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.
*****
FEB150413CORTO MALTESE GN BEYOND THE WINDY ISLES $29.99
There are a lot of comics you could put top of post this week, including four or five of the comic books. Kate Beaton also has a work out, and that's worth going to the comics shop all by itself. I wanted instead to spotlight the new volume in the Corto Maltese series. We live in a time of impossible riches for comics, and I would argue the bulk of that is in making sure we have great comics of the past to go along with all the good work, and occasional great work, of right now. That probably puts me in the opposite quadrant of most of my peers, but I'd rather have all the work reprinted since 2000 than its volume equivalent of the best new work. This is glorious work, paced and positioned like no comics before or since, and it's fun to enter into that mindspace.
MAY151302 BERLIN #19 (MR) $5.95 APR150669 SATELLITE SAM #15 (MR) $3.50 MAY150473 MINIMUM WAGE SO MANY BAD DECISIONS #3 (MR) $3.99 MAY150480 WE STAND ON GUARD #1 (MR) $2.99 MAY150086 BALTIMORE CULT OF THE RED KING #3 $3.99 APR150499 8HOUSE ARCLIGHT #1 (MR) $2.99 MAY150459 AIRBOY #2 (MR) $2.99 APR150522 CHEW #50 (MR) $3.50 MAY150471 HUMANS #6 (MR) $2.99
It's a big week of Image Comics in advance of their Expo and San Diego Con, but the one that all by its lonesome might get me over to Laughing Ogre is the nineteethn installment of Jason Lutes' Berlin. There's something where you're just happy with yourself that you're still reading comics when you hear about a long-lost friend like that series. Satellite Sam winds down the kids sic-fi part of its existence and will come back with a second installment on a different coast and bouncing around a different genre (westerns). I look forward to going back and reading a bunch of this at once. I wonder if Bob Fingerman has done as many issues of Minimum Wage as there are issues of Berlin despite having walked away from the project for a dozen or so years. A friend of mine very much into the Image Comics tells me US robots vs. Canadian robots We Stand On Guard has an excellent chance of being their next big thing; we'll see, but there's a lot of goodwill from readers aimed at writer Brian K. Vaughan. 8House Arclight #1 isn't the name of the theater where you're seeing the movie version of the aforementioned giant robot comic, but the first installment in a shared universe project featuring work from Brandon Graham and Marian Churchland. That sounds like a hit, too. The first issue of Airboy was interesting, using the author stand-in trope in a way that just kept going and going and going until you either accept it or bail. I think that's the only way you can do a story like that anymore, so good for those creators. Chew! 50 issues! Congratulations to those creators on one of the most unlikely successful comics ever -- by concept and by approach, not by skill of creator. Finally, the Humans are lurking around again. I like this cover.
DEC140420 ABSOLUTE Y THE LAST MAN HC VOL 01 (MR) $125.00
I read this in serial form and I'm not sure I've given it a lick of thought since. Coming out today is a break for We Stand On Guard if retailers are smart. I think if I were super rich I'd buy all the comics that were offered in these super deluxe formats.
APR150416 MIKE ZECK CLASSIC MARVEL STORIES ARTIST ED HC PI
Speaking of which, here's a collection of Mike Zeck work in the Artist Edition format, original art at size photocopied in color. I don't really know what his originals look like or even what I think of his work overall, so sitting down with this one might be fun even I'm not sure there's a bunch of stories he ever did that I liked.
MAR150098 LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 09 $19.99 MAY151467 ASTERIX OMNIBUS SC VOL 09 $22.99 FEB150046 USAGI YOJIMBO LTD HC VOL 29 TWO HUNDRED JIZO $59.99 MAY150468 CRIMINAL TP VOL 06 LAST OF THE INNOCENT (MR) $14.99 APR151503 COMPLETE PEANUTS TP VOL 03 1955-1956 $22.99 MAR151352 PRINCE VALIANT HC VOL 11 1957-1958 $34.99
None of these comics really go together, but they're all worth at least the consideration of a buy which is interesting because 1) my god, what a financial commitment you could make to comics if you could afford, just by being a reader; and 2) I think the formats and how they're done and priced has a real effect on how I view each series with the possible exception being the Prince Valiant, which I think would be worth buying at $15 more. But there's a whole bunch that can be said about the other books. I have no interest in buying Usagi Yojimbo at a high price point, for example, not when cheaper ones are available. The Criminal I'd probably prefer to have in loose individual issues than as a book with a spine, but I really like this new series of books. The pricing on the Complete Peanuts strikes me as pretty high in terms of what I'd guess it might be if I were attacked by comics-geek hoodlums and interrogated, but those are lovely books and of course worth three times as much on merit. I wish I had known about them from the start.
APR150573 AUTUMNLANDS TP VOL 01 TOOTH & CLAW (MR) $9.99
I just wanted the price, which is at that entry point level. Image is very smart in identifying trades as jumping on points for a lot of people looking to get into a continuing serial. I thought the pacing was interesting in this comic in that it never quite settled down for me but at the same time it reflects the discombobulation that is at the story's center.
MAY150481 WICKED & DIVINE #12 (MR) $3.50 MAR158209 WICKED & DIVINE #12 CVR B BROWN (MR) $3.50 APR150619 WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 02 FANDEMONIUM (MR) $14.99
I've read these off and on; I liked the 11th issue, so I'm looking forward to the 12th in order to further make up my mind if it's something for me. One thing these comics and past ones involving Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie have is a comfort with their own way of unfolding a story. There's a very appealing confidence in one's creative choices in all of their work. I also find it interesting that they're publishing a trade right on the heels of the last issue, but I suppose everyone does that now. I'd love to get a sense of the economics where that makes sense, but it seemingly does.
APR151490 LAST MAN GN VOL 02 ROYAL CUP $9.99
This is the second volume in the mainstream series involving Balak and Bastian Vives; it's the one I've read. I liked it even though I have a very small appetite for robust takes on classic genre tropes. One thing they have down is a kind of self-aware joy from the characters in being start of a story. They also seem happy when lots of things are happening. That's a big part of what makes them heroes, I imagine.
MAY151443 DIARY COMICS GN $15.00
A big ol' collection of Dustin Harbin's diary comics. Harbin is super-suited as an artist to this kind of everyday project; he can draw just about anything at multiple distances of remove and have it be scannable, and he has an easygoing sensibility that skewers but doesn't savage an individual's personal appearance. In the past I've wondered if he has the self-criticism necessary to make compelling art out of a string of experiences, but many readers will be happy to take that burden onto themselves.
APR151954 PRINCESS & THE PONY YR HC $17.99
Kate Beaton's ceiling is Matt Groening and that's if she has one. We shouldn't get too wrapped up in our perception of anyone's career to forget to enjoy the artist themselves, and between this new book, the new Hark! volume and a bunch of interesting online material Kate Beaton has made as many good comics pages happen in 2015 as anyone in the world. I enjoyed my quick read through of this volume at a friend's studio. The art is quite evocative in an endearing, humorous way.
*****
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.
* Frank Santoro muses out loud about the famous Ghost World color switch.
* Michael Cavna selects ten cartoons of note about the recent Supreme Court decision regarding same-sex marriage. The Mike Lester makes no sense to me, and the Nate Beeler might not make sense to people that don't know all the iconography. There certainly isn't a great cartoon among them. I'm baffled that we don't have more "nailed it" cartoons for some of these big historical moments. There wasn't one for the last entire presidential election.
Assembled Extra: Strangers In Paradise Joins Thrillbent The writer and digital publisher Mark Waid announced earlier today that digital versions of Terry Moore's foundational self-publishing work Strangers In Paradise will be added to the Thrillbent site that he and John Rogers own. I think that could end up being a great get, and that the work sounds like it will be employed in a way that flatters the comic and the site. If you value Moore's work in a way you'd like to read it digitally, weekly issues accelerates the value for a monthly subscription to the site. There is also a significant audience that might want to read the work beginning to end this way that missed out on it first time around and finds a commitment to paper daunting. A lot of the values of Moore's work are values that have come to define a lot of work that's come since.
I greatly look forward to seeing what happens, and I root for Thrillbent generally to find its readership. What we don't know is things like the number of people who feel that way about SiP as they intersect with Thrillbent's potential readers. I like the move a ton, though, and I think that's a great way to make use of existing content.
Gary Varvel Named To Indiana Journalism Hall Of Fame
There's nothing I dislike about this article on Indianapolis Star cartoonist Gary Varvel going into the Indiana Journalism Hall Of Fame. If nothing else, I like that there's an Indiana Journalism Hall Of Fame. Varvel's had an interesting career. He's a conservative cartoonist, which is a subsection of cartooning where your praise tends to come from the severity of your positions rather than your skill as a cartoonist. My memory is that he's really quick on breaking news stories, like if I look around for what editorial cartoonists are saying on an issue I almost always encounter a Varvel cartoon. He came up from a entire system of newspapers that's basically gone now. He's also done some long-form comics work for his paper on broad social concerns that I always thought could be a model for other papers putting their staff-position cartoonists to work.
Heck I'm even fascinated that the other two cartoonists in the Hall Of Fame are the great Kin Hubbard and Charles Werner, who was a baby when he won the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning in '39 but worked in Indianapolis for like a hundred years.
Stan Lee Hospitalized On Sunday; At Movie Premiere Monday
The idea of Stan Lee being sick enough to call for help in getting to the hospital and then the very next day making an appearance at a Marvel movie premiere should make for an unimpeachable set of feature news articles today. Here's one such piece.
Lee is in his early nineties now, on the cusp of his mid-nineties. It struck a lot of people I know when he appeared at this year's HeroesCon that such engagements are likely to be very limited now, a thought to which multiple generations of comics fans for whom Lee has been a ubiquitous presence at shows and events have been slowly awakening for the past half-decade. Travel at a certain age becomes difficult even for someone as robustly healthy as a longtime take-the-stairs fitness icon like Lee.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: Publishing News
By Tom Spurgeon
* you can't always trust far-frontier Amazon.com listings, but it's 3:24 AM and I gotta run with something in the arts/alt category. I sure hope Fantagraphics is doing a collection of cartoons that appeared in The Realist. That was one of the treasures of the 20th Century, that publication, and I'm not all that familiar with the best of its cartooning. I know the famous Wood "everyone at Disney having sex" illustration, and I know the Bhob Stewart cartoons, but that's about it. Of all the joys in the world with which I'm familiar, I may be most familiar with finding out about new comics and cartooning that I haven't seen before. The line-up sounds terrific.
* the talented cartoonist Noelle Stevenson announced last week she'd be taking a step back from the full extent of her current duties with buzztastic series Lumberjanes.
* Steve Bissette writes about a forthcoming project. The world can always use some more Steve Bissette, in any form he wishes to work.
* there's a lot of superhero news out there, mostly driven by Marvel as they every-few-days announce a book that will spring to life or spring back to life following their "Secret Wars." I thought we already knew that an all-female A-Force title would survive the Secret Wars event, but maybe that hadn't been made official until last week. Marvel has a lot of pretty good female characters that could use some time on the page no matter how it comes to them. This article ponders the return of the Spider-Gwen comic with the same creative team, but also dwells on what this might for the layered "universe" in which the book exists. Or not.
* Lynn Johnston, Mike Peters and Tom Richmond are among the cartoonists participating in a cruise that is designed to raise money by encouraging fans to come on the cruise with them. It will benefit the NCS Foundation.
* Chris Eckert uses the opportunity of discussing some shots he took in Mark Waid's direction to discuss the wider issue of being critical of older white male creators for simply being older white male creators. It does get a little weird out there when certain arguments are applied. It's a sign that those companies have been so, so, bad about hiring a diverse creator line-up that these issues even come up.
* finally, Michael Cavna has a round-up of artistic reactions to last week's SCOTUS ruling on same-sex marriage, including some well-received comics efforts.
Comics By Request: People, Projects In Need Of Funding
By Tom Spurgeon
* it looks like Steve Rude and Mike Baron will be launching a Nexus project through Kickstarter. That will bear watching. I'm greatly fond of that comic as it was a big one for me in my early teens; something that kept me interested in reading comics. I'm also a fan of Steve Rude's work more generally, its Andrew Loomis in a Sunday Supplement properties. I also wonder if it's not time for a project at this point in its creative cycle to reach out directly to fans, as it may not have a wider marketplace appeal that enables it to get over hurdles being published that way. Very intriguing.
* Mike Peterson digs deeply into recent conventional wisdom on the idea of crowdfunding, with some helpful links and a superior summary of Brian Hibbs' most recent article on same. He notes that Hibbs seems to be saying that if you exploit your core fandom directly, there's no occasion for anyone else to exploit that fandom in a way that can lead to a broder sales success.
* finally, I requested via Twitter if anyone had any favorites out there. Here's a Mike Ploog crowdfunded art book recommended by Mike Meltzer. That's crushed its initial goals but I imagine people just might want that one. He had a very interesting and slightly out of step art style... a style that was served by mainstream comics because at that point there were very few safe harbors for cartoonists that wanted to work in comics.
If you're thinking of making comics a significant part of your life, you should bookmark the Sktchd site to read a bunch of stuff there and then work your way through Heidi's articles going back and reading all of the linked-to pieces.
It's very, very tough to make a living in comics. Several people that want to will, with a few exceeding their expectations. Many more people than that first group, people that want to make a living or become successful just as much as that first group of people, they will not make a living, with a few barely seeing any return at all.
Some of it is just the way things are. Some of it I feel is not. My hunch for a long time has been that the talent of the people making the comics has outstripped the talent of the non-creatives who are the primary folks responsible for fashioning an industry that can reward that talent. What you have left is an assemblage of people doing okay to great: superior talents and/or talents that had good timing in terms of finding something that works; those who were present for a moment in history that matches up with a market opportunity; those inclined towards a genre effort that speaks to a specific cultural need, a few with something undefinable that resonates with people in a way that can't be denied. Everyone else is in survival mode. Because some of the traditional structure is exploitative, a good deal of the best talent out there serves that system rather than another, more equitable one.
I think it behooves all of us who choose to stay here to work very hard to help fashion comics industries that are much more ruthless in terms of truth telling, but also a lot more ambitious in terms of bottom line. We need the same push on the non-creative side these next ten years that we've seen on the creative side for the last 35. The dozen or so non-creatives whose talent and accomplishment exceeded their position in the years between the Direct Market's creation and the Digital Market's creation needs to in this next cycle much better match the hundreds of unique and intriguing artistic voices that this art form fosters in increasing numbers.
I worked in the comics industry at the tail end of a period where the whole thing might go right in the toilet on a month to month basis. What a lot of leaders from that generation did to keep the industry alive and give us multiple, esteemed generations of cartoonists is a remarkable thing. A cartoonist in a home making comics largely directed by their own artistic impulses, that is a victory. It always will be. The fact that things seem to be getting worse for almost everyone 10 to 20 years younger than that generation, that we still talk of young cartoonists that are in their late 30 and early 40s because we're waiting for their careers to progress, this indicates to me a troubled landscape onto which the desire comics-makers will have to work in comics rather than pursue opportunities in other industries and media will be bled from them multiple cuts at a time.
There's a ton of work work yet to do: maintaining, building, rebuilding. It won't be easy, and it may be impossible to see through without a hefty dose of self-criticism followed by real action that shows some people the door and affords the most capable new talents a seat at the table. We need to start doing better.
I Don’t Follow The Charts But I Did Notice The Complete Eightball Hit The Top NYT Slot I don't pretend I understand let alone trust the NYT comics charts, or really any charts that aren't backed up by royalty statements. I assume that with books like Scott McCloud's The Sculptor up there and Raina Telgemeier basically living there that books that chart are at least doing pretty well and potentially extraordinarily so. Therefore I was happy when someone e-mailed me that the Clowes collection The Complete Eightballhit the top slot. I would like for people to buy that book. It's really good, and it's put together with a lot of integrity and care.
I don't know what the percentage is of reprint projects charting, even though it looks pretty strong on that linked-to chart. I'm glad in this age of immediacy whenever people seem happy to indulge themselves with books across a wide spectrum of ages.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Steve Ditko answers a kid's letter. There's a lot that's admirable about the way Steve Ditko conducts his professional life.
* here's a site to watch, and I can't remember how I found out so apologies to that person: Helene Parsons has written gags for several cartoonists; I don't know that I've read much from someone working that very specific cartooning job.
* I would never think of dissecting a superhero line based on the looks given the characters, but that's a perfectly reasonable give how much the look of a character reflects the general creative direction of one of these properties. It's hard for me to remember a good run of a superhero comic where the character also looked ridiculous.
This Site Is Undergoing An E-Mail Change
This site is now [email protected]. The hotmail and yahoo import mechanisms for gmail are kind of untrustworthy, so a full and direct switch is probably best. If you're been e-mailing [email protected], that should still work as we've redirected to the gmail account.
I didn't think I'd ever have to change again, but there are some regional office and networking things here in Columbus that gmail makes easier. Thanks for your patience.
Keillor's art is not art I like. I don't have a lot of patience for the kind of humor and sketches that his show provides. I don't like the surface qualities of most of it, its construction and delivery, and I reject its underlying message of a superior Midwestern Anglo-Saxon temperament and way of looking at the world. While Prairie Home Companion features talented musicians, it doesn't do so in a particularly flattering way other than the size of the audience to which they're delivered. My dad had me read a couple of his books maybe 25 years ago, and I cared for them even less.
Garrison Keillor was useful to me, though, when I was trying to sort out my own relationship to art. Keillor is nearly universally hated and ridiculed in both my age group and in those below; he is equally despised in what is probably my most accurate placement on the alt-culture tribal landscape. He's a great punching bag, too: pompous-seeming and omnipresent within his world, but also insulated and mega-successful. I've taken my fair share of shots and I bet some of them were funny.
The thing is, my mom's a fan. A great thing about the last ten years of my life is I got to hang out some with my mom as an adult. This meant a lot of things, its own essay's worth, but it included taking her to movies occasionally and maybe driving her someplace after church. There was a PHC movie we saw together. I didn't care for it; she loved it. And of course Keillor's show is all over the radio airwaves on Sunday afternoons so driving in the car in the mountains to a restaurant we both liked or down the highway to Las Cruces and its clothing stores there was a lot of that show we listened to together.
I liked it less the more I listened, but the bile and kind of easy, alt-culture triumphalism with which I lorded over the show as a cultural object seemed increasingly silly and labored and ungenerous given my Mom's honest, not thought-out pleasure in the man's work. So I checked myself. What I found out is that over time my opinion didn't change of the work but it was nice to be free of the expectation that I would punch the performer right in the kidneys every time he lumbered out onstage. I even came to respect the fact that he was employing multiple "dead" forms of media (prose, radio, concert-hall performance) to personal advantage even if I cringed a tiny bit in aesthetic displeasure every time I heard the name "Guy Noir" (I cringed just now typing it).
We say "some art isn't for you" a lot. We say it mostly, I think, in order to justify the consumption of frivolous art for which we have an appetite even though someone else -- sometimes an imaginary person -- might disapprove. It's a gift we provide others so that we may receive it in return. We rarely flip that phrase around and explore what it means for the people who are simply not on board for certain kinds of art, that have values that run contrary to the work of specific artists. The big thing for me over the last ten years for which Keillor was illuminating was in my being able to uncouple my personal presentation -- this kind of consumerist stance where I'm defined in certain public spaces by my collective likes and dislikes -- from my interactions with art itself. Those interactions as a whole have become sharper and I think less dependent on cultural shortcuts; the opinions accumulated and the insights collected are more entirely my own. I did this with a lot of things, not just Garrison Keillor, but he was in there, too. I'm grateful, and wish him a happy transition into the retirement of his choice.
image from the Chris Monroe comic strip, an intersection of interests that I think is justified for use here; any objection and I will gladly take it down; you should go read the strip
So I Guess There Is A Pride Sale At Comixology Submit Today I know people get frustrated when I randomly point out sales and I apologize but hey 50 percent
Comics Workbook Presents Its 2015 Composition Competition
It's a bit different this year, so pay attention. I always like looking at the comics that result. First prize is cash; second/third prizes involve significant credit allowances at Copecetic Comics.
FFF Results Post #422—Comics’ Special Things
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Things You Love About Comics That Aren't A Character, A Specific Work Or A Cartoonist." This is how they responded.
*****
Tim O'Neil
1. Superman's triangle numbering from the 90s
2. Quarter boxes
3. Video game ads from the early 80s
4. Marvel's Hunk of the Month (pictured)
5. Sam Henderson's goofy drawing of Tom Spurgeon on the masthead of THE COMICS REPORTER, long may it reign.
*****
Mike Baehr
1. 3-D! (pictured)
2. Hand lettering
3. Sound effects
4. The thrill of discovery digging through dusty back issue bins
5. Keeping my collection organized
*****
Jones
1. The sheer improbability of making great art in tiny daily installments over years or even decades (pictured)
2. The dream (literally, dream-that-you-have-while-you're-sleeping) that every single comics reader used to have, at least once in their lives, of finding a new comic shop with all the comics they'd never been able to find in the real world
3. The changes in publication models over the last decade that have made that dream increasingly irrelevant
4. The idea that, on top of what we've already got in print in English, and what we know is still to come, there's still so many great comics we don't know about yet
5. My three year-old daughter always asking me to read comics with her (her favourites are Herge, Barks and McCay -- good taste)
*****
Marty Yohn
1. Oversize treasury/absolute editions with oversize artwork
2. Special effect sounds drawn as part of the artwork (pictured)
3. Painted covers
4. Small inset panels showing motion or time lapse
5. Catchy letter page titles (back when comics had letter pages)
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Covers With Little Heads Of Guest Stars In Circles Or Squares Down The Side
2. Superheroes Enjoying Recreational Activities Like Poker Or Softball
3. The Ubiquity Of Ninjas
4. Movie Adaptations (pictured)
5. Hero Fights Other Hero; They Team Up To Fight A Villain
1. Covers featuring a solid background color that merges the primary figure(s) and the line art has been removed (pictured)
2. Sound effects consisting of three or more syllables (Brakaakkthwooommm!)
3. Background details that are only included for the artist's own amusement
4. Meta-textual discussions among the creative and/or editorial teams
5. Sound effects for silent actions (~stare~)
*****
Philippe Leblanc
1. All the different paper stocks
2. The spine of larger comic books, tradepaperbacks and collected edition
3. Supervilain team-up (we must band together to be more evil) (pictured)
4. Anthropomorphic characters
5. Fold out splash pages
*****
Tom Cherry
1. Back up stories
2. Kid gangs (pictured)
3. Letter columns
4. Celebrities and other famous people that guest star in superhero comics
5. Fight clouds
1. That so many characters can get away wearing clashing spandex costumes when portrayed on the page
2. Universe-crossing team-ups (pictured)
3. Genre mash-ups
4. Educational comics capable of tackling complex subject matter
5. Even with the rapid proliferation of digital colouring, creators can still produce astonishing black and white art
1. Experimental layouts, typography, collage, etc. that enhance and enrich the narrative.
2. Literature adaptations that add new perspectives.
3. Illustrations that purposefully reference other art forms.
4. Comics parodies that offer basic insights into their subjects.
5. Processes that take advantage of the medium’s physicality. (pictured)
*****
Danny Ceballos
1. saddle-stitching
2. those old-timey ads for GRIT (pictured)
3. dynamic action poses
4. splash pages
5. pin-ups
1. A content accessibilty to some extent, even if the comic is in a language you don't understand.
2. The rotten smell of acidic paper preserved by mylar sleeves.
3. T. M. Maple. (Not a character, not a cartoonist, not a specific work.) (pictured)
4. The enduring popularity of ducks, no matter if they are named Donald, Howard or Destroyer.
5. Former sidekicks or minor characters, that become the star of their own series (Captain Easy, Popeye, Winter Soldier).
*****
Michael F. Russo
1. New Comic Book Day on Wednesday is like a weekly holiday.
2. Nothing ever really ends. Your favorite character can return in completely different circumstances with an entirely new creative team and be even better than before. Also, your favorite creator can return with a new idea and be better than before.
3. Comics can be really smart and they can be really dumb and they are really good at both.
4. Comics printed when I was a kid have aged (sometimes better than I have) so that the paper is browner and the colors seem richer. (pictured)
5. People who love comics, even people who hate the comics you love and love the comics you hate, are members in a (less and less secret) society that spans generations and continents. Maybe worlds.
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from June 20 to June 26, 2015:
1. Cartoonists struggle and occasionally triumph with the harrowing and potentially transformative events of America's last 15 days.
2. comiXology signs a deal with Dark Horse. While there are some critics of the signing as a triumph in terms of what's actually offered at this time -- I haven't written CR's version of that article yet -- the symbolism of the digital comics reading giant having books to offer featuring iconic figures from longtime holdout Dark Horse like Hellboy is a big, big deal.
3. HeroesCon ends the Spring portion of the convention calendar year. (Summer is CCI, Autoptic and WizardWorld Chicago; Fall starts with SPX and ends with CAB.) Conventions are bigger than ever and the fissures that are appearing are only appearing way on the outskirts, at least so far. Heroes has become an interesting show beyonds its identity as a monster regional like Baltimore and Emerald City. It's become a place where folks can announce new comics and receive just as much press attention as any bigger show publishing news bomb being dropped. It's also become less a strange yet delightful "Composite Con" of mainstream and alt-comics interests fused together with delicious gravy from Mert's and more of a show that reflects the growing indie-comics portion of the funnybook industry: that is, a wide variety of expression within genres one might think of as mainstream comics territory.
Festivals Extra: Billy Ireland Announces Next Exhibits, On World War I And Puck Magazine
Yesterday the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum announced its next two exhibits, opening in late July and remaining open through most of January 2016. The first is "Seeing The Great War," curated by Lucy Caswell, about the work generated during the First World War and popular work in cartoon form generated afterwards, both of which contributed to how we've come to understand that world event. I know Caswell has been gearing up for that one for quite a while, and it should be make for an impressive showing of the museum's holdings.
