Assembled Extra: Slings And Arrows Guide Launches On-Line
I haven't gone there to poke around yet, but I've been getting e-mail update on the Slings & Arrows guide opening up its review archives to the public. This has been done now.
Until archivists figure out how to better catalog the best comics content, what survives until then will likely be that material with continuity (an interviewer's still-active web site, for example) and the occasional revival project like this one. That makes me want to note it here.
Several Notes About The Fake Awards At Angouleme
* in case you haven't heard -- and I'm not sure everyone has yet -- the festival prizes at Angouleme used a comedian named Richard Gaitet to do something they thought would be humorous with their weekend program. What they came up with was a short, fake awards show preceding the real one. This involved riffing on some of the design elements of the full program thematically, but basically constituted calling certain actual cartoonists and nominees up to stage as if they had won one of the festival's prizes, giving them a fake award, and then declaring that first part of the awards program fake before moving onto the real prizes.
* you can get some of what they were thinking in the apology Gaitet wrote for Le Monde. You might not understand what's being suggested -- I'm not sure I do -- but it sounds like there was some humor theory at work there, that old saw of introducing a second idea (fake awards winner) to "question" the first (the real awards winners). I'm guessing there was also a secondary level of "stupid host... this isn't how awards work!" Why either dissonance or self-reflection would be the subject of humor at an awards program, I couldn't tell you. Why joking incompetence might be part of a show whose competence was hammered for two weeks preceding, again: couldn't tell you. If we're going to talk theory, a structural piss-take on an awards show that barely has historical structure is very New 52, too. They haven't done these awards in this way long enough for there to be effective satire on how they're done.
* theory aside, just on a practical level, it's hard to fathom how no one thought this was a terrible idea. The joke depended on putting people into an embarrassing situation. Working artists who might find an award meaningful aren't exactly the best choice for this kind of satirical point: these aren't millionaires looking for another excuse to be lauded. Awards don't just exist in the room they're given, so the failure to realize that publishing reps and friends would be tweeting out and texting congratulations they'd later have to rescind -- a huge fucking embarrassing bummer for all involved -- seems criminally stupid. A stunt that would in any way stand between the winners and the traditional, practical good of being singled out and lauded in front of a market that's so hard to penetrate, that seems slightly insane. And after two full weeks of being hammered for the lack of female nominees on the original long list for grand prix, why would you move forward with anything that was the least bit potentially controversial without a huge projected upside?
* an idea floated that this stunt was a good idea because comics exist in a context that emphasizes wacky satire and taking the piss out, that just isn't true. That's one context of like 50 different contexts for comics, and everything about the Festival stands to counter that kind of rigid thinking. What a lame response. Seriously, that's an argument abusive dorks used to use on message boards in 1998.
* since there were reports that the "fake" winners were confused about their status vis-a-vis the real winners right there at the show, that suggests this wasn't even executed well -- unless, again, the point was dissonance and inquiry and humiliating people.
* one thing that honked me off about the grand prix nominees long-list fiasco was the cynical deployment of the historical argument as a defense. Part of the genius of introducing that argument was that our eagerness to beat the shit out of it took us further away from getting at how and why the committee screwed up going 0 for 30 with grand prix nominees -- a very specific task with very specific parameters that isn't exactly strict historical inquiry in several ways that matter. The equivalent argument with the fake awards may have already presented itself: a "tyranny of social media" position that suggests social media mechanisms like twitter distort things that happen in a way that makes the organizers victims rather than malcontents. Arguments like that are the beginnings of arguments, not arguments themselves, and there's no footing to make it stick here. In fact, specifically in this case, what happened at the awards was so baffling and unthinkably dumb that it resisted becoming viral.
* one thing that I think people should remember about awards programs of all kinds is that some people are into them way deep, but most people aren't. Ignoring them is easier than you'd think, and an awards program that people are behind just in terms of it being a practical, overall good represents more fragility than one might be comfortable admitting.
* does anyone remember that a convention in the 2000s in Spain attended by Peter Bagge and Eric Reynolds had a fake terrorist takeover? The reason you don't is because that wasn't particularly hilarious, either.
Comics By Request: People, Projects In Need Of Funding By Tom Spurgeon
* I'm a fan of the artist Kevin Budnik, out of Chicago, and I hope this Kickstarter goes well for him. It looks like it might reach its initial goal between the time I type this and the time this rolls out on the site. There's still plenty of time to be involved, though.
* the artist Gerry Acerno/Jerry Acerno is still in need of cash assistance. If you can help the inker probably best known for his work in the Image retro comic Big Bang, I hope you'll look into helping. He's the patriarch of a family of five, and if I'm reading the gofundme page correctly a gossamer-thin safety net was disrupted by personal illness and accompanying mental hardship.
FFF Results Post #446—Old-School GNs
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Graphic Novels You Like That Were Each Published As A Single Volume Before 2000." This is how they responded.
1. God's Man, Lynd Ward (pictured)
2. Murder By Remote Control, Paul Kirchner and Janwillem van de Wetering
3. Sin City, Frank Miller
4. It Rhymes With Lust, Matt Baker and "Drake Waller"
5. Anarcho, Dictator Of Death (creators unknown)
*****
Dave Knott
* Why I Hate Saturn -- Kyle Baker (pictured)
* Elektra Lives Again -- Frank Miller
* City Of Glass -- Paul Auster, Paul Karasik, David Mazzucchelli
* The Ballad Of Doctor Richardson -- Paul Pope
* The Kampung Boy -- Lat
*****
Jamie Coville
1. Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags -- James A. & Donald F. Read
2. The Adventures of Paddy Pork -- John S. Goodall
3. What Whiskers Did -- Ruth Carroll
4. Ghita of Alizarr -- Frank Thorne
5. Now You're Logging -- Bus Griffiths (pictured)
1. Kling Klang Klatch, Ian McDonald and David Lyttleton (1992)
2. Hungarian Rhapsody, Vittorio Giardino (1986)
3. King Lear: Complete and Unabridged, William Shakespeare and Ian Pollock (1984)
4. Barney and the Blue Note, Jacques de Loustal and Philippe Paringaux (1988) (pictured)
5. Fires, Lorenzo Mattotti (1988)
*****
William Burns
1. The Cowboy Wally Show, Kyle Baker
2. Why I Hate Saturn, Kyle Baker
3. The Amazing Spider-Man: Hooky, Susan K. Putney and Berni Wrightson (pictured)
4. The Death of Groo, Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones
5. The Worm, Alan Moore and a whole lot of other people
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth -- Grant Morrison & Dave McKean
2. Paul Auster City of Glass -- Paul Karasik & David Mazzucchelli (pictured)
3. Daredevil: Love and War -- Frank Miller & Bill Sienkiewicz
4. The Hunger Dogs -- Mr. Kirby
5. God's Man -- Lyn Ward
*****
Jeff Goodman
* Adventures Of Phoebe-Zeitgeist by Michael O'Donoghue and Frank Springer (pictured)
* Jungle Book by Harvey Kurtzman
* Wonder Warthog and The Nurds Of November by Gilbert Shelton
* Murder By Remote Control by Janwillem van de Wetering and Paul Kirchner
* Mutant World by Richard Corben and Jan Strnad
1. Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
2. Mr. Punch, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (pictured)
3. Batman: Son of the Demon, Mike Barr and Jerry Bingham
4. It Rhymes with Lust, Arnold Drake, Leslie Waller and Matt Baker
5. The Mad Adventures of Captain Klutz, Don Martin
*****
Terry Eisele
* When the Wind Blows, Raymond Briggs (pictured)
* Why Did Pete Duel Kill Himself, Mark Kalesniko
* Why I Hate Saturn, Kyle Baker
* Fax from Sarajevo, Joe Kubert
* A Contract with God, Will Eisner
*****
Justin Colussy-Estes
1. Silver Metal Lover -- Trina Robbins
2. Jack the Ripper -- Rick Geary
3. Sam Bronx and the Robots -- Serge Clerc
4. Hicksville -- Dylan Horrocks (pictured)
5. Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book -- Harvey Kurtzman
1. God's Man, Lynd Ward
2. I Go Pogo, Walt Kelly
3. Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book, Harvey Kurtzman
4. Barefoot Gen, Keiji Nakazawa (pictured)
5. The Airtight Garage, Jean Giraud (Moebius)
*****
John Vest
1. The Silver Surfer, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
2. He Done Her Wrong, Milt Gross
3. The Big Yum Yum Book, R Crumb
4. Blackmark, Gil Kane (pictured)
5. Our Cancer Year, Harvey Pekar and Frank Stack
*****
topic suggested by John Vest; we used his responses as the initial example. thanks, John!
2. Atena Farghadani acquitted of achingly stupid throw-in on her already totally ridiculous criminal histry. She remains imprisoned for all the other charges.
3. Rumors of a DC Comics line-wide relaunch dominate the weekend; not everyone's super-psyched.
CBLDF: Atena Farghadani Handshaking Case Acquittal
Maren Williams of the CBLDF has a nice, thorough article up here about something that escaped my attention. The Iranian artist Atena Farghadani is currently in prison for charges related to a mild satirical cartoon she drew. An additional charge of "illegitimate relations" tied into her simply shaking hands with her lawyer was tacked on, horrifying observers for its clownishly conservative nature in general and at a time where Iran was making a few moves to better enter into modern world partnerships.
Farghadani being acquitted of that charge is a great thing in that the reverse would have been deeply hard to take. It may have focused some attention on Farghadani's plight, which is equally unfair and ridiculous and an assault on today's foundational political expectations. That's the next one that has to go.
People Are Upset That Ike Perlmutter Gave Donald Trump $1M For A Veterans Thing I'm not sure what to do with a story like this one. I'm 100 percent for everyone participating in politics in any way they desire, including giving money. That Trump mentioned the donation and the company which Perlmutter runs does make the gift a political one rather than just a charitable donation. I'm all for arguments that Donald Trump is a beyond the pale figure with horror-show elements that might place him in a continuity where I could see people not wanting to support him or his efforts. I think people place a lot of office-holders on this kind of super-hyperbolic scale that don't belong there, that are just normal politicians, but Trump might be as bad as advertised. I see no positives with that guy. I'm flummoxed that anyone would ever vote for him or watch a TV show with his involvement or pay him five seconds of attention. I never thought that there was anything the least bit funny about him. Obviously others disagree.
This article talks about the donation and the idea that the company doesn't support what its CEO might, which is all true according to how I'd prefer to see the world but may be beside the point for some and may be invalidate by his extreme nature, as mentioned above. I am intrigued that Perlmutter was willing to give $1M for an event related to a foundation which then helps veterans, and I hope that any of us that are involved with helping a veteran or veterans that has or have worked for Marvel in the future will find some way to aggressively seek out Perlmutter's help. I don't expect those veterans will get it, but perhaps there's a chance.
Go, Look: Danish Parliament’s Speaker Decries Steve Bell Cartoon
Such is the power of the Danish Cartoons Controversy that they're the initial point of reference for a story on Parliamentary Speaker Pia Kjaersgaard being upset the above Steve Bell cartoon for comparing Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen to a Nazi and the Venstre Party to the Nazi Party.
The hook I imagine is pointing out that Kjaersgaard was much more supportive of uninhibited free speech when doing so or projecting the result benefited her side of the political spectrum, which I imagine is true.
Bundled Extra: DC Announces Hanna-Barbera Comics I think the EW story was the official anouncement (forgive me if it's not, but that's a lot of art otherwise) that DC Comics will be putting out a line based on the Hanna-Barbera characters to which they have access: the Scooby-Doo characters, the various permutations of Jonny Quest, the Flinstones characters, the Space Ghost milieu and others.
These are all sturdy franchises, for sure. I don't know how well they'll be utilized in what looks like a modern update with interconnected storylines and a slightly more somber, serious approach to the action-adventure elements (although maybe not so much serious for Jonny Quest, which was there already). A pair of of DC's perceived problems with their main superhero line over the last half-decade are 1) not having enough creators that connect to today's audience, 2) not really hitting strongly on the reconceptualization aspects to foster as many issues as the original conception managed. There's certainly that risk here.
Modernizing creative projects carries with it the unique problem of trying to catch a wave to what's working right now while risking you end up mired in the elements of the recent past from which the current conception pushes away -- the Poochie Problem. Does the art presented feel like comics from 2016 or 2006? What kind of book does DC sell best? The company does have a bit of history with more traditional takes on these properties. My memory is that DC did well with some of the HB and related properties internationally last time around, ahead of how those comics did domestically. That could be a factor as well.
This will mean a number of welcome jobs in a post-BOOM!, post-IDW, active-franchising world that may give a lot of the creators in DC's general, broad, freelance family an opportunity to do a somewhat different kind of creative project. That might be a welcome opportunity for a lot of artists who feel comfortable under that general umbrella but might be poorly suited to whatever may be happening to the main line come June.
Luckily, this doesn't play out as conceptual lines that exist in our heads for which we predict things, but as comics that will actually be made. We'll get to see how they do, as much as a company like DC allows us the numbers required for confirmation. I wish everyone luck and for the best comics possible.
* I haven't made it to the end of this article, but the promise of a free mini-comic will get me there soon.
* finally, Gary Tyrrell has a lengthy catch-up with the publishing goings-on of Spike and Iron Circus Comics, which make intense use of on-line mechanisms and outreach.
* not comics: all these experts interviewed and no superheroes. While I'm ridding my bookmarks folder of such articles, here's one about prose writing a couple of readers sent along with the standard "might apply to comics" apology.
The awards have been criticized a bit from various angles, including one from comics that the award favors tweaking assumptions of corporate media rather than relative artistic achievement even with the parameters of the issues involved. The awards program has done better in recent years in expanding the range of comics it will consider. One thing for which it seems we should all be particularly happy is that it seems there are more comics than ever that should be considered.
* this isn't really comics, but a NYC-based 50th anniversary Star Trek convention does have the historical aspect that Star Trek conventions have very much informed comics conventions for as long as there have been the standard comic book conventions. They are not automatically conflated anymore, but there was a time when many of them were.
* Pat Race wrote in to say that the Alaska Robotics Mini-Con is accepting professional applications through February 1 and that the show has a significant art camp vibe, if that perhaps appeals. I've always wanted to go to Alaska.
* finally, the general hotel room sale through Comic-Con International in San Diego -- the only way many folks have a shot at close-to convention center hotel rooms at a decent price -- is set for early April.
* a number of significant comics-makers weigh in on the historical argument element of that shitty FIBD nominees long-list that excluded women altogether. I think that's an important argument to have every single moment of every single day we can have it, although I also think that was a cynical diversionary tactic on the part of the Festival and had very little to do with what happened there.
This year's award process made international news when an initial nominations list of 30 artists contained no women. A couple of half-step solutions were offered including a weirdly aggressive defense of the original list, before the nominations list was abandoned altogether. A finalists list of Claire Wendling, Alan Moore and Hermann was the result. Wendling asked not to be voted for, leading some ot wonder if anyone would take the prize in an honorable fashion. Hermann was announced via the above video early today.
I think Hermann's a strong choice, someone from the 1960s magazine serials and album series that hadn't won yet. He's both a strong artists and at times during his career a popular one. He's also been prolific both working with scenarists working on his own, over multiple decades. Jeremiah has been published in the US under various names by Fantagraphics, Caliber, Catalan (US) and Dark Horse.
Will this year's controversy mark the awards? Almost certainly. One thing I'd suggest is that it was the voting that was broken, not the history and certainly the bodies of work which should have been given initial consideration. I think Hermann's a nice choice that might have been the choice in any recent year, and could have been the choice if the initial listmakers had done their job. I look forward to seeing what he does with his presidency, and I hope anyone with an interest will hold the awards process accountable for improving itself, no matter how that must be done.
One last thing if someone from over there is reading this. I think media works now that favors the old way of announcing at the end of the weekend. I always thought that was cool, but more importantly social media and the like favors Sunday/Monday coverage over mid-week. It will be hard for some news sources to do an Angouleme wrap-up without that bit of hard news up top.
Assembled Extra: Dover Publications Announces With comiXology; First Digital Puma Blues Edition
Representatives of Dover, comiXology and Amazon have announced today via press release that they've reached an agreement to sell Dover's graphic novel line through Amazon's digital programs including Kindle and the comics-focused comiXology platform.
The announcement comes with a significant drop of digital material now available. Books now available are:
* A Sailor's Story, Sam Glanzman
* Blackjack: Second Bite of the Cobra, Alex Simmons and Joe Bennett
* BOZZ Chronicles, David Michelinie and Bret Blevins
* Civil War Adventure, Chuck Dixon and Gary Kwapisz
* Last of the Dragons, Carl Potts
* Mercy: Shake the World, JM DeMatteis and Paul Johnson
* My War, Szegedi Szuts
* Night and the Enemy, Harlan Ellison and Ken Steacy
* Puma Blues, Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli
* Secret Teachings of a Comic Book Master: The Art of Alfredo Alcala, Alfredo Alcala (Featured), Heidi MacDonald and Phil Yeh (Authors)
* The Juggler of Our Lady, R.O. Blechman
* The Magician's Wife, Jerome Charyn and Francois Boucq
 (pictured)
The one that might stand out there is Puma Blues, as this would be the first digital edition of that well-regarded volume.
One aspect to this story as publishing news that I think is worth noting. Dover has set up its graphic novel arm -- at least so far -- as a way to reintroduce certain works into the market that might have a second life. That's a really valuable role that a lot of boutique prose publishers play and it's the thing I like most about the company. The digital aims for such a company are that much more important, because that extends their mission directly and -- as we see with something like Puma Blues -- transforms it a bit to where they are the first publisher of this material into that realm.
Also, with a lot of the initial jostling settled between rivals, how each company sets themselves up with the remaining, established digital services is a big deal publisher to publisher instead of in a gamesmanship sense.
Go, Read: Mission In Angouleme Anticipating this year's Angouleme Festival, Paul Karasik marched his students to the city's Musee De Bandes Dessinee and had the curators there pull a bunch of art from great female cartoonists from around the world to test the idea that no women in comics history deserved consideration at the long-list stage of the grand prix award.
It's a cute article, full of students encountering great comics art. It also has a very good list of women cartoonists if you want to make such a list with the French-language tradition at its core:
I'm glad for any chance to make something good of this fiasco, and I think it's most likely to be a lot of small moments of learning, like with Karasik and his class.
This Isn’t A Library: New, 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.
*****
NOV151333 BEVERLY GN (MR) $21.95
There's nothing more fun than picking up a debut graphic novel. You can tell Drnaso is from Chicago in part because the blurbs are from Daley-like giants Ivan Brunetti and Chris Ware. I know very little about this work other than that. D+Q set-aside page here.
NOV151391 HIP HOP FAMILY TREE #6 $3.99 NOV150010 HELLBOY WINTER SPECIAL 2016 #1 MAIN CVR $3.99 NOV150086 ITTY BITTY HELLBOY SEARCH FOR THE WERE-JAGUAR #3 $2.99 NOV150062 ELFQUEST FINAL QUEST #13 $3.50 NOV150312 TWILIGHT CHILDREN #4 (MR) $4.99 NOV150374 TMNT ONGOING #54 $3.99 NOV150615 ISLAND #6 $7.99 NOV150499 PROPHET EARTH WAR #1 $3.99 NOV150733 OLD MAN LOGAN #1 $4.99 NOV150635 SAGA #33 (MR) $2.99 OCT150578 SOUTHERN BASTARDS #13 (MR) $3.50
An interesting week for comic-book format comics, particularly if you cast your net pretty wide. That doesn't I'm not missing something, but that there's a lot here that will satisfy one kind of audience but maybe only that kind of audience. Ed Piskor continues to see the fruits of his hard work pay off with a sixth issue of the comic book HHFT; he has grown a considerable audience and staying in front of them this way is going to pay off big time down the road in addition to the benefits he's seeing now as his star rises. The next two are Mignola-verse, all respect. Elfquest rounds into the mid-teens with its final wrap-up series; I'm happy for them to have this bow. If you're a fan of either Gilbert Hernandez or Darwyn Cooke you should pick up Twilight Children just for the fun of sussing out which flourish belongs to whom. I wouldn't pick up a TMNT comic as it's not something that interests me, but 54 issues surprised me. Island is better at issue #6 than it was at issue #1 and that's about all you can ask of an anthology. We have Island because of work by Brandon Graham and his friends on the Prophet series; this new work should wrap up the narrative they started over there. Old Man Logan is the latest entry in Marvel's ongoing not-a-revamp; Wolverine's a really effective character at the margins of books, and if there's one tried and true way to marginalize people it's to make them really old. In life as at the Xavier School, I guess. Saga and Southern Bastards are two top-line Image hit books for a lot of stores, and it's a great day when two such books are on the list, storms or not.
NOV150620 MONSTRESS #3 (MR) $3.99 NOV158341 MONSTRESS #2 2ND PTG $3.99 NOV158340 MONSTRESS #1 3RD PTG (MR) $4.99
This is another series with which I have yet to catch up, but multiple issues being re-offered is perhaps the strongest sign from the company that another hit may be developing. So this becomes one to watch. I should catch up quickly.
SEP150068 MIND MGMT HC VOL 06 THE IMMORTALS $19.99
This series has been a solid perform for Dark Horse and I have no reason to think that in some form it should become a perennial.
OCT150242 BATMAN BY ED BRUBAKER TP VOL 01 $19.99 OCT150250 BATMAN THE JIRO KUWATA BATMANGA TP VOL 03 $14.99
I don't get all of the intricacies of DC's books program, other than to know that most people tell me that at its core it is solid and reasonable, a bedrock of the company as a publisher. I don't know where this fits into other ways of collecting earlier material, particularly in Brubaker's case, but I remember the Brubaker Bat comics to be solid and the Kuwata ones attractive to inspired.
SEP151339 BLUBBER #2 $3.99
Solo Gilbert Hernandez anthology, just before the next Love & Rockets book comes out, featuring a bunch of similarly wild material. A must-buy.
NOV150672 LAZARUS TP VOL 4 POISON (MR) $14.99 NOV150692 SEX TP VOL 04 DAISY CHAINS (MR) $14.99
As more and more of the solid Image performers get into later-issue numbers, their serial performance seems to shift a bit to their trades -- it makes sense; if you discover a series later on you're bound to want to snap up a few books as opposed to 33 comics or whatever, it's just easier. I enjoy both of these series; they have old-fashioned values, and take contrasting approaches to world-building.
NOV151733 COMPLETE CHI SWEET HOME TP VOL 02 $24.95 SEP150056 EC ARCHIVES PANIC HC VOL 01 $49.99
Two series collection that strike me as different than ones I previously recommended, but overlapping books and which series you choose to use to get at the material is part of the fun of comics right now. I'm pretty happy with those Fanta books that split the old ECs by author, but I might look into a way to better pick the Chi material at some point.
NOV151409 OLYMPIANS GN HC VOL 08 APOLLO BRILLIANT ONE $17.99 NOV151408 OLYMPIANS GN VOL 08 APOLLO BRILLIANT ONE $9.99
There was a time 20 years ago I never would have convinced by closest friends that hardcover/softcover overlapping releases would be something that publishers did on a regular basis. These have been solid performers for First Second and a career-defining gig for George O'Connor.
OCT151217 BILL TED MOST EXCELLENT COMIC BOOK ARCHIVE HC $34.99
This all of the Evan Dorkin-directed Bill & Ted material, which has a fine reputation as both Bill & Ted material and as an Evan Dorkin comic. I know a lot of folks that were frustrated trying to assemble this material in various-publication form, so a big collection will be welcome.
SEP150065 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES TP VOL 02 $14.99
Always, always, always pick up the Sergio. If he's not the greatest living cartoonist he's at the party being held in that person's honor.
*****
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.
* finally, one sub-cultural element that used to be a big part of comics that isn't anymore is The Elaborate HQ. The Matt Fraction-era X-Men blew through two potential all-timer home bases without even a map, I don't think.
Please Be Extra Solicitous Of Your Shops This Week
The winter storm just passed dumped a lot of snow on the East Coast, including the headquarters of Diamond Comics, by far the primary distribution mechanism for the Direct Market. I canvassed a few retailers with a promise of non-attribution: a couple in the area hit by the storm expect disruption (late books, perhaps some shortages) at the shop level but at least in my small sample no one expected a major hit at the distribution level. That's as of yesterday; we'll see how it plays out, which is more important than any guessed-at prediction. The only thing I noticed at the Diamond site is that some ways to repeat information in different formats has been pushed back due to the weather.
One thing I hope that those of us that use a shop can do is perhaps be extra nice to them at this specific moment of the retail year. Aside from rhia disruptive weather, now is the time after holiday buying and the initial, one hopes positive effects for whatever the four or five largest market-share publishers put together summer into Fall. Anecdotal evidence suggests a number of shops are dissatisfied with the direction of the top of the market relative to other years. It may be a while before things sputter to life in 2016, snow or no snow. If you can, it might be a time to reward something else your store does well. They are retail's greatest miracle.
A formal update or three might happen today; I'll report them here.
By Request Extra: Gerry Acerno Needs Help
The artist Gerry Acerno -- who's also worked as Jerry Acerno and whom I think of as an inker on a scattering of 1990s mainstream projects including the Image retro book Big Bang -- has reached a point of asking for immediate cash assistance. It looks like a pretty typical story: a tissue-thin personal safety net disrupted by illness and resulting inability to work. In Acerno's case he's also the father figure in a family of five.
If you have the ability to give, or have enjoyed Acerno's work in the past, you might consider a donation.
* James Whitbrook takes a look at the return to comics for the Micronauts property. I really liked those toys when I was a kid, and I liked elements of the first dozen issues of the comic.
* Terry Moore has announced that Rachel Risingwill end with issue #42. It's great that we get additional series from these creator that were so enmeshed with their initial, big hits.
* Avery Hill Publishing has released word of its 2016 Spring schedule. I can't find a link to this information, so here is their PDF with word of new works from Rachael Smith, Matt Swan and Tillie Walden and continuing work from two of their series. Spring16AHPPR.pdf
* not comics: I'm old enough that another stunned young person that a big company doesn't want them making stuff with the things they own starts to grate rather than makes me mad at the company. Give me just one person saying, "Yeah, I knew it probably wasn't going to work, but I thought there'd maybe be a tiny chance of this squeaking through if it was done and they wanted to avoid the bad press of shutting me down. Anyway: please hire me!"
Rumor Of Potential DC Comics Linewide Relaunch Brings With It Nervous Laughter, Sighing And Frowns
The comics industry is a small series of overlapping communities that because of its longtime tendency to lean on its most devoted consumers gives special credence and preference to news within industry bounds. This includes rumors if they're about something that might have an impact on sales and storylines. So when late last week DC Comics tri-honchos Dan DiDio and Jim Lee tweeted an image of a curtain with the marketing term "rebirth," folks noticed. That this was immediately followed/directly preceded (I don't have the timing down) by Bleeding Cool -- a site that basically has an office at DC despite a hostile relationship with the publisher -- saying this meant a June revamp of the publishing line to reflect movie/TV efforts related to those characters, opinions were made known.
That the news wasn't greeted with the usual excitement afforded these things says a lot about the state of superhero comics publishing. DC's 2011 Hail Mary against then-crumbling sales, "The New 52" -- as close to a total relaunch as we've seen since Marvel '61 -- seems to have had one expected effect: ruining revamps and relaunches of lesser commitment for years moving forward. DC was right in that their '11 line-wide reboot would bring in new and lapsed readers and that their comics shop partners could sell into that interest. It didn't stick, largely I think because of a lack of talent across the line entire for what you'd need to pull off that many titles of interest over the long haul, combined with an editorial policy that kind of half-assed it in a way that kept re-telling certain stories from becoming a core strength of the company. I read a lot of the New 52 books. Few of them stick in my memory. One recurring image is of stories told against blank backgrounds featuring emotional stakes that wanted to pull on 75 years of character history that because of the relaunch were barely .75 of a year old. Never have mainstream comics been that much about tell, not show. Also, not a lot of the re-conceptualizations worked for fans in a broader sense save for Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's's sturdy wrestling stable captain Batman, and a kind of smart, teen-show Batgirl reworking that sent the character to Gotham City's version of Brooklyn. Even then, some in the company might dispute the latter.
After a brief flutter of a re-do not even a year ago where new paradigms in terms of diversity of character and creative team were being trumpeted, DC You, there aren't a lot of directions left for DC. Adherence to the TV shows might be one direction; some retro move might be another. It's just a tough place to be in -- they're smarter than I am about publishing, for sure, and it can't be easy to steward these characters when the numbers are so brutally small title to title. I'm not sure any line's re-launch gets to the actual issue that the audience is smaller now and spread out differently. The growth we've seen the last ten years has come in on the lower end of the charts and has skipped altogether devotion to line. You can tell the audience to go from this title to that title, because that lovely core audience wants to buy the comics that matter most, but they can't be counted upon to support all boats, at least not all boats with one publisher's logo on them. There's a lot conventional wisdom that the ultimate beneficiary of the 2011 revamp was a creator-driven and thus, in a way, much more dependable Image.
If DC is going to plunge ahead with something like this, a lot of jobs and gigs will be at stake, so there is a human cost here. It's difficult for me to think of the substance of such a maneuver that would be interesting, unless they were to throw market share to the wind and do a really small line. I guess we'll see. It could be barely anything at all: we're that primed for the destruction of universes now. Speaking of which, we're actually in the midst of one of these post-New 52 sort-of relaunches with Marvel, a schmear of creative cream cheese over a long row of adjective-bearing bagels stretching out for half a year whose all-new and all-different initiative feels pretty much like "everything's the same as you left them except for a couple of character bank accounts and Handsome Von Doom." Universes reborn is just part of the background noise now, less of an inducement and more of a hassle.
Festivals Extra: Comparing/Contrasting FIBD Grand Prix Problems With Oscars Boycott
The cartoonist and educator Matt Madden suggests there may be some insight to be found by contrasting the Academy Awards' efforts to deal with their boycott based on the paucity of nominees of color in acting categories and more generally with the FIBD's problems in finding a proper grand prix winner after an initial long-list of nominees came up with 30 women worth getting that nod.
I usually don't see similarities across media in these kinds of circumstances -- the culture are too different -- but I think there might be something to learn in the way the Academy has pledged to change the make-up of its voting blocs to better reflect the diversity of its membership and of working members of the various professions represented in the awards' mandate. It'd be nice if a similar eye was squinted in the direction of who votes for the grand prix, which doesn't sound representative the few times I've heard a figure bounced around. It's not a solution but it's the start of making something better.
One of the things that came up in the initial defense of the show is an assertion that the show itself is female-creator friendly; this was in contrast to I guess the unfriendliness that history forced upon the show or something. Seriously, though, there was a strong attempt to separate this controversy from the rest of the show. This would stand in contradiction to the general criticisms directed at the show for which this grand prix mess was a kind of hyper-intense example for a general disdain and poor treatment. Something to follow this week is to see if anything else that the show does makes enough noise to suffer a similar criticism, or if the show's undeniable attraction to so many creators and readers and industry kind of carries the general picture we get from this year's festival. I think attempts to do this historically were harmed by the interruption that was last year's ahistorical show.
Comics By Request: People, Projects In Need Of Funding By Tom Spurgeon
* looks like Dylan Horrocks is selling a new print and some original art. Start here. I don't know if it's need-based or not, but let's go ahead and put it here until we know differently.
* finally, I don't know if there's any art left from Nina Bunjevac in support of her family's assistance to a Syrian refugee family, but it couldn't hurt to find out. That work's gorgeous.
* finally, it would be neat to own a complete run of Marvel Comics. There are a lot of quality, entertaining comics throughout that company's existence, and the 1960s are really, really strong -- that includes two all-timers, the initial Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man runs.
Bart Beaty ponders the importance of the Angouleme Festival's awards programs in terms of how they've had an impact on the authors and their works keeping in print and finding a way into international markets and the like.
