Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Peter Sunde, Carl Lundstrom, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm of The Pirate Bay file-sharing site have been charged by a Swedish prosecutor with commercially exploiting copyrighted work through the sales of commercial advertising in support of their site's functions. On the one hand, part of the mystique of The Pirate Bay is that they operated in a place and in a way where they would not be subject to prosecution; on the other, they don't seem too worried about the outcome, almost Michael Irvin in a fur coat level disdainful.

* the cartoonist and self-publisher Dave Sim appeared on the Comics Journal message board as part of an on-line tour in support of his new book Glamourpuss. The results are as odd as you might suspect.

* the great Eddie Campbell shows off the cover of his next book: The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard and announces he will be doing a brief signing tour in support.

* the writer and employee of The Beguiling Christopher Butcher offers up his opinion on the subject of publisher pre-sales at conventions. Butcher is involved in coordinating local comics events through his position at The Beguiling, so he may have a different perspective than some. Also, there was some back and forth between Fantagraphics' Eric Reynolds and retailers following his large post last week that's probably worth reading for many of you.

* speaking of Fantagraphics, they're offering up for sale at half-price several issues of The Comics Journal, where I was employed once upon a time. It only applies to issues #250 and earlier.

All of the issues probably have something for nearly every comics fans, and if you're a fan of a certain cartoonist you'll want their Comics Journal interview as a foundational part of your interest in them. I think a few of those up for sale are particularly good: Jules Feiffer (#124), Todd McFarlane (#152), Jim Woodring (#164), Tom Toles (#195, featuring great, contentious news section interviews with Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld), Kevin Eastman (#202) and Gary Panter (#250). There are also a couple on sale where I enjoyed doing the interview or big essay: Evan Dorkin (#214, you'll like it more than he does) and Steve Rude (#248).

* oh, and while I'm still lurking on that site: this Killoffer cover looks amazing.

* the Adrian Tomine Fresh Air interview mentioned yesterday has now been archived for your seizure and listening purposes.

* this kind of thing may only interest me, and I'm not sure it isn't the biographical equivalent of noting what comics a character on a TV show is reading, but the late industrial designer and teacher Viktor Schreckengost once considered becoming a cartoonist.

* I hadn't realized that the new edition of Surfin' the Highway would have 25 pages of new Sam & Max material. Looks fancy, too.

* Roy Schneider's The Humble Stumble will end in March. One thing that's worth noting about the announcement is that much is made of the developmental process -- in a lot of cases, when a strip dies it's worth remembering that if it only lasted six months it might have been seven years and six months in terms of the cartoonist's involvement.

* Adam Casey writes in about my confusion regarding how a state bill in Maryland about the depiction of soldiers without their permission or the use of their names might have a chilling effect on work done by cartoonists like Mike Luckovich in Atlanta: "It seems to me the bill would have ramifications in Atlanta because of the wire service and syndication of political cartoons." And of course he's right.
 
posted 8:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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