Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Laurent de Froberville has quit the directorship of the Hergé Museum.

* if you can, please consider helping out comics historian Blake Bell with his efforts in compiling quality copies of non-Martin Goodman comics stories from the great Bill Everett. Everett is owed a significant debt by all of modern comics for his key role in creating foundational aspects of the superhero stories that have come to dominate the field, and all of his work is very expressive. I know I want to see a good book from Bell collecting Everett's work, if not two such books.

* you may now attempt to book Stephan Pastis. He's really good in person, as I recall.

* the artist and cartoonist Tom Neely reviews the decade just past.

* if digital comics means I have to look at charts, I'm out.

* not comics: I wouldn't pay too much attention to the substance of this post -- people say stuff about movies all of the time, and even Star Wars had lousy advance word -- but that anyone cares enough to seize on this kind of thing as actual news shows you how important a successful Green Lantern movie is to Warners. It's hard on a certain level to imagine anyone screwing up "space cop with magic ring," but the confluence of events surrounding the success of Iron Man (audiences liking Robert Downey Jr. and rooting for him to succeed; being the first movie after a summer of mostly moribund sequels with a "3" in the title) don't apply here. (I suspect there may also be some conflict between making the film's theme more concretely about fear and communicating said theme through a second-hand, now-familiar version of Iron Man's "charming man-child grows up" undercurrent, but that's only a suspicion.) I thought all of this worth mentioning because while I don't think it ever likely, the current Armageddon scenario of comics publishing, the one that drunk people talk about in hotel bars at conventions, starts with a massive loss of faith in the IP development aspects of a big company's comic book line combined with an intractably shrinking publishing market. A lot of people really want this movie to hit, maybe more people and more wishing than usual.

* I can't tell if this review is by someone named Nathan Wilson or if the book is about someone named Nathan Wilson.

* not comics: this year's FCBD shirt features a design by the artist Darwyn Cooke.

* the great John Porcellino talks at length about working at print size.

* the esteemed Paul Gravett repeatedly kidney punches a film reviewer for his lack of rudimentary comics knowledge, and the lack of application in acquiring some. Sounds like a good book, though.

* "I guess that my big worry is that we'll see more are more books that make sense on a commercial level, that make sense in a marketing presentation, and I'll find myself squeezed out of comics because I just simply won't find anything I want to read." More here.

* missed it: Secret Acres' hysterically funny and very, very truthful review of their 2010.

* Ariel Schrag talks about Patricia Highsmith, using her time as a comics writer as a springboard.

* finally, how did the Challengers Of The Unknown afford this ridiculous headquarters? They saved on costumes, sure, but come on. It may say something about our mid-century orientation towards money and public efforts that this kind of thing passed muster and probably wouldn't with a kid now. Also: this stuff is make-believe.
 
posted 2:00 am PST | Permalink
 

---

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