Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* if you have the time this morning, could you click through to an article I wrote about old strips for Comic Book Bin or otherwise visit it at some point? I'd love you to read it but if you lack the time, pretend reading is appreciated, too. No one ever hires me to write about comics in this way, and I like doing it, so I want to show my appreciation for the opportunity. I'll owe you one.

* a bunch of folks have written in to remind me of significant comics archives at university libraries, including the famed Bowling Green holdings and the university that takes one each of all the Eisner Awards books. So I still don't know why Dark Horse would call their donation to Portland State the first one.

* folks keep e-mailing me links to this funny post of Marvel Comics Ideas by Chip Zdarsky.

* the artist and educator Steve Bissette looks at the timeline of events discussed by comix scholars vis-a-vis Understanding Comics in an attempt to provide some clarification as to any arguments or implications that might end up being floated by virtue of that discussion taking place. If nothing else, for those of that live in an increasingly Twitter-ish world, it's fun to read a dense Internet posting like that.

* this looks fun.

* the writer Van Jensen gave up buying comics every week the way he used to and a few weeks in had barely felt the difference.

* missed it: I forgot to post a link to this article about Todd McFarlane's present view of comics, and in waiting so long I forgot why I wanted to post about it in the first place.

* the writer Noah Berlatsky responds to Tucker Stone's recent piece about ratings. As is the case with many pieces on mainstream comics industry operations, it eventually devolves into a lament along the lines of just how weird those comics can be.

* missed it: Tommy Raiko was nice enough to send along this person bemoaning the fact that the New York Times doesn't include comics on their best-sellers lists the way they maybe should.

* this post by Eddie Campbell on 1980s small-press publishing is interesting in part because of Campbell's stated reticence to talk about 1980s small-press publishing. Plus: Everett True sighting.

* screwed it up: this is a better a link for the Global Hobo blog than the one I provided a week or so ago. The one I provided a week or so ago was a catalog link.

* the critic Dick Hyacinth is thinking about the year-end lists and what they'll look like.

* this article on retailer reactions to Marvel putting some of its characters into on-line comics is about as odd an all over the place as you might think. In the end, I don't think anyone in the world not a specific kind of retailer will fail to generally support the idea of companies exploring as many alternative arenas for distribution as they feel benefits what they do. I honestly think that at this point every single new comic book should be available by download, but that may just be my general gut feeling that I should be able to pick up something like a Kindle and download my New Comics Day to it.

* the 47 signs of mental possession?

* finally, Marvel's Joe Quesada talks about how his company's comics may survive economic hard times or may not, depending on just how bad things get. The talk about holding the line on serial comics at a certain price would be more heroic if there weren't already signs they're playing around with a higher per-issue cover price. I have to think at some point that at least some of those comics may absolutely shed readers if they take another substantial leap in price. I'm not a comic book consumer, and I kind of have to tilt my head a bit to think that way, but when I do it's tough for me to think of losing another entire comic book for $20 placed on the counter.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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