February 28, 2013
Let The Year Of Gilbert Hernandez Begin
There's
a nice piece up over at The Advocate about Gilbert Hernandez on the publication of his
Julio's Day, which I suspect -- suspect and
hope -- will kick off a lengthy period of appreciation for one of the great, prolific cartoonists of our time. I'm told that
Julio's Day reads astonishingly well now that it's been collected, and I can attest to the quality of Hernandez's forthcoming book from Drawn and Quarterly,
Marble Season. I think we're supposed to see a collection of
New Tales Of Old Palomar -- which I'm told will be called
The Children Of Palomar -- and that work really shows off the cartoonist's under-appreciated power as an image-maker. I can't imagine a whole lot of better things for comics than if the Hernandez Brothers build on their 30-year anniversary momentum and stay relevant in a way their work demands.
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Go, Look: And The Wind Blows
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Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital
By Tom Spurgeon
* IDW and Monkeybrain
will team up to release some of the digital-forward titles in print form. My understanding is that this is non-exclusive and basically is a deal that the companies have taken to those creators and that there may well be other publishers that do print comics that have run on that site. At any rate, print publication is an important thing for a lot of digital efforts, and it should be interesting to see how this effort unfolds.
* just this morning -- or at least in the last 48 hours -- iVerse
announced a partnership with Viz Media focused on library patrons. I'm not all the way certain how that works, in that I'm not certain of the level of desire for that material from people that use libraries. Libraries are generally interested in the Viz material, that's for sure.
* the episodes for
Strip Search, the reality-style programming from the
Penny Arcade people,
have begun their roll-out.
* I love
this headline from Johanna Draper Carlson about inducements for participation at the Kodansha site.
* finally,
here's more from
Robot 6 on Chris Onstad's hopes and plans for an
Achewood cartoon.
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If I Were In Los Angeles, I’d Go To This
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If I Were In East Lansing, I’d Go To This
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If I Were In New York, I’d Go To This
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If I Were In San Francisco, I’d Go To This
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If I Were In Seattle, I’d Go To This
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OTBP/Not Comics: Science Fiction
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Random Comics News Story Round-Up
*
all eyes on Seattle.
* Richard Bruton on
I Don't Like My Hair Neat. Jason Thompson on
Chi's Sweet Home.
* I think it's good to poke and prod at characters and ask questions about how they're portrayed, as in
this piece on the backwards-looking elements in different versions of Wonder Woman. I'm not sure that it's anything more than a sign of how certain characters work, but I would imagine that if you're into those kinds of comics it's a question worth pursuing.
* Michael Cavna
announces the winner of a recent caption content.
* Steven Heller talks to
Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen.
* finally, J. Caleb Mozzocco
walks readers through the latest iteration of the
Guardians Of The Galaxy concept, which will be a point of emphasis for Marvel as a movie version roars to life. Hannah Means-Shannon
looks at one of the new comics works that will put Marvel in that space-opera place more firmly, although they've set up the infrastructure for that kind of thing in recent years.
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Happy 36th Birthday, Benjamin Marra!
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Happy 61st Birthday, Joyce Brabner!
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February 27, 2013
Go, Look: Ronald Searle’s Ireland
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Go, Read: Alan Gardner Talks To Jimmy Margulies, Newly Laid-Off From The Record
Here. Margulies had been working for years at
The Record in Hackensack, and is a solid, well-liked, widely-syndicated cartoonist with all the usual magazine and paper-of-record placement credits. He's won the Fischetti and the Barryman, and
recently appeared on the NRA blacklist. I'm pretty certain I've seen a book or two of his, as well.
I appreciate Gardner doing those interviews. It looks like Margulies will continue to work for the publication as their needs warrant.
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Go, Look: Gay Manga Tumblr
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The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Cons, Shows, Events
By Tom Spurgeon
*
ECCC is closing in. Hope to see you there. Basically my only advice for ECCC boils down to 1) work the comics room, because the strength is in the number and quality of comics pros exhibiting in the main funnybook hall there, 2) do a little research on Seattle and find things to do like have dinner in a nice restaurant or do some shopping in one of the fine downtown boutiques or watch them toss fish around or perhaps start a heroin habit (first taste is usually free). See you over there.
* by the way, I was in three Seattle comics shops yesterday and all three took more than five phone calls from people asking after tickets, which are very, very scarce and limited. So it's officially a thing.
* MoCCA Festival
has announced a festival prize of sorts, with an all-star jury. I encourage everyone exhibiting to engage Gary Groth in long conversations about sports. Actually, I'm probably going to write about this again next week. This looks like the kind of thing where people are going to have major problems with it; I just can't immediately suss out
exactly what those are. We have a lot of damn awards right now.
* I'm going to do a stand-alone piece on this tomorrow but in case today is better for you to go do this: Eisner Hall Of Fame voting ends on Monday. You should vote
here. Russ Manning nominees
are also be accepted. I encourage people to vote for everything where they're eligible to vote and to submit for everything that they're eligible to receive.
*
the MSU Comics Forum event begins today. Nick Bertozzi is on-hand. Man, when comics people first got on-line it was various chat rooms, Usenet and that MSU comics index.
* Art Spiegelman went to Vancouver and
David Lester took notes.
* finally,
here's a nice report on John Cuneo's work as recently exhibited.
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If I Were In East Lansing, I’d Go To This
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Not Comics: Henry Justice Ford
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Random Comics News Story Round-Up
me="image" hspace="7" vspace="5" width="380" height="286" align="right"/>* Sean T. Collins on
Ant Comic.
* not comics: always happy for a solid veteran like Steven Grant
to enjoy increased exposure via a film adaptation, and Grant's an interesting guy generally.
* Greg McElhatton
reviews that new Batman comic where they kill that little boy.
* Tessa Miller profiles
Ryan North. Brigid Alverson talks to
Calista Brill and Colleen AF Venable. Michael Cavna profiles
Stephan Pastis.
*
here's a piece at
Hooded Utilitarian on bailing out of mainstream comic books for specific content reasons. I'd have to have more time to read the piece closely to characterize it without potentially doing the argument a disservice.'
* Graeme McMillan
wonders out loud if the trend of reviving characters may be more difficult to do as we reach the limit of characters to be revived and head into times marked by previous character revivals more than new character creation.
* not comics: hey,
nice lamp.
* finally, it's hard for me to imagine an article much more fun than Gene Luen Yang
writing about the similarities between Chinese opera and North American superhero comics.
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Happy 29th Birthday, Lauren Barnett!
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February 26, 2013
Go, Look: My Prince
part one; part two
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Tom Tomorrow Wins The 2013 Herblock Prize
A bunch of the political sites and the cartooning-related news entities
picked up on a release yesterday that Dan Perkins, the longtime creator of
This Modern World as Tom Tomorrow, won the 2013 Herblock Prize.
That press release says the feature still appears in 80 papers, which to my mind makes it something of a giant in that vastly reduced landscape. Perkins is also the editor of
the comics section at the Daily Kos site.
As this site is very much pro all the comics awards that come with cash prizes in the hopes of encouraging more of them, it's worth noting that the Herblock Prize comes with a $15K after-taxes gift from the massive Herb Block Foundation, created with the massive, I believe media-stock related holdings of the late cartoonist.
The ceremony will be held on April 25 at the Library of Congress. Previous winners include Matt Bors, Tom Toles and Jim Morin.
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Go, Look: Leo Burdak
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A Few, Random Tips For Attending Emerald City Comicon
1. Work The Entire Room
I don't know that Emerald City has worked out a firm identity for itself the way that HeroesCon has forged a relationship with a drawing culture that favors sketches and more sketches and then some more sketches followed by an art auction. Its reputation in comics seems to be that of a super-solid show, one that treats its professionals well, so let's start there. With so many talented creators on hand perhaps the greatest joy I've had at this show is simply walking around the room and interacting with all of the talent on-hand. I might suggest even making a full circuit before you buy anything -- the exception being someone you simply
have to have sign something, which might be worth sacrificing any other sort of strategy, particularly if their line is short. Any show that has cartoonists like Moritat, Steve Lieber and Brandon Graham just sitting at various locations around the room waiting to talk to you -- not to mention hidden gems like last year stumbling across Kevin Nowlan -- is a pretty darn good show. Walk and talk.
