* EmmaJean Holley profiles Liniers. Cathryn J. Prince profiles Eli Valley, and talks about the trouble in which his satire and choice of satirical subject has placed the cartoonist. Shawn Conner profiles Kate Evans.
* I haven't seen a kid-cartoonist profile in a while, but here's one for a young man named Walt Hamer. I thought about being a cartoonist when I was a kid, but I wasn't as funny as couple of others in my class, one of whom did one of my favorite editorial cartoons ever. Ask me about it if you see me.
* I guess something called Batman Day was held a few days ago? My Batman Day is I mostly just make the joke that this is a holiday for all of us that are terrible at their jobs. Mostly, though I'm confused how something as nakedly commercial as Batman Day even becomes a thing.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* I'll be at CXC today, soon to be joined by a stellar group of comics-makers. If you're in town, come on out.
* here's a brief legal treatment of the San Diego vs. Salt Lake case over the genericness of Comic-Con. I have no idea what the legal outcome will be, but it should be interesting. I certainly feel that many modern shows, including Salt Lake, aren't using Comic-Con in a generic sense but are very specifically using the term as it has come to accrue cultural value via the success of Comic-Con International. Think of the use of the word in a phrase like "bringing Comic Con to [Name Your City]" or a celebrity at NYCC saying something like "they've been meaning to do Comic-Con for a while" and the close adherence to the model of comics-makers and world-of-nerddom celebrities to the point you could take a cross-section of each show's programming and it'd be difficult to differentiate the one in San Diego from the one in wherever. I just don't know if that's a legal argument, or probably more accurately, which legal argument is likely to prevail. I don't know if you can lay claim to have made a specific cultural construction out of an existing word. I guess we'll find out what at least one court says about the matter.
* most mainstream creators are focused on next week's NYCC, which has a great, enthusiastic audience willing to see all sorts of panels and enough of a publishing scene to give many of them or at least make for some fun parties.
* there is something very Wizard about making a name by bringing shows to cities that don't have major convention, and then just not having the shows. By the way, thanks to the Billy Ireland's Jenny Robb for letting me know that the person working the hype stage at their Columbus show wasn't a 1990s industry figure I thought I dimly recognized, but Kato Kaelin. Wizard!
* I don't how many creators would be interested in this particular call for help, but it's something I've bookmarked to explore on the other side of CXC.
Francois Vigneault is one of several artists on Gumroad donating a significant portion or even all proceeds made today to Puerto Rican disaster relief. That seems worth the time to explore the site, and Vigneault's comics are fun and affordable.
I'm crushed a bit for time this week, but I still found a few seconds to notice that LOAC is doing an Edwina Dumm volume in Spring 2018. Dumm is a major figure in American comics for the breadth of her career and is one of the more interesting artists to do a daily strip for an extended period of time. One thing she'd do that not a lot of cartoonists do is employ different styles for different characters on the page, and not in a grand, sweeping way, but as a kind of character identifier.
Anyway, a Dumm collection is one of the items on my list by which we should recognize we have reached peak reprint, so there's that.
* here's another thinkpiece about the future of magazines, more a portentous snapshot than heavy analysis. Comics having kept parts of its industry alive through incredibly lean times it's always weird to read these article about how to keep an industry alive while they hold onto massive, beautiful offices in New York City.
* Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer are coming to CXC this year, the show with which I'm involved and did a fun-looking poster for our volunteers-focused afterparty. It's a great gift to be able to welcome such great people into town here, and to share a goodnatured drink or two. I hope he gets to bowl, too.
By Request Special: Marc Bell Launches Site, Patreon The site also includes discounted art, which along with the Patreon I am going to assume indicates some need, if only the kind that comes with launch of any new endeavor. There aren't a whole lot of heavy-hitters from the alt-world that might encourage a stand-up and notice like Bell here.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Brian Hibbs walks his readers through ordering one of those variant cover initiatives that is paired with sales goals. It's very enlightening.
* festivals extra: I agree with this writer that it's a relief to go to comics shows that are about comics as opposed to every single flourish of pop culture, although it's worth noting that Comic-Con International always had a broad mandate, with pop-culture guests from other media since their beginning.
* epic Village Voice rant by Derf. He's correct in that there was a point that the Voice was vital enough to be talked about constantly especially by culture-heads, and that this had nothing to do with design. He's also right in that they fired Feiffer for money concerns and had a comics issue when they had no comics, although I barely remember the cheekiness of that second one.
CR Sunday Interview: Noah Van Sciver Talks To Peter Bagge
*****
I'm a huge fan of Peter Bagge and enjoy the output from all phases of his career: Weirdo editor to the creator of Neat Stuff and Hate, to his magazine journalism and comics-essay making, to this new batch of biographies. Fire!! from Drawn and Quarterly is his latest; it's a biographical treatment of the great writer Zora Neale Hurston.
Noah Van Sciver told me he had an interview with Bagge that had been orphaned, so I bought it (I do that sometimes, inquire first). I like Van Sciver's mix of questions and they all seem shamelessly motivated by the specifics of his own interest in the alt-comics veteran.
Both Van Sciver (as an exhibitor) and Bagge (as special guest) will appear at this year's Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. Bagge like to draw before and at shows. I've hit him up for a sketch already, and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Without further ado, here's one of the most promising post-alternative cartoonists talking to great figure in American comics and American humor. Thanks, Noah. -- Tom Spurgeon
*****
NOAH VAN SCIVER: When you were a teenager did you ever try to paint and draw in a representational style?
PETER BAGGE: Yes, though usually in an art class, doing what we were assigned: draw a lamp, a curtain, some trees, and later nude models. I recently found some life drawings I did while at SVA. They weren't bad! But man did I find it boring, drawing "realistically."
VAN SCIVER: Back in the early '80s you had to hustle a lot to find any kind of work as an illustrator; do you think that a young, unknown artist would have a tougher time trying to find work now compared to back then?
BAGGE: I imagine it'd be much easier thanks to the Internet. Just give someone your web site address, rather than actually trying to meet up with them and make sure they look at your work.
VAN SCIVER: Art Spiegelman helped you find work early on, didn't he? When he was working with Topps bubblegum he asked you to write Bazooka Joe comics? What was that like?