The second is "What Fools These Mortals Be! The Story Of Puck," curated by Richard Samuel West and Michael Alexander Kahn from work done during their making of the 2014 book from IDW of the same name (well, that opening phrase, anyway). If that's anything like the book, it should be stupendous looking.
These will also be the exhibits open during this year's launch of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, a festival I'm running.
More information through the link, including the wholly impressive word "chromolithograph."
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* it's Comic-Con International that's on everyone's minds now, or at least the bulk of the comics people thinking about conventions. It's not the panic it used to be, I think mostly because Comic-Con has stopped changing from year to year so much and also there's been some turnover in the industry part of the comics industry. If you're left, SDCC is either sort of normal, at least compared to last year's show, or you're really confident in your ability to handle it, or both. I'm looking forward to three days and two nights in the beautiful souther California weather, a bunch of meetings and many meals out. I'm looking forward to seeing what's on the mind of pals of mine out of the small press part of the industry.
* The Beatpicked up on a "hassles at a con" story that I totally missed: apparently a show had a hard time organizing its artist's alley section and responded with confusing steps and a lot of nasty insults far from the public eye that were made public because that's what happens now. Comics is kind of a broken vehicle on the talent end, and cons are one of the few things that work at different levels, so there's going to be some real tension when something gets messed up.
* finally, if someone could kickstart an extra weekend for April, September and October, I'm sure the people who run comic conventions would support this. No links, I'm just thinking out loud now.
* not comics: I didn't know that Jim Davis was working on a musical version of Garfield. Or I knew it and forgot. Either way, good for him. That's a big deal for cartoonists of his generation to have that specific kind of adaptation done. Davis is also a talented actor, at least my parents always said so.
* hard to believe that Todd McFarlane's run on the Spider-Man character was a quarter-century ago. I'll leave it up to you to decided in which direction.
* "Benoit Crucifix" is the best name ever for a writer about comics.
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.
*****
JAN150495 DON ROSA LIFE & TIMES SCROOGE MCDUCK ARTIST ED HC VOL 01 PI
Don Rosa is a cartoonist greater than the sum of his craft-level parts and his duck work is one of the great, pleasant, overall surprises of the last five decades. Seeing the work at this size and in this format strikes me as fun; but just about every encounter with this work is fun.
MAY151312 STROPPY HC (MR) $21.95
No better way to mark the new regime at Drawn and Quarterly than a big, fat, sure-to-be-lovely Marc Bell book. I think this is Bell's first significant book in four, perhaps five years, and this one promises something of a continuing narrative -- enough to make note of it on their web site. You should go look at a few pages to see if it's something that you might want to give a try; I find that work deeply rewarding.
FEB150117 KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE TP VOL 14 (MR) $12.99
This is the best of the mainstream ("known to fans of translated manga) works out this week. It's amazing to me they're up to volume fourteen.
APR150022 RESIDENT ALIEN SAM HAIN MYSTERY #2 $3.99 APR150256 BATGIRL #41 $2.99 APR150252 SUPERMAN #41 $3.99 APR151254 ADVENTURE TIME #41 $3.99 APR158439 KAIJUMAX #1 2ND PTG $3.99 APR150672 SEX #22 (MR) $2.99
It's an interesting week for comics periodicals. I've liked all the Resident Alien comics I've read and will likely enjoy this one when I catch up. The books starring Batgirl and Superman listed here are going to be among the DC books of highest interest coming out of the summer: Batgirl as more and more people see it as a paradigm-changing book, Superman to see if writer Gene Yang can match his very effective personal work and solid licensed work with one of the bigger properties ever. There's an Adventure Time comic book out this week; might be a good week to try one of those if you haven't. Zander Cannon's first issue of Kaijumax is in a second printing; he's always a fun cartoonists. Finaly, Sex #22 is in full-on layered storyline mode now, a bunch of previous groundwork beginning to pay off even as they build to the next work
APR150984 HIC HOC JOURNAL OF HUMOR VOL 01 UNITED STATES (MR) $10.00
Interesting young publisher; great price point. That's a nice line-up of younger talent, too. I'm pretty sure this is a reprint or retry of some kind, as I'm sure I've seen a version in stores.
APR151830 ON THE ROPES GN $17.95
This is a softcover reprint of the Kings In Disguise sequel from 2013; I liked the book, and it was fascinating to read something done in a style that was so common 25 years and isn't used all that much anymore. I wish James Vance had done more comics like this, with a variety of artistic partners, but I kind of wish that were a true thing more generally.
MAR150857 RUSSIAN OLIVE TO RED KING HC (MR) $24.95
Stuart and Kathryn Immonen are two of the best comics citizens. One thing I like about their non-mainstream work is that it seems stridently different than the work each one does for corporate superhero comics. This is a sharp-looking book from that publisher of sharp-looking books, AdHouse.
*****
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.
* Michael Hill lines up various statements by Jack Kirby over the years to show that his story about working at Marvel was reasonably consistent. A criticism of Kirby's position is that Gary Groth or the situation with the original art had caused him to change a longstanding view of the events.
* I can't imagine it's a lot of people that wanted to know what Jake Tapper's drawings look like, not really, but you can count me among their number. We are now satisfied.
Festivals Extra: Eisners Annnounces Sponsors, Event Details The Eisner Awards announced the details of its 2015 awards ceremony and its major sponsors for this year's honors on July 10th in conjunction with Comic-Con International weekend.
Showtime will serve as title sponsor. Arch Enemy Entertainment will be the major sponsor. Principal sponsors are comiXology and Gentle Giant Studios. Supporting sponsors are Alternate Reality Comics, Atlantis Fantasy World, Diamond Comics/Geppi Entertainment Museum, Flying Colors & Other Cool Stuff, Marquis Book and Strange Adventures.
Comic-Con International continues to underwrite and support the program.
The doors will open at 7:45 PM (with advance seating for nominees, sponsors, presenters and pro badges at 7:00 PM). The ceremony starts at 8:00 PM with a hoped-for conclusion around 10:30 PM. There are 29 categories this year. The ceremony also encompases other awards: the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award, the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award and the Bill Finger Award For Excellence In Comic Book Writing. DC Comics is the major sponsor for the Finger Award; Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson are supporting sponsors.
The ceremony's theme will involve the 75th anniversary of Will Eisner's The Spirit.
I hope to be there, three rows from the back. My title sponsor is Budweiser.
* this Paul Pope cover will adorn the next iteration of The Badger, a reasonably popular 1980s indie-superhero character that never quite found its creative footing back then and hasn't in a few relaunch tries since. I wish them luck. I have a younger brother who is very fond of the character.
* Marvel will be doing a new Doctor Strange comic with Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo. I don't know everything about mainstream comics, but those are super-solid creators and rank even higher on an available talent scale with some of the talent hours that Marvel has lost to Image Comics recently. That indicates the character is a priority, which makes sense with a movie coming out. That's not a character with which Marvel has done all that well compared to the rich assortment of stories in the bank for the other 1960s characters. There's a lot of untapped potential there which is really odd considering how exhausted most Marvel/DC characters seem these days.
* far bigger news for Marvel is that they'll be doing a comic about the Miles Morales character in the standard Marvel comics "universe." That's a popular character, and the way he connects with a certain fanbase that sees themselves in him is quite admirable.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Aw Yeah! adds a third retail location. Congrats to them. I like the Muncie location, and try to stop by every time I'm in town.
* this idea of paying authors according to how many pages are read strikes me as fundamentally wrong, but I suppose we're way past any system I might prefer. I think artists or publishers to whom artists cede control in this specific area should set a price according to however the hell they want. People can either sell it or not, buy it or not. That's not what we have now except in a few broad circumstances, and it sounds like it will lurch even further in the other direction. It should be interesting to see if there's a different reaction in comics than there has been in prose.
* finally, another bit of not comics: a couple of folks sent in links to this piece, where an artist suggest a donation to charity of a discount on art work rather than a donation of art work outright.
Comixology Announces Deal With Hold-Out Dark Horse
Here's the press release from Comixology about their now working with Dark Horse, a longtime holdout in terms of doing their primary digital work themselves. This is for collections, graphic novels and manga -- stuff with a spine -- and seems to have worked through the digital supplier's position as the digital comics of Amazon, which includes Kindle.
I'm told this was fairly spoiled by a recent ad campaign's visual signifiers, but it's new to me! This is the significant direct market player that as of yet wasn't with the digital company, so it's a big deal in a kind of foundational way. For customers, I imagine it means more. I don't know what the deal is yet with previous customers and what transfers, so I'm going to play catch on that and report back to you later.
* Blankets, Craig Thompson, softcover and hardcover, Fall 2015
* Was She Pretty?, Leanne Shapton, softcover, Winter 2016
* How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, Sarah Glidden, softcover, Fall 2016
* Spaniel Rage, Vanessa Davis, softcover, Spring 2016
I would say all of those books have sales life, significantly so in a couple of cases, and all potentially fit into future publishing plans. Thompson to my memory hasn't announced a book to follow his Scholastic all-ages book this year, Space Dumplins, and Glidden's reprint will support her new book at D&Q also due sometime in the next 24 months.
Go, Read: Jaime Weinman On Comics And Continuity I had fun reading this Jaime Weinman article on continuity in comics, which I think is fairly and pretty deeply engaged with that phenomenon as its exists within a lot of those comics, particularly superhero ones. I particularly like the section on Don Rosa's Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck using continuity a tool to create a personally meaningful and fun comic book story, and I think looking at Jonathan Hickman's comics as really only interested in Jonathan Hickman-created continuity is a smart way to go.
Continuity as it is used in comics is such a weird thing that there's a lot of stuff only somewhat touched on to outright passed over in the Weinman piece that could make for their own articles. This includes but is not restricted to: the way that these characters resist continuity just from sheer story density shoehorned into a character's timeline that can't progress too far, continuity as a way to upgrade a character's modern appeal, the creative appeal of re-visiting old and potent storylines, no-continuity as continuity where comparison between versions is part of the point, lightening up on continuity as a way to lessen the burden placed on editors (and get better value from them), lightening up on continuity as a way to maybe get creators with options elsewhere to work on characters not their own, and continuity as something to be corrected in order to better realize a larger corporate goal. Corn products are to processed food what Continuity is to conceptions of mainstream comics.
I liked continuity when I was invested in Marvel Comics. It was one of the things most appealing to me, this idea of a story that was unfolding over several years and the commitment on the part of the company that they would try to make it one story. Then again, I was near enough to the beginning of that company's modern existence that the overall story sill sort of made sense with only a little compression of time needed, and there were really good concepts that sold well enough to stick around but not well enough they couldn't be played with (Daredevil, the X-Men), so I got some new in there, too. Since I love the Rosa and really love the Jaime Hernandez Locas comics, I would assume that most of any objections I make to comics that seek a sense of continuity is when corporations are the one in charge of it.
Go, Read: Robert Boyd With An Historical Mainstream Treatment Of Creators Primer
Not like I've gone through and vetted this point by point, but writer about the arts Robert Boyd put in his comics time with dedication and aplomb and I trust that what he has to say about creators' rights and comics industry history to be worth reading. That's even though we live in an Internet age where I will now likely get an e-mail from some strident person in full Skip Bayliss mode declaring this article to be the worst thing ever.
I don't know how you get past the broader points in these cases, and the broader points indicate a mindset and general strategy enacted over decades that has rarely suited creators. We still live in that time. Even if things are slightly better now, the fundamental orientation seems clear to most creators to whom I speak, nearly all of whom are overjoyed to find a place for their own creations free of creative hierarchies and branding strategies.
Go, Read: Let’s All Be Careful Out There
Caitlin McGurk of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has an interesting post here about art on eBay claiming to be original Calvin & Hobbes strips. While making clear the Billy isn't in the business of appraising art in any way, and that her post is no substitute for seeking that out, she uses a few examples to suggest that it might behoove those finding an art buy too good to be true to be very, very careful. We live in an age where a lot of people have a lot of basic art skills, and a significant subset of those people know how to use digital in ways that might obscure the provenance of art they'd like you to buy for what it resembles rather than what it is.
By Request Extra: Annie Mok Facilitating A Comics Bundle To Benefit Emanuel AME Church This sounds like a great idea, even though I bet there are people out there that cringe a little bit every time there's a new bundle because they've done so well with one themselves. Still, as I wrote earlier today in the regular column: giving to them seems like a great idea to me for the sake of the good that might be done and for the sake of giving that church and its parishioners more to do in this time of shock and grief.
".(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)."
Bundled Extra: Two From Kelly Sue DeConnick The writer Kelly Sue DeConnick made two announcements over the weekend at HeroesCon in Charlotte well worth noting.
