FFF Results Extra: Suggestions For The Comics Report

On Friday, CR readers were aked to "Name Five Things You'd Like To See Covered Or Engaged In This Site's Concurrent Magazine-Style Companion Project, The Comics Report." This is how they responded.

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Stephen Harrick

1. Daily comic strips in the 21st century
2. Adaptations of comics in other mediums (film, stage, clothing, toys, food)
3. Specific collections at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
4. Comics and higher education (how the two are intertwined, pedagogy of comics, cartoonists working in academia)
5. Marie Severin

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Iestyn Pettigrew

1 - A character's history of publication, Groo for example. When he began, where he's been published, whether those have been collected, what difference you can see between publishers/eras etc.? Use it as a way to discuss both the works and look at the context for publication, including print runs.
2 - Creator histories, a great example (for me) would be Howard Chaykin. This would follow not just their career in comics, but also all their time outside of comics. Early engagement with comics. Main influences. Companies they worked with, styles they've written, best works and what's available with summaries of what's available. Where they worked when not in comics.
3 - This is a harder one to segment, but would be something along the lines of trends/ themes or genres in comics. This would be something that headlined ideas, the first published romance comic, influential creators on the genre, creators outside the genre heavily that show its influence (for example, early Marvel comics and their romance angle that made them different to DC). This could also open up to be about publishers - I'd love a history of Vortex comics for example, or Aircel, or Blackthorne.
4 - last one would be to have an individual creator provide their own 'Comic family tree' (although influences may be outside of comics) -- what did they begin reading, who did they begin copying, who made them want to create comics, who helped them to create comics, where can their early work be found, who are their contemporaries and who are their heroes. Finish with their top 5 things to see to understand where they are coming from.

I think these would both be fascinating and have long legs. They'd also help open up comics to new customers. Imagine someone searching for Raina Telgemeier and finding an article that dissects her history with comics and lists all of her early inspirations. Or someone who has found a bunch of art comics from Fort Thunder that has blown their mind being led back through the history of that group and what influenced their work.

I also love in-depth interviews with people like Mark Evanier who have been comics lifers who have worked across multiple mediums, with varying amounts of immersion in the industry and for a wide range of publishers.

Final suggestion -- scene reports, whether international scenes -- Comics in Tibet 'A History' or 80's mini comics "The Highlights."

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Ryan Sands

1. TV Animation, how it finances (and brain drains) indie comics
2. Studio Proteus / Eclipse (Early History of English Manga Publication)
3. Mickey Zacchilli
4. Regional comics shows & expo culture in Europe
5. Twine and cartoonists working in video games

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Tom Spurgeon

1. Important Comics Works Without An Immediate Commercial Context
2. Early-Generation Comics Shops
3. Rowland Emett
4. Comics Art Education
5. Micro-Trends In Publishing

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Oliver Ristau

1. Non-narrative comics and fragmentation
2. A history of comics criticism
3. Marcel van Eeden
4. The practice of exploitation in comics and the consequences for the artform
5. Aged people and their representation in comics

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Michael Carens-Nedelsky

1. CBR, Ask Alonso, the responsibilities of comics journalism, and how Marvel responds to critique/controversy
2. Sana Amanat -- what does her new position entail? What is it like to be a comics editor at Marvel today?
3. Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool, and when leaks are responsible journalism or not (riffing off of the Marvel October leaks)
4. G. Willow Wilson
5. Matt Fraction/David Aja/Annie Wu's Hawkeye -- its impact, why it took so long to come out, and a deep read

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Brian Moore

1. The Working Life of Cartoonists - their financial successes and struggles. Insurance, pensions, crowdfunding, grants received, etc.
2. Micropublisher Profiles - personnel, books published, a typical business day
3. Claire Bretécher
4. Cartoonist's Bookshelf - Cartoonist X, what books are you currently reading and how do they relate to your writing / drawing?
5. International Comics in English - what's in print now? (E.g. IDW's Corto Maltese books, classics available digitally via Izneo, the new http://www.europecomics.com/, etc.)


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Mike McGhee

1. Important Comics Works Without An Immediate Commercial Context -- Leaving this present to emphasize its importance. I would love to see inclusion of Web material (Connor Willumsen, et al) as a solid component.
2. Interviews? No one person, really, though maybe some people from the Pinis' era, of declining health. The dynamics of those still active at that age are interesting.
3. This might be a longer-term project: a survey of the fragmentation of comics reporting and how/how well these groups of outlets are serving the industry/artform... You/Heidi, ComicsNCola/ComixCube, Nrama/CBR, ICV2/Sktchd, etc... very interested in watching as surveys and data transparency begin to really impact the comics news landscape.
4. If anything, I'd love to see you facilitate long-form discussion and soft interview with more than one creative at a time.
5. Some form of "Go, Look" roundup, with more than one image posted...This may become cost-prohibitive if you ever move to print, though.

* Maybe a quarterly "Mainstream Weather Report," in the vein of that Nu52 roundup you did as DC was sunsetting that initiative? Something encompassing what's slowly becoming a Big 6 environment, but focused on how the Editor-Artist-Writer balance of power is fluxing...
* Part of me would love to see some reportage discussing the moves on the Executive made as part of these players keeping their jobs, but that may be too activist for your tastes.