Bart's is a way of defining importance that ties directly into his next book, but it's a question worth asking both of this show and all the others. Why do we assign significance to certain institutions in comics and not to others? What happens when we don't feel they're significant any longer? I think there may be some harsh judgments on their way.
FFF Results Post #445—To The Archives
On Friday, CR asked its readers to "Name Five Bodies Of Comics You'd Like To See Collected In Archival Editions." This is how they responded.
1. Alex Nino's back up feature "Korak" in Tarzan #231-234 (pictured, I think; I like these panels anyway)
2. "The New Adventures Of Hitler" by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell from Crisis #46-49
3. "Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger" newspaper strip by Max Alan Collins, Keith Giffen etc. from Asbury Park Press
4. The missing "Burger Wars" etc. storylines from the "Judge Dredd: Cursed Earth" series in 2000 AD (but the wait seems to be over!)
5. "Wowman, the world's most famous drug dog" from 1972's Primo and 1973's Fix und Foxi
1. the remaining Plastic Man stories by Jack Cole
2. Skyman by Ogden Whitney (pictured)
3. Harvey Kurtzman's Trump
4. Lou Fine's work at Quality
5. George Carlson's Jingle Jangle Tales and Pie Face Prince
*****
William Burns
1. Charles Barsotti's Sally Bananas
2. Alan Moore's Maxwell the Magic Cat
3. Seth Fisher's DC work (pictured)
4. Art Adams's complete Monkeyman and O'Brien including the Gen13 crossover
5. Alison Bechdel's complete Dykes to Watch Out For
*****
Marc Sobel
1. Paul Gulacy's Masters of Kung Fu run (pictured)
2. The Complete Taboo
3. The Complete RAW magazine
4. The DC short stories of Alex Nino
5. The Underground Comics of Alan Moore
*****
Patrick Watson
1. American Splendor
2. The Horse Press comics of Paul Pope
3. Rubber Blanket (pictured)
4. Sky Masters of the Space Force
5. Mr. A
*****
Steven Grant
1. John Severin's complete Atlas Comics (1950s) output
2. Russ Heath's complete Atlas Comics (1950s) output (pictured)
3. Alex Toth's Johnny Thunder stories & covers
4. Gil Kane's Johnny Thunder stories & covers
5. Joe Kubert's complete non-DC output 1949-1956
*****
Steve Replogle
1. Bobby London's Dirty Duck (pictured)
2. Barry Windsor-Smith's 1970-1972 Marvel superhero stories (Astonishing Tales 3-6 & 10, Avengers 98-100, Marvel Premiere 3-4)
3. Richard Howell's Portia Prinz of the Glamazons
4. Richard Corben's Den
5. Mark Evanier & Steve Rude's continuation of Jack Kirby's Fourth World stories for DC (Mister Miracle Special 1 & Legends of the DC Universe 14)
*****
Jeffrey A. Goodman
1. Complete National Lampoon Funny Pages
2. Complete National Lampoon Comics (the various parodies and originals like Son O'God, etc.)
3. Complete Pussycat (A sort of Marvel production) (pictured)
4. Complete Warren 1984/94 (great art, horrible stories)
5. Complete Skull and Slow Death Comics
*****
Jim Wheelock
* A Complete George Metzger Omnibus (Moondog, etc.)
* American Eagle -- Colin Dawkins, John Severin and Will Elder
* The Green Lama -- Mac Raboy
* L'Ile Des Morts -- Thomas Mosdi and Guillaume Sorel - An English language collection
* The Space Museum -- Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino (pictured)
*****
Chris Duffy
1. Robotman by Jimmy Thompson (pictured)
2. James Stevenson's Grandpa and Uncle Wainey stories
3. Rose O'Neill's Kewpies (for newspapers and magazines)
4. Jimmy Swinnerton's comics for Good Housekeeping
5. Bill Holman's Spooky
*****
John Vest
1. Mr. Tawky Tawny stories by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck (pictured)
2. Shary Flenniken's Trots and Bonnie
3. Dwaine Tinsley's Hustler cartoons
4. Jack Chick's complete minicomics
5. Jack Kirby's submitted Fantastic Four #102, with the panels in the correct order, and without the additional material published in Fantastic Four Lost Story
*****
Mark Mayerson
1. Conchy by James Childress
2. Bob Hope comics by Owen Fitzgerald
3. Gordo Sunday pages by Gus Arriola (pictured)
4. Capt. Easy by Leslie Turner
5. Robotman by Jimmy Thompson
*****
Bonny
1. Garry Trudeau's key B.D. continuities from the entire run of Doonesbury, collected as a type of biography (pictured)
2. Gus Arriola's Gordo
3. EC Segar's Thimble Theatre (pre-Popeye) best Sunday sequences, Fantagraphics-sized
4. EC Segar's Thimble Theatre (pre-Popeye) best daily sequences, LOAC Essentials-sized
5. The best Mickey Mouse & Goofy adventure stories by Paul Murry and Carl Fallburg
*****
Andrew Mansell
1. The Paul Murray Mickey Mouse stories
2. Prince Valiant by the Cullen Murphys
3. Drago by Burne Hogarth (pictured)
4. The Lou Fine Quality Comics and Covers
5. The Complete Virgil Partch
*****
Jamie Coville
1. Al Hartley Spire Comics (pictured)
2. Little Archie
3. Richard Corben's Independent Late 70s/80s work (Bloodstar, Den, Jeremy Brood, etc..)
4. Discontinued Heroes for Legal Reasons -- Wonder Man, Moth Man, Master Man, etc.. with whatever legal evidence/stories there is available regarding the issue.
5. Best of Topix and Christian Comics
*****
Scott Dunbier
1) Jack Cole's Plastic Man
2) Lou Fine's Quality Work
3) Darrigo and Taylor's Wordsmith (pictured)
4) National Lampoon Comics
5) Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez' complete DC Comics work that he inked himself on!
*****
Sean Kleefeld
1. All of the Friday Foster strips
2. All of the Gordo strips
3. André LeBlanc's Intellectual Amos stories
4. Air Pirates Funnies #1-2
5. All of the Speed Jaxon strips (pictured)
1. Jingle-Jangle Tales and the Pie-Face Prince by George Carlson
2. Odd Bodkins by Dan O'Neil
3. The complete DC and Atlas comics stories of Bernard Krigstein
4. The Alberto Breccia library (pictured)
5. The Collected East Village Other
1. Nicole Claveloux's comics art
2. Philippe "Caza" Cazaumayou’s comics art
3. John Held, Jr.'s newspaper and magazine art (two volumes)
4. Richard F. Outcault's The Yellow Kid
5. Joseph Keppler's editorial art (pictured)
1. Kona, Monarch Of Monster Isle by Sam Glanzman (I hear this one is coming)
2. Shary Flenniken's Trots and Bonnie (Yeah! Me, too!)
3. 'Mazing Man by Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano
4. Angel Love by Barbara Slate (pictured)
5. 1963 by Stephen Bissette et al (if we're gonna wish for anything, might as well wish for the moon)
*****
Stephen Harrick
Allow me to acknowledge that both Static and The City have received collections, but both are highly truncated collections -- neither received complete archival publications. The other three have not, to my knowledge, received any archival publications.
1. Whores of Mensa anthology series (pictured)
2. Static -- complete series from Milestone
3. Hostess Ads featuring comic book/animation characters
4. The City by Derf (complete run)
5. Jonny Quest -- Comico series
*****
Dave Knott
* MAD #24 and up
* Mark Marek's comics from the National Lampoon
* Jack Kirby's 2001 (pictured)
* Help by Harvey Kurtzman & co.
* Trump by Harvey Kurtzman & co.
*****
idea and examples provided by John Vest; thanks, John!
3. There are now three finalists -- Alan Moore, Hermann, Claire Wendling -- for this year's Angouleme Grand Prix, with two showing previous apathy about being in the running and one who openly asked not to receive votes. People are all over the place as to what they want to do.
Winner Of The Week
Burford
Loser Of The Week
FIBD -- Pivoting to an historical argument for their decision not to have women on the initial long nominees list for the festival's storied grand prix may have poisoned the well. None of the three finalists seem to want the award, an award that actually coaxed noted public ghost Bill Watterson into participating just two years ago.
Quote Of The Week
"Kirby, who died in 1994 at age 76, virtually invented the visual language of American superhero comics: the dramatic poses, the exaggerated anatomy, the visceral sense of action that pulls the reader into the story, no matter how outlandish the plot and premise."-- Rob Salkowitz
Prizes Being Given Out Leading Up To Angouleme This article by Didier Pasamonik has a round-up of winners of prizes affiliated with the time of the year that the FIBD takes place in Angouleme if not the festival itself. It's a crucial time of the year for that industry, particularly with the conventional wisdom that there are more titles than the market can handles just from a sift-and-find perspective.
I'm not sure I understood all of the looping, enthusiastic prose in that piece, but I did get from it that Le Grand Mechant Penard by Benjamin Renner won the Prix De La BD De FNAC from a pool of 30 nominees. That's confirmed here. That's an interesting award for its direct merchant tie-in, and I'd be fascinated to see an American equivalent and what its winners said about the North American marketplace.
A Pair Of Angouleme Grand Prix Notes
* Matt Madden, who's been following the story extremely closely, has declared he won't vote for the grand prix. I think his reasons why will be reasons a lot of folks will consider before deciding their own course. One of the reasons the response from the Festival was so awful is that there needed to be a legitimacy to this year's voting spurred by a healthy vote no matter how it took place and the cynicism of that response has resulted in a lot of middle fingers aimed voting's way more than it has a rallying of the troops. Life will go on, and someone good will be honored, but there will be a felt, deeply unfortunate difference.
* a couple of The Outhousers gang have a fine write-up of the general situation, including a pulled discussion of its nuances and a supplied translation of nominee Claire Wendling asking people not to vote for her. To put how badly this is messed up in another way, this is an awards program that recently got the JD Salinger-like Bill Watterson to participate in an honorable fashion that two years later doesn't have a single nominee happy to win or that many fans standing by that will blame them for declining the honor. I know of at least two modern winners that burst into tears upon winning. That might happen this year for a different reason.
* finally, the veteran arts writer and Leonard Zelig of 1990s art-comics publishing Robert Boyd will be spending a year doing a kind of personal-reaction criticism for artists in any medium that strikes him to write about, including comics. He's stealing the idea from RJ Casey.
* one of the reasons Amazing Spider-Manheld on the longest in terms of original 1960s Marvel titles that still had the momentum going from their very first issue is that a lot of professional attention was paid to things like memorable splash pages.
Brendan Burford Promoted At King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate announced Tuesday that Editor Brendan Burford will be named to a new position: General Manager, Syndication. KFS is a member of Hearst Entertainment and Syndication Group.
The release says the position means that Burford "will have responsibility for all editorial, marketing and worldwide syndication sales for the world's premier distributor of syndicated features to newspapers, magazines, web portals, mobile outlets and news organizations worldwide." The appointment went into effect on January 1.
Target areas for Burford indicated in the release are the company's digital presence and its expansion into wider entertainment media. The latter was something I believe Burford had been spearheading for several years now.
Burford became comics editor at KFS in 2007 with the passing of his mentor and supervisor Jay Kennedy. He was named editor of the company in 2012. A graduate of SVA and a small-press veteran as a cartoonist and anthology editor, Burford is one of the most-liked industry people by creators. I certainly have a high opinion of him, and look forward to see what he does with the new gig.
I double-checked with Claudia Smith at KFS to see if there would be anyone hired to Burford old position and was told that would not be the case, that Burford's new duties will incorporate his old ones.
Go, Watch: Video On Abdullah Jaber’s Disappearance Here's an interesting story that just sort of slid by with minimal notice. The cartoonist Abdullah Jaber was blocked from publishing in any Saudi paper after making an extremely mild cartoon about the blind acceptance of authoritarian reality. The suddenness of his departure was enough to worry friends and peers as to his freedom and health, until a tweet ten days latter assuaged them.
Cartoonists standing in solidarity with a respect peers is great; it's also admirable considering how little relative power these cartoonists have. The sheer number of countries with hostile policies towards what would seem to you and me like mild criticism via cartoon continues to dismay, and should at some point of necessity become a part of how countries without this particular problem forge relationships with those that do.
* I've written about the Hermann/Moore/Wendling finalists slate at Angouleme this year in its own post, but if you doubted that this is a story that will have legs as a critical touchstone, read something like this review of an all-male anthology.
* one of my personal realizations the last three years was that I'm not a fan in the way most fans today are fans, that this is a statement that doesn't automatically come with a hierarchy of value, and I should therefore shut my fat yob before criticizing fans for simply approaching things differently than I do. So I try to read every post I can from fans attending shows. This one was very sweet.
First Round Of Angouleme Grand Prix Voting: Alan Moore, Hermann, Claire Wendling The first round of voting for this year's Angouleme grand prix -- which went into seizure-driven course diversion when an initial list of 30 had no female comics-makers on it -- has had its results announced: veteran Hermann, the writer Alan Moore and the artist Claire Wendling.
This is a surprise although not in the deeply unpleasant way the initial list was a surprise. This is a surprise in that I could have guessed any number of times who might be a third artist on the finalists list if one were female and I would not have guessed Wendling, despite the fact I'm a fan. Wendling exists at that illustrator/comics-maker nexus, but I'd say solidly in the comics camp for works like Les Lumières de l'Amelou -- she gets a birthday at CR for instance, and an entry at Lambiek.net and a lot of pure illustrators don't. She's a past awards-winner at the show for a burst of early '90s work, and I think may live in Angouleme itself.
That makes this an odd contest, and kind of a classic one. Hermann comes out of the 1960s serial tradition and was even published in the early 1980s by Fantagraphics in what seems like a million years before the French-language '90s generation came along and drove change in the awards process. Moore is a known quantity and likely wouldn't want anything to do with the actual process of being a festival president, but is certainly important to the medium and has co-authored several mega-popular works, which is a concern for the show. Wendling looks like an outsider candidate but the grand prix has occasionally made non-traditional choices, favoring one element of a comics-maker's portfolio over another. It'd be an intriguing development if she won, as much as I personally would have loved a more traditional candidate that just happened to be a woman in the running, as more of a direct counter to some of the asinine arguments floated during the initial flurry of debate.
Good luck to all the voters and to the candidates. If nothing else, we're all watching.
PS -- Bart Beaty's Facebook post on the finalists stated that Wendling compared the news to getting an ugly sweater for Christmas. This makes me want her to win everything for which she's ever up.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Meg Downey on Vision #1-3.
* Ger Apeldoorn speculates on what might have happened with Joe Maneely's career had he continued to live past his too-early passing. He notes that Maneely had developed a commercial style working on Stan Lee's comic strip and a few other projects that might have served him very well moving forward. I agree, although it was a tough field at the time. I agree with him that Maneely would not have been the main cog of any superhero launch -- that wasn't his genre.
* I'm not sure if this is an old exhibit or a new exhibit that just hasn't hammered down for the public reading about it that creator Stan Lynde passed away in I think 2014. It's fun to look at the pictures, though.
Bundled Extra: Conundrum Press Announces Igor Hofbauer’s Mister Morgen For Spring ‘17
Conundrum has a post up announcing their acquisition of English-language rights for Mister Morgen, a graphic novel from renowned poster-maker and all-around artist Igo Hofbauer. The French-language version from L'Association is due a bit later this year, with the Conundrum Press edition showing up pretty quickly into the next.
Nina Bunjevac will be providing a translation and an introduction.
You can see pages of art from the book and get a better sense of the artist's past work through that link.
A Quartet Of Charlie Hebdo-Related Follow-Ups
* Alan Kurdi's father reacts to the Riss cartoon that uses a depiction of his dead son as a groper in another timeline to make its point. It's pretty amazing we have such cartoons and an apparatus to capture a family member's reaction.
* in the middle of this super-general update on major news developments regarding the Hebdo anniversary, there's a story that interests me about a widow of one of the police officers asking for an investigation of protective measures around the magazine. I don't think enough attention has been paid the Hebdo killings as a crime, so quickly it was adopted by people across a wide range of political ideas as an event meaningful to them. Here's a way more Dan Brown-sounding version of that same idea that Ben Katchor linked to from his Facebook page.
