Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* apparently, the real world is turning into a Rick Veitch Army@Love comic book.

* a documentary is looking for an artist or artists trying to get work as an artist at the San Diego Con. I would have to say showing up with a camera crew would be an advantage to getting your stuff looked at.

* a written article and video supplement about Mort Walker's massive collection of comics original art finally finding a home at Ohio State both answers and may raise some questions. While I think there are certainly laudatory if not heroic aspects to Walker's passion in gathering all of this material into one place and keeping it safe, there are elements of the museum's journey from conception to its final destination that I hadn't heard before and makes me wonder about certain aspects of its history. For instance, if the museum had received $5 million in corporate sponsorship, could it really have made a go in the reportedly lightly-visited Boca Raton space? Was NYC ever a serious option and do we know everything about why that fell through? When they say the material donated has to be cataloged by OSU, does that mean re-cataloged or that the material hasn't been cataloged yet?

* not comics: did you know there was tabletop role-playing material based on the idea that HP Lovecraft went on to write superhero comics for Nedor? That has to be the nerdiest thing I've ever seen. Don't get me wrong, though: I swooned.

* yes, comics: did you know that the author Audrey Niffenegger was doing a comic for the Guardian?

* this seems quite reasonable: Dan Piraro talks about requests for use of his work, why he'll say yes to some and no to others and why you should always ask.

* the retailer Brian Hibbs goes into significant detail about a forthcoming purge of material from the shelves of his store based on information gathered by a POS system he installed last year.

* the writer and cartoonist Shaenon Garrity on Mother Jones' web site.

* the prominent blogger and longtime industry veteran Heidi MacDonald asserts that the economic impact of Comic-Con International has been vastly under-reported by civic officials.

I imagine that could be true, I don't know. On the hand I have no idea how this information is collected and it sounds like there could be oversights in what's counted. On the other hand, I know that my friends who go to CCI and to trade shows at the same facility drop a lot more money in the city when they're looking at medical equipment or marketing seminar DVDs instead of old issues of Marvel Two-In-One, and have even more money dropped on their behalf. CCI isn't a cheap experience but one of the major expenses (flying in) goes to an airline and one of the others (hotels) can be mitigated through roommates and staying only part of the show. I'll be there two of the four days this year and I doubt I'll spend $250 in San Diego itself, and that includes a room to myself and eating out twice in a restaurant because I'm old now. (No ballgame this time, though.)

As might be expected, people seem to be seeing this as an issue of the city not loving convention-goers properly, which is leading to the usual calls that the show consider a move to Las Vegas, I guess because of its reputation for loving people. If you've ever been in the taxi line at McCarron and the registration line at CCI, I know the thought of doing them both in the same day just made you shudder. I prefer to keep my Vegas and my CCI separate, thank you, like chocolate cheesecake and Hendrick's Gin. Although it would be hilarious to experience one year just to see how many people tried to do without a hotel room of any kind and how many of my friends never quite made it to the exhibition hall. Also I would totally kill to shoot craps with Captain America.

* I knew it.

* finally, with what seems like an unusually high level of complaining going on about the direction and tenor of Comic-Con International underway despite its sold-out status a week before the 2008 show, I went looking for a white knight that might be speaking more positively of the show than expected. Here's alt-comics publisher Drawn & Quarterly with a resoundingly positive note about the forthcoming show and the convention's devotion to comics in general.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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