December 31, 2013
100 Comics Positives For 2013: The PictureBox Secret
I'm not sure there's much of a positive spin that can be put on the closure of Dan Nadel's
PictureBox Inc. unless you take the approach that it's all positive -- and certainly that's legitimate, as much as we'll selfishly miss the books they facilitated (and don't believe anyone that tells you that they'll all end up somewhere else). Nadel announced the closure of his boutique publishing arm from a position of strength and out of a desire to organize his life differently, not from crushing financial burden or some sort of existential panic. He even put together a nice sale that was a wonderful thing all by itself in terms of consumers picking up items they otherwise might not have been able to afford.
One humorous positive that occurred to me was how much of an open secret the closure was. It was suspected for more than a year. Dan Nadel informed his artists I think a week or two before SPX; certainly by that show it was an item of open gossip. But it didn't end up everywhere, or published, until Nadel was ready, and I think that's part of the respect that a lot of people had for the company and what it accomplished. It may also have been hope that Nadel would change his mind.
posted 11:55 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Two Books From The Manga Author Kyoko Okazaki And Vertical
It's hard to figure out what you've seen when it comes to manga that you can still be blindsided by what you haven't. Two books from the just-turned-50 manga creator Kyoko Okazaki arrived from Vertical this year: one from the mid-1990s (
Helter Skelter) and one from the late 1980s (
the reputation-making Pink). One of the things unique to manga because it represents such a diverse array of expression is that you can read books like these and can't imagine how you haven't been alerted to them before. What is usually is that many fans have more than been made aware of this material, even English-language reading ones: there's just a level of involvement and commitment that's not present for you to have been in place to see it before. The idea that there's still so much material left in the world to unearth is an exciting one, as exciting as Okazaki's dark, humorous, giddy takes on human frailty and excess.
posted 11:45 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: A Few People Kind Of, Sort Of Remembered Ben Katchor Had A Book Out
The great Ben Katchor's frequent exclusion from Best Of Lists and Year End Round-Ups is one of those things that gets brought up by comics cognoscenti late at night over coffee and pie -- or whiskey and cigarettes -- as one of those oddball indictments of a comics culture that has a hard time processing people that exist largely independent from its various commercial classifications and artistic movements. Call it The Feiffer Effect. It was deeply encouraging to see Katchor's excellent
Hand-Drying In America be the subject of press when it came out, be put on a few lists at the end of the year as one of the best comics efforts, be an object used to club other lists that pretend that his work isn't there.
posted 11:35 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: The Writer Matt Fraction Uses His Public Platform For Good
The writer
Matt Fraction had a big hit in 2013 with
Sex Criminals (with Chip Zdarsky) and continued his well-regarded work on
Hawkeye (with David Aja and other talented people); his other creative partners have included Mike Allred and Howard Chaykin -- he's a good year. Fraction has also maintained a commendable public profile, mostly humorous and only modestly forthcoming but becoming serious twice this year in two significant posts:
this one about his addictions;
this one about suicide. I hope that both did some of the good for which they were intended, and suspect this is so. For as much as creators' on-line personae have become increasingly coarsened into an almost constant barrage of PR indistinguishable at time from actual publicity campaign of the kind that use to be done on one's behalf, it's nice to see something that smart, and genuine and forthright not once but twice this year.
posted 11:25 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Bill K. Published Ruppert & Mulot
Bill Kartalopoulos previewed his first release through Rebus Books -- Ruppert & Mulot's
Barrel Of Monkeys -- back in late 2012, but the official debut wasn't until the 2013 calendar year. It's a shame it hasn't made more Best-Of lists, but I think that's the nature of such lists more than it is the quality of this work. A profoundly funny, occasionally nasty and formally audacious book,
Barrel Of Monkeys is one I'll remember when many of the more well-heeled and respectable entries fade from memory. I hope Rebus publishes again, frequently and soon.
posted 11:15 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Mike Sterling Hits Ten
The retailer and foundational comics blogger Mike Sterling
passed his 10th-year anniversary supplying content on-line this year. He is a daily stop for me and I am grateful for his contributions to my bottom-line understanding of comics retailer, Swamp Thing, and the horrors of
Diamond Previews.
posted 11:05 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Helping The Sakais
Over $20,000 has so far found its way into the hands of Stan and Sharon Sakai after
a public appeal on their behalf spearheaded by the Cartoon Art Professional Society. Several thousand more should see its way to the Sakais as the result of an art auction, for which they're accepting pieces until February. Stan Sakai is one of our finest cartoonists and classiest professionals, and he deserves every bit of attention that may benefit him here.
posted 10:55 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Denis Kitchen’s File Cabinets Enroll At Columbia University
The Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia
won one of the unique windfalls long-whispered about in super-nerdy comics history circles: the supposedly very complete records and archives kept by Denis Kitchen in the course of running and operating Kitchen Sink Press. Kitchen Sink published with a humongous range of important 20th Century creators, so what they have on hand adds to our knowledge of them as well as the company itself. The acquisition also marks the further ascendancy of Columbia's Karen Green as a force to be reckoned with in comics archival circles.
posted 10:45 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Stray Bullets Set To Return
It used to be that friends of mine would occasionally mention how well David Lapham's 1990s-originating self-published crime series
Stray Bullets would fit into the current Image Comics line-up of creator-drive genre series. Now they can say that because
it will actually be part of the publisher's comics efforts. I think it's a nice thing when a series like this finds a new life and a new home, and I know a lot of comics readers were bothered by the lack of closure they experienced with the title. I hope he sells a bunch of copies and suspect he will.
posted 10:35 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Joseph Hughes Saves ComicsAlliance
Editing a successful comics and comics-culture news site is a difficult enough gig without being asked mid-stream to find a new publishing arrangement for the entire enterprise, but that's what Joe Hughes of
ComicsAlliance did in one of the truly heroic publishing stories of the year. The popular AOL site was apparently not the kind of popular that allows a gigantic mega-corporation to squeeze more money out of the world because of a sleek and harmonious profile of what they do -- or something, I start vomiting when I try to figure this stuff out -- so Hughes found a new place for
CA with a more Internet content-friendly concern. I will be honest: I did not think this was possible when I heard the attempt would be made. The end result is a) more
ComicsAlliance, b) a bunch of us are all super-intimidated by Joe now.
posted 10:25 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Art Spiegelman Relaxes
Art Spiegelman has shepherded his extensive, career-spanning museum exhibit across multiple continents, but it may not have been until a small but vibrant reception for friends and fellow cartoonists at the Jewish Museum the Thursday before the show's opening in November that he was able to smile and enjoy himself -- or at least that's how it felt to some folks in the room. Most of the reviews for the exhibit -- with a real focus on process and a surprising number of Spiegelman side-project that by themselves would constitute a considerable comics-making career -- have been positive, although Spiegelman's role as a lightning rod for... something... brought out the usual odd referendums on his relative comics celebrity and folks musing over whether or not he deserves the attention he receives. Give him ten times the attention, that's what I say; he'll do something interesting with it.
posted 10:15 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Michael DeForge Takes Home Three Bricks At The Ignatz Awards
There were a lot of great awards moments in 2014 in terms of who won what and how but one that stands out a bit was
Michael DeForge picking up three Ignatzes. Awards like the Ignatzes tend not to stick with the same people year in year out -- it tends to be one of those awards where someone wins another award at some point and you think it might be their first and then you found out they won an Ignatz six years earlier. So winning a bunch at once a few years along in your career means something. The first of DeForge's books with Drawn and Quarterly is out with reviewers now, and he should continue his publishing onslaught for years to come. Let's hope so, anyway.
posted 10:05 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: CAB Rises From BCGF Ashes
Comic Arts Brooklyn began where Brooklyn Comics And Graphics Festival ended, and did so without almost no hitch in continuity -- there may have been the tiniest drop-off in terms of attendance, as it never felt crazy, but the show was mostly packed and everyone I talked to did well. Another nice thing was that Gabe Fowler had his former BCGF partners Bill Kartalopoulos and Dan Nadel participate at the show in some way.
It was a good day for comics, that CAB day.
posted 9:55 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Tagame Tagame Tagame
There are maybe a half-dozen points of discussion for
The Passion Of Gengoroh Tagame -- pornography, manga, gay comics, a personal project for Chip Kidd, Anne Ishii working in comics again, a significant late-in-publishing-life debut for PictureBox -- but let's not forget the comics themselves: well-crafted, festooned with body types not always seen in comics, frequently funny and occasionally brutal. I'm not sure we've seen anything like it.
posted 9:45 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: RASL Collected In Hardcover
It's really, really hard to do an extended comic book series turned sizable, single-volume graphic novel.
Jeff Smith's done two.
posted 9:35 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Jack Kirby Day Seemed To Have Gained Significant Momentum
This is more a hunch than anything else, but the celebration of the late Jack Kirby's birthday every year seems to have turned the corner at some point to become more of a widespread opportunity to celebrate the life and works of someone on the Mount Rushmore of popular art creation. A big part of this is the participation of the family. This could be an even bigger event by the time the 100th anniversary of the King's birth rolls around.
posted 9:25 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: The Strange Tale Of Panorama Island Finally Came Out
1. It seems like we've been promised this one forever; 2. It has to be the only prestige comics release featuring full frontal male nudity (kind of) right on the cover; 3. It makes total sense for this to come out in such a great year for prestige manga (its own post later today), 4. Last Gasp releases are rare enough in and of themselves that this one is worth noting on that basis alone; 5. It's very good -- weird and entertaining.