* this isn't Hebdo at all, but it's still sort of interesting. Legal precedent that a vehicle for a viewpoint can be punished would seem to have dire consequences for something like a satirical magazine, and untenable generally.
NYT Clarifies Editorial Cartooning’s Role At Paper This piece seems of interest both in terms of the reality of the Times working with editorial cartoons and the history of the Times dancing around whether or not to have any cartoons, period. A reader asked the public editor about the paper dropping its page of syndicated cartoons. Andrew Rosenthal makes clear they're happy moving forward with Patrick Chappatte and Brian McFadden, dropping the syndicated work because of its availability elsewhere.
It does seem more in line with the Times' commitment to exclusive content to arrange their site that way, but it's nice to have it on the record. Nearly every well-regarded cartoonist ensconced at a paper has a public, on-line profile -- you can debate who has benefited most in this day and age. This strategy seems slightly different.
This Isn’t A Library: New, 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.
*****
NOV151334 ENVELOPE MANUFACTURER GN (MR)$16.95
This is a week with a lot of books and comics about which I'm very curious, and there's no bigger wanna-see in 2016 than Chris Oliveros' Envelope Manufacturer, the fruits of a shift in time priorities with him giving up the publisher role at D&Q to Peggy Burns. I like Oliveros, I think he's thoughtful when it comes to comics in a way that generally leads to good comics, and I liked the book of the same name from several years back. Bring it on.
NOV150087 USAGI YOJIMBO #151 $3.99 NOV150018 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #139 $3.50 NOV150296 ASTRO CITY #31 $3.99 OCT150210 BATGIRL #47 $2.99 NOV150337 AMAZING FOREST #1 $3.99 NOV150738 CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 $3.99 NOV150763 SILVER SURFER #1 $3.99 NOV150965 RACHEL RISING #39 $3.99 NOV151129 SIMPSONS COMICS #225 $3.99
This is where I list the week's comic-book format comics that interest me. I'll point out that only two of them are less than $4. I'm trying to wrap my mind around visiting the comic shop every week and committing to pulling a $20 bill out if I choose more than two comic books. I'm happy to do it with a lot of comics, but the abstraction of it still bothers. There no series more established in my mind than Usagi Yojimbo; I'm glad I got to live during a time you could routinely go for decades on end to a comic shop and buy some fun Stan Sakai comics. After that we get the Mignola-verse offering, and then two solid works from the DC Comics side of things. Amazing Forest is an anchored anthology from IDW; I've been looking forward to seeing the result. I'll be happy if we get into a mini-run of curated genre anthologies. It'll feel like the 1980s. The Captain Marvel and Silver Surfer characters are featured in new/old series that show Marvel's roll-out of its not-a-relaunch continue apace. Finally, I was impressed enough on the Terry Moore and the Simpsons number to include them here on that basis alone.
SEP150486 HORROR BY HECK HC $24.99
I thought this was out. I have a few horror comics by Heck, and enjoy them as much as anything from what I see as a fallow period for American comic book.
OCT151813 MASTER KEATON GN VOL 05 $19.99 NOV151749 MONSTER TP VOL 07 PERFECT ED URASAWA $19.99
Two super-solid series featuring the contributions of Naoki Urasawa, one of those "if you have to know one, know this one" creators
OCT151891 WALT KELLY & POGO ART OF POLITICAL SWAMP SC $39.95
I thought this might be an art book but it looks like more of a text book. Either way, this is work that needs doing.
AUG151478 FRANK IN THE 3RD DIMENSION HC $22.99
My last-minute arrival of the week. Nearly anything Jim Woodring chooses to do is worth noting.
*****
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.
* Heidi MacDonald weighs in on some recent, minimal information on page rates. I read a lot of these articles and they always seem to be nestled right up against Change For The Ages, but people have been migrating from the big cities for decades now and one way of looking at page rates has seen them stagnant since the Bicentennial. I'm all for being practical about professional opportunities available in comics, while challenging the status quo to provide better ones.
* oh, to be rich. Okay, maybe not rich, but loaded with discretionary income.
* finally, this impulse is starting to hit comics shows and has the potential to transform them in the next half-decade. I'm not all the way convinced it hits as hard as it needs to to gain traction, but it's a possibility.
Quick Peek In On Things At Angouleme
It's about a week before people start to take off for Europe, eventually ending up in Angouleme for the last weekend of the month. A couple of things jump out.
* the last full statement of substance I've seen on where the vote for grand prix was left came from Jessica Abel last Friday. As you recall, the 0 for 30 nominees long list led to boycotts, a goofy defense in the form of an historical argument regarding the number of women eligible, a half-step towards adding female nominees and finally a hands-up-in-the-air open voting decision -- one would guess to not experience added nominees from declining the "honor."
Abel's post noted that some people are boycotting the vote and some are not; the political implications of such a vote are pretty clear. She recommends people become eligible to vote, because the grand prix voting bloc is male far ahead of any similarly-sized voting block should be at this point in history. You're eligible no matter what country you're from if you have work published in France, so if you're an artist that qualifies you should contact your French publisher -- or hopefully already have, since time is running out.
Abel's ballot provides a suggestion for how a vote might be used. Naming Claire Bretécher at #1 despite the Festival's insistence she isn't eligible because she's such an obvious candidate that there might be some momentum collected behind her; Alison Bechdel at #2 because she's had a full and mighty career of just the kind it seems silly for the nomination-makers to ignore, and then a third of whomever you want but hopefully a female for this of all years.
This is clearly something that will need to be pursued into the constitution of the committee and the voting bloc and the festival's culture. It's such a great show that it deserves an unimpeachable awards as much as it possible for them to have one, and I think it's possible for them to do a lot better.
* Abel makes mention of this note from BD Egalite about the fussiness of the voting process. They won't be participating in this shaggy voting revamp and will continue their pressure on the show entire.
* the controversy at the Grand Prix level provides a different context than most years for the Prix Artemisia, which goes to a female creator and work. That's been going since 2007, and I think the best way to see its winners in the context of the show's core honors is as less an alternate track than as a place where we see future potential grand prix candidates and book of the year fixtures. If I have this rambling article correct, this year's winner is Sandrine Revel for Glenn Gould, une vie a contretemps (Dargaud), with a special jury prize going to Théa Rojzman for the album Mourir (ca n'existe pas) (La Boite a Bulles).
By Request Extra: Nina Bunjevac Raisiing Money To Help Sponsor Syrian Refugee Family
The artist and cartoonist Nina Bunjevac is selling some art to help her family's project of sponsoring a Syrian refugee family. Bunjevac's work is stunning, and I rarely see any of it out there for sale. Great cause, great artist, great opportunity.
Go, Read: A Bunch Of Jack Kirby-Related Writing
* here's Rob Salkowitz at Forbes with a post that covers a lot of this same ground with some of Salkowitz's analysis as to why and to what effect we're negotiating with the legacy of one of comics foundational creators. I think we're seeing some Kirby interest for these reasons and because the continuing drumbeat of superhero movie titles and expectations for same make an alternate take for a feature article attractive to writers, many of whom know Kirby's appealing tale. There's also an element of the centennial that comes into play, and I think we'll see attention paid Kirby for the next 22 months.
* Alexi Worth examines Kirby as an artist for Art In America. The reaction to this one I've read scattered around seems half old-fashioned comics fan derision at its pretentious and its not-getting comics, and half positive that a writer would choose to look at Kirby in this fashion given the King's direct relationship with the kind of comics that are most frequently scoffed at.
* as the general Marvel storyline moves along without a Fantastic Four in it, and a story reason why made clear in the last issue of their recent event series, there are article out there that are digging into why in a very fan-directed way: blaming corporate issues like who has the movie rights, picking at reasons given in public. I have no idea what issues come to bear in what way, but I do know they've thrown a lot of well-regarded talent at that series over the last decade, many of whom seem to "get" the title in some popularly-accepted way, and there hasn't been a fan reaction to match.
* the Seattle run of King Kirby was well-received. A play that combines a role for an older male lead with what is perceived to be youthful subject matter is going to be attractive to a lot of regional theater companies.
* there's a nice Facebook thread here instigated by Derf Backderf about the title's decline and its glory years.
* here's a talent move on one of the new not-a-relaunch Marvel books. Four or five issues may seem like a small number of issues for for any creative team, but that's not necessarily the case anymore and I'm not sure it ever was.
* Johanna Draper Carlson reminds us of the creative costs of our current corporate-pleasing copyright laws, utilizing some smart Kurt Busiek tweets in support.
* John Porcellino reminds us that Spit And A Half was a music distributor for a while and a lot of that stuff is available via streaming now.
* finally a by request extra: Chris Pitzer of AdHouse Books wrote me a short note that he was going to contribute to this Risograph-focused crowd-funder out of a sense of local pride, and asked me to publish a link so more people know about it. Done.
* I'm not seeing a ton of stuff that flips a switch for me in the standard listing for crowd-funders, although admittedly I have a pretty bad eye for this kind of thing. A couple of readers sent me links to North Bend #1. Root & Branch Book One looks like a standard webcomic to print trade strategy in action. Alex Heberling is a Columbus-based artist, so a second The Hues got pulled and put in front of me by my computer. Fred Perry and Ben Dunn are name that work this type of project a lot now, I believe. Guillem March is a name people may know from American mainstream comics work.
* this fluffy profile of Stan Lee frightened me at first because it came up as a notable story and I thought there might be a reason for that beyond Stan's new cartoon biography; the same profile depressed me a bit after I read it. I'm a big fan of Lee's accomplishments and strongly believe they don't have to be finessed into something different than what they are. It looks like with this latest book and press coverage and the way Lee is sometimes presented by fans and business partners that some of the more inclusive, more rigorous strategies are being set aside. What's unfortunate about that is that even if you assume the loveliest intentions step-arounds and slip-throughs are a part of Lee's historical legacy as well.
FFF Results Post #444—Old But Good
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Favorite Publications That Feature Reprints But That Aren't Necessarily Formal Bookstore Archival Collections." This is how they responded.
*****
Michael G. Pfefferkorn
1. Superman 252/DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-13 (DC, 1972)
2. Wanted -- The World's Most Dangerous Villains 4 (DC, 1972)
3. The Spirit 1 (Harvey, 1966)
4. Miracleman 2 (Eclipse, 1985) (pictured)
5. Spacehawk 1 (Dark Horse, 1989)
1. The Menomonee Falls Gazette
2. Rex Havoc / Raiders Of The Fantastic (collected version of Rex Havoc And His Asskickers Of The Fantastic)
3. EC Classics #12 Weird Science
4. Archie's Pals 'n' Gals #100
5. Hard John's Nuclear Hit Parade (pictured)
*****
Scott Dunbier
1) Marvel Treasury Edition #4 -- Conan the Barbarian
Reprints Red Nails by Roy Thomas (adapted by the REH story) and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith. Not only is this gorgeous story reproduced oversized, but Windsor-Smith did an amazing job of coloring it for this edition. Superb!
2) Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
Two books, collecting tons of Jonah Hex stories by lots of great artist’s, but the standout here is the great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and in glorious black and white.
3) Showcase Presents Sgt. Rock
Okay, I don’t like to repeat myself in the same FFF, but damn, Joe Kubert! All are good but especially volumes 3 and 4 -- Kubert was at the peak of his game. Lots of other notable artists in these as well, and also in B/W.
4) EC Classic Reprint
East Coast Comix published 12 reprints of EC comic books in 1973. I don’t remember which one I got first but it was my gateway drug to EC, arguably the finest comics line ever produced.
5) Doonesbury -- Call Me When You Find America (pictured)
This was the first Doonesbury paperback I read. Fell in love with the strip by the time I was 20 pages in.
1. The Spirit (1974) #13
2. Adventure Comics #500
3. Cerebus World Tour Book 1995
4. Doctor Strange Classics #3
5. The Best of 2000 AD Monthly #18 (pictured)
*****
Chris Duffy
1. NEW GODS (1984 reprint series) number 4
2. Bumper edition of first few issues of COPRA.
3. Dennis the Menace and His Friends (Ruff) #23 (1970s)
4. The Carl Barks Library of Gyro Gearloose Comics and Fillers in Color #4 (1993)
5. Marvel Tales #14, 1968 (pictured)
*****
John Vest
1. Marvel Treasury Edition #4
2. Tales Of Asgard #1 (the 1960's comic) (pictured)
3. Fantastic Four Annual #7
4. Shazam #8
5. The Life And Loves Of Cleopatra (Rip Off edition)
*****
Sean Kleefeld
1. Marvel's Greatest Comics #34 (pictured)
2. Marvel Super Action #19
3. DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #14
4. Marvel Tales #16
5. Batman #255
*****
Jamie Coville
1. The Sensational Spider-Man: Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut (2-issue collection reprinting Roger Stern's famous story)
2. Magneto: The Twisting of a Soul #0 (various Magneto stories) (pictured)
3. Essential Sandman #1 (reprinted Neil Gaiman's Sandman #1)
4. Marvel Tales #194 (Reprint of Marvel Team-Up #60 and The Amazing Spider-Man #8)
5. Action Comics #1 1992 reprint (Superman Story only)
*****
Dave Knott
* National Lampoon Special Edition #7: National Lampoon Comics
* Marvel Treasury Edition #6: Doctor Strange
* Warlock (1982) #6
* MAD Super Special #28 (pictured)
* Fantasy Masterpieces (1979) #4
*****
idea and examples provided by John Vest; thanks, John!
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from January 9 to January 15, 2016:
1. Criticism of Charlie Hebdoroars to life over Riss cartoon featuring drowned Syrian refugee child.
2. Boycott organizers claim victory in FIBD dropping Sodastream as a sponsor.
3. First serious book of the year candidate drops: Rosalie Lightning.
Winner Of The Week CAKE. I'm all for things for artists via comics institutions, and they're early enough in their development that what they do with things like their residency and their payment of panel moderators could have been deferred.
Loser Of The Week
FIBD. I'm still irritated by how the goofball move of going 0 for 30 on a consideration call was defended and argued, and it was still in the air this week.
Quote Of The Week
"We're jumping into the New Year big-time with the announcement of our first wave of special guests for Comic-Con International 2016, to be held July 21–24 (with Preview Night on July 20) at the San Diego Convention Center." -- Comic-Con PR.
A New Year’s Suggestion: Write Your Idols
About once a year near the beginning of the year I recommend that everyone take some time during the twelve months ahead to write a letter or two to people that they admire in the business in which they work, that are active in the art form which they enjoy. With the passing of considerable artists like David Bowie, Lemmy Kilmister and Alan Rickman in a short span of time, one reason to do this sooner rather than later should be readily apparent.
Let me suggest another reason for writing someone a letter. In an era where the output of artists is increasingly available to us on demand and on our own terms, I know that it takes an increased effort for me to develop appreciation for individual works, even ones I find powerful. I think the limiting function of the methods of distribution with which I grew up played a big factor in how attentive I was to what I was able to find and buy. I spent more time with the comics I used to read, re-read greater portions of the novels I consumed before sleeping, played a lot of the music I had over and over until I could afford more. I don't want to put a value on any of that other than I think I was personally more focused then. I was more appreciative as I consumed whatever art it was that interested me.
So I invite you to join me in writing a physical letter or two this year, tell someone out there that you appreciate them and/or their example, and why. Presented that way, just about anyone will reciprocate your attention, although many will be too overcome to directly respond. Nearly every publisher of an artist can get letters to an artist with whom they work, and most probably remember a time that passing along fan mail was a significant function of the home office. I'll even help if I can. Anyway, it's a fun thing to do, it's a nice thing to do, and it benefits everyone.
Charlie Hebdo Hammered For Alan Kurdi Cartoon
CNN has a decent, general wrap-up of fresh anger aimed at the cartoon-heavy Charlie Hebdo magazine, which published a cartoon from acting editor Laurent Sourisseau aka "Riss" portraying the dead Syrian refugee child Alan Kurdi as one of the people that participated in the mass groping in Cologne. Everything that everyone feels about this is going to come from a place of privilege and remove and I'm at superhuman level of both here so please bear with me.