The first is that after the sprawling Secret Wars event series at Marvel, she will no longer be writing the Captain Marvel character in whatever form its solo comic is currently taking or due to take (my apologies; I have a hard time tracking comic book series at Marvel). In other words, she's done writing the character, which she's done since July 2012. During that time, Captain Marvel moved from intermittent and solid supporting character to intellectual property first-teamer, including a planned solo movie. The Carol Corps, an emerging group of fans devoted to the character primarily but not restricted to this most recent iteration, was another aspect of DeConnick's run which made business folks, fellow creators and pop-culture historians stand up and notice.
Given the recent thrust of DeConnick's career towards creating work that she owns with corresponding creative and financial benefit, it's a surprise that she's continued with the character for as long as she has.
* it doesn't seem as if this Nikola Tesla-related comic will need all that much help from CR readers to meet its goals, but that doesn't mean some of you won't be interested in participating in the crowdfunder.
* my not-comics request of the week is the Emanuel Church folks in Charleston. My experience is that AME churches are really good at returning value to the community on donations, and that's a church that will be looking for ways to perform service after the shattering murderous spree of last week.
* finally, just a couple of days left for Robyn Chapman's annual report on small-press doings, The Tiny Report.
* Patrick A. Reed remembers the writer and editor Mark Gruenwald. Gruenwald's was the first obituary I wrote for The Comics Journal, and I remember the magazine's relationship with a significant swathe of comics was such that a friend of Gruenwald's listened in on my conversations with the widow in case I tried to pull something sneaky. I thought of Gruenwald a great deal a couple of years back when Kim Thompson passed away. They were letter-circle peers, and Kim was quite sad to learn that Gruenwald had passed away. He said that Gruenwald was as perfect a fit working at Marvel as Kim was at Fantagraphics. I heard once Gruenwald had an adult-sized teeter-totter at his home and occasionally conducted meetings on it, which I really, really hope is true.
Reminder: Gasoline Alley Is A Great Strip About Fatherhood
I've thought a lot about Gasoline Alley this weekend, as a result of Ben Schwartz's New Yorker essay on the great strip, spotlighted below. I thought I'd provide several weeks for similar consideration by any of you so willing. It's a really great strip to read, although it took me seeing the strip in its pre-Skeezix incarnation for me to fully get what King was doing later on.
In a way, the comic strip is the best form for exploring things that happen to us day to day and primary relationships within one's family are one of those things. Life and serial-narrative comic strips are collections of moments, some profound and many incidental. There is a quiet deliberation and an almost invisible quality to their nature.
I wish for you the time and mood and mindset and resources to do a similar exploration of Frank King's work somewhere down the road. I'm very grateful for Gasoline Alley, and for all of those that have done some work of their own on its behalf. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, no matter when and where and for what audience they became one.
Here are some strips. In the old days this used to be a bad thing because you were "illustrating" your article with someone else's work, but I hope that these can be treated as destinations to visit. I'll take down any link asked. I'm also not 100 percent sure every page/strip is from King, as I'm not familiar with all the permutations of the strip. But this should give you an idea as to its offhand visual strength and its lovely pacing.
FFF Results Post #421—Mid-Major Super-Baddies
On Friday, CR asked readers to "Name Five Superpower-Having Villains (Individuals Or Pairs) You Enjoy That Aren't/Weren't Published By Marvel, Image Or DC Comics. This is how they responded.
*****
Mike Pfefferkorn
1. Plutonian (Irredeemable)
2. Lord Saker (Elementals)
3. Judge Death (Judge Dredd) (pictured)
4. Magica De Spell (Uncle Scrooge)
5. Caliginous (Hero Squared)
1. Old Cho (Domu: A Child's Dream)
2. Gotou (Parasyte)
3. Zapan (Battle Angel Alita) (pictured)
4. Chicken George (Fourteen)
5. Shampoo (Ranma 1/2)
*****
Dave Knott
* Two-Tank Omen (American Barbarian)
* Argent (Grendel)
* The Black Flame (B.P.R.D.)
* Jei (Usagi Yojimbo) (pictured)
* Sathanas (Next Men)
*****
Marty Yohn
1. Dr. Dinosaur (Atomic Robo) (pictured)
2. Baron Heinrich van Helsingard (Atomic Robo)
3. The White Violin (Umbrella Academy)
4. The Plutonian (Irredeemable)
5. Briar (Bone)
1. Andor (Dynamo / T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents)
2. Necross the Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Mad (Cerebus)
3. Magica DeSpell (Scrooge McDuck)
4. Mad Dr Doom (Little Archie)
5. Captain Krym (Kona, Monarch Of Monster Isle) [okay, he so didn't have a superpower, but he had a crew of pirates riding mutant dinosaurs and that's EVEN BETTER!] (pictured)
*****
Thanks to those that replied. I realize I am letting a lot of people get away with stuff on this one, but this was a hard question. Five times out of six, I'd just delete, so don't ever be surprised if that happens.
Quote Of The Week
"We had a dead period in terms of photos. We had no photos from the mid-2000s... before camera phones. We had all these early beautiful ones and then we'd have all the convention photos of the last couple years and then nothing in between." -- Peggy Burns
*****
the comic image selected is from the brief but notable 1970s run of Seaboard/Atlas
* this already-existing cartoon was posted a lot both as a genuine statement of anger and also in antcipation of the political arguments to come. The two impulses overlap, of course.
* there were some angry tweets out there comparing the emotional outburst that greeted the Charlie Hebdo murders in a disparaging way with perceived or even projected shortcomings in reactions to this act of horrifying terror. I sympathize with the anger, although I think the differences are important enough that it's hard for me to see them on a continuum. My heart was far more broken about South Carolina 24 hours after each dismaying act, but I can see where other people in other situations might find the Hebdo murders specifically affecting. They are both certainly horrible.
* of the folks I follow for comics purposes, it looks like Jeremy Whitley was the most prolific tweet maker about the murders in the day following, if you want to scroll back.
* finally, to show you how smart it was for Medium to start The Response I'm already refreshing the site waiting to see what it has to say on this matter. If this rolls out when I'm not around, hopefully there's something there. Or a bunch of things.
Missed It: Drawn And Quarterly Rolling Out A Bunch Of High Profile Book Announcements
This is on me and speaks to the fact I haven't made Drawn and Quarterly's still new to me web site the recurring source for information I should have by now, but the publisher that's been in the news all summer for its 25th Anniversary and change at the top has been announcing a series of big books for the next several months. Some of this is stuff I've heard about and some of it is stuff I haven't.
It looks like a typically great lineup for them, featuring a ton of artists with whom they've developed effective relationships and a couple of newbies that seems to fit right in. It's a big enough list I apologize in advance for missing someone, and I'm sure there are more announcements to come. I'll do it by artist, alphabetically.
As a group that's just a really formidable bunch. Wow. There's no bad entry point for analysis or for just reading.
The Chester Brown strikes me as the most notable in a publishing-news sense, just because his work with Bible stories has been a big component of Brown's hall of fame career and hasn't seen book format publication yet. The publisher's continuing relationship with Julie Doucet as she redefines her approach to art greatly benefits and delights this reader and fan. There is no talent more at the heart of that company than Doucet. The Laura Park announcement is really welcome. That's a great publisher for her. She's a world-class drawer of things and fun comics-maker that really hasn't had that one platform that this could be. If we can get Park working within the main thrust of altcomics like with this opportunity and with her PFC/Autoptic participation later this summer, I couldn't be happier.
The remaining books include three of my five personal favorite cartoonists, so trust me when I suggest it's all good.
I'll continue to cover these announcements, hopefully in a more timely and per-article basis.
Go, Look: Marvel’s Timeslip Universe Portraits never seen these before; what strikes me is that nearly all of them are really uninteresting, at least from my perspective
Marvel Expands/Extends Their Agreements With Comixology You can read the press release here. They're renewing the agreement they had to make comics available on the Comixology and Marvel sites, but now this gets expanded to Marvel work being available on Kindle because Comixology is Amazon's digital comics arm, and that means Kindle.
I'm all for comics being as widely available and on as many platforms as possible online, so this is good news as far as I'm concerned. I enjoy reading individual comic book issues this way, particularly in the superhero genre which isn't a genre I follow in a lot of other ways.
Go, Read: Brigid Alverson At Robot 6 On Tintin In Winnipeg Brigid Alverson has a nice write-up here about the Winnipeg Library returning Tintin In America to its shelves. The stories about a challege to the book first surfaced in March. The twist is that it's being returned to a shelf where an adult can get it, but not I guess kids just reading through things.
I think this is interesting set of issues, and I'm not sure that my impulses in terms of absolute free speech encompass all that I find compelling about what's involved here. There are a lot of older books, including a lot of classic comics, that don't meet the bare minimum of what you and I might expect in terms of attitudes towards different races and sexes and cultures where we would be automatically delighted to see them in a young person's backpack. I'm actually surprised we haven't seen more scorched earth rhetoric about simply leaving such books behind, but I certainly don't want that, either. I suspect we muddle through.
Heroes Con Gets Underway In Charlotte Today
Good luck to those attending Heroes Con and an extra wish of same for those running the long existing regional show of import and, for most folks in comics, great affection. I'm sad I won't get to see Shelton Drum, Rico Renzi and the Odin of volunteers Andrew Mansell until this time next year.
That's a show that has a formula that works. It's focused on comics, and primarily creators of comics. It's very generous in terms of its guest list, which it gets back in terms of the loyalty people feel to the show and the willingness to participate in its profitable art auction. The days are reasonably long, but the nights are satisfying: as a regional business hub, Charlotte is stuffed with good restaurants and the show is still of a size where the professionals can haunt the same bar in a boisterous, industry wide way. At the end of the show, those staying over on Sunday night crowd into the show's host store and eat from food trucks and drink beer under tents.
If you're going, and I think this is one you should attend at some point if you have an interest that can be met there, the rewards are for the most part derived from the basics of con attending. It's a show where a lot of dealers show up with cheap comics; it's by far the show where I see the most pros buy comics. It has a significant drawing culture, fans paying for pinups that were made in advance, commissioned in advanced, or arranged at the show. It's also a show where people build relationships over several years, and love checking in, and love talking and catching up. It's a show with underrated panels, many of the best only lightly attended.
It's very sweet, really, and I always missing not attending when circumstances prevent me from doing so. Have fun, everyone.
Go, Read: The Mary Sue Is Seeking A Senior Editor Here. I like how specific they are in their instructions to potential candidates, and I like thinking about all the way that people will proudly ignore those instructions and get round filed. As always: stay empowered, keep your personal ethics about you and good luck.
* someone sent me here, which indicates that Dave Kellett will be doing some shared universe stuff with people contributing to stories set in the same milieu as his Drive comic. I'm surprised there isn't a bit more of that, although maybe I'm just not seeing it.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* another student sent home for class for wishing death upon his classmates and writing their names down in a notebook. Neither one will get you sent home on your own. Is it weird that I can see the school's side with this one? I don't think these are serious death threats but it's a pretty straightforward act of disruption. Then again, kids lives are so tough, and anyone writing in a notebook like this is probably a victim in 98 percent of cases.
* a few paragraphs from Jules Feiffer, a kind of "in his own words" thing. It's going to be fun to see Jules Feiffer at shows and the like over the next several years.
* IDW will do a crossover between two nearly similar versions of Ghostbusters. I've seen that done, but maybe not as closely as these two different versions are.
* Tim Hodler writes about the severe reaction Chris Ware's comics frequently receive, how they seem to be a combination of external factions and genuine dismay/hatred at/for Ware's approach. Hodler writes like the best liver paté spreads across a slice of a bread, and I wish we got more of it.
By Request Extra: Please Consider A Donation To Emanuel AME Church Totally not comics.
There's a lot of comics news out there today, and hopefully I'll get to it by the end of business hours. Right this minute I'm a little heartbroken, and thus paralyzed, that we've had one of those national shooting tragedies, this time at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. I went to school with a number of AME clergy, and they were the best of us. Emanuel is one of the great holy sites of America, a church that served those that suffered worst at the hands of an American conception of liberty that allowed for the evils of slavery.
I'm not one to leap to political positions in immediate fashion, so I don't have a reaction that way. I do know that a church like Emanuel can always put to good use donated money. I think they'll want to be out there doing what they can as a way to honor their fallen members, our citizens and neighbors, because that's what a church does. I hope you'll consider giving.
* CAKE reminds that the annual award they do where someone gets sponsored and set up at the show is still accepting applications for few more days. That sounds like a fine little program, and I urge people to participate if they're eligible. Speaking of CAKE, while I did hear a range of experiences from the exhibitor end, that higher-end people were very enthusiastic, not just politey so. John Porcellino said it was his best show ever by a double-digit percentage-point number, which is astonishing considering how many shows that guy has done.
* finally, someone whose name I can't figure out has a few words for the new direction they're taking with Superman. I am all for unique stories being told with these characters, but they all seem exhausted to me.
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.