posted 9:15 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Fantagraphics To Publish Another Year
Fantagraphics
ran a kickstarter for the ages -- and perhaps one that will be remember for a very long time for its influence on how boutique publishers in all media approach raising capital -- in a way that will allow them to publish through their next season. Given what they have planned, such as the Eleanor Davis short-story collection and excerpt of which appears above, every season for a publisher like that is worth celebrating.
posted 9:05 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Kim Thompson Was Remembered With A Significant Amount Of Joy
There were any number of lovely tributes to the late Kim Thompson in 2013, including the fun portrait by his friend Jim Blanchard shown above and Gary Groth's terribly moving description of their goodbye conversation. A favorite for me was one I witnessed live and in person. At the Eisner Awards several distinguished personalities ranging from Dave Lasky to Chip Kidd to Neil Gaiman took time out of a slightly raucous evening to express their thanks and admiration for the impact that Thompson had on their creative lives. It was like having Kim back for a little while, awkwardly interjecting into a rolling conversation about all things comics.
posted 8:55 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: We Started To Talk About Comics’ Culture Of Sexual Harassment
Talking about instances of sexual harassment, gender exclusion and the culture that enables both is never pleasant. It's even true that well-meaning, right-thinking people may disagree on the shape and scope and direction of such discussions in terms of their optimal value in moving comics from one set of understandings to another. That doesn't mean that getting to talk about these things isn't a godsend for an industry that has long needed certain inexcusable things sorted out. What isn't up for a lot of debate is the value of a ground-level call for renewed professionalism across the board and the necessity of zero tolerance for asinine behavior no matter how some may attempt to justify that kind of behavior. This needs to be talked about in every way possible moving forward, and we should all be grateful for the instances and actors that put it in the forefront of discussion over the last few months.
posted 8:45 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: My Friend Dahmer In Europe
One of 2012's most-lauded English-language comics work,
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf, found a significant second life in Europe,
culminating by making the Selection Officielle List at this month's big comics festival in Angouleme. One thing that's interesting about this is that Dahmer is virtually unknown in Europe, so this memoir doesn't have any of the built-in interest that met the English-language edition.
posted 8:35 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Ryan Sands Launches Youth In Decline
2013
saw the public debut of the first two issues of Ryan Sands'
Frontier, published under the "Youth In Decline" banner. The first featured Uno Moralez and came out for TCAF; the second gave us Hellen Jo and was out for SPX. It's not the first time that Sands has published, but it feels like this effort comes with a seriousness of intent that should help keep him around for years.
posted 8:25 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: With Great Power, A Surprise Hit
Actually, I don't pay enough attention to mainstream comic book sales number to know if
Superior Spider-Man is a hit, but it feels like one from all the other measures: I know what's going on in it (roughly), you hear a bunch from its primary aligned talent (in this case, that's mostly been veteran scribe Dan Slott) and there are spin-off storylines and plots that directly reference the original concept. There's a joke in mainstream comics about how a plot point will enrage a certain kind of fan to the point they doubly-pay attention to a comic just to keep an eye on what's being done to it. I imagine that was some of this one at the start, but people don't pay attention for this long unless there's something in there to which they're responding. Comic book lines -- or, if you prefer, eras in mainstream comic book publishing -- are made or broken not by the top-of-line hits but the solid performers editors and creative talent can wring out of standard franchises. I have to imagine that Marvel is super-happy with the way this one has performed for them.
posted 8:15 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: The Return Of Minimum Wage
Although it's officially a January 2014 release, this site received a copy of Bob Fingerman's
re-launched Minimum Wage comic book in the mail the day before the year ended, using a single-color effect that doesn't come through in the above-preview image and plunging back in the world of the cartoonist's everyman stand-in. An oversized edition of the previously-published 1990s alt-comic series was certainly released this year. It's nice to have Fingerman back working on this project. Its arrival in trade form and now series form marks certain changes in context in comic books over the last few years: that having the writer Robert Kirkman as a fan is a great thing to be able to say right now, that Image's continuing climb gives just about any series they do a certain level of industry interest, that there are comics on the stands (
Sex Criminals) with which Fingerman's worked can be paired by an enterprising retailer, and that the rise of cable TV series provides hope for Fingerman's work as fodder for cross-media interpretation.
posted 8:05 pm PST |
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100 Comics Positives For 2013: Comix Experience Retailer Brian Hibbs Took Over Comic Outpost
Veteran retailer/industry advocate Brian Hibbs announced his assumption of a second comic shop
here. We need as many comic shops as we can get and as many good comic shop owners -- there is no surer thing owner-wise than someone that already owns one such business. I quite liked Hibbs' shop the time I was able to get in there, and I'm sure the customers of the newly-transferred store are going to be very well-served.
posted 7:25 pm PST |
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