CR Week In Review

The top comics-related news stories from February 11 to February 17, 2012:

1. As expected, a Belgian court has rejected a legal claim from a Congolese man that Tintin Au Congo was racist; the decision focused on the intent of the author in making the book.

2. Dynamite sued by Edgar Rice Burroughs' long-standing family trust ERB, Inc. on claims that they violated their trademark on various John Carter and Tarzan-related properties by doing comics based on those properties.

3. Cartoonist Bob Englehart was suspended from the Hartford Courant for a week related to comments he made about the role of home and family life in educating young people. He has since apologized. The comments were taken by many to have an implied racial component, although a lot of people agreed with the general sentiment. In a side-issue, some folks complained that the offending blog post was removed, preferring to have it as a more significant part of the public record.

Winners Of The Week
Readers of the Baltimore Sun, who get a weekly dose of KAL -- he returns to the paper with a weekly offering after having left a staff position that he held for years. A newspaper is a better reading experience with a passionate, local cartoonist making commentary.

Loser Of The Week
Anyone that bet on L'Association never having a proper web site. I would have put money on "no," if there were some Vegas comics book out there. I might never leave such a place, actually.

Quote Of The Week
"It's not enough to simply offer the same titles month after month in the same narrow superhero niche. Has anyone noticed sales are falling? If we want to grow the industry, we need to take some chances, with both publishers and retailers supporting new projects that have the potential to appeal to the very customers we seek. We need to offer the same variety of content present in other entertainment forms. Superheroes may pay the bills for now, but they aren't bringing in new customers. In January, only three comics passed the 100,000 mark. That kind of news makes it all the more important for publishers to create new titles that will stand the test of time. Rather than flooding the market with titles that come and go, we publishers need to commit to the titles we believe in, while searching for the next Sin City, Hellboy, The Goon, or Bone." -- Mike Richardson

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today's cover is from the thriving, small-press independent comics scene of the 1980s and 1990s

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posted 9:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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