Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* ComiXology will be part of the Kindle Fire launch. I'm not sure what else to say other than that strikes me as a big deal, and it may be a bigger deal that their inclusion likely surprises no one.

* Mike Bertino has posted some nice spot illustrations on his site.

* Steve Sunu talks to Ande Parks.

* here's a nice, catch-all post from Alison Bechdel: she talks about teaching, the Fun Home stage musical and two Kickstarter projects she endorses.

* here's one of those Kickstarter projects. Jessica Abel doesn't mess around, so of course she's pushed past her goal with weeks to spare, but it looks like you can still contribute. Here's a Robot 6 post about a Kickstarter effort for a documentary about Chris Claremont and his X-Men run.

* Charles Hatfield launches a column about kids' comics at TCJ, a full 13 years after he initially pitched one. Where have you gone, Ray Mescallado?

* there's nothing I don't like about a Brandon Graham teaser. My hope for Brandon Graham is that in some way or another he keeps in print long enough for audiences to find him.

* Matt Seneca has kind words for Carmine Infantino. Infantino does have a stellar design sense. When we interviewed Infantino back at The Comics Journal in the mid-1990s, he submitted a very rough-looking cover sketch and a sheet showing how it could be used. We despaired of this because it didn't look like it would work, and we all laughed with relief and admiration that it looked great after we followed his instructions.

* David Gabriel comes on freakishly strong in this interview -- he'd be played in the movie version by Peter Gallagher -- but it's worth reading if you're interested in Marvel's current state of mind about digital comics. My hunch is that one thing that's been settled is that these companies are going to keep the basic price point high not to protect comic shops but because 1) they have a number of set costs with any kind of comics they put out there, and 2) the market is such that I think these companies prefer the ability to lower the price to goose sales.

* Alan Gardner rounds up some quotes from cartoonists on the passing of Bil Keane.

* Rina Piccolo is trying to write her webcomic differently than she had been.

* Graeme McMillan pulls at a statement of key Marvel editorial force Tom Brevoort's that the reason a few mini-series have been clipped from the line in recent weeks is because the company is concentrating on core series. McMillan bemoans the loss of line diversity that comes with such a strategy. I clearly have no business backseat driving any mainstream comics publisher, but I know as an occasional consumer I'm less confused by mini-series featuring a stand-alone story or new characters than I am by mini-series or even additional series that run alongside established series. They did that with an Ed Brubaker/Bryan Hitch mini-series that ran alongside the regular Captain America title and I totally missed it; I had no idea it existed.

* not comics: oh my goodness.

* I suppose it's no surprise that only two of the super-villains on this list of best Spider-Man bad guys were created after 1980, but I'm sort of surprised how not very interesting that list was to me given the reputation of his rogues gallery. Some of Spider-Man's best bad guys are the kind of super-baddies they don't really do anymore, ground-level fellas like Man Mountain Marko or The Enforcers. Even someone like The Vulture -- your creepy old-man neighbor who yells at you about your leaves in his yard given superpowers -- has been left behind by the inexorable powering-up of Spider-Man over the years.

* here's how the Cagle-affiliated cartoonists are handling the Joe Paterno affair.

* Tom De Haven on Lost In The Andes. Chris Sims on Avenging Spider-Man #1. Chad Bonin on Action Comics #3. Graeme McMillan on Marvel's latest attempt at a preview book. Don MacPherson on Hellboy: House Of The Living Dead. Johanna Draper Carlson on The Thin Black Line. John Hodgman recommends 500 Portraits.

* finally, here's a fun piece of trivia: Philip Nel spoke to Andy Rooney for his forthcoming Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss biography, and he runs chunks of their talk here.
 
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