Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* I completely punted on this story, so I'm glad someone was sharp enough to pick it up: one of the Bedrock City stores in Houston was a total loss after Hurricane Ike.

* things that may only interest me and my brothers: Peanuts began 50 years ago yesterday; Curtis recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.

* the retailer/blogger Mike Sterling discusses 1975's Giant-Size Defenders #3, which made me realize how very 1970s that comic book is. It has the forced guest star, the text page, and the pawns in a cosmic chess match; it kills a few characters because the way the contest is set up they'll be instantly brought back to life, and it ends with a bit that wouldn't be out of place on an episode of Sanford and Son.

* this article suggests that Rumiko Takahashi may have been the most important figure in the globalization of manga.

* the publication LA Weekly has a smaller list of the city's best comic shops: Meltdown, Secret Headquarters, Family.

* the retailer and blogger Chris Butcher objects to an insinuation that slipped out at the state of the manga industry panel at the recent New York Anime Fest.

* I agree with the writer Nina Stone about many of her observations concerning conventions, although I might not be as invested in and therefore disappointed by the people wearing costumes as much as baffled and confused by them. I think her best points are on the creepy clubhouse vibe that sometimes comes across at certain mainstream publisher panels and on the general, flat joylessness that can permeate conventions.

* the cartoonist Matt Bors wrote in to say that his gig at Free Inquiry may not be as firm and ongoing as the original press release suggested.

* the critic and occasional comics industry pundit Hervé St-Louis notes cuts to a grant for travel that may or may not have been used by Canadian cartoonists.

* there was a lot of Jacques Brel played in my home when I was a kid; Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris was right up there with the New Yorker and Ellen Goodman books as totems of middle class, Midwestern culture. So I could probably relate to this better than that recent, massive Tori Amos-inspired anthology.

* the publisher SLG is now accepting digital submissions.

* finally, some not comics: I'm not certain why anyone would express surprise that there would be some sort of movie sequel to 300; as I recall there were certainly just-as-important land battles fought in that general campaign and a series of probably more important in the greater scheme of things sea battles. I'd love to see an ancient sea battle movie done crazy-ass Frank Miller style.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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