Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* to my memory, Chris Ware doesn't do a lot of comics industry-related publicity, and likely turns down tons of tons of press opportunities in general, which is why word of an Inkstuds interview with Jeet Heer and Chris Ware on Frank King raised an eyebrow.

* Garry Trudeau is offering an original strip for sale in order to support the Center for Cartoon Studies. Doonesbury originals are pretty darn rare, as I recall.

* on any day, at any hour, you can jump on the Internet and find someone prescribing vast, wide-ranging solutions for all that ails the funnybook world. Brian Hibbs brings an always welcome retailer's perspective to more specific problems, although some of the pontificating might remind you of those "What this industry needs" message board jeremiads. In this latest installment, Hibbs wants you to believe that Vertigo periodicals don't sell because everyone is waiting for the trade but that the trades don't sell because the lack of a periodical push guts the consumer's passion for the trade -- sort of an industry constructed around an unfortunate magic Monkey's Paw wish. He also fairly pooh poohs the appeal of serials in trade form without noting that's the way US readers consume most manga, although he manages to mention manga when it suits his point about amortizing costs. I do agree with him that publishers crowd their serials through overeager early scheduling of trade collections, although I wonder if we're talking a significant number in terms of those waiting three months but not willing to wait six.

* speaking of which, no one should have to apologize to DC for mis-characterizing their sales figures until DC stops acting like it's 1952 and starts releasing them. Until then: shut up, DC.

* ComicsPro has hired one of its own, Amanda Fisher, to be that retailer group's communications coordinator. Who doesn't like Amanda Fisher?

* even though I'm practically too stupid to breathe when my intelligence is measured in manga-knowledge, I couldn't find anything new in this article that notes a slump in manga sales in Japan and suggests reasons for this, including how the cell phone has both supplanted the manga anthology and served as a huge, emerging market for comics. I suppose it's nice to have a bunch of that information in one place.

* the writer Brian Brendis does an interview with Newsarama about potential misogyny in a scene of the superhero Tigra getting beat around in an issue of his New Avengers. I haven't seen the work, so I can't comment directly. Usually these discussions get stuck on insinuating motive, motives which are almost never present, instead of talking about the effect of certain creative choices given the potent imagery of certain comics. I have no doubt that no one involved in this meant consciously or subconsciously to send a certain message. I guess it's sort of puzzling that it never occurred to anyone that this becomes more potent imagery because it's a woman in her apartment being assaulted. Although as it was one of the company's few noteworthy African-American heroes that topped the obituaries in Civil War and their leading gay superhero character was the one that bought it (temporarily, I think) when Wolverine was open for killing just about anybody out there in a high-profile serial adventure a few years back, one has to guess "What does this look like from the outside?" isn't a question Marvel asks itself all that frequently. Anyway, I would like to think there's room for a criticism over certain creative choices that doesn't have to paint anyone involved, supporting, or just not criticizing loud enough as misogynous scumbags. Maybe the flow of discussion has progressed this way; I haven't been reading.

* here's a friendly little piece on Drawn and Quarterly officially opening their retail space tonight. It looks nice.

* if you see Lynn Johnston's strip on Sunday and think it cuts a bit close to home given the fact that her husband left her, know that she realized the irony of the strip being up for re-publication, too.
 
posted 3:10 am PST | Permalink
 

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