BAGGE: The only work I ever got from Art was writing some Bazooka Joe jokes. How's that for an odd gig! The ones I wrote were illustrated by Howard Cruse. They looked pretty different from the original ones. They were trying to "update" the series or some such.
VAN SCIVER: Whatever happened to those Bazooka Joe comics? Have they been reprinted anywhere? I'd love to see those!
BAGGE: Well, they appeared with the gum back in 1982! But I think they went back to the original strips after a while. No one really liked the updated version.
VAN SCIVER: One thing I notice about the work you're doing now compared to the issues of Neat Stuff or the early issues of HATE is that your style has become refined and even simplified. You don't do a lot of crosshatching anymore. Was that a conscious decision on your part or is that something that happens as you master a drawing style?
BAGGE: I stopped crosshatching mainly because it's very difficult to color over it via Photoshop, and I was doing more color via computer work by that point. I occasionally did some cross hatching since then, but I don't think it added anything to the story anymore. It felt unnecessary.
VAN SCIVER: Harvey Kurtzman was one of your teachers for the few semesters you spent at SVA. What did he think of the comic work you were doing?
BAGGE: I never took his class, just sat in on it on occasion. He was friendly to me when I spoke to him, but I wasn't really on his radar, not being his student and all. His mind also seemed to be going in and out by then too.
VAN SCIVER: Fantagraphics is celebrating their 40th year [2016]. What were they like when you first became involved with them? Were they still located in Connecticut at that time?
BAGGE: Yes, they were in the 'burbs, living in a 'hood just like the one I'd recently ran away from! I was surprised they wanted to live and work in that environment, but I guess it was cheaper, just cramming everyone and everything into a four bedroom, split level house. They moved to LA -- and a few years after that, to Seattle -- soon enough, though.
VAN SCIVER: Did you ever feel like a prisoner of your own style? Like you see other artist's work and just think "Damn, if only I could start drawing like that..."
BAGGE: Occasionally, when I was younger. I didn't always feel that I could pull off some of my story ideas on my own. That's the main reason I used to collaborate with other artists on occasion.
Now I feel I can pull off any kind of a story, though I still struggle drawing certain things -- mainly animals.
VAN SCIVER: Do you think that you can joke about anything, or are there some things that should be off-limits?
BAGGE: Meaning me personally? Or anyone in general? I don't think anything should be off-limits. You just have to make it work: think abut how to do it, and why you ought to do it, etc.
VAN SCIVER: Is there any time from your life that you feel nostalgic for?
BAGGE: If I had to pick any one era it'd be the 1990s. That was a pretty good time for all kinds of reasons. But that's not to say I'm miserable now or anything! Life is still pretty darn good!
VAN SCIVER: It's interesting that you were so connected with the Seattle grunge music scene because I can't imagine you putting a Mudhoney CD on in your car. The bands you've played in have been more pop influenced, right? How long have you been playing in bands? Were the Action Suits the first?
BAGGE: I liked some grunge bands -- including Mudhoney -- but you're right that it isn't my favorite genre. I do prefer more pop stuff. I was in a band between the ages of 12 and 15 or so. Just me and some friends goofing off, and pretending to know how to play something. After a while my friends got very accomplished on their instruments so I got pushed out.
I drummed for Eric Reynolds' band The Action Suits off and on between '95 and... '05? We made some good records, though, I think. And I'm still officially in a band called Can You Imagine? Going on eight years or so. We have two CDs out that I'm super proud of. Too bad we don't really have any fans!
VAN SCIVER: When you look at the comics you did for Neat Stuff do you remember where you were when you drew each page?
BAGGE: Occasionally! I remember starting the first strip in Neat Stuff #1 while still in Hoboken NJ, and it has a few Hoboken landmarks in it -- sleazy bars and such. I finished it in the basement of my in-laws' brand new house in suburban Seattle, where the strip suddenly felt very alien and out of place. A few other early pieces were done in Hoboken as well.
Living in the very antiseptic suburb of Redmond, WA for 18 months really inspired me, story-wise. I got a lot of material out of that short stay, due entirely to my alienation, as well as viewing the natives in a way that they clearly didn't see themselves.
VAN SCIVER: You've been around for the domination of the graphic novel over the comic book. Was that a difficult shift, to go from doing standalone short stories and serialized comics, to now graphic novels?
BAGGE: Yes, mainly because I vastly preferred the comic book format to the book format aesthetically, and I also liked having the option of doing a short story if and when I felt like it, which works way better with the old "floppy" format, where filler pieces fit in naturally. The book format is too goddamned "official," with its hoity-toity yet pointless end papers, and the indicia being given its own stupid page and all. So much wasted space, all in an attempt to give the content more weight than it most likely deserves.
VAN SCIVER: Do you miss doing comics that were an "anything goes" kind of package like Neat Stuff?
BAGGE: Not really. While this may sound contradictory to my answer above, I primarily think in longer stories now, and have for a while, so that even with HATE each issue was built around an at least 15-page story.
VAN SCIVER: Was Gary Groth pretty tough about deadlines while you were working on Neat Stuff and Hate?
BAGGE: Not too tough -- though I usually dealt with Kim [Thompson] on any production-related issues back then. We'd agree on a deadline, but being a month or so late was acceptable. Any later than that and they might begin to grumble.
VAN SCIVER: Do you still get excited when you see your work in print somewhere for the first time?
BAGGE: Only if I'm happy with the way it looks, which tends to more likely be the case as I get older. I usually wanted to kill myself when a new issue of Neat Stuff or HATE came out. I'd always think my art looked atrocious, and that I must be blind or something.
VAN SCIVER: I read in an older interview with you that you listened to Perry Como. Is that still true?
BAGGE: Not actively, but if one of his songs comes on the radio I'll turn it up. He had a nice singing voice.
VAN SCIVER: Do you ever hear from Robert Crumb these days?
BAGGE: Never. He stayed at my house for a week about 14 years ago, and I haven't heard from him since. I wrote him a fan letter re: the Genesis book a while ago, but he didn't respond to it.