I think it's fitting for people to have a negative reaction to the cartoon. I did, too. I would not have run it. I think it's a bad cartoon. It doesn't score a clear point worth making for its employment of its strong, upsetting imagery, and thus it feels more like one of those cartoons where the use of strong imagery becomes justified because it's protected, not for its value to communicate a point. That's almost always a deeply problematic place from which to make art. In cases where a good cartoon is involved in an uproar, you can immediately pivot to at least the skeleton of the work's meaning. It's hard here. You have to figure it out. You have to make a supposition: commentary of fickleness of press, commentary on how we humanize certain images and not others, perhaps even deploring the lack of continuity in policy. If you don't make clear a meaning, you forfeit some control over what meaning is chosen on your behalf. It's a form of hubris that gets you to racism, to sexism, to classism, to all sorts of ugly places whether you intended to visit or not.
At the same time, I'm not of the mind to read a lot into a shitty cartoon other than it being a shitty cartoon. I'll keep in mind that every reading isn't my own. More generally, as I can't imagine the cartoonist made the cartoon to kick the shit out of the memory of a dead child, this makes me suspect the cartoon is better judged a failure than a purposeful affront. I think this matters. I'm not a humor expert, I don't have thousands of examples to rattle off, but I suspect the intent via its subject was similar to Eddie Murphy's Buckwheat routine from the early '80s: a commentary on context rather than a savaging of its vehicle. I also don't see this as an a-ha moment for revealing the Charlie Hebdo gang as being turdballs and that this has an effect on whatever argument from last year. A joke like this seems entirely within their established purview, although maybe a little less so than the strong current of humor explained by the French preoccupation with anti-clerical blasphemy. Still, you give me three guesses where that cartoon appeared, and I wouldn't have needed the second or the third.
I prefer that bad art exist. I find valuable and deplorable art that missteps as well as art that is ugly to its core. It's more common than you think. Heck, I've worked in an industry whose market leaders have been suggesting violence as a luridly attractive conflict resolution system directly to children for decades and decades now. And just as these four graphs might be thundered against as undeniable displays of two different, equally untenable positions or as a milquetoast dance around the whole shebang, the only solution I can suggest in any case is confrontation, criticism, analysis and context. And then, as we move on: memory.
* this is one of those installments of this column that's so light I feel like I should just list the last four webcomics I looked at: this one, this one, this one and this one. Then while doing the coding on that bunch made me think of this one. That's where I pulled this post's image. Any hope that I would ever be a regular reader of on-line cartoons has to be lost by now; my reading is still very much all over the place and certainly hasn't become a daily routine.
* finally, I've been getting at least one e-mailed link to this cartoon with just about every major celebrity death since the cartoon was first published.
* I had a hard time following this article because it was accompanied by a distracting photo of a guy sculpting a giant pair of testicles, but apparently the torpor with which a promised bravery of creative expression award has come to life has led an artist and some allies to do a testicle and ass related award named something between balls to the wall and balls up your ass.
* not comics: Robert Kirkman's Skybound Entertainment spreads its crossover wings a bit. We're not at a point in history where companies can involved ex-Telltale employees.
Organizers Of Boycott Of FIBD Based On Sponsorship By Sodastream Declare Victory 3rd Year In Here's the main place to go to figure out the ins and outs of this particular story, which hit hard during the last two big comics festivals in Angouleme. A group organized a boycott of the show based on their accepting the sponsorship of Sodastream, a company which has been savagely criticized for a variety of anti-Palestinian policies. The list of those creators signing up included Jacques Tardi, Lewis Trondheim and Joe Sacco. I'm not sure how that was implemented on the ground at the show of the last two years, but the announcement of the letter each year brought some punishing heat on the festival at a time which we've seen in 2015 rolling into 2016 isn't particularly welcome.
The latest news is that Sodastream is not to be found as a partner or contributor in any of the usual pre-show materials, and the instigators of the boycott are declaring victory.
Here. Levin's my favorite writer about comics with more than a half-dozen pieces to his credit. He's not for everyone. This is a review rather than a profile, and it's fun to watch Levin -- a litigator -- dig into the evidence presented rather than do the walking around required to fill his own files.
It's hard to believe that Jack Jackson will have been gone ten years this years or that it's been 50 years since he entered into the underground scene more fully. That was a world and in this case a full lifetime ago. As Levin points out, it's hard to imagine Jackson coming back into favor any time soon.
This Isn’t A Library: New, 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.
*****
NOV151609 ROSALIE LIGHTNING GRAPHIC MEMOIR HC $19.99
There doesn't seem to be a whole lot in the comics interest that hits one of my overlapping body pillows of interest, no matter how I pile them on the bed. It doesn't matter, though, not in a week with an obvious 2016 book of the year candidate like Tom Hart's Rosalie Lightning. Take it home, read it, cry, read it again. If necessary, just get this book and leave the rest for a future week's consideration.
NOV150606 FROM UNDER MOUNTAINS #4 $2.99 NOV150012 ABE SAPIEN #30 $3.50 OCT150050 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #12 $3.99 NOV150603 DESCENDER #9 $2.99 NOV150610 HUCK #3 CVR A ALBUQUERQUE $3.50 NOV150611 HUCK #3 CVR B ALBUQUERQUE $3.50 NOV150561 WALKING DEAD #150 CVR A ADLARD & STEWART (MR) $2.99 NOV150562 WALKING DEAD #150 CVR B BLANK SKETCH (MR) $2.99 OCT158896 WALKING DEAD #150 CVR C LATOUR (MR) $2.99 OCT158897 WALKING DEAD #150 CVR D MOORE (MR) $2.99 OCT158898 WALKING DEAD #150 CVR E OTTLEY (MR) $2.99 NOV150768 AGENTS OF SHIELD #1 $3.99 OCT150729 SECRET WARS #9 $4.99 NOV151191 ADVENTURE TIME #48 $3.99
You take this down into single-covers and there's not a whole that interests me even setting my desirability triggers at their most sensitive. My light week is someone else's hernia-inducing walk home, I'm sure. From Under Mountains would be the title I've been told to try I almost certainly would try this week. There's Mignola-verse and Sergio, which are always-buys. Descender I might be on the trades now just because I find that a more satisfying amount of story to read at one time. Huck I have no interest in having read the previous two issues but that's an important book for many readers. Walking Dead didn't do a big, special storyline moment for its 150th issue but you wouldn't be able to tell from the amount of covers out there. It does seem like something of an important dramatic moment for the overall saga, though, and it's easy to admire that series for its consistent performance. After that we have a sign that Marvel is still adding titles to its not-relaunch followed by the big reminder they're just now finishing up their big 2015 event series. Adventure Time gets close to #50. I'd Iike to dip back into that one, too.
SEP150101 LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 11 $19.99
Super-solid work in its latest roll-out. I will always look at it.
NOV150458 DIRK GENTLY TP INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF ALL KINGS $19.99
This one strikes me as an interesting license acquisition in that you'd think if it were to crossover it would have done so by now but at the same time there's likely enough interest for it to be viable in a lot of different media.
OCT151695 JAMES BOND SPECTRE COMIC STRIPS COLLECTION HC $39.95
This is a Titan Books offering of classic book adaptation, very familiar from film, featuring one of the all-time great fantasy criminal organization in 20th Century literature.
NOV151734 GIRL ON THE SHORE GN (MR) $18.95
While most of the attention this week is deservedly on Hart's Rosalie Lightning, this book may combine with the start of a translated Goodnight, Punpun in a couple of months to make this a huge year for Inio Asano. I look forward to both, and am grateful to have that opportunity. It's stand-alone work with which I'm largely unfamiliar that gets me the most excited as a reader, and this seems like a particularly satisfying pair of experiences on the horizon.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
* not comics: this is what was on TV for the young geek-in-the-making when the Batman TV show debuted. This is a pretty good line-up of shows of that kind, all things considered. I'd watch this line-up now some nights. LBJ is pretty much a Batman 1966 villain, looking back.
* Brigid Alverson walks us through the remaining, floating Angouleme Grand Prix material, including some intriguing thinking about how it unfolded. The history thing still kills me. This isn't listing 400 creators over 130 years and there being imbalances because of multiple factors including institutional sexism. This is going 0 for 30 on a list for right now. Put another way: This isn't picking a list of top 100 athletes 1900-2000 and not having as many Babe Didriksons as Babe Ruths, this is naming a list of great athletes right this very moment and leaving off Serena Williams and then pointing towards 1958 and shrugging your shoulders with a smirk on your face. What a spiteful argument in terms of its misleading qualities.
* not comics: I'm not sure there's an advantage of trying out versions of licensed properties as guest stars on a time-traveling TV show, but if there is, it's about to accrue to DC.
A Few Comics Business Stories Worth Noting
* IDW has refocused its international licensing work into its own division, and they'll be taking on the occasional property that needs that service but isn't part of the wide-ranging IDW family. Thus, this first announcements focuses on North American perennial Archie and its various sub-licenses. IDW is one company as active in trying different models and different approaches on the business end of the thing as they are in locking down their creative content, so pretty much anything and everything they do in this area becomes worth studying.
Jeff Webber is set to run that division. His ink-heavy "Vice President of Digital Publishing & Business Development" business card will now be the equally ink-soaked "Vice President of Licensing, Digital & Subsidiary Rights." Congrats to him on the new gig.
* dominant comics distributor Diamond is expanding warehouse space and generally improving its technological capabilities at warehouses in New York and Mississippi. The one thing about this kind of news story is to note that the company in question is healthy enough to make these improvements, in this case likely due to cash flow engendered by an uptick in sales.
* D+Q has hired a new marketing assistant, Sruti Islam. From reading old postings, she's been there a while, but an introductory e-mail only went out in the new year. I want to say that Fantagraphics has added a third person to their core (day to day) marketing team, but I'm not finding it this morning.
Cartoonists Decry Censorship At After Hebdo Exhibition
I liked Henri Neuendorf's article about censorship with the After Hebdo exhibit at the French embassy in Tel Aviv because of its thoroughness and light touch. Apparently one cartoon was removed and another was adorned with a sticker, and both cartoonists objected to how their work was treated. By focusing and its players -- the article absolves the French embassy of any interference -- it's largely left up to the reader how to process the altering acts themselves.
I'm against stunt work and provocation. It strikes me, however, that an exhibit about the Hebdo cartoons would logically have material that might be upsetting to someone and to scrub it of these things as opposed to just taking a pass on show it at all, that would seem to me counter what an exhibit like that might choose to do.
Burmese Cartoonist Suspects Facebook Suspension Tied To Political Cartoon Of Recent Vintage
The Burmese cartoonist Maung Maung Fountain is profiled in a regional news source about the potential that his Facebook account was suspended after the political nature of a recent cartoon was reported by other users. It's worth reading just for itself -- Fountain's a quarter century into his career, so any sort of crackdown on his work would be noticeable -- and for the idea that a lot of censorious control is signed over to corporations like Facebook and thus to the whims of a reporting policy country to country. It's like a scarier version of the occasional US twitter suspension.
If this is indeed spun from the cartoon in question, it's also worth noting how mild a cartoon that is to English-language audience to be the potential source of an action action like the one suggested here.
Continuing Pressure In Sri Lankan Cartoonist Case
It's amazing to me that we're seeing actual updates in the quest to find out what happened to Sri Lankan cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda and exploring whatever justice might be done in the matter. That struck me as the kind of case that never gets solved. Ekneligoda went missing before a 2010 presidential election due, it was thought, to his non-cartoon journalistic exploits. It's the kind of brutal happenstance that frequently never gets looked into because of the delicate political back-and-forth involved. Family and advocates have kept the pressure on, and we're actually far into the other side of finding out who is directly responsible and figure out what might be done at this late date.
Festivals Extra: CAKE Announces Second Year Of Inbound Residency
The up-and-coming if not already all the way here Chicago-based arts- and alt-comics show CAKE announced through PR yesterday that they'll be continuing their partnership with Transit Residency and the Chicago Public Resources Center (ChiPRC) for a second comics residency. They're looking for non-Chicago based comics and zine makers to spend two weeks in Chicago creating work at the ChiPRC studio space. There's a stipend of $1000 to help defray travel and lodging. A free table will be made available to them at the show, and they'll be a part of programming.
Roman Muradov was last year's recipient. The show will be June 11-12. As a former Chicago resident, I can tell you there's usually no better time to be in that city.
* Deb Aoki, Brigid Alverson and Katherine Dacey talk amongst themselves about the forthcoming manga to which they're most looking forward. They note that not only are there quite a few series launching or relaunching this year, but that 2015 was a strong year for material with an early volume number on them. One of the book's discussed is April's omnibus-edition release of Kengo Hanazawa's I Am A Hero.
* Johanna Draper Carlson writes about the latest round of Octopus Pie books as a publishing story. She also notes that Comic Book Creator will be running some material initially intended for other magazines, as the world of writing-about-comics continues to shake itself out.
* Bruce Canwell writes about the rest of the year 2016 for the Library Of American Comics (an earlier post was about of the super-commercial strips they're reprinting). This time around it's the Essentials series specifically and various strip series more generally. Good news for Alex Raymond fans in there.
* there's a post over at The Beat about Over The Garden Wall becoming an ongoing that also puts out the call for Badger fans to support that comic in its newest print iteration or bad things might happen in terms of its viability. Both are worth noting. I wonder how much room there is for certain properties that are 25-30 years old now just in terms of building an audience and/or regaining the one they have. Not every property is Superman or something that will endure for decade after decade. At the same time, comics does have some success stories in terms of reviving old properties. I'd love for this to become a viable market overall, is what I'm saying, but I have some real doubts.
* there was a ton of comics-maker reaction to the passing of musician and actor David Bowie. Neil Gaiman re-ran a story based on the cultural icon. I was reminded that Bowie's list of 100 favorite books included Viz and RAW. A bunch of comics people tweeted out art (you should check your favorites). I'm better nearly a full day of time was lost to many cartoonists and comics makers that dove back into their music collection. Bowie's story of an absolute outsider turned desired, beloved tastemaker is a powerful one for comics culture, with dozens of entry points based on who Bowie was. It should remain so. Here's a Roger Langridge cartoon.
* I'm not sure everyone needs to read recaps of 22-year-old Wizard, but I always find it intriguing to encounter the crassness of the values that were around back then, a moment in comics history where the initial build-slowly period for the wider market was punched in the kidneys enough times it crawled rather than strode thrugh the end of the decade and has only since started to be revived via a series of smart licensing deal, diversity in publishing and another generation willing to put their time into that segment of the market before hoping to make bigger money elsewhere.
* Gary Tyrrell makes the very interesting point that Iron Circus Comics, with its page-bonuses from the crowd-funding going so well project to project, likely has one of the best page rates in comic book history.
* finally, Liza Donnelly live-drew the Golden Globes. I kid about old people slavishly watching any and all awards shows so they can tweet about them, but I honestly think there's some truth to it. Shared experiences are very uncommon now, and awards shows qualify, if only barely.
Checking In With Zunar: Obama’s Responsibilities
The great Malaysian cartoonist Zunar has done guest editorials for near the entire half-decade plus period he's been harassed by his government for the content of his resolutely professional but certainly not alarming in any rational way cartoons. This the latest. I don't recall the cartoonist ever taking the stance that the increased interest the US has with positive relations concerning his country shouldn't potentially sidestep human rights issues like his own. As always we call for immediate cessation of these hostile moves and, if possible, reparations to the artist.
Slate Announces Return Of Cartoonist Studio Prize Here. It's self-explanatory and while I appreciate the formality of the announcement, I'm not sure I knew anyone who thought this one was going to go away. Caitlin McGurk from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum will be this year's guest judge.
Go, Read: Short Interview With Franck Bondoux
There are a couple of things worth noting in this Franck Bondoux interview in terms of how the voting for the grand prix winner will be done at the forthcoming Angouleme Festival. One is that he's characterizing this as the permanent solution -- an acceleration of a process they started in 2013 to change way voting is done to its final state, and not just a reaction to the criticism. The criticism moved it along, but they've been heading here all along. Another is that he foresees a two-tier process. The open vote that leads to three candidates; the final vote -- also, I think from the attending creators, unless my French is wrong which is tres possible -- will come from that three-candidate list.
