Comics, Literary Theory, and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife, A. David Lewis (Palgrave Macmillan)
* Considering Watchmen: Poetics, Property, Politics, Andrew Hoberek (Rutgers University Press)
* Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books, Michael Barrier (University of California Press)
* Graphic Details: Jewish Women's Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews, edited by Sarah Lightman (McFarland)
* The Origins of Comics: From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay, Thierry Smolderen, tr. by Bart Beaty & Nick Nguyen (University Press of Mississippi)
* Wide Awake in Slumberland: Fantasy, Mass Culture, and Modernism in the Art of Winsor McCay, Katherine Roeder (University Press of Mississippi)
*****
Best Publication Design
* Batman: Kelley Jones Gallery Edition, designed by Josh Beatman/Brainchild Studios (Graphitti/DC)
* The Complete ZAP Comix Box Set, designed by Tony Ong (Fantagraphics)
* Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, designed by Jim Rugg (Locust Moon)
* Street View, designed by Pascal Rabate (NBM/Comics Lit)
* Winsor McCay's Complete Little Nemo, designed by Anna Tina Kessler (TASCHEN)
Go, Read: Articles Summing Up DC’s New 52 Endeavor
Heidi MacDonald has analysis and a round-up of links concerning the New 52 initiative at DC Comics. This was a reboot of the entire line around the principles of 52 comics a month and combining their main imprints/worlds. It's now being tweaked and reconfigured a bit via a cosmic, narrative event I probably won't be able to follow.
New 52 was hugely successful at the start. I imagine part of that was that it was the great lion-in-winter act of Bob Wayne, whom stores always trusted, to kind of get everyone on board with something that even at the time seemed a bit thin creatively. And the hook was really good. I think there were casual readers excited about joining the company at a fresh, new starting point. I thought the line as a whole might not catch, but I was wrong. It definitely seemed to shock the market out of a dismal period marked by a creative stupor at both companies, especially DC. Things had become very event-dependent and constantly in flux. New 52 was a nuke after years of strategic detonations. It was either going to work or it didn't. In the short run it did.
I read about 300 of those books overall, I think. That's not enough to give you an informed opinion beyond really facile impressions. My hunch is that DC didn't have the deep bench that might have facilitated surprise hits and new, strong performers. A lot of older names were used on the books, including some we hadn't seen in quite some time. I don't know anyone that was brought back to do those comics that now seems to have turned that into anything beyond more chances to work on more of DC's comics. A lot of the books struc4k me as exactly the same kinds of books I read back in 1997 when I read all the DC Comics offerings, but it was hard to criticize DC being middle of the road when their comics were selling that well. Anecdotal evidence from retailers suggests that chaos in terms of keeping regular creative teams on most books were a huge boon to Image, where fill-ins and line-up changes were rare.
None of the character reformulations beyond maybe the initial Wonder Woman struck me as an interesting or useful take on any of those characters. I found the new Superman super-unpleasant, bereft of joy or, for me, anything interesting, although I had fun making blogger jokes when Clark Kent turned to a bad Hollywood movie version of that fading vocation. I always thought that first Superman movie got the strategy of that character right: In these times, what kind of person doing those kinds of things would give people hope? And then, what kind of mirror-image decent man would you never suspect of being that beacon of hope? This guy was... I don't know. The reconfigured Batman worked okay, but so many titles and so many allies made him look to me that he was that much more terrible at his job. New 52 John Constantine is the character I'll probably remember most, a buff, wise-cracking version of the company's magic con man supreme reminisicent of a bleach-blonde Reggie Mantle, born from the ashes of what was for a couple of decades an enduring wreck of a character and probably the most significant corporate-owned creation of his time.
The initiative proved beneficial for several creators. Scott Snyder moved from solid-performer to A-lister, and Greg Capullo proved he could work with one of the iconic characters in a way that flattered artist and art. Jeff Lemire, Cliff Chiang, Travel Foreman and Charles Soule all got a solid boost for their work. It was good to have Ann Nocenti back. A few creators like Justin Norman quietly moved into the "solid pro" ranks. Aaron Kuder, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr, all of whom should be around for a long while, made a strong impression. Jeff Parker seemed a smart hire, a veteran pitcher that can work a lot of innings. As creators, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee seemed less like driving forces at the end of that run of comics compared to how they were perceived at its beginning, but each maintained enough oomph that anything they care to do remains news. John Romita Jr. parked his car across the street for a while, to odd effect. Grant Morrison did Grant Morrison things.
Before Watchmen fairly ended any momentum the company had in terms of taking on big, challenging, audacious projects as recurring strategy. Or at least it sure seemed to. In the regular line, there seemed to be the opposite problem: a lot of in-series events gripped those titles. Despite being advertised as new takes on these characters you could follow from the beginning, there seemed a surprising number of comics that depended on past history as part of their appeal. Readers were constantly asked to show a level of interest based on 20-30 years of comics rather than 20-30 months of comics, or at least it seemed that way to me.
I suspect that at first there was a big element of video-game culture being catered to, particularly as that perceived audience dovetailed with adults that remembered the early Image days fondly. This current shift seems to be a away from that particular conception and into a broader, all-ages friendly approach, which this new period will either solidify or fail to. I also think that whether whatever was going on with DC's serial comics during that time was key or if it wasn't, they seem to have a greater certainty in terms of how to blend their monthly line, their book program and their on-line efforts.
That's about all I have. I'm sure there were newsworthy events going on all over the place during the entirety of the publishing initiative. I'm sure I missed key creators. In the end, I think it's safe to say that New 52 knocked DC Comics out of a potential death spiral, and afforded several creators career-making opportunities. It seems equally a story of a wasted opportunity. We will long wonder if a stronger, deeper creative bench, maybe deciding to do something with the Marvel Family instead of Watchmen and more assured, more planned-in-advance character development work at the start across the board could have resulted in DC keeping more of that initial audience. And even then, maybe all of this is something that DC needed to experience in a period of relative comfort and safety purchased by those initial sales. Maybe all they needed was a breather. We'll never really know.
* in a Brian Bendis-written X-Men story coming out today, the Bobby Drake character comes out as gay. From a brief spin around the Internet it looks like one potential objection is that bisexuality gets dismissed in the course of a possible explanation for why the character has a history of dating women. There's also some clumsiness around the idea that failing at a hetero relationship is a sign one is gay, which isn't necessarily the case from any direction you'd care to take that on. This is a time-traveled version of the character, which might put the idea more in the realm of commentary on the fluidity of sexual attraction. It's very nice a high-profile character like Bobby Drake is a gay man in that very straight universe. There's a very talented gay writer named Robert Drake, if you didn't know.
Go, Read: Evan Serpick On Baltimore’s Alt-Weekly Dropping Tony Millionaire’s Maakies
Tony Millionaire's Maakies was dropped from Baltimore's CityPaper, the syndicated strip's longest-running client and one of only a handful of clients remaining for the feature. Evan Serpick writes at length about that decision here.
It's a bit all over the place, offering up criticism of specific strips while also declaring it just not funny anymore and tired in the general, describing its ideas as old-fashioned but also as current mainstream. I appreciate him putting ideas to paper, though. It gives us a lot to think about.
I think where Serpick's piece is most lucid is in the simple fact that they're not obligated to run anything they don't want to and there has been a generational shift at most of those publications where they're going to be stridently disinterested in running certain kinds of humor. I think this is going to become increasingly true of most comics institutions, including cons/festivals and publishers.
I think the worst element is the general cluelessness about the living that cartoonists make from a strip, and the resulting dismissiveness with which he treats Millionaire's concern about losing a client.
One of the distorting factors in this piece and others like it is that a real-world decision like this one gets played out on the Internet, where it becomes about winning the arguments involved rather than working one's way through the issues or even just making a declarative statement and moving on. I think that's part of why Serpick's arguments about the decision to drop Maakies get jumbled, because there seems to be a requirement that when something crops up about which there's some question, you need to win all of the arguments as strongly as possible.
As for Millionaire's work, I've never read it the way that Serpick and his staffers are reading it. For instance, I thought Netflix's Daredevil was a greater endorsement for alcohol abuse than Millionaire's ridiculous puke-a-arama has been, and heavy drinking is the first thing I think of when I think of that strip. I don't think Maakies endorses wife-beating or suicide. I think its lunacy helps rob those things of their hurtful power, makes them ugly and dumb and small: streakmarks in Hitler's underwear. I think there's a great deal to consider in its consistent evocation of horrifying, chaotic details seen in close-up contrasted with its far-removed scenes of impressive beauty: sailings ships and pretty houses and seaside villages. I will buy Maakies and likely enjoy it until he stops making it.
In general, I think art can exist that shows abominable behavior that doesn't endorse that behavior. I think that can be true even though some people take it that way, and I think that's true even if some people decide that what they're seeing is awesome. Lot of frat boys love South Park. Lot of corporate ad-men liked MAD. I watched a very different Sopranos than my high school buddies seemed to. How much the endorsement of behavior is caused by bad art or simply by being art, that's been an open issue of comics going back to Watchmen at least, when some fans started to get behind Rorschach despite his creators' horror that this was so and in fact intended the opposite reaction.
Certainly my view of Maakies could be a function of my own privilege to the detriment of the clarity of that view. That's always a possibility. I'm an inability to put down a hot dog away from dialing up three peaches on the slot machine of life. I'll continue to try to process that as best I can. It could also be that my take is dumb, or wrong. I'm perfectly capable of those things.
What I hope for is space for all the different approaches, and I am personally in favor of at least a consideration of motive and intent and history when dealing with how art is processed, what we say and perhaps even how we think about it. I've always thought so of our near industry-wide fellatio-style relationship with violence as a solution. I've thought so with political cartoons. I've thought so with comic books.
So I guess my biggest break with what Serpick writes is that I would never have conceived their publishing Tony Millionaire as an endorsement of his approach except maybe in the broadest terms -- we think this is worth publishing -- so it's weird for me to think of their not-publishing Tony Millionaire as a repudiation of his approach beyond them just opting out of thinking it's worth publishing. It would be up to me if I were a reader to decide what that said about the magazine and if I wanted to continue reading. The same would apply to those working there or those who have them as clients.
I hope that editors will feel free to run material without feeling like they're endorsing it, because I think that serves most journalistic missions more effectively. I bet that's something close to the philosophy that CityPaper takes to running ads on their site for an adult nightclub that some folks might find objectifying and soul-destroying. Other than that, I'm not sure there's an argument to be won, although because it's the Internet we'll try. There was an action. There's a backlash. There's a few more backlashes to come. And then either another decision or not.
The cartoonist Lauren Weinstein has announced through a publicly accessible social media post that she has been suffering from the effects of cervical stenosis for about a half-year now, and that she will have surgery soon. We wish her and her family all the best and the speediest, most complete recovery possible.
That was a very strong category, with Jaime's work in the same nominated pool as Roz Chast's awards-winning juggernaut Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? and the best work I read last year that was brand-new to me, Arsene Schrauwen. All of the nominees were strong in their way.
Here's that category, with the winner in bold:
* 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
Hope Larson presented.
