Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Robert Kirkman talks to The Atlantic. My first thought is that there aren't a lot of mainstream press articles that look at the industry though the views of guys like Kirkman, even though there are 18 billion such comics press articles, so it's kind of interesting to read about his broader view of the industry.

* damn, Jim Woodring is cool.

* Archie Comics confirms that Sarah Palin is the leader of the Republican Party. As Archie Andrews is the living embodiment of the undecided voter and Jughead the face of modern libertarianism, this is more important than you might think. There's probably a joke in here somewhere about keeping Reggie away from Bristol Palin, but that would be completely out of order.

* another adorable Evan Dorkin commission piece.

* I don't really understand this essay by Sean Kleefeld. Worse, I can't find much beyond strident assertions and rebuttals to arguments I've never read anyone make to have something to grasp onto in a way that I can formulate a solid response. Let me try, though. First, it doesn't seem to me that yet another iteration of the content argument, which is the comics Internet equivalent of a new Batman book, is somehow fresher as a way of analyzing what's going on right now than choosing to react to a specific and still-ongoing price shift. Second, no one to my knowledge has ever suggested that content doesn't play a role. It always does. It always has. Third, it's also hard for me to fathom how the industry shrinking to 2000 levels, a time when things were so bad that publishers were basically holding bake sales to stay afloat, is anything other than a scary thing, especially considering all the relative structural advantages comics enjoys right now: more sophisticated, powerful and receptive PR opportunities; more ownership groups with significant resources; greater access to more marketplaces; more elite stores than ever before and much more publisher talent development in evidence than in 2000. I have other objections, but even this much feels like I'm trying to hit smoke with a wiffleball bat.

* RC Harvey gets to the bottom of why Dennis is being flanked by two odd-looking children in a Dennis The Menace panel. It's kind of jarring.

* they sent me this as PR rather than as a link, but I guess Dean Mullaney is getting at least part of the band back together, announcing Beau Smith as the new Director of Marketing at IDW Publishing's Library of American Comics Director of Marketing. Smith and Mullaney worked in the 1980s at Eclipse Comics. I'm not sure if this is the first imprint at a company to have its own marketing director -- I sort of doubt it, actually -- but it's not a common occurrence. The PR sent out asked that all "retailers, librarians, professors, and teachers" contact Smith at beau@loacomics.com or 304-453-6565.

* draw some monsters for a good cause.

* Brendan Wright on Alan Moore and DC.

* the artist and blogger Gerry Alanguilan looks at a pair of attempts to revive Philippine comics through legislation, in anticipation that they might be revived or that there are more on the way.

* some companies drop titles from their ongoing sales; D+Q adds them.

* Gary Tyrrell is tracking reaction to DJ Coffman's new e-book.

* not comics: Superman has a history of bringing characters from its media spin-offs back to the comics going back to the radio show days, so that they would bring on the Chloe Sullivan character from Smallville shouldn't be a surprise except in how long it's taken. Then again, everything about Smallville has taken longer than anticipated, including Smallville.

* finally, Doom wept.
 
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