*****
JAN151442 COMPLETE EIGHTBALL HC BOX SET ISSUES 1 - 18 (MR) $119.99
This is almost certainly one of the half-dozen must-haves of the year, the comic-book formatted issues of one of the great series of all time, featuring the work of Daniel Clowes. The packaging is super thoughtful and thought out, and of course the comics are great. It's nice to be reminded as we become more of a graphic novel culture how many short comics are in here and how many hit hard. It's also hilarious to learn that everything that Clowes wrote about Dan Pussey, which was a feature his editor Kim Thompson apparently loved leading Clowes to make more of them than he might have otherwise, was true except for the final fade into obscurity. It's all NYT obits now.
FEB150911 CLOVER HONEY 20TH ANNIVERSARY ED GN (MR) $14.95
This week's argument for feeling really old, this is Rich Tommaso's career jumpstarter (after the Eros title Cannibal Porn. As I recall, it was early enough in the big book era that a talent as young as Tommaso doing a standalone without serializing first was considered a very strange thing. It was also one of the early recipients of a television development deal -- that's my memory, anyway -- and one can see the appeal this might have had in that medium. Expanded and revised.
FEB150051 AW YEAH COMICS TP VOL 02 TIME FOR ADVENTURE $12.99
This is a second volume of the kids comics by those nice men that do tiny versions of DC superheroes as comics and are also retailers. It's not something I'm interested in now, but they're very snappy, cute comics and I've seen plenty of kids devour them like Edmund Pevensie pounds down Turkish Delight.
APR150038 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #6 $3.99
Everything Sergio Aragones does is important and if that encompasses something to buy, I will buy it.
APR150041 USAGI YOJIMBO #146 $3.50 FEB150045 USAGI YOJIMBO TP VOL 29 TWO HUNDRED JIZO $17.99
Double ditto Stan Sakai and his Usagi Yojimbo books, a book for children (well, whose audience includes children) that has a quality to the cartooning that interests me enough I'm a reader. I buy these in comics form in chunks when I'm able, but the trade series is where most people should start. While some people may not want to read the entire saga, I can't imagine too many folks not having some fun dipping into the series and experience what he does with tone and mood and pacing.
APR150066 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #132 $3.50 APR150313 ASTRO CITY #24 $3.99 APR150183 BLACK CANARY #1 $2.99 APR150189 DR FATE #1 $2.99 APR150199 MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1 $2.99 APR150205 PREZ #1 $2.99 MAR150572 LAZARUS #17 (MR) $3.50 APR150167 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 $5.99 APR151230 LUMBERJANES #15 $3.99 APR150682 TREES #10 (MR) $2.99 APR151621 KAIJUMAX #3 $3.99
This is a fairly extensive list of comic book format comics for the week. We have your Mignolaverse comic right up top, mostly because Dark Horse is listed first of all the big publishers. Astro City is now two dozen into this latest iteration; that's a comic I also do in big chunks as I'm able to find them at slightly less than full price, but it strikes me as working the same basic vein of material the much lauded 1990s iteration of the title did. What follows is four well hyped comics from the DC running soft reboot. I think Prez is the most interesting choice there: it seems the least DC superheroish title and the most like kids literature hits more generally. I enjoy that Lazarus book when I see it; it reminds me of the Vertigo series of the 1990s in a good way, even though I wasn't always a reader for those titles. The JLA book I'm just pointing out the price point. Lumberjanes is still early on enough in its run that you can catch up with only a little effort, but that won't be true forever. Trees has been for me the most interesting of the recent Warren Ellis genre books: there's a real slowness to those early issues that reminds of recent prestige TV. And finally, you have Zander Cannon drawing monsters, so you want that.
APR151507 COMPLETE CRUMB COMICS TP VOL 16 1980S MORE STRUGGLE $19.99 FEB151419 COMPLETE PEANUTS HC VOL 23 1995-1996 $29.99 MAR151350 EC GRAHAM INGELS GRAVE BUSINESS & OTHER STORIES HC $29.99
Two books from two of Fantagraphics' strongest reprint lines. I know the Peanuts is past this point; not sure about the Crumb. Crumb's work in the 1980s was also sort of a running soft reboot. I can't tell with the EC stuff if I'm just not into horror comics or if there's something about their plan to reprint by author that makes some volumes less interesting. I want them all on my shelf, and find this strategy so much better in so many artists' cases, but I'm not sure if a few of them I make little to no attempt to read.
APR151602 DUNGEON MONSTRES GN VOL 05 MY SON THE KILLER $14.99
NBM finished the main Donjon series translations, but there are still some of the periphery albums to come. This one features work by Blutch, Frédéric Bézian, Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar (the later two writing), and those are some pretty gigantic names, or at least the three I know are. I will own this book.
MAR151400 REDHAND DLX HC (MR) $34.95
Started by one creative team (including writer Kurt Busiek) and concluded by another, this is a kind of European genre comic we don't see a lot of in North America these days, or it's at least a kind of book to which less attention might be paid than is warranted. I would certainly stop and look at this were it to appear in my comic book shop, although that's a price point that might exceed my enthusiasm for such series.
DEC141505 COLLECTED POEMS HC THEROUX $39.99
I very much liked Theroux's work with Edward Gorey and Al Capp as subject; could not penetrate the novel that Fantagraphics subsequently published but that is totally me. His prose indicates a love for words and an economy of use that might make him a very good poet. God bless Fantagraphics for publishing something this decidedly uncommercial.
FEB151449 SUMMIT OF GODS GN VOL 05 $25.00 APR151804 FRAGMENTS OF HORROR HC JUNJI ITO (MR) $17.99 APR151803 MASTER KEATON GN VOL 03 $19.99
This is an extremely deep week for potentialy compelling work, and even includes three manga works from artists I don't have to explain or contextualize: Jiro Taniguchi (with the last volume in that series), Junji Ito and Naoki Urusawa (art only, but still). The Ito I can imagine being someone's first or perhaps even only purchase this week, dependent on taste and the number of books they choose to keep; I think that's all short stories, and Ito is a formidable talent whose work really shines in bursts like that.
APR150986 ME LIKES YOU VERY MUCH GN (MR) $14.00
Someone should correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this work has been around for direct order for a little while and this is more just the book now being available to Direct Market comics retailers. This Hic & Hoc published work spotlights webcomics from Lauren Barnett.
FEB150457 LOAC ESSENTIALS HC VOL 07 TARZAN ORIGINAL DAILIES $29.99 FEB150109 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN HC $19.99 FEB150110 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN LTD HC $49.99 FEB150111 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS TARZAN OMNIBUS TP $24.99
It's highly unlikely we'll ever be as crazy about Tarzan as people 70, 80, 90 years ago were crazy about the guy, but people used to say that about Sherlock Holmes and there's like six of him running around right now. The choice here is the LOAC Essentials book of dailies from a specific Hal Foster year. Foster's work was fascinating on that character even if you don't see it in the context of the forthcoming, legendary Prince Valiant run. The originals are ridiculous, too, if you ever get the chance.
*****
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.
X-Men #137 was the climactic point of the long Chris Claremont/John Byrne partnership on Marvel's X-Men characters, which along with Frank Miller's work on Daredevil became foundational comics for everything that's come since. I've also heard it called the last fan-favorite newsstand comic, although I'm not sure that's 100 percent true.
To my memory, no superhero book did or has since done the superheroes-as-underdogs thing any better over a sustained period of time than that series did. With most superheroes and superhero teams there are fans that derive an uneasy amount of self-worth from one or more of the characters and therefore can't stand seeing them struggle. The X-Men line-up was new enough that dragging them through the mud was still possible. These could be dour, deathsoaked comics in a way that really appealed to a lot of kids I knew: it isn't just identification with characters that bonds a comic to a kid, it can be a whiff that the journeys are much the same; teens love doomed romanticism, or at least I did.
I stopped comics for a while and my first buy back was X-Men #125, so I basically owe this series the shape of my entire life. By the time #137 came around I was a big fan again and bought a lot of different comics and had enough momentum in doing so that I would never again stop, not even really in college.
Bundled Extra: First Second Announces Winter 2016 List
First Second Books has just shipped out the basic information on its Winter 2016 season, its tenth anniversary year. In an appropriate way given that the line is in a place of maturity, the books announced rely heavily on sequels in series: books featuring the Delilah Dirk character, the Last Man setting and the Glorkian Warrior, and another book in the Olympians line.
There is also one reprint, Sara Varon's Sweaterweather, which will get a new cover and be expanded.
The sole book from a series we haven't seen before, The Nameless City, is the first in a trilogy.
It does look like one of their seasons without a book aimed squarely at the adult market first and foremost, although they may disagree.
I look forward to seeing all of the new books and translations. Congratulations to the authors on placing their work and to First Second on its forthcoming anniversary.
Your 2015 Shuster Award Nominees The Joe Shuster Awards, a program that focuses on a broad range of cartooning expressions from Canadian comicsmakers, has announced its most recent slate of nominees.
To qualify, creators "must be Canadian citizens -- living at home or abroad, or a recognized as a permanent resident of Canada and been living in Canada for at least three years."
Final winners will be selected by a jury and announced this Fall at an as yet unnamed location.
* Michael Hirsh (1948-) And Patrick Loubert (1947-)
* Robert Charpentier (1960-2014)
*****
Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame
* Doris Slater (1918-1964)
* James Waley
*****
I believe those last two are recipients rather than nominees, and of course the Gene Day Award is listed as forthcoming. To read more about the various award sponsors and the awards themselves, go to that initial link.
Congratulations To John Martz On His Joanne Fitzgerald Illustrator In Residence Gig This press release seems pretty selfâ€explanatory, but I wanted to mention it here because a) that's a nice news story, b) I enjoy John's work and think whatever program that has him wil benefit, 3) I hope that comics people will apply for everything and win their share.
I Haven’t Written About The Tara Shultz Story Yet
Sorry. It's this right here. It was hard for me to get my arms around that much stupid.
In a nutshell, a 20-year-old Crafton Hills College student complained about the comics used in an English course and protested them with the help of her friends and her parents. She wanted them eradicated from the course. Her objections were to lurid content as presented through the comics medium: an enduring classic. The college said no, except that they'd put a disclaimer on they syllabus because of no good reason anyone can articulate. The father of the student vows to fight on.
There was one interesting thing I guess in that this was presented to me by friends as a trigger warning story gone wild, when in actuality it just seems like a straight up attack on content. The other interesting thing I've noticed in these stories is that the student's parents are that involved. I would have had to have paid my parents $40,000 each to take up one of my campus crusades, and mine were much less dumb.
I'm one of those cranky dudes that believe that our national obsession with going to college has allowed that entire segment of our society to adopt significant boondoggle elements. This shows another side, that in certain sectors you have so much competition now for students that students can assume that the education they're about to receive will suit them and whatever proclivities and desires they bring to bear exactly as they would like to see their wishes fulfilled. In the end, a significant segment of our popular may be better off in the long run buying a house rather than paying tuition.
* the great Ron Regé Jr. is participating in a newspring project sponsored by Crushed Crustaceon.
* I am not the last authority on publishing deals, obviously, or I would be making them rather than reporting on them. That said, it's hard for me to imagine a scenario in which these comics involving Bill Jemas will survive the initial investment period. I've been wrong before.
* Johanna Draper Carlson notes the cancellation of the Image title A Voice In The Dark. That one has a fascinating backstory, and I wish the creator in question the best of luck.
* the "lost" Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale superhero series, Captain America: White, will finally be published after a long delay. I like those stand-alone stories that they've done just fine, and I'm sure I'll catch up to this effort at some point down the line.
* Colleen Doran writes about her involvement with the forthcoming graphic memoir featuring Stan Lee, including the speed with which that project has come together.
* finally, here's some good news I didn't know about at all. The Bob Weber/Jay Stephens strip Oh, Brother!is set to have a book from Andrews McMeel. I had not counted on that. That was a well drawn, well-executed piece of entertainment.
* not comics: Nimona to animation. That one should work very well in animated form.
* I like the John Constantine character, and I like that aspect of his character. It seems more broadly played in the excerpt (the light-hearted inner dialogue) than I think it would have been in the comics with the character I read as a kid, but that's something I would imagine adheres more closely to the character as he's become refashioned and reblended into the DC superhero universe. I had not been aware they blew that off for the TV version.
* Bully discusses Marvel crediting the creators of certain characters. It's not perfect -- there are characters that aren't credited this way, the creation of characters that use an accrual of characteristics over decades is a fair thing to call into question, and some of the assignments might be problematic, but I'd rather be having this discussion than one about creator credit being used as a tool to disperse funds or all the other potential pitfalls. Keep going, Marvel.
* I've come to greatly appreciate these lengthy personal notes from Evan Dorkin as to the current state of his career. There's a balanced portrait there in terms of the ups and downs of maintaing a long-running freelance career.
Bongo Slips Quietly Away From comiXology; App Imminent
This is one of the things that happened quietly, at least in terms of my vantage point as a listener: apparently Bongo has ended its relationship with the digital comics provider comiXology. Both Bongo and comiXology commented as if each letter in response to my query cost them $10 million. Chip Mosher of comiXology told CR, simply, "Bongo is no longer available on comiXology." Susan Grode a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, speaking on behalf of Bongo, said, "Thank you for your email. My client has no response regarding Comixology. Bongo has created the Simpsons Store app for its comics and trade books on iTunes, to be released shortly."