Congratulations to Jaime Hernandez and to all of those nominated.
Bundled Extra: Jordan Crane Sets His Dark Nothing Print Run At 200 Copies + Pre-Sales
I can only imagine that most comics fans reading this site will at the very least considera pre-order on a new Jordan Crane book. This time it might be the only way you'll get at the book. The printmaker and cartoonist will be printing 200 copies for TCAF and however many are pre-sold. I can see 200 of something likely to be this attractive going right at the door of the Toronto's convention location.
My hunch is that you're going to see a lot more publishing tied into specific events, in all areas of comics.
Also: new Jordan Crane! What a delight. I look forward to seeing it.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Grace Bello talks to Francoise Mouly. No better interview in comics than Mouly.
* I'm glad to see Boing Boing publish old Denny Eichhorn comics. I think they're fun, and you get to see art like some primetime JR Williams in this installment. It seems a potentially curious choice for their readership, though.
* Tom Hart isolates panels from his forthcoming work about the loss of his daughter, Rosalie Lightning. My first draft of this actually had Tom conflated with Tim Tebow, due to a concurrent Facebook discussion. That has to be the weirdest typo in the history of this site.
* love for Ms. Marvel, a character connecting with its young readers in a way that's rare for Marvel even given the power of its formula as seen through charactes like Spider-Man.
Zyglis replaced the very popular Tom Toles when Toles went to the Washington Post, and I'm delighted to see the News rewarded for sticking with a staffed editorial cartoonist position. It would have been easy for them to go in another direction at that time, and there's no guarantee that Zyglis would have developed in the same way or even still be doing cartoonist without his slot at the News.
Finalists were Kevin Kallaugher for his Baltimore Sun work and Dan Perkins for his work at Daily Kos as Tom Tomorrow.
Congratulations to all three men. Zyglis receives $10,000 and a rewritten first line in his New York Times obituary.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Alex Dueben talks to Miss Lasko-Gross.
* Clifford Meth is once again marshaling one of his admirable efforts behind one of the great comics families, with a fundraising effort on behalf of the late Gene Colan's only son, Erik. If you're a Gene Colan fan, that's something nice you can do in the memory of that fine comics artist.
* like many people in comics, the cartoonist David Lasky is frequently asked to recommend graphic novels. He decided to make a list, and finally put that list up on-line where we can benefit from it without having to trap Lasky in a corner at a cocktail party.
Go, Read: Public Facebook Thread On Exclusion Issues At Cons And Festivals
There's a Facebook thread here started by Stephen Bissette engaged with the issue of conventions, taking the view that those who don't make it into the shows are being excluded from those shows, that those that don't make it into shows in general are being generally excluded, and that some sort of reaction to that exclusion may be necessitated.
There's a lot to chew on in there, and I recommend it to anyone that wants to make money doing comics in the next ten years. I spoke up late from my own perspective, but the meat of it is a four- or five-message exchange between Bissette and Bill Kartalopoulos.
Go, Read: Bart Beaty On Archie Comics For The Walrus
Bart Beaty's most recent book is Twelve-Cent Archie, a multi-faceted analysis of a significant chunk of Archie's publishing history. He writes about various aspects of those comics here, in an article that's been taken out from behind the publication's paywall.
I'm marking it for my own enjoyment as much as anything, as I haven't read the article yet, but Beaty is always solid and that book is fun. It seems like the perfect article for a Friday afternoon.
Collective Memory: Herb Trimpe, RIP Commentary and reaction around the Internet to the passing of the mainstream comics industry veteran Herb Trimpe (1939-2015).
Go, Read: Ron Richards’ Farewell Message Re: Image It's here. That went up yesterday. Richards' departure from the publisher is the second in as many weeks, with Jennifer De Guzman departing before him.
Richards' formal title was Director of Business Development, but he may have had his hands in a ton of pies at a company like that. I think of him as putting some general directives in place in terms of marketing, social media and big-show presence, and I assume he gets some if not a significant amount of credit for Image's mostly-successfuly, con-like Image Expos. The company has certainly grown over the last couple of years during the time that he's been on board.
I would assume that some people will put some stock in his naming the majority as praiseworthy rather than the entirety -- that even jumped out at me, and I'm pretty ignorant of anything going on at any of the companies in a way that would have me parsing phrases like that one.
It doesn't sound like he has any immediate plans. I wish him the best in terms of figuring that out.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* here's a free sample of the kind of extras David Chelsea hopes will boost a Patreon campaign he's currently offering. I quite liked these.
* the critic and historian Paul Gravett writes about Dell Comics. The biggest change in terms of how we see comics of the 20th Century between when I was in college and now is the consideration given a ton of comics outside the standard 20th Century narrative. Dell provided about as big a group of such comics as any source out there.
Friday AM: Cartoonist Ty Templeton Critical But Stable After Yesterday’s Heart Attack
Brigid Alverson has her usual smart write-up here on Ty Templeton's condition and what people can do for the family. The cartoonist is in an induced coma and the family is waiting for his situation to stabilize. I was in the same place about four years ago; it's serious, but there's no certainty to the narrative from this point on although I would imagine everyone is hopeful and the idea that they're going to take him off as early as today is a good sign.
By the way, that's simply the best information I have going into the afternoon. I imagine there will be updates at the facebook account as necessitated by events.
Collective Memory: Herb Trimpe, RIP Commentary and reaction around the Internet to the passing of the mainstream comics industry veteran Herb Trimpe (1939-2015).
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* we are right in the thick of it now. Full speed ahead. I may do a stand-alone on the MoCCA Festival, but right now you can just go to the Secret Acres site and read their report. That's a remarkably strong set of criticisms for people intimately involved with the show.
* this weekend it's Linework NW. I'll be there. I'm interested in their split-exhibitor strategy. The bulk of exhibitors for the show are exhibiting Saturday or Sunday, which is something that maybe you could only pull off in Portland with that much hometown talent. But it's a great idea if it works.
* convention advice, one young cartoonist to even younger cartoonists.
* Baltimore Comic-Con has begun announcing guests. That's a well-liked regional show with a lot of national draw for guests from the mainstream American comic book world. Plus, Baltimore's a great city and you're close to a bunch of stuff to do.
Go, Maybe Buy: Last Gasp Humble Bundle I've had a few offers to announce/cover humble bundles, but as I'm not exactly sure how that would be done I've kind of stayed away from doing so. I really do kind of love them as expressions of Internet Culture: the limited time involved, the use of a lot of material that isn't selling as discrete unites, the idea of making a kind of game over how much you offer and so on. They're super all over the place.
In this case, I guess there is a news element in that publishers like Last Gasp don't seem a natural fit for the program (I guess we'll see according to how well they do relative to other publishers). I also get the sense that publishers are finding these extremely advantageous, particularly in that they're not labor intensive.
* here's a list of greatest Daredevil stories as that characters remains in a prominent spot after its successful TV show premiere on Netflix. I think that's the superhero character with the highest number of readable stories, maybe by a wide margin. It's hard to imagine there are 11 stories better than the 12th selection, a prime piece of Marvel heyday melodrama.
* as discouraging as comics culture can be sometimes, it's worth reminding that most people make comics out of a deep need for the accomplishment and connectivity that making provides. Christopher Sebela's account of putting his High Crimes work out there is a story that can serve as that reminder.
D&Q Names Julia Pohl-Miranda Director Of Marketing Drawn & Quarterly has promoted Julia Pohl-Miranda to Director Of Marketing for the publishing company. The body of today's press release is as follows:
Drawn & Quarterly is pleased to announce that Julia Pohl-Miranda has been promoted to Director of Marketing. In this position Pohl-Miranda's responsibilities include day-to-day publicity operations and managing all author tours, festivals and events for the publishing company.
Julia Pohl-Miranda has been with the company since 2008, when she started out as a marketing intern while earning her bachelors in literature at McGill University. In 2009, she joined the store staff at the Librairie D+Q, eventually returning to the office as publicity assistant in 2011 and recently was an editorial marketing manager. Pohl-Miranda will continue to support the editorial and production department with copy writing and editing.
"Everyone who knows Julia knows that Julia is awesome," said Peggy Burns, D+Q's Associate Publisher. "She is beyond a team player, she is always up for anything and is incredibly smart. I thank my lucky stars for her every day!"
All of that's true according to my experience -- Pohl-Miranda seems smart and nice and incredibly hard-working. She's been on hand and I think primarily in charged running a good chunk of their shows in recent years, including San Diego and Bethesda, which in this day and age makes you the public face of the company. Congratulations to her on a well-deserved promotion.
All Best Wishes And Positive Thoughts To Ty Templeton
The artist, writer and cartoonist Ty Templeton suffered a heart attack, it was announced via his Facebook account at approximately 10 AM ET. I have no update nor ability to monitor public updates today, so please for the latest access that original post or Twitter more generally.
All positive thoughts and best wishes to Templeton and his family at this time.
By Request Extra: Paying For What You Don’t Have To
In a text discussion last night someone reminded me that back in December the cartoonist Kate Beaton reminded everyone of a way to support her on-line work directly, at a time -- the holidays -- when her work was enjoying a high profile.
I think there's a general idea on display there, too, because now some months removed I'm encountering that same message again without the context of the newer work or even the immediacy of the request. Why shouldn't we give again when encountering something like this? I hope supporting artists this way is something you like to do, or that you'll at least consider in every case the various means of support available to you whenever and however you encounter that desire to be supported. That's selfish, I guess, because at some point I too will likely be asking for some sort of support for some project or another, and I'm constantly asking for your eyeballs in a where it's easiest to follow tailored feeds, but I do think it makes for a better artistic community if you pay in cash monies for what you enjoy whenever it occurs to you to do so.
The great thing about the Internet is that if enough people are oriented towards paying for things they enjoy and value, even super-modestly so, the numbers might be such that no one has to systematically seek this out. If you restrict yourself to what is allowable and push for maximum gain on your end, eventually the other side pushes back -- not because they're mean or greedy but because the collective has set terms they can no longer ignore. Besides, it's just nice. We take a lot for granted.
This Isn’t A Library: 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.
*****
JAN151468 LAST MAN GN VOL 01 STRANGER $9.99
I thought the second volume of this series -- as far as I can tell the comics equivalent of a big-budget, big-studio movie where a bunch of stars are brought together to make a classy-seeming hit -- was very enjoyable. It reminded me of publisher First Second's comics with Jordan Mechner, only drawing more from fight manga as opposed to mid-century, live-action Disney films. I'm sure this first one is a crowd-pleaser, too. I'm still astonished how little of Bastien Vives is over here in any form.
JAN151443 ANGRY YOUTH COMIX HC (MR) $49.99
I was at a party on Saturday night where a young, very smart-seeming talked about reading Johnny Ryan comics as her pre-comics comics experience. Like she was into them for a while but then quit for several years and then starting getting back into comics again. One thing that's exciting about comics right now is that the stories of those reading them are all over the place -- people my age and over share about five different origin stories as readers. I'm sure this book is a howl, although certainly the context in which they're published this time is different than the one into which they were published initially. That it's designed like one of those great books program offerings made me laugh, too.