There are some hints and flourishes there which made me roll my eyes. It looks like the festival really is going to stick by this "history of comics" canard as a real arguing point even as they withdraw from the controversy. Here's Laurenn McCubbin on that issue.
* one artist suggests maybe not sticking with a single style in order to maximize your availability for different kinds of work. That is what we call a counter-intuitive article, because conventional wisdom says develop a signature look.
* Cory Doctorow points out that France has exhibited a terrible record on free speech since the Charle Hebdo murders, and that that is a terrible legacy for an initial outreach post-murders which presented itself as a pro-free speech display of emotions and solidarity. I agree that they've built a terrible legacy since and that a lot of the politicians participating have had long careers of being shitty on free speech. I also don't know enough about last year's public expression to know if it was free speech driven or sympathy for the victims driven. That wouldn't matter in terms of pointing out the record now, but it would reduce some of the poison levels that come with charges of hypocrisy.
* finally, I haven't had the time to explore this, but apparently SAW's full in in terms of offering an on-line tutorial that does a lot of what they do in their phsyical workshops down there.
FFF Results Post #443—Digestible
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Favorite Digests Or Comics Smaller Than Comic-Book Comics." This is how they responded.
1. Sgt. Rock's Combat Tales #1, Joe Kubert
2. Archie's Camp Tales, various
3. Sunpot, Vaughn Bodé
4. Star Slammers 1974 World Science Fantasy Convention promotional comic, Walt Simonson
5. Somebody Loves Me, Jack Chick
1. The MAD Adventures of Captain Klutz, Don Martin
2. Lone Wolf and Cub, Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima
3. Death Note Black Edition, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
4. The Return of Pogo, Walt Kelly
5. The Middleman, Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine
*****
John Vest
1. Adventures of Fat Freddy's Cat Digest #1, Gilbert Shelton
2. Come Out Comix, Mary Wings
3. Grunt #1, Greg Irons
4. Color, Victor Moscoso
5. Phoebe & the Pigeon People #1, Jay Lynch & Gary Whitney
*****
Scott Dunbier
1) Archie's Super Hero Digest #2
A great book that published a bunch of inventory stories. Art by Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, Gray Morrow, Wally Wood, Al McWilliams and more.
2) Chandler: Red Tide
There were two versions of this groundbreaking Steranko OGN, the first one I owned was the digest version
3) Adventure Comics #495-497
The last dozen or so issues of Adventure Comics were digest sized. These three issues had a three part Challengers of the Unknown adventure by the brilliant Alex Toth. The rest of the issues were rounded out with stories by Adams, Swan, Aparo and more.
4) Tales Of The Incredible
A paperback collection of old EC Comics. Classic stories from the best anthologies ever done in comics. Wrapped in new covers by Frazetta.
5) Sgt. Rock's Prize Battle Tales (DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #7)
Kubert, Heath and Toth, oh my!
1. Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #41, Sheldon Mayer
2. Irredeemable Ant-Man Volume One: Low Life, Robert Kirkman & Phil Hester
3. Amy Unbounded #13, Rachel Hartman
4. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, Bryan Lee O'Malley
5. Rotland Dreadfuls #10: Sadistic Comics, R. Sikoryak
1. Blab!, Monte Beauchamp et al.
2. Brody's Ghost, Mark Crilley
3. Introducing Kafka, Robert Crumb/David Zane Mairowitz
4. Ghostopolis, Doug TenNapel
5. The Jack Acid Society, Walt Kelly
*****
Michael Grabowski
1. San Diego Diary, Gabrielle Bell
2. Or Else #5, Kevin Huizenga
3. The Nancy Auditions, Vol. 1, Ivan Brunetti
4. True Swamp #1 (Uncivilized Books), Jon Lewis
5. Unfinished Fatale, Jacques Tardi & Jean Patrick Manchette
*****
Mike Pfefferkorn
1. Walt Disney Comics Digest 44 (1973) Four great Barks stories.
2. Golden Comics Digest 31 (1973) Turok, Son of Stone.
3. Adventure Comics 500 (1983) Legion of Superheroes.
4. Best of DC 61 (1985) DC's best from 1984: The Anatomy Lesson, Blue Devil, Legion and Gil Kane on Superman.
5. Best of DC 68 (1986) Sugar and Spike Halloween Special.
1. Walt Disney Comics Digest #26
2. Golden Comics Digest #16
3. It's a World, World, World, World MAD
4. The Doonesbury Wounded Warrior Quartet
5. All of the 1960s Peanuts Fawcett Crest Paperbacks
*****
idea and examples provided by John Vest; thanks, John!
3. Single-digit number of days into the new year, and two book-of-year-2016 candidates start to rumble to life: January's Rosalie Lightning; March's Patience.
Loser Of The Week
FIBD's Franck Bondoux. I sympathize with anyone running a festival, particularly one of the giant ones -- I can only imagine how hard it is -- but the tone and nature of the festival's response to criticism of the grand prix nominations list was wholly unpleasant and rightly criticized.
Quote Of The Week
"Open to all women who make/have made comics. Let's set the record straight! Post your name and a self-portrait. It's that simple. Please invite a friend!" -- Many Many Many Women Who Make Comics.
Your 2016 Angouleme Grand Prix Fiasco Update
* Shaenon Garrity over at Bitch Media covered the whole thing. I am always happy to read Garrity pound on something. I like this one because I'm quoted on the side of the angels and readers are reminded of the issue of TCJ I edited with basically four and a half of 100 creators represented being male. I contain multitudes. Or, perhaps, multi-dudes.
* Bill Sienkiewicz was the 12th creator to withdraw from nomination. To be fair to the rest of the creators, the process began to alter itself after that first group made their disfavor known, which means a different decision to make than that first dozen.
Go, Read: Mark Waid, Brian Hibbs Discuss The State Of The Nation With Diamond’s Steve Geppi Here. I sometimes weep for the size of the hunger comics culture shows for a diet consisting wholly of non-stories like this one, people yelling at each other on the Internet, but this one is entertaining, and it's certainly odd for comics that a man whose fortune has come from working with mostly not-rich artists would have such a hostile and narrow view of poor people.
Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital By Tom Spurgeon
* these people from The Fall Of Gyes were nice enough to write me and ask for coverage of their book's debut at comiXology. Never let it said I'm all the way mean.
Various Charle Hebdo-Related Updates
* today is the one-year anniversary of the murders at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, France. My heart goes out to everyone that died or was harmed, to the families that lost someone, and to all of those that felt the impact of that horrible day, without judgment as to how or why and to what effect.
Your Morning Of FIBD Grand Prix Nominees List Updates * so the solution for the exclusion of female nominees from the FIBD grand prix long list seems to be to have no nominees. This is a smart move gamesmanship-wise because they avoid female cartoonist add-ons, those contacted in the solution previously suggested, from telling them "no." It also allows that if a male cartoonist wins -- which is likely -- that their choices were smart and reflected the will of the people, something they've already asserted. So if that's settled, the damage lies mostly within some of the really bizarre arguments used to deflect blame from the list, and how this will sit with cartoonists. We'll see.
* If you can understand French, it's worth checking out this TV show appearance where they rake Franck Bondoux of FIBD over the coals a bit about the lack of female grand prix nominees in the festival's long list. I would be the worst person ever on a TV show like this, but I don't think Bondoux comes across well.
* Brian Michael Bendis gets some blowback from someone using the history of comics is male line. He responds.
* I think the history stuff is a canard, by the way, and sort of a hateful one. I don't think there's a legitimate connection to a general course of history argument here when it's so easy for most knowledgeable comics folks to rattle off 10-12 people as deserving for inclusion on a consideration list by the festival's own standards. The ability to do what the committee chose not to do doesn't need a refashioning of history or a tweaking of standards. The ability to name a dozen qualified female candidates extends to people who might if asked to make an all-male list that's roughly the same list the Festival initially. I can make such a list and I'd defend it anywhere. I feel it's safe to say Bart Beaty could do this, and he knows that Festival's thoughts and values like a boutonniere knows the breathing of its wearer. The hang-up on display isn't that you need way more candidates so maybe some can slip in at the bottom of a 30 person list; the hang-up here was about shutting out all of those that obviously qualify no matter what version of history you prefer and what standards you care to claim. You don't need five more Claire Bretéchers; you need to recognize the one you have. The list-makers failed history, not the other way around.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* I updated the forthcoming shows and events page that runs every day on the site; you can scroll down below to see it at the 3:15 AM mark. One thing that popped is that the shows start the first weekend back with one in Arizona. Another is that the mid-February, Valentine's Day weekend is a crowded one.
* the controversy over the lack of female cartoonist in the grand prix long nominations list has diverted attention from other news about Angouleme, such as what seems to me a very fan-friendly programming slate driven by a trio of Katsuhiro Otomo-related offerings, a Hugo Pratt exhibit, Breakdown Press and the French magazine Volcano doing risograph-printed comics on site, and a Jean-Cristophe Menu retrospective, among others.
* finally, the Eisner Awards have put out their call for entries. That will run until mid-March. If you're eligible and favor those award, you should apply. It's the best way to make sure your material will be processed by the judges.
* not comics: with film, the middle sags. Three readers sent along that article, and I'm not sure it relates to comics. Comics has seen a growth of blockbuster titles (100K+) without a corresponding increase in middle-class titles, too, but there's a lot of manipulation that goes into those top hits and there seems to be more strength along the bottom whereas with film, when they get to their equivalent of our 15K in sale, the individual project is almost always a disaster.
Go, Read: Bart Beaty On Angouleme Grand Prix Fiasco
I sent up the Bart Signal this morning to ask him a questions about the mechanics of the Angouleme Grand Prix nominations process, and he wrote back to inform he'll be fighting crime in a different city for a while.
Bart writing as much as possible is an overall positive for comics and culture, so I'm happy to direct you to his post on the entire matter here. I'd bookmark that site, too.
FIBD To Add Female Names To Grand Prix Nominees List; Makes Long Statement Statement here.
Maybe it's missing something in translation -- I read it both ways but my French is pretty bad -- but that may be the most obnoxious and angry statement I've ever read from an official party in a comics milieu. I won't be going over it again in detail, I don't think -- life's too short, and it made me a bit ill. There's a bunch of stuff in there that's patently not true, though, including bellowing at made-up accusations at the fringes of what's being discussed, a standard of working cartoonist applied here that hasn't been applied to past presidents like Watterson or even their current one. There are also, and this is where my French may fail me, one or two extraneous digs at people. Sheesh.
Look, people just thought it was a shitty list. That many cartoonists held up to that standard and no women qualifying just struck some people as ridiculous, including a lot of people that wouldn't dream of being on the side of the made-up arguments presented. Adding names as if they have to be added on -- as if a list reduced to three couldn't be Bretécher/Simmonds/Barry just as easily as Christin/Mattotti/Clowes; as if that first grouping would have to hope to catch the lowest-lying fruit and sneak in -- while declaring it a good and righteous list before doing so makes this weird tokenism. It's an odd solution, but we all know that people in comics are sometimes terrified of admitting to anything that might not be awesome so I guess it isn't that much of a surprise.
I'm happy for a better list. I'm happy for the show to have a better list. That show deserves the best list possible. I wish it were being presented as a better list instead of a different list, but c'est la vie.
Boycotting Grand Prix Nominees List Grows; Should Continue To Grow Until Story Changes
I was told last night from a number of sources that several cartoonists nominated in the all-male 2015 long list for grand prix consider at the Angouleme Festival would join Riad Sattouf and Dan Clowes in removing themselves from consideration and backing the aims of a nascent boycott effort either explicitly or implicitly.
At 9:00 AM ET, the well-connected cartoonist Matt Madden has the list at Sattouf, Clowes, Christophe Blain, Charles Burns, Pierre Christin, Etienne Davodeau, Milo Manara, Joann Sfar and Chris Ware. More are expected, at least until the story changes in some way where this reaction might be moot. I don't think a lot of those cartoonists are social-media driven, so I'd guess these have come from publisher statements. My hunch is that the majority of that list of people bailing, given the reduction of nonsense this mini-crisis will hopefully engender, are the kind of forceful cartooning talents that would be in line for the grand prix at some point in their careers, that would surprise no one if named at some point. This is a list from the heart of the nominees list, not its periphery.
That is a staggering number of world-class talents, enough that to move forward with the remaining list -- or however it survives -- would be willful in a way that would be as shocking as the initial list.
I think this is all good. It's a dumb list if it somehow manages to include no women with that broad of a purview. There's a history of male dominance with the prize far ahead of how anyone I know conceives of the medium. That's a deadly combination. If you're asked to participate in something that you feel doesn't do honor to you if you win or by being listed, you decline to participate. I feel that's true of American awards, too.
I'm not sure what you do at this point, but for someone out there this is a full-time gig and I'm sure some solution can be found. Even if the award is eliminated this year, it's not like this harms anyone. There are of course dozens upon dozens of cartoonists that are women that can swing with the group named. One name that's come back up, since her special award wasn't a grand prix award, is Claire Bretécher, whose profile I think dwarfs all but about five or six of the people on that original list. I'm not sure how you'd approach anyone not on the original list to be on a new list. What a mess.
Update:This Le Monde article provides provenance on a couple of the announcements and gives some general contextual information in easy-to-parse form.
Update:Here's the BD Egalite piece that got this moving; although I think people were stunned about the initial list, a lot of people are so used to this kind of thing that it took a nudge for them to notice.
Update:Robot 6 has a nice grab-and-gather here. That response from the Festival is embarrassing, contemptible and idiotic. Relative parity isn't at issue. A view of comics where no woman cartoonist older than 37 can crack a top 30 for lifetime achievement consideration is. That is a shitty list. If you want to double down on that, good luck to you. You've put a lot of your potential guests in an embarrassing situation through this bizarre view of things, and they are reacting accordingly.
Various Charlie Hebdo-Related News Updates
* hundreds of news sources have reported that Georges Wolinski's name was misspelled as Georges Wolinsky on a plaque unveiled by the country's president yesterday. The widow was not happy, and made public her objection. Wolinski was one of the more prominent victims from a comics perspective.
* blowback on the cover for the special issue of Charlie Hebdo released this week.
* this news story focuses on the violence after the murders at the magazine offices, in the Jewish grocery store in a neighborhood that has since become accustomed to having guns around.
Go, Read: Profile Of Three Thai Cartoonists, General Scene
I enjoyed reading this article about three Thai cartoonists, two older masters and one working in his middle-aged prime: Sakda Sae-eaw, Chai Rachwat (real name Somchai Katanyutanan) and Thiwawat Pattaragulwanit. I also appreciate the photos and work samples scanned in to support this article; that's not something you see all of the time.
I find it fascinating to read about censorship issues from people that are everyday participants in the environment at risk; you get a better sense of what they're dealing with just in trying to do their job, and some of the worst things take on a matter-of-fact veneer.
Go, Read: Feature Profile Of The Nigerian Comics Startup Here. It's been passed around a bit earlier this week, but it's a thorough article with a bunch of talking points of interest. What got me was 1) how the project was immediately tied into commerce: sponsorships, links to convention culture and cross-media potential, even at a 25K download point, and 2) the idea of where the readership is coming from, and how the appeal of African heroes to an African readership is its own hurdle.
Go, Read: The Beat Survey Of Professionals, The Big Stories
I'm always a bit fascinated by the end-of-year survey answers that The Beat runs, mostly because of how it catches the industry in a collective moment of self-regard.
I'm grateful for Jeffrey Brown's answer that indicates the Charlie Hebdo murders might be the biggest story for comics last year. It's very difficult for stories like that one -- or the attempted crippling of Ali Farzat, or the routine institutional abuse faced by Zunar -- to penetrate into our thinking. They all feel very "over there" in a way that DC settling down onto Burbank like the spaceship on the cover of a 1970s rock album does not. In addition, some people just want to keep it positive, some people gravitate to stories about trends or issues that they themselves face, and others only see news as business in an art form they approach first and foremost as a business. Others share my viewpoint but simply disagree. There are no rules. All approaches are valid.
