Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* I haven't seen many think-pieces on the Fantagraphics announcement they'll be doing the Carl Barks duck comics, so I was pleased to see Graeme McMillan dig into the question why Disney is sending so many of its comics to other comics publishers when they recently purchased Marvel. It's one of those questions where the answer is pretty obvious but the question is worth exploring anyway.

* the site for the 2011 version of the Toronto Comics Art Festival has launched, including the very attractive poster by Jillian Tamaki. That's a show -- free, diverse crowds, focused on artists, well-run, great city -- still on the upswing and I think one of the most anticipated on the convention calendar. Bookmark it now.

* speaking of launches, TCJ ropes in a bunch of comics analyst super-smarties into an aligned blog, The Panelists. And did you know that there are no good pictures of the Silver Age Superman Revenge Squad on the Internet?

* various comics site bring out their 2010 dead. Speaking of Daily Cartoonist, Alan Gardner wonders out loud at the number of comics already available for consumption on the black-and-white-only specialty device the Kindle.

* I'm not certain I could have recalled what Volstagg's first appearance in the Marvel Universe looked like.

* go, look: Fantagraphics spotlights a Jeffrey Meyer collage project based on cutting up work by Daniel Clowes.

* a Happy New Year letter from a mainstream comics company executive isn't the place you go for frank, compelling analysis of that company's current state of affairs, but it does afford an opportunity to see the company's collective self-conception of what was successful and what is important to them right at this moment, what they wish to communicate to a certain cross-section of creators and fans.

* reviving letters columns seems to me a strange thing to crow about in a time when many fans are concerned with the number of pages of material they get in a month -- and I mean the perception of the move, as I imagine the page comes out of the many pages of ads they're no longer selling in the print books. I also know that for many young people of previous generations, getting a letter published in a comic book was a big, big deal, and that in some ways it's a value-added experience for what can be a quick in-and-out read. Sean Kleefeld analyzes.

* not comics: I think it's nice that Stan Lee got a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. He certainly soldiered on in Hollywood when a lot of people might have been broken by the disinterest and derision he received in many corners.

* Jeet Heer requests that someone dig into late-period Ditko with the enthusiasm that many have reappraised late-period Kirby.

* The fact that an interview gets split up on-line into multiple parts makes it difficult for me to recommend it with a link: some readers are infuriated if I send them to a partially-completed piece, and if I wait until all the parts are posted the burst of initial interest is usually gone. But I think a lot of you may want to bookmark and read this long interview with the late, irascible writer Bob Haney by Mike Catron as it's serialized.

* Brecht Evens fever: catch it.

* Chris Butcher muses on sites that cover the comics industry, taking a kind of "well, what do you think they're going to do?" approach to the focus on material in which the most people are interested and suggesting that such sites can claim a place in the market by using coverage of the less popular material as a distinguishing characteristic.

* meanwhile, an update on the book retail corner of Doomapocalyptigeddon, as executives flee Borders and other booksellers press for equal access to any advantage extended the failing company.

* finally, this weekend audiences in Seattle will get to behold the wonder that is Jim Woodring's giant pen. Even the drawing of Jim Woodring with a giant pen is awesome.
 
posted 11:30 pm PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives