Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked



By Tom Spurgeon

* veteran webcomics cartoonist David Willis launched his Dumbing Of Age last week, for which Gary Tyrrell provides brief context here.

* via a major press announcement, Marvel to release downloadable comics across a variety of platforms. ICv2.com explains, although I think that it's sort of obvious that this is a potentially major move. The key with all of these stories isn't going to be just "Company makes move A, B, C" but the follow-up story "Sizable audiences embrace company's move A, B, C." We're still waiting on that one.

* speaking of major press announcements, I can't imagine anything more horrible-looking than the samples provided, and the people actually clamoring for an Atlas Comics revival probably couldn't fill the dozen or so tables at a small community's pancake breakfast fundraiser, but it's nice to have a Goodman around in comics again. I'll consider changing my mind on the potential for the comics themselves if they hire Johnny Ryan to write IronJaw.

* someone please hire Colleen Coover to draw a Nero Wolfe adaptation. If it helps, I'll write it for free, or beat up someone talented until they do it. I'll also dress up like him at conventions. No fat man has ever put on a canary yellow shirt and not thought of himself as the great detective. Plus Archie Goodwin could look like Archie Goodwin.

* done anyone know if anything came of this feature?

* Robot 6 unearths a free Dave Kiersh on-line comic.

* one thing I found out looking around for SPX reports is that Pat Lewis finished his long-in-gestation Cragmore in early August, which means the book once planned for Summer 2010 should come out at some point in 2011.

* I'm not sure what the advantage of doing something like this might be, beyond the fact that people like me will talk about the comic briefly, but Marvel is going to shoehorn its Black Panther character into the neighborhood protector role traditionally held by its superhero Daredevil and make it as if the character is taking over Daredevil's comic as well. Again, this would probably more impressive if Marvel's publishing strategies weren't so fluid these days, but I guess it sort of worked for Marvel in finding a slightly higher profile for its Hercules character when he "took over" a Hulk comic.

* Vanguard and Dark Horse have split custody on White Indian books, Vanguard taking the Frazetta material and Dark Horse the post-Frazetta material. So I guess get ready for some White Indian.

* the writer Kieron Gillen is joining Matt Fraction as a co-writer on the Uncanny X-Men book. Marvel does this every once in a while. One of the things it can mean is that Gillen might at some point take over the title if and when Fraction becomes ready to move on at some point. Can mean, not does mean.

* the cartoonist Jerry Van Amerongen is retiring the Sunday iteration of his Ballard Street panel, freeing up time for other artistic pursuits.

* I imagine it's a good thing that editors at mainstream comics companies occasionally check out how their moves are being perceived by their targeted customers, although it's hard not to smile a bit at what's being double-checked here: if the new Marvel policy of smaller, more contained event series is being interpreted as Marvel moving into all-events, all-the-time.

* this is more of a piece on new comics than an article about publishing news, but it provides a first look for some folks (me included) of a trio of new Vertigo books derived from and hewing closely to real-world experiences. I didn't even know about the Simon Gane until like three days ago.

* finally, Alex Cahill wrote in to say that Team Poison The Cure is posting an image per day on Cahill's web site in anticipation of a Kickstarter fundraising effort. The book coming out would be the third in the series.


 
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