For me, though, I can't help but think that the Hebdo killings, and the swirling political clouds around them, and the decisions made by some of the murdered to keep at their jobs and sustain an approach to art about which they feel strongly after being warned in as severe a way as a bombed workplace, is the story we'll remember and the story that gets at a lot of the heart of why we make art and why it matters for us to do so at some personal cost, usually not the kind that makes headlines. I've thought about it every day for a year now, and I'm no closer to any moment of certainty beyond thinking that what happened is so very important.
I think it relates, too. I want everyone to be rewarded as possible for the art they create, and I've devoted a not-insignificant portion of time to fighting some of those battles when they flare up. It's a great thing to be able to do so. Yet I was reminded by a cartoonist at SPX a couple of years ago that our sprightly, obsessive careerism can sometimes occlude the meaning of doing art that makes being treated fairly for it in the marketplace so important in the first place. These are the answers I wish I had. These are the questions I'm struggling to formulate.
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.
*****
SEP150086 GIRL CRAZY HC $17.99
This is kind of a weird week, with more than a few projects that seem like Christmas gifts that slid down the production schedule at their publisher and thus slightly out of Santa's grasp. I really enjoyed this Gilbert Hernandez series from almost 20 years ago when it was in serial form, and that's a beautiful cover. I want all of the Gilbert Hernandez comics.
SEP150038 BALTIMORE HC VOL 06 CULT OF THE RED KING $24.99
Your Mignola-verse selection of the week.
NOV150504 BITCH PLANET #6 (MR) $3.99 NOV150601 DARK CORRIDOR #6 (MR) $3.99 NOV150169 SWAMP THING #1 $2.99 OCT150736 A-FORCE #1 $3.99 OCT150860 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.2 $3.99 NOV150871 DOCTOR STRANGE #4 $3.99 NOV150809 HOWARD THE DUCK #3 $4.99 NOV150751 SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL #1 $3.99 OCT150769 UNCANNY X-MEN #1 $3.99
Not a ton in the serial comic-book comics realm this week would get me to a show to buy one were I not already there. A lot I'd look at, though. Bitch Planet is likely welcome given its roughly bi-monthly status. Those covers certainly pop against the backdrop of mainstream comic book. Rich Tommaso has another issue of his loopy Dark Corridor out, which is great considering a lot of his publishing dark corridors have had dead ends before this point. I hope it's a sustainable work for Tommaso, one of his generation's talented grinders. That Swamp Thing is a mini-series with writing by Len Wein; I think it's only a mini-series. The rest are random Marvel comics. The three #1s mean they're not done rolling out their work post-Secret Wars not-a-relaunch. The Doctor Strange comics I've found enjoyable and amusing, although thus far very narratively compressed. That's my comic to buy on the way to an airport right now. The one that #1.2 next to it I make note of because I never know what that means and at this point can't be bothered.
NOV151528 DUNGEON ZENITH SET VOL 1-3 $39.99
I love all of the Dungeon material and would be tempted to buy a big chunk of it in an upgrade in production quality.
AUG151694 ITS HARD TO BE A GIRL GN $26.99 AUG151695 PERFUME OF LILACS GN (MR) $25.99
These are mid-sized graphic novels translated from French and the Quebec comics scene rather than something on the European continent, and mark a stab a bit deeper into the field from publisher Soaring Penguin Press. I wonder if this price point will be tough, but a lot of that depends on the value of the production and I can't ever tell anything about that until I have them in my hands. It's this kind of project where I stumble across fully-formed talents that I've never heard of, which is a great, particular thrill of comics.
NOV151236 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 02 $21.95 NOV151237 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 03 $21.95 NOV151238 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 04 $24.95 NOV151239 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 05 $24.95 NOV151240 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 06 $24.95 NOV151241 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 07 $24.95 NOV151242 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 08 $24.95 NOV151243 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 09 $24.95 NOV151244 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 10 $24.95 NOV151246 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 12 $24.95 NOV151247 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 13 $24.95 NOV151248 LEONARD STARRS MARY PERKINS ON STAGE TP VOL 14 $25.95
Don't know what's going on here, but I am pro- the late Leonard Starr and pro- his longtime soap opera strip Mary Perkins/On Stage. If you store has a full row of these because of this offer, you shop at one first-class store.
NOV151742 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 04 $9.99
What little I've read of this comic is very entertaining, and the reviews from manga dabblers of the kind that maybe read a half dozen different series in a year seems to have been very positive. On a week like this one, I'd like try a copy -- heck, I'll look it up when I'm in my local store this Friday.
NOV151739 NARUTO 3IN1 TP VOL 13 $14.99 NOV151738 NARUTO GN BOX SET 3 VOLS 49-72 $185.99 NOV151741 NARUTO SEVENTH HOKAGE SCARLET SPRING GN $9.99
The series is over, the publishing phenomenon continues with a second trade serialization, a box set run, and I believe a narrative coda to the popular title. I always like this work when I see it... such thoughtful and though-through action sequences.
SEP151896 ALTER EGO #137 $8.95
That number is astonishing and so, I'm guessing, is the issues Jim Shooter interview. There's more of Shooter to come, as well.
OCT151878 ART OF PLOOG HC $49.00 OCT151879 ART OF PLOOG LTD S&N ED HC $175.00
I really enjoy the random pieces of Mike Ploog that I see in places like that Ralph Bakshi book from five to ten years ago. I could be talked into buying a whole book of material like that, and so I shall let it work its magic and see.
*****
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
* this artist feels that there should be no fan-art drawing from professionals: art depicting characters other people own. I don't have an opinion about this. I don't begrudge people making a few bucks in a gray area; I also don't cry a lot when gray areas get shut down, if that happens.
* here's a list of 25 graphic novels written by women. There are more creators involved than get mentioned but that might be a hang-up on the writing part, I couldn't tell you. Still: solid list and reasonably wide-ranging, which in its own way is specifically hopeful.
* Johanna Draper Carlson looks at various dying media, including one that's been a major repository of comics: the print newspaper. Johanna's writing usually has a consumerist angle, and does here, noting that many newspapers are choking themselves by making decisions to raise prices -- much like home cable. It's a moving-around-of-furniture ploy. I think I might add, or at least emphasize, that part of this is the corporate nature of that business now, something wasn't true even 30 years ago. A company like Gannett, on a certain level, doesn't care about long-term profits in the same way the last generation's ownership families might have. They'll take the short-term profits, and then more short-term profits later on, and they don't mind dismantling the whole damn enterprise to get them.
* Tom Beland posted a wide-ranging list of comics creators whose influences he's felt. I think this is part of a pass-along, so there are probably other lists out there for you to track down.
* finally, I enjoyed this rundown of times in X-Men stories where Colossus threw Wolverine at things (the "Fastball Special") more than I should have.
Daniel Clowes, Riad Sattouf Withdraw From FIBD Grand Prix Process In Light Of All-Male Noms List
Here for Clowes. Here for Sattouf. Both are formidable figures even within the company in which they were originally selected for grand prix consideration -- Sattouf in particular is a key, big figure right this very moment in the French-language market for the success of his recent work. Clowes places this story into perspective for the sizable American audience that the festival would like to better accommodate as visitors to their show.
I imagine there will be more if there aren't more already. That seems a wholly rational response to an awards program whose actions you can't endorse, or in whose aims you would care not to participate: prompt withdrawal. Sattouf's phrasing suggests that a great female cartoonist take his slot.
The grand prix is one of the biggest prizes in comics, if not the biggest one. It is a first line in every obit to which it applies, and it comes with the all-time greatest perk: presidency of next year's festival. In recent years the old peer-voting mechanism was disassembled in favor of a way of voting that would bring in more popular candidates, some younger, in order to better place the show at the center of world cartooning.
To not include any women is institutional failure of the heaving, writhing-on-the-floor, everybody-stare variety. It's just dumb. I mean there are a ton of cartoonists for whom this honor is appropriate, many of whom are slam-dunks career-vs.-career against half the very good list that exists, very good save for this idiocy: Posy Simmonds, Moyoco Anno, Kate Beaton, Alison Bechdel, Marjane Satrapi, Phoebe Gloeckner, Anke Feuchtenberger and Rutu Modan all leap to mind as operating in this weight class, and twice that number should be easy to list without a lick of thought (although apparently I don't know how to spell Feuchtenberger).
Let's hope for a more reasonable outcome, the best one possible. I feel bad for the current nominees, all of whom are formidable, and many for whom I'd guess this is a career highlight that they can't process the same as if more women candidates had been included.
Various Charlie Hebdo-Related News Updates
The magazine Charlie Hebdo is back in the news coming up upon the one-year anniversary of the murders of editorial support staff in their offices on January 7, 2015.
* between when I started this post and my finishing it for it to roll out, the cover to special edition of Charlie Hebdo put out to coincide with the first anniversary of the murders has been released to press.
* here's a long article meditating on some of the effects the post-shooting solidarity has had, starting with the magazine designer who put together that initial Je Suis Charlie logo.
* this may or may not take you to an article that reviews the last year in terms of the changing attitudes toward political expression through cartoon art.
* a lot of what we're going to see is material re-argued from the initial back and forth a year ago, which I guess is fine in that a lot of that stuff was poorly argued with an eye towards winning a political point. Here's one article that could have appeared in that time period, about the mis-analysis that critics brought to the magazine.
* here's an article with twin points: circulation on the magazine is up, but the magazine is so different now that it can hardly be called the same.
* there's a video here about making art after last year's bookend attacks in Paris. I have no idea if it's any good or not, lacking the time to cook up a bowl of popcorn and watch a video as opposed to reading an article like sites used to provide. If it's great, someone please tell me.
Comics-Maker Gene Luen Yang Named The New National Ambassador For Young People’s Literature There are a lot of good feature-y articles about Gene Luen Yang being named the next National Ambassador For Young People's Literature, a post created by the Library of Congress through their Center for the Book along with the groups the Children's Book Council and their organization Every Child a Reader. Here's one.
Yang is an articulate, passionate advocate for comics and for reading more generally. If comics ranked its own in terms of likability Yang would be a solid candidate to make any top five. He's a great choice for anything he wants to do and a seemingly ideal one for something like this. I hope it does everything he wants it to do. In addition to getting a first-rate person in this position, the program gets a lot of press because of Yang's role as a cartoonist and comics-maker, a growing category for that entire realm of reading. Put the wins in a win-win chain as long as you'd like to make it.
Current office-holder Kate DiCamillo will attend a Thursday ceremony in Washington, after which I'm guessing Yang will be hustled backstage and told what books are in the kids library at Area 51. The office-holders preceding DiCamillo were Walter Dean Myers, Katherine Paterson and Jon Scieszka.
Go, Read: Tony Isabella’s Rejection Of Best American Comics The longtime mainstream comics writer and editor, early blogger and creators rights advocate Tony Isabella wrote a blog post that's been passed around a bit objecting to the idea of the Best American Comics anthology, basically for holding that title and not encompassing as many of the best works from the more genre-focused groupings of comics that he feels should be included, works that Isabella thinks are better than many of those in the book. If you scroll down a bit to Derf's response in the comments, that's a pretty solid response to the excesses of Isabella's arguments.
I'm recommending the article for a couple of reasons. One is to indicate that this point of view is still very much out there, that the rise of art- and alt-comics over the last several years still does bring with it the occasional pushback of this type. Alt-comics tend not to be dismissed the way they were 20 years ago as a generation grows up that had a wider reading appetite for comics and as those comics find their own commercial footing. "No one reads them and therefore they suck" used to be an important argument in their denigration, believe it or not.
What I usually see these days is a furious fan whose tastes include the latest, best mainstream material and, say, Kate Beaton's comics that feels every proper list selecting best works needs to include works of all types, a comics United Nations of genres and approaches. I don't agree with this approach. I'd like as many lists as possible as idiosyncratically constructed as possible, and lets see which ones are more convincing. From my own perspective as someone who thinks far too much about such things, I think mainstream comic book and independent comic books are consistently better crafted than they ever were, but I still think for the most part that the vast, vast, vast majority of good to great books are landing from the alt-/art- tradition. I'd kill for a primetime Fantastic Four-level superhero comic; I just haven't seen one since I started doing this. It's not specific to that genre in that form, either; I haven't seen a first rank newspaper adventure strip in my lifetime.
I also thought worth mentioning Isabella's viewpoint in contrast with AO Scott and Manohla Dargis having a discussion about 2015 in film, where they feel genre hits like Creed and Mad Max: Fury Road really were right there with any other kind of film in terms of excellent cinema. It gives me hope that we'll notice when our comics of this type are this good. For many people, they already are.
Julia Gfrörer Loses, Regains Access To Twitter Account After Fending Off Critical Doofuses Heidi MacDonald has a rundown here of cartoonist Julia Gfrörer losing access to her Twitter account, since regained. I'm grateful.
The idea that someone could get into it with a creator and then through a complaint knock that person off of their account until enough people complain she gets it back may seem like a minor story outside-in, but it has to be super-annoying for any creator whose story it becomes and it marks a wider, on-line culture difficulty in processing harassment complaints.
I'm a fan of the cartoonist and a fan of her Twitter, so I'm glad this eventually worked out. May it never happen to anyone in comics ever again.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: Publishing News By Tom Spurgeon
* this morning Fantagraphics formally announced its publication of a book collecting the Real Deal comics by Lawrence Hubbard and HP McElwee. There's an intriguing backstory and it also might bring to the forefront the publication of comics that satirize elements of violence, class tension and racial conflict through straight-faced yet over-the-top depictions of such elements. Its path to publishing should be fun, but I'm glad to see the work.
* one person suggested that to me that one of the most interesting things about 2015 was the relative lack of work from Alt-Comics Generation One. That is not the case in 2016, where Julie Doucet has a new book on the horizon, Peter Bagge has at least two collections coming including a major repackaging of the Neat Stuff material, Gilbert Hernandez has I think maybe four between collections and the initial book version of The Twilight Children, Daniel Clowes has a brand-new book among the year's most anticipated across the entire medium and so on. I think there are two books largely about Joe Sacco, even. To me, I don't care about the age of the creator or their generation as much as the work on the page, and all of those creators still have it. It's going to be a fun 2016.
* Bruce Canwell writes about some of the series continuation volumes at Library Of American Comics this year.
Salih Memecan Gives Up Half Of His Cartooning Platform
The Turkish cartoonist Salih Memecan was the subject of rumors that he had been sacked from his front-page gig Bizimcity at Sabah after handing in a first round of cartoons for 2016 that were rejected by the pro-government publication. According to the popular and well-regarded Memecan, long syndicated internationally in a variety of countries, this isn't true. The veteran cartoonist just decided to give up doing front-page cartoons due to the increasing political tension felt within his country and in a more abstract way, throughout the world. Memecan will continue his back-page feature, Sizinkiler.
As the article points out, the cited tensions have had real consequences for cartooning and journalism more broadly in Turkey, with a continuing cycle of lawsuits and arrests stretching back more than a decade at this point. For the situation to become that much worse is worth noting.
I believe that the front-page cartoons have a second life in a Turkish magazine. I would assume those would also discontinue, but that wasn't made clear in the article.
Bob Corby of the venerable indie-show SPACE has announced this year's round of finalists for its prizes. The launch page for that is here, with a ton of individual links to follow out.
My memory is that the SPACE prizes are done year to year by collecting work at the previous show for prize acknowledgment at the current year's show. That's why 2015 is acknowledged rather than 2016. SPACE is one of the big comics-in-Columbus events of any year, and its pedigree stretches back to the mid-1990s and the first flowering of such shows nationally.
Congratulations to the finalists and to all those that entered. SPACE is April 9-10, 2016.