DEC140126 BANDETTE HC VOL 02 STEALERS KEEPERS $14.99
I've been following Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover's lightheart mainstream comics romp in serial, digital form, so it may be a while and two or three tax brackets in additional income before I pick these up. This is one of the ways projects like this one make money, though, and these comics are super-fun. You might take a look if you're in a shop today.
FEB150015 ARCHIE VS PREDATOR #1 $3.99 FEB150060 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #130 $3.50 FEB150048 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #4 $3.99 FEB150598 CHRONONAUTS #2 (MR) $3.50 FEB158100 CHRONONAUTS #2 CVR B MURPHY (MR) $3.50 JAN150701 REVIVAL #29 (MR) $3.99
This is a very odd collection of serial comic-book format comic books. I thought the Archie/Predator book had already come out. I have no idea what the audience is for that, but people do tend to enjoy that sort of thing. I always buy Mignola comics and I always buy Sergio Aragones comics. One is dependable; the other defines it. The first issues of Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy on Chrononauts bored me, frankly, even though it was well-crafted. I hope there's more to the story that reveals itself in this issue. In a list full of weird choices, let's throw a bit of a spotlight on Revival, one of those weird, very specific comics that more or less drove a significant portion of the industry 30 years ago.
DEC140141 CRIME DOES NOT PAY ARCHIVES HC VOL 09 $49.99
I'm not sure how much of this material I need in the house, but I always look at these perpetually reprinted books.
FEB150142 CONVERGENCE #2 $3.99 FEB150174 CONVERGENCE AQUAMAN #1 $3.99 FEB150176 CONVERGENCE BATMAN SHADOW OF THE BAT #1 $3.99 FEB150178 CONVERGENCE CATWOMAN #1 $3.99 FEB150180 CONVERGENCE GREEN ARROW #1 $3.99 FEB150182 CONVERGENCE GREEN LANTERN PARALLAX #1 $3.99 FEB150184 CONVERGENCE JUSTICE LEAGUE INTL #1 $3.99 FEB150186 CONVERGENCE SUICIDE SQUAD #1 $3.99 FEB150188 CONVERGENCE SUPERBOY #1 $3.99 FEB150190 CONVERGENCE SUPERGIRL MATRIX #1 $3.99 FEB150192 CONVERGENCE SUPERMAN MAN OF STEEL #1 $3.99
Another round of first issues in a battery of two-issues series designed to buy DC staffers time to move from one coast to another. That makes little sense to me as I imagine a big event like this is bottom-line more work for everyone involved, but I can't judge.
AUG140391 FRANK MILLERS RONIN GALLERY ED HC $195.00
This is the Graphitti take on the Artist's Edition craze. That book could be very pretty, as those comics certainly were.
FEB150455 MICHAEL KALUTA SKETCHBOOK SERIES SC VOL 05 $9.99
It's hard to imagine a time when I wouldn't take a look at a MW Kaluta sketchbook. There are apparently five of these, which surprises.
DEC141203 GUNNERKRIGG COURT TP VOL 01 $16.99 OCT141567 STUMPTOWN HC VOL 03 $29.99
Two books I'd like to see but I'm not sure I'd buy. I get a little bit lost with Gunnerkrigg Court material, although I salute its many fans. I don't know exactly which kind of reprint that it is, as I know I've read other collections. The Stumptown series is less interesting to me than it was when Matthew Southworth was involved, so I'm hoping for good things were I to check it out.
FEB151581 ZENITH HC PHASE THREE $25.00
This is another project that the sheer size of today's publishing output has me waiting a bit before going back to explore. I hope they're still around by the time I come around.
DEC141578 GIRL IN DIOR HC $27.99
Annie Goetzinger is a wonderful comics artist, so I'm glad to see a North American reprint project in high standing. I'm sure we'll be able to stare at the whole thing for hours and hours very soon.
*****
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.
Collective Memory: Herb Trimpe, RIP Commentary and reaction around the Internet to the passing of the mainstream comics industry veteran Herb Trimpe (1939-2015).
* not comics: a few of you sent me a link to this piece, about the futility of social-media based, self-directed marketing. I think there are some good points in there, particularly in that it's very difficult to find a toehold on any platform unless you time it right (very few of the successful ones ever admit this) and you're suited to the particular culture that surrounds that platform. Right now it seems like the best you can do even with tons of followers is put something out there and hope it triggers something that gets it moving.
* stories like this make me deeply uncomfortable I think in part because I grew compartmentalizing my media consumption from the rest of my life, so to find people not doing that is always an astonishing thing.
* here's one of those Walking Dead #1 variant covers that the Wizard shows do, this one for Las Vegas featuring a Gilbert Hernandez cover. I actually think that's a good idea for a variant: various artists, various shows, nothing that will cause a disruption in the regular flow of comics to customers.
* don't think I ever posted a link to this short article about Patrick McDonnell expressing thanks over the Helen Hayes Award that went to A Gift Of Nothing.
* I'm just behind enough that I'm catching up this article on scanlation, which seems to me a pretty decent walk-through in terms of the various issues involved. I'm sure all sides find their representation lacking in the piece. The idea that your desire for something in a specific way has weight and force that justifies moving against the wishes of the creators is a strange one for me to process, coming from the Creator's Rights generation where the creator's decision -- even if that decision is passed off, or even if I don't agree with the outcome -- is the paramount one.
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Receives Larry Ivey Collection
Details were sketchy, but the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum announced late Friday that it had received into its care its latest procurement, the Larry Ivie Collection. Ivie passed away in 2014 and was one of the golden generation of 'zine makers that laid the foundation for modern fandom and modern comics studies. His best-known title was Monsters & Heroes.
The picture available through the link shows some early fan magazine efforts and an eclectic smattering of key publications, not all of them comics. I look forward to digging into what's there at some point, and the great thing about a Billy Ireland donation is that that material is there to be studied. Our continued condolences and gratitude to Ivie's family.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* all congratulations and best wishes to Ted and Paula Adams.
* Paul Gravett talks in multiple parts to Paul B. Rainey.
* Alex Abad-Santos picks 50 comic books that explains where comics are today. Only 33 of 50 are superhero books, which is a really good ratio for these kinds of things.
* finally, did I mention this bit of good news for Roman Muradov and those in Chicago that get to learn things from Roman Muradov? There's going to be a bunch of these in five years, twice the number we have now.
FFF Results Post #415—Underwater
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Comics Publications You Like, By Title, That Take Place Near Or Under The Water In A Way That It's A Significant Part Of The Plotline." This is how they responded.
*****
Douglas Wolk
1. Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood
2. Sugar and Spike #54
3. Seaguy (pictured)
4. Piracy
5. Baggywrinkles
*****
Michael Buntag
1. At the Seaside (Japan As Viewed by 17 Creators)
2. Yotsuba & The Beach (Yotsuba&! Vol. 5)
3. This One Summer
4. Noah
5. Oyster War (pictured)
*****
Charlie Ryan
1. A Sailor’s Story (by Sam Glanzman)
2. New Gods #6 "The Glory Boat" (pictured)
3. Sea Hunt (based on the TV series starring Lloyd Bridges)
4. Seaguy (by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart)
5. Aquaman #53 "Is California Sinking?"
1. Avengers #27 (pictured)
2. The Lagoon
3. Sub-Mariner: The Depths
4. Low, Vol. 1
5. Far Arden
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. Popeye Vol. 4 "Plunder Island" (pictured)
2. Poor Sailor
3. Conan #100
4. Prince Valiant #9 "Journey to the Misty Isles"
5. Daredevil #7
*****
Marty Yohn
1. Aquaman Vol. 2 #1-4 (1986)
2. Dear Creature
3. Underwater Welder
4. The Wake (pictured)
5. Fathom #1
*****
Des Devlin
1. Two-Fisted Tales #8 ("Corpse on the Imjin!") (pictured)
2. Batman #251 ("The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge!")
3. Starting from Scratch: A For Better or for Worse Collection (death of Farley)
4. Krazy & Ignatz in Tiger Tea
5. Moby Dick (Sienkiewicz Classic Comics adaptation)
1. A Sailor's Story Vols. 1-2 (pictured)
2. Cerebus #51 "Exodus"
3. Asterix And Cleopatra
4. Four Color Comics #1256 "Kona, Monarch Of Monster Isle"
5. The Complete E. C. Segar's Popeye Vol 1
*****
Roger Langridge
1. Uncle Scrooge #5
2. Sailor Twain
3. Set To Sea (pictured)
4. Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure
5. Kamandi #21
*****
please follow the format requests; it's just extra time when people freelance and I don't have that time right now; thanks in advance
Koyama Press Announces Fall 2015 Line-Up: Deforge, Closser, Wertz, Mai, Nishio, Jerevicius, Woollam
Koyama Press is set to announce its Fall 2015 season later this morning with a press release and statement from Publisher Annie Koyama disseminated to the media by Ed Kanerva.
The release will note that this is the well-liked boutique publisher's biggest season in its short but prolific history, featuring eight book from seven comics authors. Michael DeForge is their cartoonist that's doubling up: a collection of anthology work and short comics called Dressing and this year's issue of Lose (#7), which will feature full-color. Koyama promises that Dressing most resembles Very Casual of the myriad of DeForge's books out there.
Also returning is Cole Closser with a conceptual, one-cartoonist anthology called Black Rat; Jane Mai with another autobio work, See You Next Tuesday; and the latest printing of Julia Wertz's much-liked reputation-maker Drinking At The Movies.
The publisher's debut cartoonists will be Robin Nishio, Phil Woollam and Nathan Jerevicius. Nishio's Wailed is a book of photography featuring many of today's cutting-edge practitioners. Woollam's Crossways is described as introducing readers to "the architectonic forms and magnificent Memphis-inspired structures that make up the world of newcomer Phil Woollam." Jerevicius will provide this season's addition to the publisher's kids' comics line with Junction. Jerevicius is an an illustrator, animator and toy designer in addition to his comics work.
Here are the covers to this Fall's line-up, and hard information for each.
*****
* Dressing, Michael DeForge, hardcover, 120 pages, 9781927668221, September 2015, $19.95
*****
* Lose #7, Michael DeForge, softcover, 52 pages, 9781927668184, September 2015, $10.
*****
* Black Rat, Cole Closser, softcover, 160 pages, 9781927668245, September 2015, $15.
*****
* See You Next Tuesday, Jane Mai, softcover, 128 pages, 9781927668252, November 2015, $12.
*****
* Drinking At The Movies, Julia Wertz, softcover, 220 pages, 9781927668269, November 2015, $15.
*****
* Wailed, Robin Nishio, softcover, 80 pages, 9781927668191, November 2015, $21.95.
*****
* Crossways, Phil Woollam, softcover, 52 pages, 9781927668238, November 2015, $22.95.
Pitzer describes his latest announced book as "a color-saturated, action-packed fantasy-comedy... The hero -- Gigant -- is thrown into a bizarre journey within another dimension in an attempt to rescue his girlfriend who has been swallowed by a thousand-eyed monster."
Ryberg's site describes the cartoonist as being in his mid-thirties and a 2008 graduate of Denmark's Animation Workshop. He splits time between comics and animation projects.
The book will four colors, 80 pages, at a 6x9 size. It will retail for $14.95.
Ryberg will attend this weekend's MoCCA Arts Festival in New York City. Pitzer says plans are underway to have the artist come back to the US for the Small Press Expo and the book's formal festival debut.
Era Ender: Farewell To DC At The Conclusion Of Its Long NYC Run; Congrats To Bob Wayne
I'm working on something slightly longer for Sunday that I hope will come together on DC's moving to Los Angeles and the conclusion of Bob Wayne's DC Comics career. My belief is that this is the final day in the New York offices, although I'm open to be corrected there. It's not been an emphasis of their PR, and if that was on purpose, it seems to have worked. Of course, to do justice to either subject would take days and days I simply don't have right now. But if I don't even get the 1500-word version done, let me wish DC Comics luck in its new home and thank them as a one-time kid fan for their window into one of the great cities in the history of the world.
As for the other story, I believe that Bob Wayne is the biggest name whose career with the company comes to close along with those offices. Wayne spent 28 years at the company, which is an amazing thing in and of itself given that all of mainstream comics has done four or five major culture and business shifts in the last three decades. Wayne is also the person of his generation that I believe industry observers agree most fundamentally shaped the current Direct Market. If you took a scraping of the space between someone's fingers and a comic book bought at a comic book shop, you'd probably be able to find Wayne's DNA. I've criticized that market and the industry entire over the years, but that doesn't mean I don't have an appreciation how special it is, and how much it's had a significant impact on the current state of the art form. I wish Wayne an equally satisfying and productive retirement.
I think it's good for DC to make a move like this, and to make this specific move. They'll have a different talent pool on which to draw, and I think Los Angeles is one of the best places for any media company particularly over the next couple of decades. It may be that three decades from now that move will be measured by someone whose very idea of Los Angeles is shaped by his interaction with that company's comics.
Missed It: 2015 Iteration Of Prism Comics Queer Press Grant Goes To Dave Davenport And Stray Bullet I totally missed this announcement coming out of the WonderCon weekend, and it's one of the bigger grant stories of any year: the Prism Comics Queer Press Grant for 2015 was awarded to the cartoonist Dave Davenport and his forthcoming graphic novel length work Stray Bullet. The winner was named at the "It's a Queer, Queer World" panel held last weekend. This was the first time the award was announced in conjunction with WonderCon. Prism President Ted Abenheim was on hand to name the winner.
The Queer Press Grant is awarded by the all-volunteer organization to someone interested in self-publishing comics with LGBT themes or featuring LGBT characters. Artist merit is the first qualification, after which financial need and the proposed work's projected contribution to the community come into play. Each winner is thoroughly reviewed.
Donations to the Queer Press Grant can be made here. You can find out more about Prism Comics by going here or visiting a booth they might have at some of the year's conventions.
Festivals Extra: The Beat On The CCI/Lionsgate Video Streaming Service Partnership
Heidi MacDonald at The Beat has a solid, thorough article up here on Comic-Con International and Lionsgate partnering on a subscription-based video streaming service.
I agree with MacDonald that seems like a solid partnership for Comic-Con International and an idea that's certainly worth exploring the way it seem they're going to explore it. There's no way to time this kind of thing, and the vast majority of factors that will make it thrive or grind to a halt will only come out in the doing -- if there's one thing we've learned from the distribution of content through digital media, and we may have only learned one thing, it's that.
It's also worth noting that this seems like something that might compete -- a significant amount depends on the execution here as well -- with Con TV. I imagine most articles moving forward might compare the two no matter how things shake out in terms of any real competition.
Three more things stuck out to me on an initial read. The first is that Lionsgate is an excellent partner for Comic-Con International. As MacDonald points out, Lionsgate was an early adapter of Comic-Con International as a PR and marketing opportunity, and they have plenty of background in putting together the kind of material that such a service might count on. Comics partnerships of the last 20 years have fared much better for the involvement of established names just generally it seems.
The second is I think this provides an opportunity for Comic-Con to put some muscle into its claims that what it provides is a formula uniquely their own as opposed to a generic take on conventions that can be utilized by anybody. It remains to be seen how aggressively they'll pursue that in the years to come, but I would think they might for now wish to have that option and doing something with what they've achieved over the years seems like it would be a solid foundation moving forward, if only in the imagination of their potential customer base.
The third is that this may be part of the answer to the longterm attendance problem: not simply making virtual attendees out of those denied physical access but pitching the whole affair as a prestige event not dependent on outright attendance numbers. As far as most of this is out of what I cover related to comics, I'm intrigued by the possibilities.
During a spotlight panel at WonderCon 2015, the cartoonist Darwyn Cooke said that his Parker series would not return in 2015 as promised at one point, but that 2016 was much more likely. How many he'll still do is also in question, although I believe that's been in a flux for a little while. He plans to end his involvement with the series with an adaptation of 1974's Butcher's Moon. IDW Editor Scott Dunbier confirmed to CR the slight adjustment in scheduling.
While certainly this isn't the first comic that's been delayed past initial projection, I thought Cooke's reasoning at the panel was interesting. He basically states that the first four books may have come out too quickly, diminishing the joy that one might feel at a new book in the series coming out because of the easy continuity of familiarity. I think there's something to that, and I think that may be exacerbated by the overall size of the comics market -- it seems at times that most of the comics markets can be directed to a half-dozen to a dozen books a year much more easily than function as something that will reliably throw its weight behind a slew of regular performers. I could be very wrong, and I certainly have nothing more than a hunch or series of hunches to go on. It's probably a mix of things.
I might suggest even more strongly that we're all still a bit unclear as to how that market has changed, and that things are very much in flux. Just in the duration of time since the Parker book have come out you've seen publishers that were still just beginning to investigate a bookstore model, which means in the years since they've not only done that but likely taken first steps towards developing a festival-circuit sales model and a digital sales model. It should be interesting to see if a lot of the work we have out now will have a second life whenever things settle into a more dependable routine.
I look forward to the next Parker adaptation, whenever we get one.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I hadn't thought about this before, but it makes perfect sense: one way to potentially jam up a crowd-funded project is to pledge a bunch of money from a bogus account that doesn't come through. People who might back the project if it weren't meeting its goals might commit elsewhere. People are randomly and severely assholes these days. The pettiness involved in doing something like that is astonishing.
* the straight-forward nature of this headline cracked me up. It seems to be working for them. I suppose there's an argument to be made that if you set a not-exactly-hopeful baseline than the thrust of your shared univers can be about the actions of the characters pushing against this grim reality. I'm not sure why people love depressing superhero comics, but they certainly do.
Everyone Should Buy This Comic Book At MoCCA Fest 2015 I was one of several comics industry people lucky enough to receive a copy of the seventh issue of Frontier, featuring work from the artist and cartoonist Jillian Tamaki. It debuts this weekend at the MoCCA Festival at the Youth In Decline table. I think everyone should buy it. Here's as many reasons as I can think of on a Thursday afternoon.
1. It's really good. Tamaki's story of an early-Internet based phenomenon turned eventual cult is fun in its particulars and touching in its specific. You can read it as science-fiction style story and you can also read it as a character piece. It feels like pages detached from a larger and grander story, although I would not be surprised if we never heard from this setting and these characters ever again. It is assured, confident work.
2. Its publisher could use the support. Youth In Decline is Ryan Sands' publishing house, and he has traveled frequently to support YiD's early releases. It's not cheap resources- and time-wise to publish comics, particularly when you start up basically from scratch. Sands has a strong, specific point of view in terms of what art is important to get into folks' hands, and he has been creative bringing his comics to market. My understanding is that he's a virtuous publisher in terms of paying people on time. I want Sands to have every hit possible because I'd like to see what he's going to do.
3. It's a comic book. I love comic books. I love alt-comic books. I think it's a useful format in terms of allowing people access to a specific marketplace and customer and if you can get past certain sales plateaus, it's a format that can work very well in terms of getting money to creators. Just ask Image Comics.
4. Jillian Tamaki built the bulk of her career-to-date in New York, and I believe will always be thought of that way, if only a little bit. I don't know, this is a minor thing, but I always like it when I can buy something that has some connection to the city where the show is taking place.
5. It's a lovely object. Unlike a lot of books you find at comics shows, this issue of Frontier is easy to carry around and it provides value despite its modest appearance. I'm going to buy another one and gift it the next time I'm in the same ballroom with Ryan Sands.
6. I think its message speaks to right now. There are a number of ways to intepret what Tamaki's put down on paper, but I'm fascinated by the idea of status that keeps recurring, and how thoroughly entire enterprises can be understood by providing meaning to the people that consume it. A piece of art with multiple entry points that speaks to younger people differently than it does the olds, that could be several items of meaning from my own life and I imagine one or two from your own.
7. You get to be a part of Jillian Tamaki's monster year. Between this new work, a collection of SuperMutant Magic Academy and the lingering glow of last year's well-received and awards-eligible This One Summer, no one's status is as likely to change in how we perceive them between now and October than Tamaki's. She's the real deal.
Festivals Extra: Informa Exhibitions Obtains MegaCon
Shelly Mantei, the communications director at Informa Exhibitions, sent out a press release today saying that company had acquired MegaCon, a well-liked, mainstream-focused show that is held every year in Orlando. Informa is the group that runs show under the "Fan Expo" name. They have comics/pop-culture shows in cities including Vancouver, Regina, Dallas, and Toronto. The division they say handles "experiential pop culture exhibitions" is called FAN EXPO HQ.
MegaCon is an interesting show in that it's super well-liked and very well-attended. It has a core group of professionals, many with ties to Florida, that not only attend every year but proselytize on its behalf. It is 23 years old, and although I'm not sure how they counted attendees MegaCon claimed 90,000 of them in the hall last year.
I think these partnership work for a lot of shows because it provides some structure that might not be possible in support of one show, and allows for potential cross-promotional and cross-programming opportunities.
As you can tell from the logo used, the 2015 iteration of the convention is this weekend, starting tomorrow.
Festivals Extra: Linework NW Puts Up A List Of Related Events Here. I'm going to the Portland alt-comics show, so I found the list interesting that way, but mostly I was struck by how all of the shows have kind of officially expanded to multiple-day events -- with related signings and parties involved at almost every stop. The shows that don't seem to do this yet are those with a recent history of a very strong and centralized hotel bar scene, which makes some sense. You also have specific scenes going to shows where they just don't have the juice to put something together outside of what's made available throught the show, like the alt-comics crowed in San Diego. That doesn't mean there aren't a smattering of events at all the shows now, but that a full commitment to this kind of thing isn't 100 percent quite yet. Still, it's worth noting.