VAN SCIVER: You just recently moved from Seattle to Tacoma after living in Seattle for 37 years. Was it just getting too depressing to watch your beloved city change so much?
BAGGE: Change and growth are inevitable, but how the city's government is dealing with that change is criminal. They're destroying the city's quality of life for reasons that I can mostly only speculate on, but there's no good justification for any of it. Most of their policies are cloaked in feel-good "progressive" rationales, where appearing to "care" trumps everything, including sanity. It's also how they keep getting re-elected, though you'd think the public would have woken up to it by now.
* Hurston by Bagge
* old Bagge illustration ad
* Bagge drawing the rare animal
* Action Suits record sleeve cover by Bagge
* Neat Stuff #1
* "Caffy" a Crumb/Bagge Collaboration
* Studs Kirby, one of the great characters Bagge created for Neat Stuff (below)
I found this really interesting, a bunch of the recent controversies involving race, religion, sex and sexual harassment kind of bundled up and put forward in one place. I receive some criticism as well.
Update: After receiving some complaints that the content was lacking, I would recommend most readers of this site read it for free initially and donate later if it's something you found useful.
Missed It: Matt Furie Takes Significant Legal Action Against Users Of His Pepe The Frog Here's the most succinct summary, which sees cartoonist Matt Furie filing takedown actions against the digital use of his character as an alt-right meme. This follows a move against a book that used his character, and perhaps follows some under the radar legal actions against other, similar works as the Texas book.
One thread of discussion that has developed since Monday when the story dropped is some concern for Furie as he faces the wrath of the people with unlimited time on their hands and near-nihilistic conception of how to relate to other people. I shared that concern, and I hope a gameplan is in place with Furie and his legal team to ameliorate the worst of it.
Another thread of discussion the best example of which is here, is that Furie's legal pursuit challenges fair use, that the use of Pepe is clearly transformative. I"m not certain about that: I think the transformation is in backstory, not the image, and that this is a question of image use. I wonder if the new Pepe story qualifies as a transformation that I couldn't give Batman a new secret origin and use those images, too. Let's see what happens in court.
Different Day, Same Old Dumb Array Of Arguments
If you spend any significant amount of time on the comics internet, I recommend reading this article and this twitter thread. That paints a decent picture of the latest round of fan-harassment buzzing around, an indictment of a specific person using elements of how social media is set up to direct attention at targets of their criticism.
While it's necessary to discuss this, and awful implications, it's not a new or radical story: small-c conservative reactions have been ongoing since fan pen hit fan paper, and many of them curdle and give expression to the worst elements of social interaction. There's also an element of giving power over to something like this that makes it tricky to negotiate. Are you exposing something or giving it oxygen?
I guess you could argue that something about the method used might be worthy of note for those tracking on-line rhetorical maneuvers. The idea of targeting people for other people to harass, like the fascist version of bum language scratched onto digital fence posts, might seem novel until you realize how many times on-line criticism works like this as a matter of course. One might find similarly compelling the notion that a slew of wholly discredited ideas about the nature of today's culture have been married here to a self-entitled position, built dishonestly and also discredited, regarding what comics should be and shouldn't be. I don't. It's a marriage of convenience; pushing old, boring, logic-deficient arguments near one another doesn't make them true.
I don't know how anyone has the time to complain so desperately about a forced, strained and wholly self-serving snapshot of corporate entertainment except for that last part, maybe: rallying a bunch of grimly like-minded souls into agreement, a few people you don't like into noticing you, a few dollars socked away in a downloadable account. If it's possible to check out of the affair entirely, or nearly so, maybe we still should -- with the exception that any harassment is toxic and wrong, period, and should engender our best, focused, eyes-open action in direct response. I'm open to those ideas wholeheartedly.
Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital By Tom Spurgeon
* here's Lauren Weinstein's last for-print Village Voice cartoon, as we wait to see how the paper's cartoons make the transfer to a proposed on-line version of the iconic publication. I'm curious, because from what I know they've fired nearly the entire staff and they never had an on-line culture or much material on-line to be seen. If they only ran cartoons, though, I'd be happy for those cartoonists with those gigs. Hopefully, Lauren Weinstein and Karl Stevens retain these profiles in some happy publication somewhere.
* this would seem potentially significant in terms of the pedigrees involved, although nothing's a 100 percent certain slam dunk anymore. It's interesting to see on-line work take a position as equal partner with game and book, but why wouldn't an on-line work have that status?
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Todd Klein on Astro City #46.
* not comics: the voice actor June Foray remembered. She was an important part of convention culture, particularly with shows that leaned towards pop-culture models.
Go, Read: Anders Nilsen On The New Obamacare-Destroying Healthcare Bill Here. As many folks in comics that feel the impact of inadequate healthcare, it's fascinating that only a few step up to write something this to the point. I urge all my fellow citizens to stand up for those political issues in which they believe, and feel the best thing for comics-makers would be if the American standard were the most coverage for the least amount of outlay + pre-existing conditions not even being a concept.
This is comics' biggest story this decade, and if you think we would have seen the same explosion of fine talent without the halfway -- only halfway -- rational set of programs that is Obamacare, I'd say you are wrong. I am still alive only because in 2011 I obtained decent healthcare coverage about two months before I got sick.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* Salt Lake Vs. San Diego goes to jury. My gut is that San Diego has been wronged but I'm not legally knowledgeable enough to know if they've been wronged in the way spelled out in their case. That's why they have trials, I suppose.
* the Shamus brothers are back with a series of focused-theme superhero conventions called the ACE Comic Cons. The first one will be in September. There's certainly room for variations in the basic model, although whether this is it I could not tell you.
* Jared Whitley writes about con burnout. I don't think that's exactly what's going on in the festival end of things, but there was a lot of talk at SPX about creators attending for their last time, or near their last time. I think part of that is perception: the current 30-somethings are a mass like the current 48 to 52s were a mass, so what they're doing seems more important for their numbers. It's pretty common for people in their early thirties to drop out of attending festivals. I also think all of the shows' general utility is being questioned.
* Secret Acres has split in two and now it's Barry's last SPX, boo-hoo.
* the Equatorial Guinean political cartoonist Ramon Nsé Esono Ebalé has been arrested. Criminal defamation charges of the same noxious variety as those in place like Turkey are expected. The initial detention period has already been extended.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into The 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.
*****
JUL171843 PRESENT HC $21.95
I thought this was a strong outing for Leslie Stein's autobiographical material, taken from the second half of her weekly installments at VICE. It's the first of her books at Drawn And Quarterly, unless I'm really letting time slip away from me. There are a lot of small gems, but the one that sticks in memory is about Stein sleeping at an old boyfriend's place following a fitful, frenetic night of not being able to slumber at her own. Let's hope ore and more people begin to pick up on Stein's work.
JUL170804 HEAD LOPPER #7 CVR A MACLEAN $5.99 JUL171467 SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #23 $4.99 JUL170816 INVINCIBLE #140 (MR) $2.99 JUN170445 MICRONAUTS WRATH OF KARZA #5 (OF 5) CVR A RONALD $3.99
Not a bunch for me in the comic-book sized, serialized work department. I always enjoy the oversized issues of Head Lopper, a straight-up fantasy reminiscent of Hellboy if Mike Mignola had an in-close-proximity-in-terms-of-talent younger brother or son enamored of modern television cartoons rather than Jack Kirby comic books. Invincible begins its closing run with a fight in the middle of the sun that's not as grandly drawn as you might think; no-cartilage noses are the new crimson masks. Someday I'll find and read a Micronauts book. I like their design. Maybe not today, but you never know.
JUL172009 PRIDE OF THE DECENT MAN HC $19.99 JUN171844 JEFF STEINBERG TP (MR) $19.99
On a day like today in particular, I might check out work by two solid veterans in the middle of long-running relationships with interesting publishers : artist TJ Kirsch (Decent Man) and Josh Hale Fialkov (Steinberg. Looks like Kirsch is working well within an established comfort zone, while Fialkov's book with its humor might be a bit more out there.
JUL171338 HEAVENLY NOSTRILS ACTIVITY BOOK RAINY DAY UNICORN FUN $8.99
Sneaky-intense fandom on this one, and the comics have a unique energy that I can't quite figure out in printed form.
JUN170376 MISTER MIRACLE BY JACK KIRBY TP $29.99 JUL172406 ROBERT CRUMB SKETCHBOOK HC VOL 02 SEPT 68-JAN 75 (MR) $39.99 JUN171682 FANTAGRAPHICS STUDIO ED HC HAL FOSTER PRINCE VALIANT (RES) $175.00
I have no idea where any of these three fall in the context of their publishing programs for their series or even past efforts to publish the same material, but my personal library contains works by each of these three.
JUL171919 DAM KEEPER HC GN $19.99
A First Second book in partnership with the studio behind the animated versions of these stories. I don't think that's a new thing for FS. This sure is handsome looking, although I come to it super-cold.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
Bundled Reminder: Koyama Press Announced Spring ‘18 Season Here. That Fiona Smyth collection would all by itself be news to spread across five or six columns.
Koyama Press Announces Spring 2018 Line-Up Anne Koyama and Ed Kanerva of Koyama Press announced the publishing house's Spring 2018 season in the midst or SPX 2018. This will be Koyama's first season since its 10th-year anniversary celebration.
Focusing on six books, a mixture of Koyama regulars and new artists, this is the publisher's biggest seasons in terms of overall page count.
Included are a first longer work from the very funny Jessica Campbell (XTC69), the latest short-story collection from Michael DeForge (A Western World and a giant retrospective featuring the work of long-time, much-loved illustrator and cartoonist Fiona Smyth (Somnambulance).
Details, solicitation copy and cover images for each book below.
* Soft X-Ray/Mindhunters, A. Degen, softcover, 392 pages, 9781927668535, May, $29.95.
The Mindhunters release prisoners from the shackles of others' dreams.
The servants confined to the virtual mind palaces of despotic dreamers have found their furies in the form of the Mindhunters: masked vigilantes who burgle brainpower. Pop and ancient culture collide in searing colour in this melange of Astro Boy and Attic tragedy.
A. Degen was born in Brooklyn, NY. After a time in Tokyo, he now lives and works in Connecticut. He made his Koyama Press debut with Mighty Star and the Castle of the Cancatervater (2015), and he's appeared in various anthologies including The Best American Comics edited by Jonathan Lethem.
Collecting a career in comics from 1983-2017 by a joyous, feminist contemporary of Julie Doucet, Seth and Chester Brown.
A comics collection by Canadian cartoonist, painter, and illustrator Fiona Smyth. Over thirty years of comics that feature Fiona's world of sexy ladies, precocious girls, and vindictive goddesses is revealed in all its feminist glory. This is recommended reading for sleepwalkers on a female planet.
Fiona Smyth is a Toronto based painter, educator, illustrator, and cartoonist. Her feminist artwork has exhibited internationally. Fiona collaborated with writer and sex educator Cory Silverberg on the kids' series What Makes A Baby in 2013, and Sex Is A Funny Word in 2015, published by Seven Stories Press.
Explorers from an all-women planet have found men to breed with, but have they found studs or duds?
Commander Jessica Campbell of the planet L8DZ N1T3 and her crew are searching for men to breed with when they discover the last human on Earth, the cryogenically frozen Jessica Campbell. With a new, but familiar crewmember, the search for men continues, but will it be worth it?
Jessica Campbell is from Victoria, BC and is an enthusiast of jokes, painting and comics. She completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she is a comics instructor. In 2016, she unleashed the art world and chauvinist skewering: Hot or Not: 20th-Century Male Artists.
*****
* A Western World, Michael DeForge, softcover, 152 pages, 9781927668481, May 2018, $22.95.
A collection of short comics by the prolific and vital author behind Dressing and the Lose series.
Short, succinct and, more often than not, strange stories have always been a central part of the Michael DeForge's oeuvre. In a career that's volume outweighs its years, DeForge's most powerful work has often been his most pithy.
Michael DeForge currently lives and works in Toronto as a cartoonist, commercial illustrator and designer for the hit Cartoon Network program Adventure Time. His one-person anthology series Lose has received great critical and commercial success, having been nominated for every major comics award including the Ignatz and Eisner Awards.
*****
* Winter's Cosmos, Michael Comeau, softcover, 304 pages, 9781927668559, May 2018, $20.
Collage and comics combine in this fotonovela about the psychology of space travel and the limits of exploration.
In the tradition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Silent Running, this genre-bending photo and comics hybrid presents the final years of a mission to seed a planet in a distant constellation and the failings of both human and artificial psyches in the face of the vastness of space.
Michael Comeau works on the wall, the print sheet and the page. Creating window displays and paste-up murals utilizing generations of street posters he created for parties, gigs, etc. His comic trilogy Hellberta won the Doug Wright award for experimental comics in 2012.
*****
* The Ideal Copy, Ben Sears, softcover, 88 pages, 9781927668566, May 2018, $12.
The fix is in as the Double+ gang try to counter crooked counterfeiters from the inside!
Plus Man and Hank have been blacklisted and have replaced treasure hunting with job-hunting, before landing a catering job at a swank hotel. But trouble doesn't wait for hors d'oeuvres as the boys find themselves with a main course of counterfeiting crooks to crack!
Ben Sears is a Louisville, KY based cartoonist, illustrator and musician. His Double+ character has appeared in a number of zines, online anthologies and in the all-ages adventure comics Night Air and Volcano Trash where he has been perpetually in over his head
There was an on-line publishing theory I read around the turn of the century where the author suggested that informational sites would be rotational rather than foundational. He claimed every generation would build its own version of the hardcore information sites according to their proclivities and abilities to present information. That does seem to be kind of coming true. Let's not leave aside our enjoyment of sites that are frequently useful, like this one compiling all you want to know about the Artist's Edition book.
Comic-Con Vs. Salt Lake Stalemates; Headed Toward Jury Trial? Here.
As always, I have sympathy for the position that comic-con is a generic term. I went to comic-cons, comicons and comic cons before I knew there was a San Diego Con. At the same time, I just put "Comic-Con" in my headline and I imagine very few people will think that's a generic being cited. I believe most will have San Diego on the mind. I really do feel that all of these shows are pinching the San Diego model and drafting on their success. They're not bringing a generic comic-con to their audiences, they're clearly bringing what people have heard San Diego is like to their audiences. I don't know how that gets adjudicated.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* the first few groups of cartoonists and comics-lovers are making their way to Rockville. Many more will join them tomorrow. It's SPX weekend and I don't know of any other show that has lived in its model for as many years in a row as this one has, delighting their target audience. I'll be there Friday. I'm moderating the political cartooning panel with Passmore, Wuerker, Telnaes and Knight.
* that's an SPX photo above, if you didn't know. Lotta small-press names in there. I see someone new every time I look.
* Julia Gfrörer will be teaching an intensive at SAW in March. These kinds of events are difficult for me to track with my system because the sign-up is more important than the event itself, but I imagine that would be a very interesting week so I'll try to mention it here a couple more times.
* I put some more events into this calendar. If I'm missing something -- I'm always missing something -- please let me know. I'll do it right the second I get them.
* finally, in a related note, VanCAF has announced for 2018. I want to go to that specific show, so finding out now is super-helpful.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into The 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.
*****
JUL171648 MORTON CROSS COUNTRY RAIL JOURNEY GN $20.00
My father was enamored of four things in his long life: horses, fire engines, train travel and community theater. Comics came in at about #7-8, but he appreciated good drawing. I'm not sure if he ever read David Collier -- hard to believe I'd press a copy of Humphry Osmond into his hands -- but I think he would have enjoyed this book, and I"m sure I will, too.
MAY170012 HARD BOILED HC 2ND EDITION (C: 0-1-2) $19.99
This is one of those books where I have no idea which editions are current or special or superfluous or laden with bad design choices or whatever. I do suspect that a lot of comics fans want this one in the same building they sleep, so this is another entry point.
JUL170846 MAGE HERO DENIED #2 (OF 15) $3.99 JUL170096 HELLBOY & BPRD 1955 OCCULT INTELLIGENCE #1 $3.99 JUL170172 GROO PLAY OF GODS #3 $3.99 JUL178215 MISTER MIRACLE #1 (OF 12) 2ND PTG (MR) $3.99 JUL170429 MISTER MIRACLE #2 (OF 12) (MR) $3.99 JUL170789 DIVIDED STATES OF HYSTERIA #4 (MR) $3.99 JUL170841 KILL OR BE KILLED #12 (MR) $3.99 JUL170910 SPY SEAL #2 $3.99 JUL172032 KAIJUMAX SEASON 3 #3 (MR) $3.99
I enjoy looking at Matt Wagner's action scenes, so I will check in on this series to see how well draws the ones he presents here. They have the physicality of art from an artist who has pushed weight around a room. I'm always interested in the Mignola-verse stuff and I will always buy comics made by then national treasure that is Sergio Aragones. Having a second printing come up with the first printing of your second issue is always a positive sign in mainstream comics. I have yet to catch up with Howard Chaykin's latest; the back-matter should be interesting, at any rate. Kill Or Be Killed is the best-looking series in the Brubaker/Phillips oeuvre, which is saying something. Spy Seal may be Rich Tommaso's best-looking comic: also saying something. Zander Cannon continues to move forward with his wonderfully idiosyncratic giant monsters in prison saga. I promise to catch up.
MAY170550 SAX ROHMER DOPE HC $24.99
I assume this is a collection of Trina Robbins' crack at the novel, one of those volumes that established new territory for what real-world things could be discussed in fiction. I don't know for sure, but I imagine this is the most accessible work of Robbins' career in terms of a point-and-buy for a lot of fans of her work finding female cartoonists.
JUN172014 BEST OF HAGAR HC $29.99
I love that work like this gets collected, although much of the 1960s through 1970s material in comics that's not Peanuts or Doonesbury has such a commercial sameness I totally lack the refined palate to decide what might be gathered into one volume.
JUN171845 MERMIN GN VOL 03 $12.99
I'm behind on this Joey Weiser series, and today might be a good day for me to take a look at it on the comic book store shelf.
JUN171637 MOOMIN BEGINS A NEW LIFE GN $9.95
Also behind here. I'm happy for a reprint series that encourages being able to hold it in your hands and read it, although I'm the kind of guy that drops large volumes on his face by falling sleep.
JUL172087 NICK CAVE MERCY ON ME GN (C: 1-1-0) $22.99
This is Reinhard Kleist, best known to North American audiences for a stand-alone Johnny Cash bio. I'm a rare bird for my generation in not knowing a lot about Cave past enjoying the music, so I'd take a long look.
JUL171996 TAPROOT GN $10.99
This Lions Forge book distinguishes itself with a break in style from most of the comics that I think of being published there. Worth a look, anyway,
JUL171416 SAIGON CALLING LONDON 1963 -75 GN (C: 1-1-0) $26.95
This is sequel to the artist's memoir of war coming to his home country of Vietnam in the very early '60s -- I think -- and so this is is the slightly more expansive story about time spent abroad in avoidance of that war and all that comes with that kind of displacement. Sure looks handsome, although all the cover scans were tiny.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
Go, Look: Ted Rall Suit Against LA Times And Related Individuals To Appeal Anti-SLAPP Rulings Here's Rall perspective on the situation, which as the individual bringing the lawsuits is of course obviously slanted towards his view of this very specific set of outcomes and outcomes in general that inform his perspective. I missed this latest take.
Rall's correct in that individual judges have their own perspectives on the application of law and many people believe that where a case is placed and with whom has a great deal to do with the final outcome. In comics cases that can be filed or heard in either New York or California, you'll see firm decisions made early on as to the side of the country justice will be pursued. It's rare anyone makes an allowance that a victorious outcome depends on similar capriciousness, of course, but we live in a world where we treat personal narratives with great seriousness.
We'll see as Rall continues to pursue his claims in court if that world has an outcome that matches his desired result and supports his asserted take on what happened between him and the Times. At this point, it has not gone well. Things can always turn, and when things either go that direction or peter out in this one we'll know more. We won't know everything.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Philippe Leblanc on Yukon Ghost.
* here's a list of the 25 best artists over the last 25 years; Chris Ware makes a mostly science-fiction/crime/superheroes list, which might have been less weird if they had gone full-genre and he had been excluded. All those artists seem fine to me, but I don't have a refined palate for that kind of work and it would be a challenge for me to make distinctions past Ware and the seven or eight more genre-oriented artists I like better than the rest.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked: Publishing News By Tom Spurgeon
* Spit And A Half has announced it is bringing back into print Pascal Girard's Apartment Number Three. An active Spit And A Half is so great for comics, and so is more Girard. That's a 28-page work and seems currently out of print in all languages.
* not sure of a lot that's out there: I'm hungry to learn more about Will Dinski's Holy Hannah. Dinski kind of reminds me of Josh Cotter in that he's been really interesting for a long time but like Cotter suddenfly wasn't doing a lot of comics. Then, boom, there's an explosion of them.
* if you're a publishing geek like me, good news if you're going to CXC: I'm really close to getting JC Menu and Gary Groth to sit down on a panel together to compare their publishing experiences.
Here. There are so many fan favorites out there as the industry kind of spread out and settled that are going to make the next two decades of passings rough as hell.
* not comics: the slow fade from print for the Village Voice is in the parties and layoffs stage now. I've also wondered if a digital move will lead to digital archives, although I don't have a bunch of confidence in the digital move.
Festivals Extra: SPX Chili’s Closed Last October This article bears the bad news. Comics culture depends on places like these being around more than most of us would care to admit. I'm sure there are other places around that provide fried food and a happy hour, but not many with that kind of out-in-the-suburbs legitimacy.
* Jorge Gutierrez writes an appreciation for one of comics' great cartoonists and grand personalities, Sergio Aragones. Aragones turned 80 two days ago, and we should all celebrate.
* here's a treat: Dan Nadel writes about and interviews Richard Kyle -- probably the most compelling of the 'zine-era historians and critics, and the man that commissioned "Street Code" from Jack Kirby.
Go, Read: Seth Simons On The Decline Of Cartoon Bank It seems a solid piece, I hope you read it all the way through. It's a story that's told very infrequently: how a company's goals, abilities or even just their desire to maximize overall profits chokes a sources of revenue meaningful to artists making work. Anyone performing freelance business in the Internet era has seen this enough times to know when a gig is about to go rotten before those more directly employed might. If you can get through that article without dying inside like 15 times, you are a stronger person than I am.
A couple of notes: I'm glad to hear there's a payment tier at the New Yorker not the $700 I've heard cited a bunch of times. Maybe that's just me, but that still feels very low given the contribution the cartoons make to the magazine. One of the reasons the Cartoon Bank was important at its height is it helped cartoonists cross the line to living wage. Also, while I understand how great it is there was a company giving $2M in a year to a select group of cartoonists, I'm still slightly dismayed that $5M went elsewhere and this seems normal to us. That may be naive.
Bundled Extra: Dan Gearino Interviews Dick Swan
One of the big releases of the Fall for me is Dan Gearino's Comic Shop. I wrote the foreword, apparently. I hope it's at least pretty good so as not to ruin what I hope is a fun reading experience. I love love love the sprawling, no barriers for entry early comics shops. The way that I got comics that sustained my interest in the early 1980s when the spinner rack no longer had comics for me, I consider it something of a miracle because of the unlikely moving part. Hopefully this book describes if not explains what the hell was going on, the truth behind all the stories of a medium growing with the help of these weird spaces.
This interview is promising. I don't think I even new that at one point in the '60s San Jose had three different comic shops being run by kids younger than 18 years old, one of them at least riding his bike to work. God, that photo alone. I won't republish it here pretending it's fair use, but I want to. Cleo and Violent Jones!
* there's always something to learn about the comics. One thing I learned this year is part of the Rawhide Kid concept is that he's wee.
* I somehow missed there was a new Charlie Hebdo controversy, this time on a cover-featured hurricane gag. Joe Raiola responds. That's an odd joke, and not much of a substantial one -- it's not too far away from shouting "Trump!" or "Fake News" as a gag-ender. Making jokes in close proximity to human suffering tends to be beyond any working satirist save for those touched by greatness, and I'm not sure that Hebdo has anyone on staff right now or in their current freelancer pool that's close to being able to pull something like that off.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into The 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.
*****
JUL172214 GOOD NIGHT PLANET HC $12.95
I think I know why Jog quit doing weekly comics round-up last week. This week is ridiculously stuffed, mostly with prestige stand-alones by names that are exactly killers in the marketplace. I'm going to have jump off and jump back onto this post all day. Live my crowded-schedule pain.
JUN170420 SWEET TOOTH BOOK 01 (MR) $24.99
I never quite get how some DC-related books all of the sudden show up on the lists; I assume this is a reprint. I remember liking the series, and in collected form seems like a good way to have it around the house.
JUL171913 BEIRUT WONT CRY GN $30.00
I read these comics religiously during the year they were posted on-line and for their immediacy and impact the group of them collectively was in my top three for the year. I am surprised but very pleased to see a book, and wonder how those comics will read at this remove. I'm even looking forward to the Joe Sacco introduction, and I rarely think in terms of the written support pieces.
MAY170533 SUPER F*CKERS FOREVER TP (MR) $17.99
IDW is a good match for this series; that publisher seems to do well with elite old-school prestige projects and hard to place work with a mainstream-type appeal. James Kochalka's foul-mouthed teen superheroes would seem to fit into the latter group. I have a limited appetite for superhero parody, but I've laughed at some of the jokes in here for sure. I'm surprised the animated version didn't hit.
JUL171302 POPE HATS #5 (MR) $9.95 JUN170798 SEVEN TO ETERNITY #9 CVR A OPENA & HOLLINGSWORTH $3.99 JUL170178 USAGI YOJIMBO #161 $3.99 JUN170416 ASTRO CITY #47 $3.99 JUL170918 WALKING DEAD #171 (MR) $2.99 JUL171137 ASTONISHING X-MEN #3 $3.99 JUL171087 BLACK BOLT #5 $3.99 JUL171523 GIANT DAYS #30 $3.99
Bunches of serial comic-book comics worth noting although only a couple a must-buy. One of those is the fifth issue of Ethan Rilly's solo-anthology title, this time devoted to the last chapter in his big and enjoyable serial about a friendship between two women and how that friendship helps each person through a significant lifetime change. It's extremely pleasurable reading of the old-school '90s alt-comics variety. I like the Seven To Eternity comic for its grimy world-building more than I can follow the plot. It feels like a better thought-out version of an Epic Illustrated story. I will buy all Stan Sakai comics until I die or he stops making them. I am not an Astro City buyer but I admire this latest run. Walking Dead shifts into a road story, which should shake up the plotting. I was dismayed by how poor I thought the twin X-Men titles bearing colors but thought this mini-series with its focus on noting but resetting old X-Men character relationships, was serviceable. I don't know why this didn't kick off one of the ongoings. My enjoys Black Bolt, so I'm enjoying the Christian Ward art on this series as I buy them for him. And I'm always interested in anything in which John Allison has a hand.
JUL170962 WICKED & DIVINE #31 CVR A MCKELVIE & WILSON (MR) $3.99 MAY170737 WICKED & DIVINE HC VOL 02 (MR) $44.99
A handsome collection and hell, handsome individual issue of this series, probably the indy (by which I mean an alternative take on genre material) comic series of the moment, with nothing else coming close. I have a hard time following what's going on, but I'm still in there, trying. It should be quite the TV series at one point in terms of having a specific look an a lot of meaty roles for the actors.
MAY171603 DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE HC VOL 11 MICKEY VS MICKEY $34.99
It's wonderful these are being published, although Gottfredson's art got less appealing ragged sooner than I remember and thus I'm not sure how many are crucial to own. They are certainly pleasing, well-done mainstream entertainment at any stage.
JUL171842 POPPIES OF IRAQ HC $21.95 JUN171681 GROSZ HC $19.99 JUL171920 HUNTING ACCIDENT HC GN $34.99 JUN171280 ICELAND GN $15.00 JUL171954 RETREAT GN (MR) $14.95 DEC161688 MOUNTEBANK GN (MR) $25.00 JUL171646 DREAMS IN THIN AIR GN $25.00 JUL171647 DURAN DURAN IMELDA MARCOS AND ME GN $18.00
And this is where I have a fucking nervous breakdown and do another one of these groupings because crap. Let me come back to this. Rich people with an exploratory nature? This is your week in comics.
JUN171441 LUCY & ANDY NEANDERTHAL HC GN VOL 02 STONE COLD AGE $12.99
The second of Jeffrey Brown's cute all-ages series is out. I hope it's well-supported and catches on. Brown did such a great job with the Star Wars stuff for so long you'd like to see those efforts have a more direct impact on comics that Brown is closer to creatively.
JUN172037 BACK ISSUE #100 $9.95
All respect to the 100th issue. I love these kinds of magazines although I find them only intermittently useful. In that way, it's kind of like trying to figure out comics history and what comics are good when magazines like these, with this outlook were the giants that roamed the earth.
MAY171234 MOUSE GUARD ALPHABET BOOK HC $16.99
I have no idea why there are as many alphabet books as there are coloring books. I thought that was going to happen when the second wave of alt-publishers started having kids, but no.
JUN171673 JOHNNY APPLESEED HC $19.99
This is Paul Buhle writing and Noah Van Sciver drawing, and thus an intriguing window on how much of Van Sciver's recent shift into a higher gear comes from writing and what might com from his art. I liked it, it's a little scattered and kind of doggedly non-commercial. Van Sciver's art is very well-suited to this kind of material but the lack of poetry in the flow of the narrative makes it a stop-and-start affair. Endlessly interesting subject matter, one of the few historical legends that is probably more in the center of American impulses than when I read about them as a kid.
*****
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 * Gil Roth talks to Patty Farmer.
* Dan Nadel writes about running RJ Casey's piece on Craig Yoe and Yoe Books. I never really cared much about doing Fanta's will when I worked in their building and I was 25 years old; I can't imagine two fully-grown New Yorkers give a shit, either. He's right in that the Bob Levin review of the great Patrick Rosenkranz's new book is way more damning -- and interesting! And even more personally motivated! Both those guys are heavyweights, too.