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Brian Hibbs

I don't like ranking or listings, really, but here's stuff I'd love to see covered in longer form:

* Early DM pioneers and stores. Probably anything before Marvel/HWD, really.
* NEW retailers. Love to see a Q&A with each store that opens (ha!)
* What's the success/failure rate for Image books -- how many people lose their shirts, how many do better than they could from "big two" page rate type deals?
* Anything and everything relating to the economics of comics and starting and succeeding in a career in comics. Like, how many students do the various schools graduate each year. What happens to these kids? How many get careers? How many just end up with debt and nothing to show from it? Or... how about following up with Xeric winners?
* Who is the person (people?) who engaged in fractional patreon donations (yours is currently ending in 26 cents) -- what are they thinking? Is it just a joke to them? Are the service fees killing any value that person brings?
* What about early distribution? How about an interview with Bud Plant, or someone like that? What does Ivan Snyder (of HWD) think about the current distribution landscape (if he's still alive?) Etc.

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Roger Langridge

1. Crowdfunding and Comics
2. Digital comics piracy -- ethics, mechanics, solutions (or not)
3. Social media and comic creators' relationships with it
4. Mick/Mike McMahon -- his art, his influence
5. Newspaper strip archives -- who's doing what, what's out there, what's absent, the nuts and bolts of restoring old strips for print

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Mike Pfefferkorn

1. Efforts to archive files of writers, artists, and publishers
2. The evolution of the "average" comic consumer, what that meant for the past, and what it means for the future
3. Winston Rowntree
4. Why some comics are universal, and others are not, and why that changes
5. How your affection for a medium is tied to what you were exposed to in your formative years

*****



Michael Dooley

1. The Art of Comics as Reflections of the Arts, Society, Politics, and Technologies of their Times
2. Transformative Moments, Movements, and Theories in the Development of Comics
3. Relationships Between the Visual Form and the Narrative Substance of Comics
4. In-Depth Interviews with Artists about their Influences (Beyond Mere Name-Checking)
5. Honoré Daumier

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Patrick Watson

1) Comic shop fallout from the distributor wars of the mid-90's.
2) Creators that started in the 80's from Pacific, Comico, First, Eclipse.
3) Gil Kane.
4) African-American creators at Marvel and DC in the 70's-80's.
5) a profile of the SAW group.

*****



Buzz Dixon

1. Outsider Comics (comics by people not plugged into fandom, much less mainstream publishing)
2. The History Of Comic Arts Instruction (from Kubert to Stan Lee's How To Write Comics pamphlet)
3. The Losing Side (comics from the Soviet Union, Axis powers in WWII, etc.)
4. The Threads Of Overlap (i.e., how did specific creators such as Otto Binder, Mickey Spillane, Alfred Bester, etc. influence other media / genres they worked in & what were thematic links in their work)
5. DIY Comics Related Media (amateur films, filk songs, etc; set 1980 as cutoff point re contemporary efforts)

*****



Rob Salkowitz

1. Developments in international comics, particularly in unexpected places
2. Deep-dive critical reviews of selected comics from time to time
3. Grant Morrison
4. Hybridization of traditional comic styles and genres
5. 1st generation original graphic novels from 1960s-80s

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John Platt

1. Regional comics hubs (Portland, etc.)
2. Archival struggles to reprint older comics (Cerebus, A Distant Soil, etc.)
3. Comics from the Eighties or Nineties that deserve a fresh look in the context of today's state of the art
4. Whatever happened to...?
5. Steve Bissette

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Walter Dickinson

1. Realities of making a real world income producing comics for the existing market.
2. Successful revenue models for webcomics publishers.
3. Educational comics.
4. Joey Cavalieri
5. State of comics publishing in foreign markets.

*****



Andrew Mansell

1. Garry Trudeau... Now that it is pretty much over, a career long critical evaluation is needed.
2. The GLUT of Reprints --
3. How art movements (Fort Thunder...) are now shaped in the modern connected world.
4. An update of Bart Beaty's Old column. ( What's been translated and what's still missing)
5. Critics Forum: A re-evaluation of the top 100 Of the past decade (especially with the reprints of once-ignored creators like Whitney, Gottfredsson, Price, Gruelle, Rogers, Hanks)

*****



RJ Casey

I missed FFF, but didn't sleep last night and had a lot of ideas. Some of these are solid, others not so much, but I wanted to get them out there:

* Translators -- I'd like to learn about translators of manga and other foreign comics. How do they translate, but keep the complexity and nuances of the original work?
* Agents -- Illustrators and comic creators that have agents and what purposes, responsibilities do they have.
* Current state of humor in comics
* Comic programs in schools like CCS and Kubert -- What are some of their benefits and hindrances?
* Nickelodeon Magazine -- Chris Duffy bringing people like Deitch, Ryan, Henderson, and Sala to work on kids comics and the publication's huge influence with comic creators in their 20s.
* Children's Book Illustrators -- Which comic creators have found work in that field and which ones have left comics to pursue children's books?
* Guido Crepax, Adam Buttrick, M.K. Brown, Ricardo Delgado
* Why do critics go at Marvel/DC/Image with a muckraking angle instead of leaving "mainstream" comics totally? Why do people who seem disgusted with corporate companies continue to buy them?

*****



Sean Kleefeld

1. Business practices of comics retailers
2. Library collections
3. Ongoing industry comparisons among American, European, & Japanese markets
4. How to improve/enhance comics journalism across the board
5. Ryan Estrada

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context explained here

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