Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked

By Tom Spurgeon

* hey, no one told me that there was new Matt Howarth coming out. That's terrific news. I have a semi-interesting trivia story about Matt Howarth's comics and the best comics of the 20th Century list that TCJ did; if you ever see me at a convention, please ask after it.

* The Illustrated Section launches.

* the big announcement from a publishing-news standpoint late last week was First Second with their 5th anniversary season, Spring 2011. The books they announced were: Anya's Ghost, Vera Brosgol; Hera: The Goddess And Her Glory, George O'Connor; Level Up, Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham; Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, Dave Roman; Defiance, Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis; Feynman, Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick; Lewis & Clark, Nick Bertozzi; Zita The Spacegirl, Ben Hatke. That seems like a solid season, kind of an ideal for First Second as its developed. It's dominated by projects for younger readers (the Feynman book may be the sole exception, but even that depends on approach), but nearly every project bears the idiosyncratic stamp of a potentially intriguing creator involved as opposed to looking like something that was fashioned by the high-concept-o-tron. I look forward to many of them.

* so Bongo's going to do a SpongeBob Squarepants comic, to be edited by former Nickelodeon comics ringmaster Chris Duffy. That would seem like good news, and with Bongo's sales to markets like the French comics marketplace a potentially surreptitious sales success if all things work out. Duffy knows how to use great cartoonists on material like that.

* here's a pretty straight-forward article on Archie doing an original graphic novel featuring the baby versions of their characters.

* I forgot to post this article about Fantagraphics' late books.

* the Canadian-focused web site Sequential offers a peek at a few Spring season comics releases from Glenat Quebec, including a new -- and obviously handsome-looking -- Jimmy Beaulieu book.

* this visual representation of Steve Ditko's late-career output is pretty stunning when you stop and think about it. I always enjoy those comics.

* I know almost nothing about a small-press project called Crater On The Moon but any comic book that features fumetti with cartoonist Pat Moriarity as "Phaeton, Prince Of The Moon" is one for which I'm keeping a definite eye out.

* the cartoonist Paul Hornschemeier has released cover images from his forthcoming Villard collection Life With Mr. Dangerous and his forthcoming Fantagraphics series Forlorn Funnies, and is taking orders on special editions of the former.

* more Henry & Glenn comics on the way.

* I kept meaning to write something about this Johanna Draper Carlson post and the article to which it links, concerning Archaia's success with Return Of The Dapper Men and how this might force them to reevaluate their aggressive serial-comics program. It's hard to provide much in the way of analysis when it comes to people thinking about things, but it's fascinating to hear about someone thinking out loud in one direction or another. If there were a serial-comics lobby, they'd be trying to get air time to speak against some of the suggestions made in this article. I don't quite understand who's buying Secret History in serial form, to use an example.

* I was going to spotlight the Kickstarter page for Lies Grown-Up Told Me but mission accomplished there. Heidi MacDonald tracks the Tony Harris Kickstarter request, which started out at a gobsmacking amount but has become much more modest and achievable since.

* finally, here's a post about things that Roger Langridge has planned. It's always good to know what Roger Langridge has going on, doubly so if it involves one of his immaculately-constructed mini-comics.

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While this column deals in formal publishing news, forthcoming publications are also tracked in the Crystal Ball section of this site.

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