* Amiculus: A Secret History Volume I, Travis HOrseman And Giancarlo Caracuzzo (Amiculus Books)
* Apama: The Undiscovered Animal, Ted Sikora And Millo Miller And Benito Gallego (Hero Tomorrow Comics)
* Askari Hodari: Guerrillas, Gunsmoke & Mirrors, Glenn Brewer
* Connections, Canada Keck (Editor)
* The Hues, Alex Heberling
* Spitball, Laurenn McCubbin And Alissa Sallah (CCAD)
* When the Heart Betrays the Blood, Mat Calvert (Calvert Comics)
* The Works, Robert Loss And Mike Laughead (CCAD)
* Bear Wonderland Vol. 1, Steve Steiner (Mullet Turtle Comics)
* Binary Gray #7-10, Christopher Charlton And Rowel Roque (Assailant Comics)
* Black of Heart #3-4, Christopher Charlton And David Hollenbach (Assailant Comics)
* Cosmo-Simian #1, Craig Bogart (Mystery City Comics)
* Goodbye, Weather, Eric Adams And Jeremy Morrow (Narrier)
* If the Shoe Fits, Emily Willis And Ann Uland (Arbitrary Muse)
* Miserable Americans #3, Evan Derian
* Ol' Crazy & 40 Oz of Death, Victor Dandridge And Bryan Moss (Vantage: Inhouse Productions)
* Open Tree #2: Linus & the Fluke of Love, Christopher Charlton And Lauren Sparks (Assailant Comics)
* Ragged Rider: Tales of the Cowboy Mummy #2, Andrew Meyerhoefer And Seth Kumpf (So How 'Bout Comics)
* The Revisionist: 10 Years Gone, Chad Lambert (Old School Comics)
* Whatzit #2, Gideon Kendall
* Woodstalk #4: Reason to Believe, Bruce Worden (Black Market Books)
* Ant: Special S.P.A.C.E. Edition, Harrison Warden
* Bad Sex, Lauren McCallister
* Colonies, Victor Dandridge (Vantage: Inhouse Productions)
* The Cosmographer, Joe Kuth (Red Panda Comics)
* Cupid Seller, Ann Uland
* Doug Hates Ghostbusters, Max Bare And Melissa Sue Stanley
* Dutchy Digest #9, Steven Hager And Bruce Rosenberger
* Far Tune, Terry Eisele And Brent Bowman
* Lupa Cachula's Life: Showing Stamina, Dre Grigorpol
* Magic Clock, Pat Kain
* The Metatron, Ian Higginbotham
* Mrowr, Bruce Worden (Black Market Books)
* New Here, Clare Kolat
* Pegasus And Out Come The Krakens, Jack Gonzalez
* Presidents of the United Space, Chris Ludden
* The Secret Origin of the Dust Elves Book Two, Gordon Harris (Collide-A-Scope Comics)
* The Secret Origin of Brimy, Amy Canini And Brian Canini (Drunken Cat Comics)
* "Shrooms" from Wait... #2, Gideon Kendall
* Sour Milk #2, Max Bare
* To Boldly Go..., Shawn Feaking And Stu Rase (Prince Delight)
* Traitor Chapter One, Sean Dempsey (SMDempsey Comics)
You can find links for non-web efforts and more information generally through those category links.
The comics show is hosting an IndieGoGo campaign in service of the cash prizes involved. You can read more and perhaps qualify for levels of direct sponsorship here.
Go, Read: Buzz Dixon On Decline Of Newspaper Strips Buzz Dixon writes about his perception of comic strips' continuing decline here in a lengthy post. Dixon's very much a strip lover, and while some readers might not agree with some of his aesthetic appraisals, his dismay is affecting. I don't really know where that business goes from here, particularly in terms of its art. That world of comics is just not set up in a way for a transformative period, at least not one I can see, and there doesn't seem to be anything about the continuing move to on-line media that suggests that comics will be included in the process of consuming news and information as a hidden partner, the way that newspaper's included them as a contrasting element.
Comics By Request: People, Projects In Need Of Funding By Tom Spurgeon
* this will be mentioned further up the page as well, but the SPACE indiegogo continues. That's an excellent show, and they're raising money to give it away to the cartoonists that win their prizes. If you're an attendee or exhibitor, you might give even more thought to participating.
* I'm not finding a lot out there that leaps out at me from the formal crowd-funding sites that way I usually. I'm going to suggest that's something wrong with the way I look at things rather than the available pool. I do know that this project is from a pair of cartoonists that have been trying to launch socially-conscious comics in the Chicago area for a while now. I'm bookmarking it here so I go back and look at it at some point. It's received no traction thus far.
* the Don Perlin and Jim Hudnall fundraisers are still going, as far as I know. Those tend to go until there's a note on them calling them off. I'm sure any money would be appreciated.
* an artist friend suggested that you check in with your favorite artists through twitter and other social media because sometimes artists come out of the holidays a little light. I did see one artist doing a New Year's weekend sketch sale, but that one is done now. It's not a bad idea.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * I liked Roger Langridge's year-in-review-2015 better than any of the others I read. If he's more productive in 2016, we all win. Also I miss when I could run pictures of Statler and Waldorf in articles about Fantagraphics and label them "Groth and Thompson."
* I enjoyed reading this negative comics club reaction to one of my favorite comics as a kid, the Days Of Future Past-era X-Men comics. I wish the report had gotten a little deeper into why it was confusing. It certainly doesn't stick in my memory as more convoluted than the average superhero comic book saga done since, and certainly wasn't considered particularly hard to understand at the time. The only contextual thing specific to that time that occurs to me that might add some dissonance is that superhero comics went into this thing about 1976-1981 where killing and death were reintroduced into a lot of monthly comics. It's why Wolverine and Punisher broke out; it's why Miller's work on Daredevil seemed like such a clean break. We're up to our eyeballs in apocalypses now, but back then the idea that everything was going to end in mass murder and hopelessness and armageddon was still kind of a new thing, and made you look at those adventures a bit differently. It may have even helped kids to process their nuclear dread.
So I Watched The New Star Wars Movie The Other Day
I don't see a lot of films in the theater, but I got to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens the other day when I rolled off of a plane at 2 AM and couldn't sleep. I figured the big franchise effort would either shut my eyes or wake me up for the rest of the day. There was a 9 AM showing at a huge screen a country backroad 10 minutes from my house. So I indulged.
Of course I watched Star Wars when I was a kid. I was obsessive for the period right after the first movie, and consumed a lot of magazines about the movie and its antecedents and basically anything that was offered until the second movie came out. The second movie I watched a hideously inflated number of times at Muncie's downtown movie theater, the old Rivioli, with its balcony full of teenagers making out and its gag-item vending machine in the men's bathroom. That was a blast. It was a routine. I saw most of those Empire showings with my friend Dan Wright. I had a decent general allowance and in the summer was afforded an additional modest sum of money reserved for getting and consuming art because I lived the life of a spoiled middle-class kid, at least in those respects. The movie cost $1.00 or at most $1.50 at the first showing every day. Totally affordable. It was fun. That's a fun movie. The third I saw near the last day of middle school; there were no crowds. The prequels I saw in various big movie theaters in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, again without much of a crowd at any showing. I remember being stunned when George Lucas felt the need to explain the Force. I remember Jimmy Smits in a space convertible. I was confused when Yoda gave up fighting in that last one, like there was some sort of internally motivated rush to go into hiding far before I had been convinced the day was lost. Star Wars fans have fought harder and to greater self-injury arguing Yoda trivia on message boards than Yoda fought in that movie. Never trust a puppet to save the universe.
Star Wars wasn't the first nerd thing I encountered or the one about which I was most passionate, but it was the nerdiest part of the culture that I shared with the most amount of people. Star Trek and comic books and Dungeons and Dragons and Dr. Who and Monty Python all felt like things that about 15 people in my hometown of 80,000 experienced. Everyone knew Star Wars, though. There was a small group of popular girls that sat 15 rows behind us at Return Of The Jedi. Most of our parents saw the movie, too. I never felt the hostility that a lot of nerds did about their consumption of fantasy junk; no one in my immediate group of friends did. But even I could tell the difference between Star Wars and the rest of it. No one I know got really obsessed with Star Wars they way they might with the X-Men comics or videogames or even Star Trek. We didn't read the comic books, and we read a lot of comic books. I don't know that any of my friends gave the expanded universe material a shot. None of my friends college or before have mentioned the new movie on Facebook or in conversation.
I thought the movie was fine. It felt like clever and well-produced entertainment content. The movie was extremely handsome. Visual sumptuousness makes first viewings pleasurable and future viewings possible. John Boyega and Oscar Isaac and Harrison Ford (still; watch Age Of Adaline) are three of the 20 or so most charismatic actors working and it's fun to spend time watching them run around and chew scenery. The lead was charming and emotionally credible, which is so hard and so important. The bad guy was resilient and scary, Carrietta White by way of Columbine, although truth be told the actor was slightly more frightening in that last Noah Baumbach picture.
I am privileged enough in my lifetime to have had so many film and comic book and prose-novel characters look like me that bonding to characters that don't, like Menolly of Harper Hall or Kitty Pryde, was an easier, less-loaded option for me than it was for others. I'm thrilled that there is an array of characters in that movie for kids to play that want to play and embody those characters without having to make a potentially difficult leap. I don't know what kind of chumpdick you have to be to resent that. On the other hand, I'm also curious by grown people as desperate for on-screen approbation from a fantasy story as a kid might be, knowing full well that also speaks to my position of privilege.
One thing that's interesting about the reaction I've seen to the movie itself is how badly some people seem to process information onscreen in an age we see so many movies that this should be kind of easy for us now. Never has the act of consumption been so heroic, men and women leaping to praise or to demolish at their keyboards, eager to take a side. I've been sent to maybe ten articles that I've read in full. Nine of them seemed to be from people complaining about things that don't exist, or based on asserted plot points that clearly don't exist according to what happened in the movie. I'm particularly disheartened for the people that have these feverish, narrow, political points that force them to process art according to an internal scorecard. What a chore. You'd miss everything good about anything good doing that. It's like missing the forest for a cord of stacked wood you ordered to be there a week early.
I miss some of the George Lucas parts. I mean the ones from that first movie, mostly, the stuff that was informed by old film. The fact that it was informed by old film, that was something, too. But mostly there was a mood in that first movie that was very much of those times. I thought Luke Skywalker's impatience at being forced to live in a small town more affecting than Rey's frustration at being an orphaned refugee: the former seemed extremely 1977 and the other something of a bland story construct. In 1977 the generally beat-up spaceships and raggedness of folks' belongings allowed you to reverse-engineer in your imagination a universe diminished by war. I got no sense of what these additional years of conflict had done to the universe-at-large; it was like everyone was wearing their parents' clothes, and only the nice stuff. One weird thing I liked about the first movie is that Darth Vader represented something of an outdated, outmoded piece of technology himself, a swordsman in an era of really big guns, and thus was sort of naturally sympathetic to the threat he was trying to expunge. It's much harder to make those kinds of connections in a movie that has no chance of having to stand alone, that's one-third of its eventual total length. What they did do at certain points of this new movie was usually clever: I liked the signifiers with the bad guys that blended in horror at Vietnam-era atrocity and '90s mass-grave making with the usual Third Reich tut-tutting. The vast majority of bad-guy officers seemed purposefully young, their grasp at order and power represented in far more banal terms than I would have guessed going in.
So hey, that was a pretty good 150 minutes. I can't live in someone else's fantasy construct at my age and with my life experience, and that extends to speculation and digging for clues and having an emotional reaction to commercials. An article this long is an indulgence, and there's very little here that anyone would need to take away. I miss being a part of that world, though, just as I miss a lot of the friends I had that didn't make it this far, that didn't see a movie I bet they would have enjoyed.
FFF Results Post #442—Looking Ahead
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Specific Comics Publications You Look Forward To Seeing In 2016." This is how they responded.
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from December 26, 2015 to January 1, 2016:
1. Charlie Hebdo announces million-copy print run on anniversary issue of publication to coincide with one-year anniversary of the murders at the editorial offices.
2. SOI announced they will give out cash prizes for the comics/cartooning part of their annual.
3. Some hangover activity related to last week's Ann Telnaes cartoon about Ted Cruz being pulled by the Washington Post because she depicted the presidential candidate's children in a caretoon about the deployment of Cruz's children in the campaign, mostly peers continuing to rally to her side and some money raised by the candidate on an anti-media drumbeat.
Winner Of The Week
Lot of winners this week, but let's go with The Comics Studies Society and their clearing of an important hurdle.
Losers Of The Week
The Cruz people: not offended at all, eager to raise money.
Quote Of The Week
"I sometimes wonder how my career would have unfolded had my daily comic strip proposal been picked up back in 1989. One of the syndicates was considering it and requested several test batches, before ultimately passing. 1989 was the pivotal year when I quit my fulltime newspaper job (the last I would have) and holed up in my studio to re-make myself as a cartoonist. I worked on daily strip ideas, single-panel cartoons, a weekly strip and a comic book proposal. One of comic books I used as inspiration was [Terry] LaBan's Unsupervised Existence, published by Fantagraphics. That and Hate, Eightball and Dirty Plotte were the titles I used as templates. I should post the prototype someday, which I never even bothered to submit. The weekly strip, of course, became The City, and that's the direction I went, mainly because it was the thing that sold first. Never tried another daily strip, or a comic book title. Dumb luck, really."-- Derf
* I'm a fan of the artist Kevin Budnik, out of Chicago, and I hope 
* Sean Gaffney on 
The top comics-related news stories from January 16 to January 22, 2016:
* Steve Lafler wrote in 
* Sean Gaffney on 
* Paul O'Brien on 
The announcement comes with a significant drop of digital material now available. Books now available are:
NOV151391 HIP HOP FAMILY TREE #6 $3.99
SEP151339 BLUBBER #2 $3.99
* Bob Temuka 
* 
* Joe Gordon on 
* looks like Dylan Horrocks is selling a new print and some original art. 
* Joe Gordon on 
The top comics-related news stories from January 16 to January 22, 2016:
By Tom Spurgeon
* Joe Gordon on 
King Features Syndicate announced Tuesday that Editor Brendan Burford will be named to a new position: General Manager, Syndication. KFS is a member of Hearst Entertainment and Syndication Group.
The first round of voting for this year's Angouleme grand prix -- which went into seizure-driven course diversion when an initial list of 30 had no female comics-makers on it -- 
* Meg Downey on 
NOV150087 USAGI YOJIMBO #151 $3.99
* Michael Buntag on 
* Alexi Worth 
* 
* J. Caleb Mozzocco on 
* Todd Klein on 
The top comics-related news stories from January 9 to January 15, 2016:
* this is one of those installments of this column that's so light I feel like I should just list the last four webcomics I looked at: 
* Elle Collins on 
NOV150606 FROM UNDER MOUNTAINS #4 $2.99
* Nick Wilcox on 
* Deb Aoki, Brigid Alverson and Katherine Dacey 
* Richard Bruton on 
By Tom Spurgeon
* Sean Gaffney on 
The top comics-related news stories from January 2 to January 8, 2016:
End Of Year Lists
* 
* Saeyong Kim on 
* so the solution for the exclusion of female nominees from the FIBD grand prix long list 
* Kristen Lawson on 
Maybe it's missing something in translation -- I read it both ways but my French is pretty bad -- but that may be the most obnoxious and angry statement I've ever read from an official party in a comics milieu. I won't be going over it again in detail, I don't think -- life's too short, and it made me a bit ill. There's a bunch of stuff in there that's patently not true, though, including bellowing at made-up accusations at the fringes of what's being discussed, a standard of working cartoonist applied here that hasn't been applied to past presidents like Watterson or even their current one. There are also, and this is where my French may fail me, one or two extraneous digs at people. Sheesh.
NOV150504 BITCH PLANET #6 (MR) $3.99
* A Library Girl on 
* between when I started this post and my finishing it for it to roll out, the cover to special edition of Charlie Hebdo put out to coincide with the first anniversary of the murders 
There are a lot of good feature-y articles about 
The longtime mainstream comics writer and editor, early blogger and creators rights advocate Tony Isabella 
Heidi MacDonald has a rundown 
By Tom Spurgeon
* I liked 
Star Wars wasn't the first nerd thing I encountered or the one about which I was most passionate, but it was the nerdiest part of the culture that I shared with the most amount of people. 
The top comics-related news stories from December 26, 2015 to January 1, 2016:
