Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* the National Cartoonists Society has put out the call for divisional awards entries, which are given out at the NCS national meeting in May.

* notes on Asterios Polyp.

* not comics: that fine R. Fiore essay on The Simpsons from a couple of years back is up on their site now.

* there's a great photo here of Charles Schulz receiving an honorary doctorate.

* not comics: so I guess they're going to reboot the Spider-Man movie franchise, ending the number of Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire movies at three. I can't imagine this will end with their making a movie I'd be particularly excited to see in the theater, but I'm over 40 now which is only "Spider-Man age" in the funnybook store. I'm not sure I saw Spider-Man 2 or 3 in the theater, either, come to think of it. Also, with Mary Jane Watson in the overarching plot from the beginning there wasn't much of a satisfying ending I could foresee in continuing the first three movies. For me, there's about three-quarters of a good movie in the three Raimi efforts if you cut and splice, about 12-15 memorable scenes total. Two or three of those scenes approach the furious intensity of the Lee/Ditko version; one or two of those scenes approximate the warmer romance of Lee/Romita. I'm glad I got to see them. Still, I don't stop to watch any of the films for a few minutes when I see them on cable the way I will something like Speed Racer, Dark Knight or the LOTR movies. In my circle of friends the Spider-Man movies come up mostly when we have to remind one another James Franco was in them.

* not comics: by the way, Zac Efron should be remaking this movie, not those. With this actress in the Annette O'Toole role.

* there's something very sweet about this announcement that the webcomics creators are uniting to end human trafficking rather than doing their part by simply fighting it.

* every so often the writer Warren Ellis will ask creators to burrow into a comfortable position on his Whitechapel message board and take questions for a few days, a maneuver that seems both old-fashioned and forward-thinking. Plus you get to say "currently appearing" like they're working the lounge at the Flamingo. Currently appearing: Paul Duffield and Brandon Graham.

* finally, sometimes I don't understand superhero comic reviews: wasn't the title being reviewed here from someone's slightly reworked Invaders pitch? That doesn't make it a bad thing -- Watchmen started as a Charlton Heroes project -- but it seems like it might have some influence on how that book is appraised.
 
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