The fear with digital sites that offer an incomplete or favor a kind of access model to works as opposed to full ownership of digital copies as the primary arrangement has been when a company ends their relationship with the provider, people will no longer be able to access those comics. I am told that is not the outcome here, that people are still able to access the Bongo comics to which they paid access through the part of the comiXology interface that features that person's purchases and store of accessible comics. What they can't do is buy more comics (obviously), or get at the comics they do have through a more general search. I use the general search interface rather than one geared towards the comics I own, so I understand that mechanism.
I also think the reply from Susan Grode was interesting in that it pivoted to an iTunes app. While it seems we've been moving more and more towards having as many ways to access material as possible, it is certainly an option for publisher to move toward preferred alternatives, either directly or cross-category. No one really knows what they're doing yet, so none of this has been set in stone.
The cover's by John Pham and where/how people found it is all right here. This is obviously good news. KE is still to my mind the reigning champion of serial anthologies, even though it feels like it's in the late afternoon of its lengthy day in the sun. Mostly, though, this should just yield a bunch of good comics. That Fantagraphics is doing it is interesting; it is due in March.
Your Danish Cartoons Controversy Hangover
Indian politican Yaqub Qureshi made a not-unexpected call for New Delhi to cut off diplomatic relations with the Netherlands after their version of a right-wing political grinder, Geert Wilders, announced plans to show Muhammed drawings from the recent cartoon contest in Texas. Qureshi you might remember as the politician who said he would provide a cash reward to the Charlie Hebdo killers and put a bounty on the head of Kurt Westergaard.
I like this story because it mixes a bunch of the flourishes of Muhammed imagery stories into one giant Mulligatawny of political opportunism. It's also good to suss out the implications of what's being asked for. The line for acceptable behavior is placed at such a rudimentary point that there is no space in the world for anything other than simply barring that kind of speech at every level. This is significantly different than criticizing -- even savagely -- the use of such imagery.
Go, Look: Open Call For Atena Farghadani-Related Comics Comic Riffs is repeating something it did when Ali Farzat was injured in Syria, this time on behalf of the young cartoonist Atena Farghadani who was recently cruelly sentenced to a dozen-plus years in jail for drawing a cartoon that dared to question sitting authorities. That something is calling on as many cartoonists as possible to draw something on her behalf.
That is a horrifying decision, and every bit of spotlight that can be thrown on what happened may or may not be useful in having that sentence reduced, commuted or vacated, but will certainly be helpful in creating a public expectation that she be taken care of no matter the outcome. In other words, it's hard to see any attention-getting mechanism failing; if it doesn't work right now it will almost certainly have a positive effect later on. I hope you'll consider reading up and perhaps joining in.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* congratulations to Leon Avelino on his new marriage. I wish the newly-wedded couple every happiness, and I'm sure everyone that knows the Secret Acres co-publisher wishes the same.
* not comics: a lot of folks are still passing around this blog post -- or the clickbait rewrites -- for Ursula Leguin's latest thoughts about Amazon.com as an overwhelming commercial force. I think what you do with this information is going to vary greatly by person, but I think there's great virtue in thinking about the implications of your work as a commoedity plugged into system that only has commodification as a value.
* the team at Comix Experience has recorded one of their ordering sessions. You have to have a pretty deep interest in how comics shops work to be interested in that one, but I can imagine people for whom this will be an eye-opener.
* the writer Sean T. Collins gives us a glimpse at one of his Grand Unified Theories, using an unpopular 1990s Green Lantern storyline as a springboard.
2. Calls for Zapiro's job re-emerge as a new wave of objections arrive, this time bolstered by social media.
3. Not exactly comics, but huge for one cartoonist and significant for comics in a paradigm shifting way: the theatrical preentation based on Alison Bechdel's Fun Homewins multiple Tony Awards, including best musical. This puts Bechdel's best-known work in the cultural firmament for what should be years to come, and suggests yet another path that talent comics-makers might take to engage with opportunities afforded them by well-received work.
Winner Of The Week
Alison Bechdel
Loser Of The Week
Nick Rodwell of Moulinsart
Quote Of The Week
"This was a bolt out of the blue -- like waking up to learn that the sky is orange." -- Bart Beaty, on the Moulinsart decision.
*****
the comic image selected is from the brief but notable 1970s run of Seaboard/Atlas
Links to stories, eyewitness accounts and resources concerning the 2015 edition of CAKE, held June 6-7 in and around the The Center On Halsted in Chicago.
This entry will continue to be updated for as long as people .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Not Comics: ICv2.com’s Short Report On The Doom That Came To Atlantic City FTC Settlement
The hobby business news and analysis site ICv2.com has a short report on a FTC settlement regarding a case where someone running a crowd-funder came nowhere close to making good on the promises made in asking for money, and then was unable to return the money. I imagine this will keep a few folks in check and have absolutely no effect on other people who do this kind of thing out of irresponsible compulsion. I'm actually more interested in how the specific monies in this case get move around or not, if contributors get anything back or if that's only according to the ability of the person involved to make it so.
* not comics: that is one fine actor to play a mostly forgettable comic book character. The appeal of these parts to really good actors is primarily an economic story about Hollywood right now, but there is something to a lot of what was created at that company once upon a time that gives actors like that material into which they can dig. I imagine you'll get a lot of fans complaining the lead and the villain should have been flipped for this movie, and maybe so.
Zapiro Back In The Middle Of A Cartoon-Related Controversy
There seem to be only two stories about South African cartoonist Zapiro: those with a lawsuit in them and those that you have to double-check to make sure there isn't a lawsuit somewhere in them. This latest seems to be the latter, about a criticized comment or two in a cartoon that has a number of broad shots against Jacob Zuma.
The two things that are different this time, at least to my eye, are 1) that this time social media will support the act of criticism in terms of providing it some punch and extending its life, and 2) this is the first time I've seen a direction-of-culture argument used specifically against him, that his work is foundationally underinformed and biased.
It should be to see how he negotiates both, or fails to.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* I actually have this weekend as being free of major shows. I'm sure I'm missing something, and I'm sure there are local/regional shows. The next weekend offers a bunch of stuff, including Heroes and ELCAF.
* this article is a fine reminder to make sure you're complying with local/state tax laws when you go to a convention to sell things, and that if you forget you can still do some good by donating work to be sold through a charity.
* Challengers Of The Unknown is an excellent concept but it needs to remain pared down; it resists embellishment. You can mess with the line-up, though.
* more costumes for the Batman. This is another thing where I don't quite understand the last five years of DC Comics. Because this is the kind of thing that reads totally differently if Batman's been around a few years as opposed to several.
* it's not a stretch to suggest that Al Williamson is the most talented comics-maker in comics history assigned to the number of odd projects that he was. What that means, though, is that there are a bunch of beautiful pages with familiar characters drawn by Williamson, like this one.
* finally, this article about Franklin Richards being kind of a goofy character touches on a weakness of the Unending Serial form of comics. A kid of two superheroes that is immensely powerful is a pretty good concept. But if you do 700 issues, everything gets used, and its in the use that it become a much less interesting concept.
Festivals Extra: CAKE Estimates Go As High As 5000 People It's in Heidi's round-up here. CAKE organizers were giving out stickers as a way to count attendees, and we'll probably hear from them at some point, but 1800-2400 each day might fair given what I saw Saturday. On the more subjective scale, it was busy but never fucked-up busy, I think they could host a lot more people in that space before it get uncomfortable or scary.
Sales reports I heard table to table both on the floor and checking back in via e-mail were actually all over the place as opposed to the wholly positive view that comes through that round-up. People seem more comfortable giving me "this wasn't as good as I thought it would be" reports than they were five years ago, for whatever reason. It seems like a successful show, though, overall, and the attendance figures and sales anecdotes overall have to be very, very encouraging. The last thing a good show does is develop a sizable audience that's willing to buy.
A book from AdHouse usually isn't "off the beaten path" material, but publisher Chris Pitzer wrote in to inform me that he thought Goldstein's book may have been lost a bit in the Direct Market shuffle and may have even come out over two weeks instead of just one -- a practice that some deny happens, although tons of people seem pretty convinced of it and it routinely shows up as a factor in Jog's shipping news columns at TCJ.
I thought this was a sharp-looking book, and an important one in terms of Goldstein's growth as a cartoonist. It was an early sell out at CAKE. I wish Goldstein and her publisher luck in getting it out there in front of potential customers.
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.
*****
FEB150411 JACK KIRBY KAMANDI ARTIST ED HC VOL 01 PI
Leave it to IDW to have the most anticipated book of the week and have it be something that's around four decades old in terms of the material in it. I cna't imagine this collection of several issues of Jack Kirby's post-apocalyptic, "not just talking apes" movie on paper fails to deliver in its original art form. If you had told me ten years ago about these books being done and asked me to consider it for a few hours and come back with three sets of comics I wanted to see treated that ways (oversized, color Xeroxes of black and white art), Kamandi would have been on my list. So look forward to spending several summers where flipping this grand thing open is a part of it.
APR151504 BLUBBER #1 $3.99 APR150668 SAGA #29 (MR) $2.99 APR150684 WALKING DEAD #142 (MR) $2.99 MAR158545 UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #1 HENDERSON 3RD PTG VAR $3.99 MAR158546 UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #2 HENDERSON 3RD PTG VAR $3.99 MAR158547 UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #3 HENDERSON 2ND PTG VAR $3.99 MAR158548 UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #4 HENDERSON 2ND PTG VAR $3.99 APR150953 RACHEL RISING #34 $3.99
It's an interesting week for comics. The belle of the ball on this short list is a new comic book by Gilbert Hernandez I didn't even know was coming out until I heard a rumor and asked Gilbert and he gave me a copy of this book. Some of Gilbert's best work has been wilder, short material done in the comic book format, so this one has a high bar to meet. Beto rarely disappoints. The Saga and Walking Dead books are to major players of right now in genre comics; I read both. If you wanted to pick up and catch up with the Squirrel Girl comics Marvel has been doing -- I know a ten year old that likes them very much -- this seems like it might be a good week to do so. And finally, I keep meaning to catch up with Rachel Rising, now 34 issues in! This will probably be that week.
MAR150864 ISLAND OF MEMORY GN VOL 01 (MR) $11.95
This is Todd Bak's first attempted at collected naturalist comics, and was one of my favorites when I bought it. If our tastes are alike, I bet you'll like it, too. One thing where you might break with me is this seems very much like a part of a larger work, and you can never tell with artist-directed work the likelihood of seeing that work completed. I also don't know what kind of release this is, because I read this a looonng time ago.
DEC141549 TERRY & PIRATES GEORGE WUNDER YEARS HC VOL 02 1948-1949 $60.00
This is likely to be gorgeous according to my memory of George Wunder's work. Unfortunately, my memor doesn't remember enjoy an unlimited number of the storylines in the post-Caniff Terry. I would find a place on my library shelf if I could afford it, though, for sure.
JAN150364 BATGIRL HC VOL 01 THE BATGIRL OF BURNSIDE (N52) $24.99 DEC148636 BATGIRL TP VOL 01 THE BATGIRL OF BURNSIDE (N52) $14.99 MAR150313 WAKE TP (MR) $17.99 MAR150527 EAST OF WEST TP VOL 04 WHO WANTS WAR $14.99 FEB150070 BPRD 1946 - 1948 HC $34.99 FEB150099 GRIP STRANGE WORLD OF MEN HC $19.99
Solid week for series trades and stand-alones taht remind me of series trades. Those first three represent two heavy hitters of the New 52 era, the third of which is the rare modern Vertigo story that seemed to penetrate into a broader version of public awareness. East Of West continues to grow on me. Even though I collect it in comics form, writer Jonathan Hickman as a longstanding love affair with trade design.
MAR151354 ADVENTURES OF TAD MARTIN #SICK SICK SIX $6.66
I'm going to assume this is the continuation of the Caliber comics from the early to mid 1990s and then I'm going to go straight to bed because the thought that this is the first I'm hearing about it has broken my heart. I went looking and found this sympathetic Brian Nicholson review. And now I want this comic.
MAR150866 SECRET VOICE #2 (MR) $8.00 MAR150869 TITAN #1 (MR) $4.95 MAR150865 IT WILL ALL HURT #1 (MR) $8.00
Three comics from Study Group Comic Books, from three talented comics-makers: Francois Vigneault, Zack Soto and Farel Dalrymple in order. In a perfect world -- for me, screw you -- these would be solid citizens in a diverse, fascinating world of physical comic book format comics. As it is, these are the first books Study Group has released through traditional Direct Market distribution. Of the three I'm only really familiar with the Soto work, which is fussy and frustrating a bit as Soto feels a bit unsettled in how he wants to work, but overall fun.
OCT140403 ABSOLUTE TRANSMETROPOLITAN HC VOL 01 (MR) $125.00
I was never the audience for this comics, now a full generation or more in the rear view window. I'm going to imagine that if it's printed in even the same neighborhood of the original comics that this will make quite the attractive fancy edition.
APR151309 TOWERKIND GN $15.00
This is well-liked small press work -- apparently amenable to all-ages -- now smartly collected by Conundrum, a publisher that's had consistently good taste in its recent publishing lifetime. It seems well-described here.
APR151165 BLEEDING COOL MAGAZINE #17 (MR) $5.99
All respect to Rich Johnston and his employers, keeping it alive in print.
APR151491 MIKES PLACE TRUE STORY LOVE BLUES TERROR IN TEL AVIV GN (MR) $22.99
I read this book, about a cosmopolitan blues club in Tel Aviv that suffers a terrorist attack as a filmmaker is trying to figure out things about the place that don't necessarily have much to do with that kind of dramatic bloodshed. I thought one thing it did pretty well was stayed patient so that the more intense acts of the last third of the book played out as both an evil and a banal act. I'm surprised by the price point; patient or not, it doesn't loom as a large book in my memory.
*****
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.
Not Comics: Reflections On Working In Proximity To Art
There's an article here my friends and are passing around about working in the arts, 2015, from a relocating Nathan Rabin. First of all, my heart goes out to that guy. It's a pretty sunny article, but I don't know that anyone likes to lose a job for whatever reason, and transitioning is difficult. I thought the article was interesting and maybe worth reading for all the people that aspire to working whin the comics industry, like I used to when I was at Fantagraphics Books, or in the same neighborhood, like I do now.
The main lesson may be that we all have limited shelf lives. This is true of artists and this is increasingly true of industry folks. This may turn out to be true of writers about the comics form. Placing an expectation of return on these kinds of gigs seems to me just as dangerous as thinking that your art will sustain you.
* there's a terrific, lengthy, local history post here from the cartoonist Derf Backderf about a public area in Cleveland that may or may not be renamed after the late Harvey Pekar.
* I'll make note of this piece of art in the appropriate collective memory, but it's nice enough I wanted to show it off here. We need to invite more cartoonists to visit all of us so that flattering pictures can be drawn.
* a link to this Green Leader cartoon has been sent to my inbox four times now, which is a lot in this era of social media over direct engagement. I like the cartoon just fine, although I like the anonymous heroic moments in the various Star Wars movies even better when they happen. It's a reminder the universe doesn't totally pivot on these eight people we've been following around, which is a slightly healthier way to look at war.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: Publishing News
By Tom Spurgeon
* good news from the small reprint house Hermes Press. They'll be publishing one of those giant history books that also serves as an art book -- a hybrid format used by Fantagraphics and IDW a bunch over the last half-decade. Their subject is Alex Raymond, and their historian is Ron Goulart. It's fully licensed from King Features and should be 300 pages with 400 illustrations. Alex Raymond: An Artistic Journey: Adventure, Intrigue and Romance wil be out in October and will retail for $75. Please get me one for Christmas.
* here's an interesting story I didn't catch; we don't get a lot of distribution news because of the dominance of Diamond as pretty much the Direct Market distributor of note. Apparently, Study Group Comic Books will be releasing their first three books through that system: Titan #1, It Will All Hurt #2 and The Secret Voice #2. I think there's a lot of work to be done if we express a desire as a sales sub-culture to bring the alt-comic, but this is a step in that direction. I think it's a really great way to read comics, but I'm very old.
* the writer Geoff Johns talks about plans for the forthcoming Justice League storyline "Darkseid War." There's some interesting stuff in there that's not just PR teaser: Johns talks about doing an event title without the overlapping series sprawl, and about the New Gods characters more generally. Those are great characters, and despite being used pretty much all the time the overall concept is still something of a hidden strength for that company. I think Johns is on the right track when he talks about a character set up to oppose Darkseid that does so by avoiding combat and conflict, which sounds to me closer to Kirby's conception of those characters as an anti-war parable than what's been done with them by a lot of creators since.
* finally, the previous version of this post's final subgraph was deleted for the sake of accuracy, after about four to five hours of being up. We regret any confusion that's resulted. Here instead is an image of Francois Vigneault's Titan #1 cover.
* totally missed that the Zombie Walk incident at Comic-Con International last summer had gone to the preliminary hearing stage. Although I'm sure the particulars will be the subject of the legal inquiry and has probably already been the subject of people yelling at each other on the Internet, this involved a deaf man accused of a car-related crime while attempting to move past the event. One element that's tough about this that won't be covered at the trial is that CCI gets stained with something that happened at an event over which they had no control or authority.
* Chris Sims pays tribute to Larry Hama. Benito Cereno pays tribute to Neal Adams. I don't know that I've ever seen a photo of Adams at that age.
Moulinsart Lost A Legal Case At The Hague Over Tintin Rights The best article I've read this morning on what seems to be an astonishing decision in the Netherlands over Tintin rights is found here -- with an image of a key court document and a link to the actual decision made.
As I understand it, a Netherlands-based Tintin fan group founded back in the 1990s was sued by longtime assumed Tintin rights holder Moulinsart in a way that people have come to expect of Moulinsart: aggressively, and not just for commercial use but for what some countries and persons living there would hold are obviously fair use circumstances because they are specifically utilized to illustrate study or commentary.
What came out in that court according to these reports is a 1942 document where Hergé assigned rights to his publisher, Casterman. This is sort of like finding there's a tape of a lengthy 1962 conversation between Martin Goodman and Jack Kirby just sitting around somewhere.
I asked Bart Beaty what he thought of the case, and received back this thoughtful response from the knowledgeable observer of the European comics industry.
"This is a legal decision that comes almost completely out of left field with absolutely no warning. There relatively little online chatter about the lawsuit that resulted in this decision, and the surprise piece of evidence -- straight out of a 1940s courtroom melodrama -- was not something that was on the radar. The ownership of Tintin was not something that I think many people thought was in question. This is not like the Kirby family suddenly winning the rights to his creations (indeed, it would be the opposite because this ruling takes the rights from the family and gives them to the publisher) but is in many ways a bigger deal. We knew that the Kirbys were fighting for the rights and that there was always a chance, however slim, that they might win them. There wasn't much of a struggle going on here.
"Reaction in my social media has been a mixture of pure shock -- my own first reaction -- and a good deal of joy. It is important to bear in mind that Nick Rodwell, who runs Moulinsart, is one of the most disliked people in European comics amongst fans. The husband of Hergé's second wife, he has taken hold of the Tintin empire and consistently reined over it in a way that antagonizes fans and scholars (Moulinsart is relentless in the protection of the Tintin copyrights even to the point of discouraging academic study of the Tintin books). More than a few people feel that Casterman would be better stewards of the Hergé legacy than the man who married his widow.
"Ultimately, I have no idea how this will play out. Expect appeals and counter-suits, naturally. This was a bolt out of the blue -- like waking up to learn that the sky is orange. It's just completely unexpected."
We'll continue to report on this as more news come out.
Festivals Extras: Robert Boyd’s New South Festival Photos
Robert Boyd attended the New South Festival in Austin over this last weekend. This is what he saw.
I'll write short descriptions for the photos according to how they've been labeled.
*****
the banner
*****
Nat. Brut
*****
Melinda Boyce
*****
Kayla E.
*****
Josh Simmons
*****
Jim Rugg
*****
Peach Fuzz
*****
Jason Poland
*****
Calvin Wong, Hellen Jo
*****
Eeyore Statue
*****
Brendan Kiefer and Josh Simmons
*****
Brendan Kiefer at the Afterparty
*****
Biscuit Press
*****
Emily Parrish
*****
Raw Paw
*****
Tom Van Deusen at Afterparty
*****
Tiny Splendor
*****
Rough House
*****
I asked Robert Boyd to comment more generally, in that his pictures made it look like the audience was smaller than what I'd heard it was. He responded:
"It looks sparse in the pictures partly because the tables were spread out along walkways in this expansive grounds of the French Legation Museum. All the lawns in between were empty. It was an unusual set-up. And when I took photos, I made an effort to wait until they weren't crowded, so that probably contributes to the look of light crowds.
"To me, if felt pretty busy based on the fact it often took me a while to get to the tables to look at the goods -- too many people in front of me. But it was a small show in terms of the number of exhibitors (50 according to the program). And I'm going to guess that few visitors stayed the whole time (to hear all the panel discussions and stuff). I stayed a couple of hours -- long enough to hear the Josh Simmons panel and wander through all the booths, and I was melting by the end."
Best Wishes On A Long Recovery To Lauren Weinstein
A very talented and one of comics best people, Lauren Weinstein makes note of last week's spinal surgery to correct some growing difficulties. It looks like the operation was a success. I'm sure we join everyone that know her and/or her work in wishing her a rapid recovery with every positive result.
Congratulations To Alison Bechdel And The Cast/Crew/Staff Of Fun Home For Multiple Tony Wins
It's the definition not comics, but that doesn't alter one bit the happiness I imagine most folks deeply involved in comics share with me for Alison Bechdel, whose graphic memoir Fun Home has now become a Tony-award winning, ambitious, powerfully-received musical. Bechdel is one of our great ambassadors, and one imagines her lifelong interest in the stage has made this particular path for this work particularly meaningful. Read the New York Times coverage of last night's awards, because that's where accomplishments like this are covered, top of page.
The play's done very well, if you haven't been following -- the Tony wins are a capper to the play's success, and a line or two in pencil in the future history books, not one of those occasional efforts you see with that program to salvage something that hasn't hit with audiences. With the weight of the Tony Awards behind them, it's much more likely that the play will have a long run on Broadway, and a life afterwards as a touring piece and then as a piece done by other companies for decades to come. I can't even imagine how satisfying that must be for Bechdel. It will put some comics into people's hands, too.
The show won five awards: Best Musical, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical (Michael Cerveris), Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre (Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron), Best Book of a Musical (Lisa Kron) and Best Direction of a Musical (Sam Gold).
Comics By Request: People, Projects In Need Of Funding By Tom Spurgeon
* there are several left to support the Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning, one of the few significant small-city shows we have, and one that's made use of crowd-funding throughout its short history.
* the cartoonist Dan Wright has a Patreon up for his educational Paint By Monster series. I worked with Wright in the early 2000s and I don't know anyone more talented. I've enjoyed his video series so far, and I think it could really make use of an old-fashioned patron if there's one out there.
* you know one thing I found interesting about CAKE? I made a point to notice if anyone pointed me personally in the direction of their Patreon. No one did. In fact, I don't remember this at any show since that service has started. I don't know that that means, but I can imagine a way that part of culture developing where it would be something someone might mention to people. I'm also a little bit at a disadvantage in a fact-finding mission like that, as I only interact with about half of any show's tables as an unknown quantity.
* finally, it's done funding, but I totally missed this Jack Katz project reaching fruition. It's great to see someone of Katz's age taking on new projects at a time when some artists hedge their bets about their ability to complete work and others retire altogether.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * remember that story where Spider-Man lures Juggernaut into wet cement in order to stop him? You're remembering it wrong.
* Tom Brevoort and Axel Alonso talk about the forthcoming Marvel soft reboot/relaunch/whatever to the audience of devoted fans that read such articles.
* not comics: Robert Kirkman securing a favorable TV development deal is important because he and Mark Millar and Matt Fraction/Kelly Sue DeConnick are a powerful model for creative careers that start with comics. You're going to see more creators model themselves after that foursome as they find more success.
2. A combination of editorial goofs and the publication's policy against publishing any depiction of Muhammed resulted in Art Spiegelman withdrawing a cover from New Statesman after a cartoon inside wasn't included.
More Details On The Atena Farghadani Case Emerge
I hadn't run anything on the noxious sentence levied at Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani for drawing politicians as animals since first hearing about it. At the time, I had a few French-language reports; nothing in English had been filed yet.
The bulk of English-language articles have hit since then, like this one. What was originally thought a 14-year sentences, looks like it's "only" 12 years and nine months. The judge has throughout been portrayed as a very harsh one, and some of the blame for what seems like a ridiculous sentence would appear to lie at his feet.
In the linked-to article the cartoonist Nikahang Kowser notes another contributing factor that hasn't been examined: that Farghadani lacks social connections in a way that might have protected her from an overly harsh sentence.
It still seems horrible all-around, and one hopes that she becomes enough of a cause so as to mitigate all the harm that's been done to her and all the harm that's yet to come.
Go, Read: Michael Cavna On Current Editorial Cartoon Plagiarism
Michael Cavna at Washington Post has a fun article up here about a depressing subject: the current state of plagiarism regarding editorial cartooning.
Cavna and the folks to whom he speaks make the point that on-line tools make this kind of thing very easy, which leaves it to Cavna to describe how many one-time taboos are being broken with regularity now. He does so very well. There's also a bunch of entertaining secondary ideas here, such as the notion that an unpaid newspaper employee need not be held to a higher standard -- that's not explicitly stated, but a response from one of the newspapers involved suggests that kind of noxious reading.
