Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* here's a massive suite of articles by Jay Allen Sanford about Carnal Comics and other Southern California aspects of comics culture over the last 15 years. It looks familiar to me, so I'm not sure that stuff hasn't been posted before. Worth it for the photos alone.

* a panel at summer school in Angouleme looks at a big problem facing comics in the French-language market: a massive publication swell that drives smaller comics off of the stands and promotes conservatism because new or different books only have a brief chance to make an impression before they're buried under the next few weeks' new arrivals. It's worth a google translation if you're interested in macro-issues that face comics markets, plus if you ever wondered if French industry folk did the "what do you want us to do about it?" thing that Americans do so well on their panels (the answer is "oui").

* Barron's provides an overview of the Stan Lee Media legal action against Stan Lee and Marvel, whereby the company argues that Lee assigning his work to the company upon its creation means that they're due the rights asserted in a subsequent settlement between Lee and Marvel regarding his role in creating the bulk of that company's characters. It's a decent enough summary of the basic and sometimes convoluted drama involved, but I'm not sure it provides any clarity as to the status of any lawsuit and where/when/how these matters will be decided.

* by the way, isn't that cover cool? I love the color.

* the cartoonist Frank Miller is apparently working on a sequel to 300, which will then be made into a movie. I suspect that the first 300 is this generation's Scarface, at least in terms of its being played over and over again by 14-year-old boys, and I would have loved a sequel to that celluloid marvel back in the day. This could be good news for Osama Bin Laden, as one supposes Batman may remain on the sidelines instead of being sent by Miller to capture/kill/sock the world's most wanted man (if that project's even still on). I'm not big on classical history, but while most of the 300 characters went the way of Ferro Lad in the first film, there's a lot of interesting naval history and maybe even a land battle or two worth covering in that same general run of events. Or maybe it will be a spiritual sequel, and we'll get to see Frank Miller's Alamo.

* this article on newspapers eliminating book review pages makes me wonder what comics people sound like when they make similar complaints about loss of coverage. Because to be honest, I didn't know anyone still had a book review page, and I'm baffled as to why this would be a priority for any newspaper right now. Could it be that this is one of those things that represents more of a natural shift in interests than something that's being done to newspapers?

* well, they're both big and green.

* did you know that Jay Darling created the federal duck stamp program? I sure didn't.

* finally, the writer Warren Ellis writes amusing convention posts, particularly when taken as a group so that you can track his descent into exhaustion and delerium. Ellis went to Wizard World: Chicago this last weekend. I actually got a phone call from someone in Chicago asking me if Ellis was really there. Here are those posts, in order: Bear My Mark, Tower of Shaky Glee, On Shaking Hands, Collecting Stray Thoughts 01, Collecting Stray Thoughts 02, Chicago Day 1, Chicago Day 2, Collecting Stray Thoughts 03, Collecting Stray Thoughts 04, Chicago Day 42, Collecting Stray Thoughts 05, and Collecting Stray Thoughts 06.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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