Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* the cartoonist and current Association of American Editorial Cartoonists President Ted Rall rips into the recent Time list of best editorial cartoons of the year. That was a really uninspired, outright lousy list, and while some of Rall's comparisons are poorly selected -- the selections didn't have the energy or fresh perspective of 16-year-old bloggers -- his general point is well-taken. It was like a Best Comics of The Year list with two random issues of Guardians of the Galaxy making the cut.

* there's a brief round-up of holiday-related comics issues at MTV's Splash Page, notable for drawing attention to a Frank Quitely-drawn cover of DC characters playing Santa.

* an 11-year case between the owners of the Asterix characters and a European communications services provider over the name "Mobilix" has ended with the communications company getting the win.

* missed it: a lot of webcomics business news, much to my embarrassment. The one thing I can catch up on here before the blog shifts to original content interviews until the New Year is the announcement by the ComicSpace team of a new ad service, Webcomics World.

* apparently there's a new Eustace Tilley contest.

* finally, kudos to Heidi MacDonald for taking on a Reed-run convention for inviting a male non-creator and not very many non-male creators to its forthcoming New York Con. That's never easy. The dearth of non-female creators within certain realms of the North American comics industry seems to me one of those problems that's almost impossible to define as a problem and then fix because the standards are slippery and mandating solutions is problematic in a bottom-line business where middle management frequently takes the blame. It might be more useful for the company leadership to own the issue, and to recast the problem as a lost opportunity: no more "comics is at fault for not better supporting women and minority artists" and instead "comics is leaving money on the table because they don't fully exploit the talent available to them." In the case of creators working at big comics companies, I'll repeat my call that a modified Rooney Rule be adopted where companies volunteer over a lengthy period of time (three years, five years) to include at least one non-white and/or female candidate for every job hire process or pitch, with no strings attached beyond being allowed to pitch or interview. People getting in the habit of being considered for those jobs and gigs and other people getting in the habit of considering a wider array of people for those jobs and gigs has been great for one of the all-time white dude bastions of professional sports. Even when a football team has been dead set on Whitey McWhiterson as their next coach, they have frequently come away from the process impressed with one of the candidates in a way that puts them on the minds of those executives and has them telling their friends about the talented person. I think this might be translatable in a way that has value to comics. In the end, the meritocracy aspect of these companies will kick in and trump the bad habits aspects of those companies, or at least work against it in a much more significant manner.
 
posted 6:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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