Missed It: University Of Chicago Announced It Acquired Daniel Clowes’ Papers The story was here. This is a story because Clowes is one of the best cartoonists going and a complete collection of all of his work is an amazing thing to think about, because a big institutional like that university getting into the comics-papers acquisition business is worth noting, and because of the general trend for comics-makers over 50 beginning to find a home for all of their work and supplementary material.
Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital By Tom Spurgeon
* Gary Tyrrell celebrates the community part of the webcomics community.
* so apparently Chris Arrant has been made Editor over at Newsarama; I've enjoyed working with Chris as the subject of a news piece or two, and congratulations to him.
* Mike Sterling talks variant cover orders. If you ever think that retailers have an easy job, talk to one for five minutes about ordering and make sure you get into the variants thing -- baseline ordering is difficult enough, but you throw in the various cover offers and it gets ridiculously difficult.
* not comics: Sean Kleefeld wonders after the general absence of strip-based cartoons, and suggests that one reason people reacted poorly to that one Denver Con panel about women that lacked women was their response. I agree with Kleefeld on that second point, but more from the perspective that just letting something like that happen was so goofy that there's nothing to do about apologize and laugh at your own poor decision-making. Comics doesn't reward that kind of the move for the most part -- Internet argumentation turns anyone's else's admission into a "they even admit" moment. It still would have been a far more human response.
Bundled Extra: Fraction And Zdarsky Provide Sex Criminals #11 Extras This pair of tumblr/blog posts from Sex Criminals creators Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky are probably pretty well traveled by the time this post rolls out, but I thought it still worth noting. If you're going to have a hit book that you yourself control, you might as well maximize the fun you're having with it. Variants and special copies can be a particularly joyless undertaking, too.
It's always awesome to see creators fall in love with having their own work out there in a way that they seem to be performing for the audience that is reading the work, in a way that they seem to not want to let them down.
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.
*****
MAR151283 D&Q 25 YEARS OF COMTEMP CARTOON COMIC & GRAPHIC NOVEL HC (MR) $49.95
Of course you want this. That's a really good price point, too. I wrote one of the profiles. I imagine my subject excitedly checking the table of contents for his name and then moving his finger over to the right and then sighing. But yeah, this is one of the few books guaranteed to be a book of the year the moment it came out. Lots of new stuff. Lots of weird stuff. Lots of good stuff.
APR150537 HUMANS #5 (MR) $2.99 MAR150616 WICKED & DIVINE #11 (MR) $3.50 MAR158540 WICKED & DIVINE #11 CVR B STAPLES (MR) $3.50
There's very, very little in the way of comic-book format comics that I read, so I can direct you to the latest issue of The Humans and the 11th issue (already!) of Wicked & Divine. Those are both solid crowd-pleasers, good summer comics.
DEC140130 COMPLETE PISTOLWHIP HC $27.99
This is a reformatting of two, maybe three different publications from creators Matt Kindt and Jason Hall. It has to be at least 300 pages, and I'd guess closer to 350 pages. This is a big, quirkily visualized, elaborate mystery -- and you don't see people doing books like anymore.
JAN150171 FRANKENSTEIN MAD SCIENCE OF DICK BRIEFER TP $49.99
I'm a fiend for Dick Briefer and the Frankenstein work in particular. It's one of comics' most underrated runs, even though you wouldn't say underrated if a presence on the Internet counts for anything.
JAN150136 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA LTD ED HC VOL 03 $79.99 JAN150135 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA TP VOL 03 $24.99
Stan Sakai is a good man and a better cartoonist. I'll buy anything he makes, in just about any format.
APR150576 CRIMINAL TP VOL 05 THE SINNERS (MR) $14.99
I very much like these Image re-releases of the Criminal trades. It's kind of like those L&R trades, the paperbacks, where the only thing that works about it is how well the acutal books feel in your hands -- they don't make sense as a pitch, in other words. This is typicallyi solid work.
APR151805 NARUTO GN VOL 70 $9.99
70! I'm old and just impressed by numbers now. I had two periods of reading Naruto: once when it first came out and was being serialized and one later on after they fast-forwarded the narrative quite a bit. My lingering memory is a pretty good grasp of how teens value peer-to-peer relationships and really imaginative fight scenes. It's
MAR151345 VERITY FAIR GN $24.95
This is one of those eyeballs I saw, the latest in a long list of contenders for a comics from the UK that recalls classic Love & Rockets with its large cast, mostly-but-not-entirely quotidian focus and soap opera style overlapping storylines. I will have to settle for reading it in its full glory rather than sampling an issue.
APR151899 AL PARKER ILLUSTRATOR INNOVATOR HC $44.95
I enjoy looking at Al Parker's work, and would stop and look at this book in a store for sure. Parker seems to me represented by that one overwhelming style, but I've read articles that point out he worked in a number of styles, mostly for commercial advantage. I'd love a book that instructed me well enough to figure out his variations on different styles.
APR151789 BORB GN $19.95
Jason Little's book contrasting old-timey joke set-ups (including those seemingly reserved just for alcoholics) with everything horrible we know about alcoholism now.
APR150475 BRAVO FOR ADVENTURE HC $34.99
There certainly won't be any more handsome book out this week, nor more handsome leading man. I only have a surface knowledge of this work. Toth's resurgence in popularity in the '80s and '90s came with a bit of a quandary in that he didn't have a great work out there that might fall in line with a growing appreciation for long-form, seriously-intended work: the graphic novel movement. This was one of his sustained efforts, so it got a bunch of the attention that was out there. I'll enjoy looking at it with eyes that are perfectly fine with beautiful trifles.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* some genre fans are apparently freaking out a bit about a change/addition in Star Wars story canon that's coming out of a Marvel comic. We don't know if it will stick, but I guess it's sort of interesting if true and those stories are important to you.
* Tintin is very resilient, which I think is a big part of the character's appeal and thematic resonance.
* finally, and along those same lines, Sean Kleefeld underlines the role that library collections will have on our understanding of world comics traditions.
Art Spiegelman Cover For New Statesman Was Pulled After A Dispute Involving A Muhammed Comic
Maren Williams has a really thorough write-up here about an Art Spiegelman cover for a Neil Gaiman/Amanda Palmer guest-edited magazine. You should read it for the particulars. The cover in question is here big as life. The comic that was left out of the issue and the subject of negotiations that resulted in the cover being pulled is here.
That's a pretty incredible series of events. Two things I find interesting: 1) the magazine had apparently made a decision at the editorial level that made Spiegelman's comic unusable by them because of its arch visual evocation of Muhammed, and 2) for some reason this couldn't be communicated right away to Spiegelman, Gaiman and Palmer.
* to my eye Brian Nicholson is right in thinking that this art looks very compelling. One of the great things about looking at superhero comics is applying a really refined series of choices in what you read and why. The way that superhero fans single out issues and the reasons involved seem to me way more highly and specifically evolved than the way hardcore fans of other media pick at mainstream expressions.
* I missed that Marvel is going to do a fast-forward trick on their line continuity in order to set their post-Secret Wars narrative reality in stone a bit. Marvel usually does this kind of standard baseline reset very poorly, so we'll see how this one goes. I'm worried a bit about the talent levels there in a way I haven't been for a while and I'm generally worried about these companies keeping stand-alone titles at a high level the way the infrastructure of the industry works now.
* finally, I love this old-school Lampoon-tribute cover for the forthcoming gag collection of Charles Rodrigues' work, coming out from Fantagraphics. Just the fact that there are Charles Rodrigues books is astonishing to me, and a testament to how deep some of the publisher will go to find excellent work to reprint.
* the cartoonist and convention organizer Francois Vigneault will be in Montreal this summer, and one thing he'll be doing is making a drawing a day about the experience. You can see the first and figure out how to follow the drawings starting here.
* this article at Editor & Publisher reminds that next year will be 100 years for that award. The editorial cartooning category began in 1922 with a win by Rollin Kirby.
* not comics: here's another article about Jeff Bezos' various tactics to revive the Washington Post using strategies that worked at Amazon.com. It's an important story to watch because both of those companies are significant players in comics, and the eventual form that newspapers take will be crucial for figuring out the next 30 years of the comic strip form -- if it exists, what it looks like. I think if you read it and you have any familiarity with the comics business at all, you'll notice a shared willingness to work content in a number of formats.
* one seemingly fruitful strategy that we've seen with digital comics is taking a current sales-hook for serial comics and then slightly in advance marking down a bunch of material that could be in the same ballpark as those new comics, featuring similar storylines, featuring some of the same characters, maybe even previous cycles in a big storyline. It's an interesting move because the sale acts as an advertisement for the new comics, but it also focuses readers on older material in the direct "you should buy this" sense that really seems to work with digital right now. Here's Kevin Melrose with DC's latest attempt at such an effort.
MAY151302 BERLIN #19 (MR) $5.95
APR150573 AUTUMNLANDS TP VOL 01 TOOTH & CLAW (MR) $9.99
* Richard Bruton on 
The writer and digital publisher Mark Waid announced earlier today that 
* 
* Richard Bruton on 
If you're thinking of making comics a significant part of your life, you should bookmark the Sktchd site to read a bunch of stuff there and then work your way through Heidi's articles going back and reading all of the linked-to pieces.
I don't pretend I understand let alone trust the NYT comics charts, or really any charts that aren't backed up by royalty statements. I assume that with books like Scott McCloud's The Sculptor up there and Raina Telgemeier basically living there that books that chart are at least doing pretty well and potentially extraordinarily so. Therefore I was happy when someone e-mailed me that the Clowes collection The Complete Eightball 
* Joe Gordon on 
Keillor's art is not art I like. I don't have a lot of patience for the kind of humor and sketches that his show provides. I don't like the surface qualities of most of it, its construction and delivery, and I reject its underlying message of a superior Midwestern Anglo-Saxon temperament and way of looking at the world. While Prairie Home Companion features talented musicians, it doesn't do so in a particularly flattering way other than the size of the audience to which they're delivered. My dad had me read a couple of his books maybe 25 years ago, and I cared for them even less.
The top comics-related news stories from June 20 to June 26, 2015:
* Sean Kleefeld 
* Henry Chamberlain on 
MAY151312 STROPPY HC (MR) $21.95
* Henry Chamberlain on 
* this Paul Pope cover will adorn 
* Bob Temuka on 
I had fun reading this 
The writer Kelly Sue DeConnick made two announcements over the weekend at HeroesCon in Charlotte well worth noting.
* 
* Grant Goggans on 
The top comics-related news stories from June 13 to June 19, 2015:
That's a show that has a formula that works. It's focused on comics, and primarily creators of comics. It's very generous in terms of its guest list, which it gets back in terms of the loyalty people feel to the show and the willingness to participate in its profitable art auction. The days are reasonably long, but the nights are satisfying: as a regional business hub, Charlotte is stuffed with good restaurants and the show is still of a size where the professionals can haunt the same bar in a boisterous, industry wide way. At the end of the show, those staying over on Sunday night crowd into the show's host store and eat from food trucks and drink beer under tents. 
* 
* Todd Klein on the 
Totally not comics.
* 
* Todd Klein on 
FEB150911 CLOVER HONEY 20TH ANNIVERSARY ED GN (MR) $14.95
APR151507 COMPLETE CRUMB COMICS TP VOL 16 1980S MORE STRUGGLE $19.99
X-Men #137 was the climactic point of the long Chris Claremont/John Byrne partnership on Marvel's X-Men characters, which along with Frank Miller's work on Daredevil became foundational comics for everything that's come since. I've also heard it called the last fan-favorite newsstand comic, although I'm not sure that's 100 percent true.
There is also one reprint, Sara Varon's Sweaterweather, which will get a new cover and be expanded. 
* Rob Clough on 
The Joe Shuster Awards, a program that focuses on a broad range of cartooning expressions from Canadian comicsmakers, 
In a nutshell, a 20-year-old Crafton Hills College student complained about the comics used in an English course and protested them with the help of her friends and her parents. She wanted them eradicated from the course. Her objections were to lurid content as presented through the comics medium: an enduring classic. 
* 
* Rob Clough on 
Comic Riffs is repeating something it did when Ali Farzat was injured in Syria, this time on behalf of the young cartoonist Atena Farghadani who was recently cruelly sentenced to a dozen-plus years in jail for drawing a cartoon that dared to question sitting authorities. 
* Jeremy Nisen appreciates 
The top comics-related news stories from June 6 to June 12, 2015:
* Henry Chamberlain talks to 
* Sean Gaffney on 
APR151504 BLUBBER #1 $3.99
MAR150866 SECRET VOICE #2 (MR) $8.00
* Todd Klein on 
* Rob Clough on 
The best article I've read this morning on what seems to be an astonishing decision in the Netherlands over Tintin rights is found 
* remember that story where Spider-Man lures Juggernaut into wet cement in order to stop him? 
The top comics-related news stories from May 30 to June 5, 2015:
* Carla Hoffman on 
APR150537 HUMANS #5 (MR) $2.99
* 
* Andy Oliver on 
* there will be a bunch of small press material debuting at this weekend's CAKE festival. You won't find 
* Greg Hunter on 