* not comics: this was a really weird movie. It worked pretty well, I think because it dug into the classic comic book's legacy of confronting Peter Parker with damaged father substitutes, and hinted that Aunt May, not Robbie Robertson, may be the figure Peter is looking for.
* here's Andrew White about time spent up at Comics Workbook with one of their Rowhouse Residencies. I don't quite all the way get it, but since I think of Santoro's set-up as a karate dojo, I figure White is the kind of visiting black belt they used to have com teach us when I was a kid and had karate lessons.
Bundled Extra: The Still Reasonably New Fantagraphics Print Catalog Is Out, And I’ve Looked At It
By Tom Spurgeon
Very few publications about comics have changed as fundamentally as the Fantagraphics catalog. Fantagraphics leveraged its ethos of keeping everything in print into a reasonably thriving mail-order business in the 1990s and into the 2000s. I don't think direct sales are as much of an absolute lifeline now as they were then, and in fact Fanta ceded much of its day to day warehousing of material to Diamond years and years ago. The catalog in the mid-2000s made the shift to a kind of book imprint catalog of the kind that booksellers might pick up at a BEA or that might be dropped into their hands.
These catalogs are better than other mentions, though, like an Amazon.com citation, because they provide some inner discipline to the imprints as kind of a promise between them and their distributors. An on-line listing indicates intent to have a book out at some point, while a print catalog gives you an idea as to how a whole line is ready to go release-wise.
Here are a few books planned for the next several months.
* Angels And Magpies: The Love And Rockets Library Vol. 13 (January, 260 pages, $19.99) is Jaime's "Ti-Girls" and "Love Bunglers" material in a format for the work I like very much: readable paperbacks.
* Now #2 (January, 128 pages, $9.99) from editor Eric Reynolds will introduce Roberta Scomparsa and feature a cover by Robert Beatty.
* a "graphic novel treatise" from the great Eleanor Davis called Why Art? (February, 200 pages, $14.99).
* a short-story collection from the great visual talent Blutch revolving around jazz music called Total Jazz (February, 96 pages, $19.99).
* a collection of horror comics from the soul-destroying pen of the cartoonist Josh Simmons, including a bunch of collaborations. It's called Flayed Corpse (March, 180 pages, $24.99).
* long overdue returns to comics from Ho Che Anderson, with the science fiction book Godhead (February, 192 pages, $24.99) and Dave Cooper (whoa!), with Mudbite (March, 72 page, $19.99), a new work starring his Eddy Table character).
* a first graphic novel length work from Nicole Hollander in memoir form called When We All Ate Wonderbread (March, 160 pages, $29.99).
* works from Europe such as Manule Fior's collection of shorts Blackbird Days (April, 104 pages, $24.99); a collection from the master Andre Franquin called Die Laughing (April, 72 pages, $19.99) which should make happy the ghost of Kim Thompson; a straight up literary long-form work from Gipi called Land Of The Sons (April, 288 pages, $29.99).
* Kramers Ergot Vol. 10 is 120 pages, due in April and features a contribution from Robert Crumb.
* finally, the second volume of My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is due in April after being shifted from Fall 2017. That's going to be 304 pages, and as anticipated as thoroughly as any comics published over the last ten years.
That looks like a great start to the year, along with the expected continuation of Disney and EC series. It is a really good time to be a comics reader.
* RJ Casey writes about Craig Yoe and Yoe Books, in a way that set off many little swirling on-line arguments in person (at least here in Columbus), on Facebook and in the article's own comments thread. As a hit job, I found Casey's piece pretty tame given the rhetoric of the moment, and as something worth discussing I feel there is definitely a point or several points to be made there. Yoe is in front of his books in nearly every way, is their connecting thread, and thus seems a fair target as well. Still, I thought it would go by without notice. Instead, the article set off various unfriendings, gleeful cacklings and 1990s-style fist-shaking at the Journal. The elements of tribalism to which comics isn't immune were on full display. It was darkly humorous to see some folks with the on-line equivalent of a straight face complain Casey was biased and making personal attacks while defending an admitted friend/object of admiration and making personal attacks on his behalf. The idea that anybody that wants to react to art should restrict themselves to a consumer's choice -- to buy or not buy the books -- is super-depressing in this late age. The best argument of Casey's, incidentally, is one Casey himself didn't make: it's to be found in the article comments about a specific book killed for the American marketplace by the appearance of a less well-made one at a similar price point.
* btw: if TCJ is going to run articles that anger and irritate people, I hope some of you that are into writing industry news pitch them, and pitch them soon.
* Andy Oliver on 
* Sean Gaffney on 
* Wim Lockefeer on 
* Joe Gordon on 
* Brian Hibbs 
VAN SCIVER: Back in the early '80s you had to hustle a lot to find any kind of work as an illustrator; do you think that a young, unknown artist would have a tougher time trying to find work now compared to back then?
VAN SCIVER: Did you ever feel like a prisoner of your own style? Like you see other artist's work and just think "Damn, if only I could start drawing like that..."
VAN SCIVER: When you look at the comics you did for Neat Stuff do you remember where you were when you drew each page? 
VAN SCIVER: Do you ever hear from Robert Crumb these days? 
* 
* Todd Klein on 
* Sean Gaffney on 
JUL170804 HEAD LOPPER #7 CVR A MACLEAN $5.99
* Steve Foxe on 
* RC Harvey on 
* Andy Oliver on 
Anne Koyama and Ed Kanerva of Koyama Press announced the publishing house's Spring 2018 season in the midst or SPX 2018. This will be Koyama's first season since its 10th-year anniversary celebration. 
* Sean Gaffney on 
* missed that Todd Klein 
JUL170846 MAGE HERO DENIED #2 (OF 15) $3.99
* Philippe Leblanc on 
* Spit And A Half 
* John Seven on 
* Steve Lieber on 
* John Seven on 
* Sean Gaffney on 
JUL171913 BEIRUT WONT CRY GN $30.00
JUL171842 POPPIES OF IRAQ HC $21.95
* Gil Roth talks to 
* Steve Foxe talks to 