Go, Read: Michael Paulson Profiles Alison Bechdel For The NYT
I don't know that I have any comments at all about this Michaeul Paulson profile of Alison Bechdel near the Fun Home play's opening at the Circle in the Square Theater. It's pretty straight-forward as far as these things go, and Bechdel as a serious, high-functioning artist with several decades of work to her credit doesn't provide any author the chaos or drama that might juice up a piece as kind of a salacious, biographical look-in. It feels like a serious, well-earned high-five. I do find it interesting that the stage has become a strong place for these extremely personal comics memoirs to find a second artistic life. That makes sense on a whole bunch of levels. I hope to see the show and am happy for every way this has been a positive experience for Bechdel.
* the cartoonist and comics-maker Gene Luen Yang provides unvarnished but smart advice on how to break into comics, focusing on how to get to the point where you can make publishable comics rather than any sort of fundamental preparation or tricks for tweaking the publishing system.
* I'm trying to think of a way this kind of technology could have an impact on comics, but I'm only coming up with really exhaustive convention coverage, which doesn't seem to me like something that will ever be in that much demand.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases From The Comics Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
FEB151522 KAIJUMAX #1 $3.99
Crap, I was supposed to interview cartoonist Zander Cannon about the launch of this series. Sorry, Zander. This is a new series about a jail for super monsters. As varied as Cannon's career has been working mainstream, new mainstream and classic alt/indy territory, one thing has been clear: that man can design some monsters. I look forward to this one being very fun.
NOV140312 ORION BY WALTER SIMONSON OMNIBUS HC $75.00
I like the giant-sized collections the mainstream companies have been doing the last several years. I think it makes good business sense, too, in that offering yet another way for older fans to buy a classic run from a comic book doesn't really keep them from buying newer material and may be the only way they'll buy anything at all. I remember these comics being zippy and fun and highly stylized.
FEB150058 ABE SAPIEN #22 $3.50 FEB150276 ASTRO CITY #22 $3.99 FEB150628 SAGA #27 (MR) $2.99 FEB150645 WALKING DEAD #140 (MR) $2.99
These are the serial comic-book comics that caught my eye. I always buy the Mignola-verse books and like them best as comic books. The Astro City material seems to me as strong as the 1990s when there was more focused interest issue to issue. Saga is the very definition of a hit, and I suspect that in first-generation comic book stores, those that have been around more than 25 years, the series kills. Lots of reasons: grab my arm at a convention sometime. Walking Dead is another super-solid performer of this era, making this a happy day for a lot of comic shops across the land. I'm enjoying the storyling and the attempt to fold in a few more ways that people are surviving into the mix.
FEB150137 CONVERGENCE #1 $4.99 FEB150154 CONVERGENCE ATOM #1 $3.99 FEB150156 CONVERGENCE BATGIRL #1 $3.99 FEB150158 CONVERGENCE BATMAN & ROBIN #1 $3.99 FEB150160 CONVERGENCE HARLEY QUINN #1 $3.99 FEB150162 CONVERGENCE JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 $3.99 FEB150164 CONVERGENCE NIGHTWING ORACLE #1 $3.99 FEB150166 CONVERGENCE QUESTION #1 $3.99 FEB150168 CONVERGENCE SPEED FORCE #1 $3.99 FEB150170 CONVERGENCE SUPERMAN #1 $3.99 FEB150172 CONVERGENCE TITANS #1 $3.99
This is the the first bunch of books in the "Convergence" storyline. They did a pretty good job explaining why DC felt this bunch of two-issue mini-series was necessary, although I'm not convinced there are other ways this could have been handled. On the other hand, I've not read a thing as to how the storylines come together into a proper whole. I don't know what Convergence is about. I know more about what's going on in the recent Valiant books by a factor of ten to one. This also does that other thing that DC has been doing since their New 52 relaunch in that so many of their creative plot points seem to depend on these characters being around for 75 years but the serial storylines in their books are right near the early stages of each hero's creation. So we're supposed to care about what happens as if 75 years of history has come to bear but be excited about them as if they're brand new. It's not conceivably impossible someone could do that with a comics line and make it work. I just don't think DC has -- at least for me they haven't.
OCT140558 MILT GROSS NEW YORK HC $24.99
A Craig Yoe find, which is always impressive, and a Craig Yoe presentation, past examples of which some people have loved and others not so much. There's a big want-to-see factor: Milt Gross, at the height of his powers, doing a massively, widely-read comic in conjunction with an international event. Gimme, gimme.
FEB150472 JUPITERS CIRCLE #1 CVR A QUITELY (MR) $3.50 FEB150473 JUPITERS CIRCLE #1 CVR B QUITELY (MR) $3.50 FEB150474 JUPITERS CIRCLE #1 CVR C SIENKIEWICZ (MR) $3.50 FEB150475 JUPITERS CIRCLE #1 CVR D PARLOV (MR) $3.50 FEB150526 JUPITERS LEGACY TP VOL 01 (MR) $9.99
The first four are the same comic with different covers, presenting the generation of superheroes against which some younger heroes push back in the collected volume that inhabits line #5. Frank Quitely is a superior mainstream comics creators, so I enjoyed the material that went into the trade. I'll take a look at the Circle material and keep my fingers crossed. Writer Mark Millar has virtues that are more readily accessible on the page issue to issue than in painting a broad canvas, but from what I can tell the material in Legacy seems deep enough to sustain something like Circle and perhaps a few more series. A lot depends on interiors artist Wilfredo Torres, with whom I'm unfamiliar. I suppose we'll see.
NOV140869 AVENGERS BY JONATHAN HICKMAN HC VOL 01 $34.99
Hickman is Marvel's main guy right now in terms of the bigger mini-series springing from and wrapping themselves around the titles he writes. I bet reading the Avengers stuff in this format will work quite well -- the sprawl of these comics and plotlines across multiple titles confuses me at times although I'm confident everything I need is there.
FEB151088 COPRA TP ROUND TWO (MR) $19.95
These energetic Michel Fiffe books continue to be a lot of fun. I'm not sure I've gone too deeply individual issues-wise with the material represented here, although I figure given the complexities of keeping books in print versus keeping comics available this is a format that will be around for a while.
FEB151370 SAM GLANZMAN SAILORS STORY GN $19.95
The only Marvel comic I can remember the Journal praising when I was kid -- by Gary Groth, no less -- gets a new life, grander format and a bigger marketing push. It's a very charming and well-crafted story of World War 2 based on Glanzman's time in service. Just a living, breathing example of mainstream craft virtues there. I want to buy it again.
JUN140341 CEREBUS HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DVD $39.99
I think I bought this during the Kickstarter but then bailed, or I bought a different thing...? I don't remember now. This is the one done with publisher IDW's support. High Society is a really funny, fun comic -- a little bit of Elmore Leonard, a little bit of Armando Iannucci, and a little bit of Critters magazine -- and the kind of deeply idiosyncratic work that made 1980s indy-comics beautiful in its own way. I put a scene I liked at the bottom. Spoiler alert.
*****
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.
Festivals Extra: Bob Cunningham, Middletown’s Cartooning Mayor
James Moore pointed out this article about an exhibit of Robert Cunningham's art and archival material, including many cartoons, at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Cunningham was Muncie's mayor in the late 1970s: the race to replace him between Big Jim Carey and Alan Wilson was the subject of one of the episdoes of the PBS series of documentaries on Muncie, called Middletown.
Cunningham was an avid cartoonist, and frequently had material in the newspaper -- or it seemed like he did. I remember my older brother Whit writing one of those article about the new comic books for the local paper, things like Cerebus and American Flagg!, and Mr. Cunningham telling him he'd checked out the new comics and they weren't for him. That Cunningham was a cartoonist didn't seem like a strange thing to be doing back in that town in the late '70s and early '80s; Muncie had Jim Davis and a character called "Benny Beans" who "frowned on" things like unkempt yards on the front page of the local newspaper. TK Ryan still had a presence in the region. Stan Mack visited to do a series of cartoons about Muncie that ran in conjunction with the aforementioned documentary series.
I've liked what I've seen of Bob's work since leaving home, although there's never been any indication that the field of cartooning was ill-served by Cunningham's choice of grocer and politician as primary careers. Unless the industry grows to meet the growing number of cartoonists we seem to be developing these days, the 2040s will be another era of people showing a cartooning hidden side.
Go, Read: Writer Matt Maxwell On Returning To Comics Here. What struck me is that Maxwell hasn't been away for very long in real-world terms but the context for making comic has changed for him personally and for the industry generally. Why people do comics is a question that gets asked more than in other art form because money or its promise is so thoroughly and quickly removed from the table for a lot of people. At the same, comics' relative low threshold for participation means that if you have an answer to that question, you can go ahead and start making in a way that doesn't feel separated from the rest of the industry by a giant wall the way some folks' describe filmmaking or fiction writing or recording music.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Sean Gaffney on Karneval Vol. 1. Shea Hennum on BORB.
* Shannon Watters put together some extended Twitter commentary on a Kate Leth comic about showing non-hetero couples and characters on TV. That's a lovely commentary. I think that's a great use of art, maybe the greatest, especially before you're at an age when satire begins to have a benefit. I know as someone who just wanted to understand some things that I suspected were different than what I was told, the pop culture I consumed as an early teenager made a huge difference in opening my eyes to aspects of human existence not directly my own. But a direct message that also specifically comforts and invites people to be part of a wider human experience? I can't even imagine. That's a huge blessing when art can do that.
* finally, I have no idea why an ancient (in Internet terms) post about Walt Kelly's lettering ended up in my bookmarks, but have at it. Ditto this oddball thing.
The Glyph Comics Awards, given out every year at the East Coast Black Age Of Comics Convention in Philadelphia, has announced its latest round of nominees. The Shaft and Matty's Rocket comics were among those generating multiple nominations.
The nominees are:
*****
Story Of The Year
* Bass Reeves: Tales Of The Talented Tenth, Joel Christian Gill
* Matty's Rocket, Tim Fielder
* Shaft, David F. Walker And Bilquis Evely
* Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives From Black History, Joel Christian Gill
*****
Best Cover
* Ajala: A Series Of Adventures, Walt Msonza Barna
* Matty's Rocket, Tim Fielder
* Offset #1 -- The Man Who Travels With A Piece Of Sugarcane, Tristan Roach
* Technwatch, Ernesto (Nesto) Vicente
*****
Best Writer
* Keef Cross; Day Black
* Tim Fielder; Matty's Rocket
* Joel Christian Gill; Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives From Black History
* Nigel Lynch; Life And Death In Pardise Book Four
*****
Best Artist
* Nelson Blake 2; Artifacts
* Russ Leach, Interceptor
* Dan Mora, Quixote
* Stacey Robinson, Kid Code
*****
Best Male Character
* Merce, Day Black, Keef Cross
* Marsalis J. Parker, Blackwax Boulevard Dmitri Jackson
* Bass Reeves, Bass Reeves: Tales Of The Talented Tenth, Joel Christian Gill
* John Shaft, Shaft, David F. Walker And Bilquis Evely
*****
Best Female Character
* Markesha Nin; Kamikaze, Alan Tupper And Carrie Tupper And Havana Nguyen
* Ajala Storm; Ajala: A Series Of Adventures; Robert Garrett And N Steven Harris And Walt Msonza Barna
* Emily Tanaka -- The Geisha; Project Geisha, Eli Ivory
* Matty Watty; Matty's Rocket, Tim Fielder
*****
Rising Star Award
* Alverne Ball And Jason Reeves And Lee Moyer And Ari Syahrazad, One Nation: Old Druids
* Deron Bennett And Dan Mora And Khary Randolph, Quixote
* Joel Christian Gill, Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives From Black History
* Eric Dean Seaton, Legend Of The Mantgamaji: Book One; Legends Of The Mantamaji: Book Two
*****
Best Comic Strip Or Webcomic
* Blackwax Boulevard, Dmitri Jackson
* Kamikaze, Alan Tupper And Carrie Tupper And Havana Nguyen
*****
Best Reprint Publication
* Ant Hill The Anthology Vol. 2, Starr Skills Studios
* Techwatch, Chameleon Creations
*****
Fan Award For Best Work
* Blaze Brothers, Vernon Whitlock III And Matthew Scott Krentz And Marat Mychaels And Dietrich Smith
* Interceptor, Brandon Easton And Russ Leach And Max Dunbar
* Kamikaze, Alan Tupper And Carrie Tupper And Havana Nguyen
* Onenation: Safehouse, Jason Reeves And Samax Amen And Deon De Lange
*****
This year's awards ceremony will by Friday, May 15. Congratulations to all involved.
The National Cartoonist Society has announced its awards-division dominees for work done in 2014. The awards will be given out as part of their yearly meeting, at a formal dinner on May 23rd in Washington, DC. They will also give out a few honorary-type awards and their "outstanding cartoonist of the year" award, better known as "The Reuben" -- one of the world's great honors for cartooning. The Reuben nominees were named here.
This is sort of a fun awards now, with all sorts of inherent cultural attitudes on display -- you basically see the same people getting nominated in certain categories over and over again, and the projects with lots of eyeballs on them seem to benefit ahead of those that don't -- but also some really interesting choices category to category. It's hard to find three mainstream books as differently stylized as the books for which the comic book category has chosen its nominees. It's nice to see Jillian Tamaki and Jules Feiffer share a category. And so on.
I don't detect that this hit the comics-related category in a way that capsized it. Put another way, it looks like a pretty normal slate of well-liked comic books, with one webcomic I've not heard of thrown in, and this is about what I've come to expect year to year. Still, I'm not completely up on the matter and tend not to look at books politically. It's hard to imagine anything less about what I've enjoyed over a lifetime of reading science fiction than an ugly nerd-fight over the imagination-light, rigid categories of modern political discourse.
In happier news, the awards program publishes the results from the previous year: here's 2014, and the graphic story category shows up in the first ten pages.
It’s Always Sad When One Of “Your” Comics Shops Closes
I note with this tweet that the current 45th Street in Seattle's U-District retail location for The Comic Stop is to close. That was my comic shop for a few years in its Zanadu Comics incarnation. It was alt-Seattle friendly: they sold David Lasky and Tom Hart mini-comics in addition to mid-1990s mainstream comics. Two contexts for that shop that don't exist anymore is at the time there were like a half-dozen comic shops within walking distance of that one: I'm not sure except for maybe Seattle, San Francsico, NYC, Chicago and LA that we have neighborhoods with multiple comic shops anymore, and we might not even in half of those places. Seattle's U-District neighborhood still has a few shops, definitely so if you include Comics Dungeon across the highway, but it's nothing like 1993 down there. That shop was also in a place where 20 years ago people would go to do a bit of pop-culture consumption more generally, hitting multiple music stores and used book stores at the same time they were out to get comic books. If you were lucky, you might stay in that general area and see a movie -- I imagine that's still possible.
As is the case with many places as I get older, I retain a physical sense-memory of the shop: where and how I stood to take in the new comics rack without it being overwhelming, exactly where I half-tossed my backpack before i shopped as the door slipped off my shoulder, how I shifted my hips and mid-section as I rounded a tight corner made by back-issues boxes. I remember the clerks, including the one that people avoided if they weren't in a mood to talk and the one who conspired with me thinking all I read were Marvel Comics.
I think it's possible we might lose more than a few comic book stores of note over the next few years. A lot of the best shops are being run by people near retirement age, and another group is run by people who about to hit that mid-forties age where doing something else in grown-up fashion as a job seems like a dwindling opportunity. It's a tough thing we ask them to do just in general, without the stunts and moves that would have to be potentially discombulating and where they're treated like we're doing them a favor. We also have strong anecdotal evidence that every comic book shop that closes is a last straw for dozens of fans who take that opportunity to wrap up their own engagement with the medium. Every good one's passing, no matter how generous our standard for good, seems worth noting.
The book is called Fedor and promises "the fictionalized story of real-life turn of the century circus sideshow attraction JoJo the Dog Faced Boy and his on-again/off-again globetrotting forbidden romance with another circus spectacle -- the tattooed girl."
Kelley's previous published comics work was What Am I Going To Do Without You?, which was released by Top Shelf in 2012. This one is 40 pages in color and will retail from $8.
Zunar’s Weekend Statement On Being Charged With Sedition
I bookmarked this and then forgot it: the Malaysian cartoonist Zunar released a statement through social media about being charged with nine counts of sedition last week. Zunar has enjoyed wide support in several quarters worldwide, and it is through those folks' attention to the story that we were able to initially discover it.
His statement:
THANK YOU PEOPLE FROM VARIOUS RELIGION & RACE
From the very beginning, I have never differentiated people based on religion, race, color, education level, sexuality or social class. For me, a noble person is one who opposes the corrupt and unjust authority. My stand was confirmed -- when I was slapped with 9 charges under the Sedition Act and faced financial problems to pay the bail -- people of all walks of life from various religion, race, color, education level, sexuality and social class came to my aid. They assisted in terms of financial, legal services, prayers, words of encouragement, provided statements condemning the government and spread them on social websites. I would like to thank everyone -- the fans, supporters, lawyers, family members, friends and NGOs within and outside the country, political parties, and to everyone else who have helped in any form. With that, I once again would like to remind us all to forget the differences between us and move forward to fight the unjust and oppressive power!
Seeing that politics are driving the charges rather than charges shaping the politics, I think Zunar has a very long road to travel before he'll get the peace that it looked like he might have after his previous tussle with the powers that be.
* not comics: I don't have anything to say about the Rolling Stone heave and collapse on that UVA story other than in not firing everyone they kind of nail a specific problem -- there's no one accountable on the journalism side of things for making sure that something meets bare minimums. That would be a hard place for which to work.
* Bart Beaty writes about his recent experience making a book about 1960s Archies for The Chronicle Of Higher Education and frames it in terms of the privilege involved. That one is subscription-only, but if you have an in, I though you might to know it's there.
Brian Hibbs And Comix Experience Launch GN Club Seeking to Offset Minimum Wage Hikes
The longtime comics store Comix Experience and its owner/operator Brian Hibbs have put out a call for interested parties to join a book club they've started in order to make $80,000 more a year and offset the costs of San Francisco's minimum wage hike to. I've sent Brian a few follow-up questions and am looking at some outside documents about the minimum wage hikes, but for now I thought you'd be interested in learning about it in advance of my semi-closer look.
I suspect there will be some pushback along the lines given by longtime North Carolina comics shop employee Dustin Harbin here.
This is also, of course, part of "The Year Everyone Looks For More Money." I know I'm considering something and suspect that at this point there are enough comics-makers with Patreon-type campaigns that they could lock their hands and surround the San Diego Convention Center. Neither I nor most people that fit that description are even in cities that offer this specific outside pressure.
Update: I may not have enough information for a second article! Hibbs declined to speak for publication on questions of overall store hours, how many people this involved, and how the math was done, even though he provided CR with background-only information. He pointed out my question to him where extra money raised in the book club effort might go (it goes to the employees) had been answered. My apologies to him for not catching that the first time. In going background-only Hibbs expressed a desire to focus on a solution to the problem in terms of what information gets put out there. I wish Brian and CE the best of luck with their book club and wish I could join myself. Hopefully, Hibbs will come back on the record once initial word gets out.
Festivals Extra: WonderCon To Los Angeles In 2016
On the tail end of this weekend's successful-sounding WonderCon Anaheim show run by Comic-Con International, they announced next year's version will be in Los Angeles at the end of March, the 25th through the 27th. Two things important about that. One is that the show continues its wandering ways after the inability of San Francisco convention space controllers sent them to Anaheim over the last few versions of the long-running show. Los Angeles hasn't been cracked as a market by one of the big shows (some of the LA regional shows would likely disagree), and it should allow them the experience of working closely with the film industry partners. That's something that WonderCon, despite its place on the calendar, never quite cracked in either the San Francisco or Anaheim versions.
The second thing is that by moving off of that traditional early April date to late March, they effectively switch positions on the calendar with Emerald City Comicon. ECCC is an increasingly popular show with a big chunk of the comics world. Seeing those two going head to head would have been something else.
I imagine there will be a tiny bit of pushback against the Los Angeles move from people that watch the convention business and wonder why a big show like that keeps lacking for long-term suitors. Me, I think it's a smart move and I always a really positive outcome for them now that they've shed APE is to do a three shows a year in the Southern California cities with which they're now most closely associated. This may give them a test run for that. It also becomes a really cheap show for a lot of people to do, including myself, as most people in the arts have friends and/or relatives in Los Angeles and tend not to in Anaheim. As New York has shown us, and as many of the smaller shows on a more limited level have put into practice, there are huge advantages to running a show in a place where pros are sleeping in their beds at night, or in a familiar and not pressure-building expensive place.
SAW Has Teen Comics Summer Intensive On Tap
I don't have any good way of listing classes the way I'm set up, so I hope you don't mind if I pull out SAW's June "Teen Comics Summer Intensive" for notice via a stand-alone post. They do a good job down there with their short-burst classes, and I would imagine my old Seattle scene-mate Tom Hart might be particularly good at working with young people.
If they had had something like this when I was teen, I'd likely be an investment banker today.
* is this a new front page for the Maakies site? I think it might be, but I'm always distrustful because if I heard it from Tony Millionaire, he's probably just messing with me.
* the writer and critic Noah Berlatsky makes a good point here that by restricting a greatest-ever list to female comics creators, your final list is likely less ghettoized because of the longstanding love affair between boys and superhero comics. I think those lists are always fun exercises, useful for people reading the result to find new creators or think about old ones in new ways, useful for critics to organize their thinking a bit or to reach for examples beyond their enthusiasms. They are temporal and fleeting and limited, though, my own in particular.
* go here for a photo that's Margaret Atwood reading a copy of Sex Criminals. Or it could be something else, I guess. It's funny, you start editing in comics with the fear that some of what you're being told about the comics is wrong and you're just not developed enough in that area to realize it. When you get older, it's everything else in the world that becomes the problem.
* if you're going to read one today, read Zainab Akhtar on Fabien Vehlmann. I was reminded of that piece by this one, and I want to re-read it before I jump back into MacDonald's.
* I have a hard time understanding the costume impulse at cons. I'm told it's partly because I overthink it. I love costumes, I think they're awesome; I also think the last thing I'd want to do in a costume is walk around a giant garage sale. For whatever reason, I really liked this photo.
Your 2015 Doug Wright Awards Nominees; Merle “Ting” Tingley Becomes Giant Of The North
The Doug Wright Awards has announced a strong slate of nominees for its 2015 program, honoring the best in Canadian cartooning. The DWAs have also named Merle "Ting" Tingley as this year's inductee to the Giants Of The North Canadian Cartoonist Hall Of Fame.
The DWAs are limited in terms of the number of awards they give out, which tends to result in each category being stacked with heavy-hitters. It's that way this year. The nominees are:
Tingley is currently 93 years old. A fixture of Canadian editorial cartooning in the second half of the 20th Century, Tingley published in the Free Press of Southern Ontario from 1948 to 1986. He was also syndicated to 60 newspapers across Canada. He is well known for his mascot "Luke Worm," which he hid in his cartoons allowing kids a secondary level of enjoyment in trying to find him. A second annual festival in his honor will be held in London, Ontario from late April to early May.
This year's jury is set to include Fiona Smyth, Zach Worton and Conan Tobias.
This year's nominating committe was Jerry Ciccoritti, Barbara Postema, Sean Rogers, Geneve Firanski and Chester Brown.
It is the awards program's 11th year and takes place the Saturday night of the Toronto Comics Arts Festival, which this year will be May 9.
FFF Results Post #414—Borrowed Clothings
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Specific Creator-On-Newspaper-Strip Runs You've Enjoyed That Are Not The Original Creator Of That Comic On That Comic. Include At Least One -- But Not More Than Four -- You Like More Than The Original. Don't Say Which One, But Do Provide The Number Of Strips You Like More Than The Original Vs. How Many You Simply Like." This is how they responded.
*****
Just Colussy-Estes
1. Chance Brown on Hi & Lois
2. Chris Brown on Hagar the Horrible
3. Jerry Scott on Nancy
4. Gary Gianni on Prince Valiant (pictured)
5. Dick Locher on Dick Tracy
2/3
*****
Larry Rippee
* Mac Raboy on Flash Gordon (pictured)
* Dick Moores on Gasoline Alley
* Ramona Fradon on Brenda Starr
* Murphy Anderson on Buck Rogers
* George Tuska on Buck Rogers
1. Bobby London On Popeye
2. Wilson McCoy On The Phantom (pictured)
3. Dick Moores On Gasoline Alley
4. John Cullen Murphy On Prince Valiant
5. Leslie Turner On Captain Easy
1. Bill Watterson on Pearls Before Swine
2. Paul Ryan on The Phantom
3. Roger Mahoney and Roger Kettle on Andy Capp
4. Greg Cravens on The Buckets (pictured)
5. Scott Roberts on Working Daze
4/1
*****
Chris Duffy
1. Bobby London On Popeye
2. Jerry Scott On Nancy
3. Larry Doyle and Neal Sternecky on Pogo
4. Gary Gianni On Prince Valiant
5. George Luks On Hogan's Alley (pictured)
1/4
*****
Matt Emery
1. Sy Barry on The Phantom
2. Jim Russell on The Potts (Uncle Dick in the US)
3. Carl Lyon on Wally and the Major
4. Ian Gibson on Judge Dredd
5. Yaroslav Horak on James Bond (pictured)
2/3
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson on Star Wars
2. Russ Manning on Tarzan
3. Frank Robbins on Scorchy Smith
4. Mac Raboy on Flash Gordon
5. George Wunder on Terry and the Pirates (pictured)
3/2
*****
Roger Langridge
1. Ernie Bushmiller On Fritzi Ritz/Nancy
2. Fred Lasswell On Bunky
3. Harold Knerr On The Katzenjammer Kids
4. Floyd Gottfredson On Mickey Mouse (pictured)
5. Lars Jansson On Moomin
2. Phoebe And Her Unicorn gets a 100-plus paper launch. New launches are rare, that's one of the best launches in company history, and the strip has had a long life as a webcomic before this recent retitling and re-presentation in a different market.
3. Emerald City completes its most recent and largely successful (based on anecdotal evidence) year, announces a four-day show starting next year.
Winners Of The Week
The heavy-hitting academic team behind What Were Comics, the recipients of the biggest grant ever received to study comics in some form.
Losers Of The Week
The Malaysian politicians on their current politically-motivated vendetta.
Quote Of The Week
"You knew it was important when the teacher pushed the TV into the classroom." -- Richard Thompson
*****
the comic image selected is from the brief but notable 1970s run of Seaboard/Atlas
Zunar Charged With Nine Counts Of Sedition In Malaysian Courts
An already-bad story that three or four times seemed like it couldn't get worse lurched into nightmare territory early today in Kuala Lumpur, as the esteemed cartoonist Zunar was charged with nine counts of sedition, mostly for criticism through cartoon of the country's judicial system. The cartoonist distributed the above defiant cartoon after being released.
The Associated Press story seems to hit all of the highlights, and provides the context of Zunar's career (he was serially harassed by the police department for some pretty standard editorial cartoon work, including confiscations and office visits, before a surprise win at the end of a long and involved legal process) and sedition charges within the country more generally (a flood, using laws that multiple politicians thought might be dismantled by now rather than revived).
It's a horrible situation, and as it stands right now could get worse. I'm grateful there's international attention. We hope for any intercession possible from private or public citizens, and if given some small thing to do will certainly pass it along to you. In the meantime, all thoughts with Zunar in this difficult time.
The Harvey Awards are entering into the nominations process for their yearly awards program, affiliated the last several years with Baltimore Comic-Con. The Harveys nominations are one of the more interesting yearly events in comics. They count on creators to do the nominating, so they're very difficult, but they also because of the numbers involved allow some works the possibility of gaining traction that an nominating committee might not.
So get to it, professionals. I'll be here, staring at the Harvey Kurtzman art.
Go, Read: Josh Fialkov On Paying The Artists More
Josh Fialkov has written a short essay here about why artists work harder on a specific comics project than a writer does -- I suppose there are exceptions to that rule, but it's hard to imagine one that isn't sporting a halo of lunacy. I imagine in trying to prove one of those exceptions people will do backflips but as a general rule it holds. It's also I think worth looking at it as costs and profits. I remember when I was doing a comic and we looked around as to what would be an equitable model, I asked a Rushmore-level alt-comics person how much the writer should make and they said. "1/20."
* I've been intending to find a way to call special attention to this Steven Heller profile of and interview with Elham Atayi. Its own starred section in this random news will hopefully do. It's really interesting.
* a student editor and a non-student editor write about the decision to run images of Muhammed related to the Charlie Hebdo story. That's a tough decision.
* Mike Dawson talks to Zack Soto about Kingdom Come.
* Ron Marz writes about the DC offices closing up. I only ever visited them in New York three times. There was a curious energy there the first time I got a tour, enough so that even some of the people I was visiting asked me about it. I got to meet Archie Goodwin there. I hope everyone has landed well.
* I'm enough to the side of mainstream comics anymore I thought there might have been 250 consecutively numbered Deadpool comics.
* right before the Angouleme Festival a date was set for the next Asterix album. While that may not be news for those that feel the series ended when its co-creator Albert Uderzo stepped aside (or perhaps when its writer Rene Goscinny died in 1977), they still sell extremely well and are a publishing event for that reason alone.
* Gilbert Hernandez talks with Steve Morris about Blubber, coming out from Fantagraphics. If Beto only expressed this side of his cartooning, he'd be a talent with which to reckon.
* Chris Sims picks three weird comics from the latest round of DC announcements. I get what Sims means -- they're very odd choices for a company like that and the outlook they have -- although I bet in the end we'll wish at least two of those three comics were much, much weirder.
* another one I missed out on by not doing the column for a couple of weeks is Brian Michael Bendis' departure from his current X-Men related writing gig(s). I think he was good for those books in that he brought with his arrival some weight to change things around a bit, and while I know people run hot and cold on his books I think he's pretty consistent and that this work here was in that same general class of the other Marvel gigs that provided him with his name-above-the-title status. The mutants are a tough gig right now in terms of general story strategy: the cast is so big, there have been so many plotlines because of the split into multiple books, and the fans hold what they love about those book very close to their hearts.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases From 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.
*****
JAN150916 AGE OF SELFISHNESS HC $17.95
This is a really weird week for me in that there are tons of books out, but the vast majority are all down around my lowest thresholds in terms of triggering a purchase. That doesn't mean they're bad books, not at all, just not right in the mainstream of what I usuallly buy. This book, already out in the UK and here under a different title and trade dress from Abrams, would have made my interest-cut any old week. I enjoy Cunningham's pictorial essays generally, and think his sense of humor would greatly serve an exploration of the absuridities at the high end of financial enterprise.
NOV140103 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL TP VOL 31 FINAL CURTAIN (MR) $19.99 FEB151487 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 15 $10.99 JAN151677 WHAT DID YOU EAT YESTERDAY GN VOL 07 (MR) $12.95 DEC141741 WOLFSMUND GN VOL 06 $12.95 FEB151696 ONE PIECE GN VOL 74 $9.99 JAN151676 PROPHECY GN VOL 03 $12.95
Unless I'm well, well off of my game these are all solid manga series with new volumes out, none more solid than the Samura in its final volume in this iteration of the series -- given the haphazard nature of manga publishing, you never know which publication series will be a work's last. Anyway, I liked that one when I saw it, particularly the beautifully choreographed fight scenes. The others I'm in various states of catch-up except for maybe One Piece, on which I'm too far behind to fool myself. There's a beautiful energy to that one in its best moments, and while it's not the first series I'd pick in blind test for most popular in the world, I get it.
DEC140082 GIRLFIEND TP $19.99
Pander Brothers! I bet a lot of what they were up to even during their early Grendel-drawing heyday would work really well now, as the audience's purchasing power has caught up with the tastes. I'd look at it, for sure.
JAN151512 LULU ANEW HC $27.99
Etienne Davodeau's job-switching tale The Initiates was one of the pleasant surprises the year it arrived on North American shelves. This story of someone walking away from their life for a while would seem perfectly suited to the kind of pacing that the artist does well.
OCT140043 GOON TP VOL 14 OCCASION OF REVENGE $16.99 NOV140039 BPRD PLAGUE OF FROGS TP VOL 03 $24.99 NOV140068 DEMO TP $24.99 DEC140112 ELFQUEST FINAL QUEST TP VOL 01 $17.99 NOV140075 EMPOWERED UNCHAINED TP VOL 01 $19.99 DEC140137 GROO VS CONAN TP $16.99
Here's a bunch of trades/collection tied into a specific kind of genre comic I don't buy as much of anymore, so to have so many of them in one week seemed really interesting to me. In fact, you could probably double this list up by selecting more generously and adding back a couple I separated out. I'm not sure what this means. The Goon, Groo and Elfquest creations are on their lion-in-winter tours. Demo just seems like something you do right to have it as backstock because the creator are in the midst of solid careers. Empowered we don't know about yet. But yeah, 16-year-old me, this is a big week.
DEC140172 LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 08 $19.99
I always wonder after these collections, because I think people assume that a lot of series will have a secondary collection run all the way through, page one to the last page, and I'm not sure that's true. I admire these comics more than enjoy them; they're the very definition of influential, handsome adventure comics, and it's hard to think of a collection working that area over a certain size not having these.
NOV140522 TARZAN RUSS MANNING NEWSPAPER STRIPS HC VOL 04 1974-1979 $49.99
I'm grateful for the rush of newspaper strips being done now. I bet we have one more period for a lot of these works in the 2030s, but I could imagine many of these comics not being reprinted anymore. Tarzan used to have a better chance than most at this kind of prize, but it's not an icon to which people feel the connection they used to feel.
DEC140948 AVENGERS RAGE OF ULTRON OGN HC $24.99
Marvel has probably left a few million on the racks of their most devoted retail partner by not having more point-to-it book for fans of the movies and TV shows that they've been doing. This seems different: solid creative line-up, a plot that plugs into their comics and doesn't need a whole lot of figuring out from the movie end, and done-in-one. I never liked Ultron as a thematic bad guy -- I find those issue a little dull. He's a great brawler, though, all metal and shiny and painful-looking. He's the most formidable opponent in superhero history to lose as many times as he has, like lose down to the dismantling level.
FEB150059 HELLBOY AND THE BPRD #5 1952 $3.50 JAN158230 BITCH PLANET #2 2ND PTG (MR) $3.50 JAN158231 BITCH PLANET #3 2ND PTG (MR) $3.50 DEC140763 SOUTHERN BASTARDS #8 (MR) $3.50
Here's a few comic-book type comics for you. I collect the Hellboy comics in serial form, so I'll need to buy that one at some point. I enjoy them all, although I do get the sense at times I'm enjoying them less as '60s Marvel stand-in than '70s Marvel stand-ins. Bitch Planet is somehow a bigger hit than people thought it would be and people thought that one would do well. A double-printing this deep in is a great sign for its potential longevity. I don't know if Southern Bastards is doing four-issue cycles, but this latest issue feels like the end of the coach storyline. Insert Craig T. Nelson revived version here. That one strikes me the same way a lot of primetime Vertigo series did in the '90s -- a heartfelt story, a lot of genre trappings just not the typical ones, a significant period of growth by the creators as they find their level.
FEB151424 BUDDY DOES JERSEY GN $19.99
All hail Peter Bagge, comedy hero. Taking Buddy and Lisa out of still-popular (and about to get a Real World bump) Seattle and into suburban New Jersey doesn't get enough credit as one of the all-time ballsy plot progressions. I love these comics and I hope by the end of the year you'll fall back in love with them, too. Watch this site.
DEC141666 BURNE HOGARTH TARZAN HC VOL 02 VS BARBARIANS $39.95
More Tarzan. I'm not the greatest fan of Hogart's approach to the page -- I think he kept a lot of illustrative flourish that actively work against these pages' readability as comics -- but he's one of the more interesting personalities to ever work in comics and if you're a fan of his approach you're likely a fiend.
JAN151464 GLORKIAN WARRIOR GN VOL 02 EATS ADVENTURE PIE $12.99 JAN151465 GLORKIAN WARRIOR HC GN VOL 02 EATS ADVENTURE PIE $19.99
James Kochalka, in softcover and hardcover form. This is the project of his that most naturally crosses over into indie videogames, where I believe it still has a presence.
FEB151172 LUMBERJANES TP VOL 01 $14.99
Well, this should be around for the next thirty years. I don't even know if this is the first time this material has been offered this way or if it's a reprint. I do know it will sell for quite some length of time unless there's a sudden reversal in market tastes.
FEB151506 SNAKE PIT GETS OLD 2010 TO 2012 GN (MR) $14.95
Diary comics, way closer to the end of Ben Snakepit's significant run, a run I think goes 2000-2012 although I could be super wrong. Snakepit has worked really hard in this area, and deserves every fan that want to join him on this extended trip. I look forward to this later material myself.
OCT140523 JOHN ROMITA AMAZING SPIDER MAN ARTIFACT ED HC PI
If I remember my Dunbierian lore, the Artifact Editions are editions that use some replication of original material due to those pages just not being available, but the core is the oversized, color Xeroxes of originals that the Artists' Editions use exclusively. Nothing more fun that a primetime John Romita Sr. project.
*****
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.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* the one measurement of the the beginning of the convention/festival season that I forgot to list is the first time that a Secret Acres con report goes up. Here's one for RIPExpo 2015. Good to have you back.
* it's interesting how well that particle small press show in Providence and the big convention in Seattle (ECCC) co-exist on the calendar now. It's not like there's a ton of overlap between desired exhibitor, but there's some, and there was a time when it would have been accepted that the comics press couldn't handle covering more than one show at a time.
* it's WonderCon this weekend. WonderCon. WonderCon. WonderCon. That's a big show, and an important one for CCI above and beyond its specific, targeted use as it now takes place every year in Anaheim.
* I don't have any secrets to dispense in terms of how to enjoy that show. I've only been once, and that was when the show was in San Francisco. Anaheim is a very different experience. I would imagine that the fun to be had there is pretty much to be had straight-up at most mainstream-oriented shows: enjoying the crowds, buying things you like, seeing panels related to the things you, meeting creators whose work you enjoy, eating out and bending elbows with your peers. I bet it would make a very good first show for a lot of kids.
* finally, in case I forget to do a separate article on it, there's a fundraiser involving artists make art on behalf of Wilfredo Torres that you can access here. Torres recently lost his wife to cancer.
* Todd Klein on 
Comic-Con International 
* Rob Clough on 
* Sean Gaffney on 
Institutional
* Henry Chamberlain on 
* I did a couple of comics things that day. I tromped across Burnside Bridge -- one of the great short city walks -- and went to Periscope Studios for coffee with same-age peers Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker. I very much enjoy talking to those guys. They are great veteran gentlemen of comics and I don't always have insight into that world of comics-making. They agree with me that DC's move from New York to Burbank may be significant and positive in terms of that company's culture, and their recent hires all received a thumbs-up. Mostly we just made cruel, dumb jokes about our betters. Parker always looked over his shoulder to see if someone was standing right behind him, and it struck me that Portland's really the only town stuffed with enough cartoonists that this seems a not-crazy thing to do.
* I sat in the bar and waited for a room and drank Pabst Blue Ribbon and was amazed they didn't have at least one old TV up so I watched Chelsea/United updates on my computer, which is the coolest way to sit at a bar. Max Clotfelter and Tom Van Duesen came up and said hi, which reminded me not to sit in the bar all day. I ended up passing on breakfast and not eating it either day, disappointing my elementary teachers and the Mulligan Stew. 
* Lisa Hanawalt was excellent on her panel; that was as smooth as any panel I've ever had. She's in a period of flux directly between books and managing the huge life change that is moving across country and working on a TV show. I did another panel the first day about indie comics people doing genre comics that went only okay. I was not made aware of these panels until the day before I left which kind of kept me out of a focused-image interaction strategy on the panels I moderated. Just shooting the shit can work with a spotlight, but it's more difficult with a broad subject. And while there are a lot of indie talent doing genre comics without the same hangups of the last generation, I'm not sure there's a lot to talk about there. Every generation either does genre work or is informed by it or both. But still, it's fun to talk.
* running into Eric Reynolds, on the other hand was definitely on Sunday. He came down from Seattle with one of Linework's guests of honor, Dan Clowes. Clowes was quickly signing to a steady line of super-thrilled people, including a group that flew up from Utah. Fantagraphics sold out of the Complete Eightball slipcovered editions they brought down by about 3 PM. It's a beautiful book.
* I think that show went pretty well. Like I mentioned earlier, there are tremendous natural advantages to a show in that neighborhood in Portland. I think both Zack Soto and Francois Vigneault thought there were fewer people there on either day than on the single day last year. Most people I talked to sold at least pretty well, or up to expectations. The two cartoonists that people talked about on the floor the most were Tom Van Duesen, whom I mentioned earlier, and Ben Duncan. A lot of folks were thrilled to be able to get the new Crickets. Todd Bak -- he says his new USPS day job just means his legs are tired -- had a nice-looking mini there.
* Johanna Draper Carlson on 
The top comics-related news stories from April 18 to April 24, 2015:
* J. Caleb Mozzocco on 
* Todd Klein on 
New 52 was hugely successful at the start. I imagine part of that was that it was the great lion-in-winter act of 
* in a Brian Bendis-written X-Men story coming out today, 
I think where Serpick's piece is most lucid is in the simple fact that they're not obligated to run anything they don't want to and there has been a generational shift at most of those publications where they're going to be stridently disinterested in running certain kinds of humor. I think this is going to become increasingly true of most comics institutions, including cons/festivals and publishers.
* Grace Bello talks to 
* Alex Dueben talks to 
Commentary and reaction around the Internet to the passing of the mainstream comics industry veteran 
* the critic and historian Paul Gravett writes about 
I've had a few offers to announce/cover humble bundles, but as I'm not exactly sure how that would be done I've kind of stayed away from doing so. I really do kind of love them as expressions of Internet Culture: the limited time involved, the use of a lot of material that isn't selling as discrete unites, the idea of making a kind of game over how much you offer and so on. They're super all over the place.
* Rob Clough on recent works by 
Drawn & Quarterly has promoted Julia Pohl-Miranda to Director Of Marketing for the publishing company. The body of today's press release is as follows:
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* Grant Goggans on 
* Todd Klein on 
* Paul Gravett talks in multiple parts to 
The release will note that this is the well-liked boutique publisher's biggest season in its short but prolific history, featuring eight book from seven comics authors. Michael DeForge is their cartoonist that's doubling up: a collection of anthology work and short comics called Dressing and this year's issue of Lose (#7), which will feature full-color. Koyama promises that Dressing most resembles Very Casual of the myriad of DeForge's books out there.
I totally missed 
A
* Henry Chamberlain on 
I was one of several comics industry people lucky enough to receive a copy of 
MegaCon is an interesting show in that it's super well-liked and very well-attended. It has a core group of professionals, many with ties to Florida, that not only attend every year but proselytize on its behalf. It is 23 years old, and although I'm not sure how they counted attendees MegaCon claimed 90,000 of them in the hall last year.
* Alex Hoffman on 
NOV140312 ORION BY WALTER SIMONSON OMNIBUS HC $75.00
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* Sean Gaffney on 
* Todd Klein on 
The second thing is that by moving off of that traditional early April date to late March, they effectively switch positions on the calendar with Emerald City Comicon. ECCC is an increasingly popular show with a big chunk of the comics world. Seeing those two going head to head would have been something else.
* Steven Heller on 
The top comics-related news stories from March 28 to April 3, 2015:
Institutional
* Todd Klein on 
* the cartoonist Noah Van Sciver 
NOV140103 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL TP VOL 31 FINAL CURTAIN (MR) $19.99
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* Johanna Draper Carlson on 