2. Seek Out The Guy That Sells Old Silver Age Material Super-Ass Cheap
I don't remember this guy's name, but there's a dealer there that sells a metric ton of lower grade Silver Age comics for less than five dollars a pop. He's my favorite con-dealer ever. You may notice his presence because there will be a bald guy with a beard snapping up late-period Jack Kirby
Fantastic Fours and cackling. I actually think it's a good show for dealers overall, with a graspable selection of guys on-hand, mostly featuring different things. You could probably do the whole crew in less than half a day. Dealers
are comics conventions for those of us that remember a time when you went to comic book shows because otherwise you couldn't find the comics you wanted. It's always nice to remember that. It's also nice to leave a show with a little stack of comic books.
3. Drink Local Coffee
Starbucks is a local coffee joint, really, but that's not what I mean. Seattle loves its coffee enough that it has a number of really solid, full-service coffee places that don't have a franchise option. You might try
this one, right up Pike from the convention center. I used to haunt the top-of-Capitol Hill location back when I lived in the city. Search near wherever you're staying or ask a local, though. It's not like these are going to be uncomfortable, weird, tiny places.
4. Steal Away To A Restaurant
Seattle is a pretty good food city. Downtown is probably the trickiest neighborhood in which to find a place to eat because there are a lot of places that serve people a) with a lot of money and/or b) that don't really give a shit about maximizing their food experiences and/or c) that are tourists and enjoy chain-restaurant eating. You might have to dig a bit, in other words, but it pays off. Here's
a list of places Anthony Bourdain visited on a recent show;
here's a list of places from Seattle folks pushing back against that list. I'm not sure that I have a specific recommendation down there, although
restaurants that have been around a million years are usually pretty good and I always thought Seattle did underrated storefront Italian. You'll find
a lot of stuff in that $15-$30 entree range. Also remember that the big dinner-out days are big dinner-out days generally: Friday and Saturday. You might have to wait, and having a smaller party rather than a big one could be key. Also, maybe don't let the guy who made $1500 selling art pick the place.
5. Seek Out Programming
I only went to a few pieces of programming last year: a Robin McConnell panel with Bill Sienkiewicz and a Seattle comics culture panel hosted by Larry Reid. Both were solid and fun, although admittedly I was in a honeymoon phase with conventions in general at that point. The bigger-name mainstream panels tend to fill up, so you might have to wait in line. I think I heard of a Jeff Parker spotlight conducted by David Brothers that sounds worth attending.
6. Use Public Transit
The professionals late-night culture at this show is I believe pretty hotel bar focused, with an undercurrent of people bailing out on the comics convention altogether and spending time with their local friends in some neighborhood or another. I think it's a fine city in which to get around, and I like the public transit options. I might not like them as much if they were my only option day after day after day, but they're fine for a visit. It's also a fun city in which to walk, and the downtown is small enough that a short jump in a cab solves a lot of problems.
7. Register Early
I happened to be walking around downtown well before the show last year just to check things out and found a registration line for press, got that settled in about ten minutes, and spent an hour or so checking out the set-up of the place and chatting with people. It was really, really fun, and press doesn't get to do that at a lot of shows. At any rate, I'm told that registration in general is pretty easy across the board. It's certainly casual, but so is Seattle.
8. If You Can, Seek Out The Fantagraphics Store
I'm not sure that I can recommend a specific comics-related stop to make there in the city. Perry Plush's fine
Zanadu Downtown store is the one I used when I was roaming around in that part of town. It's a solid shop, or at least it was a decade ago and I have no reason to think otherwise. I have yet to to to
the Fantagraphics store, and would like to make that trip during this year's event. That's become more of an events space in terms of what we hear about it, and I'm not sure Fantagraphics does events down there that weekend, but I'd still like to see it.
9. Remember To Have A Good Time
This may be a function of my getting older, or the fact that this show is first up in the calendar year for a lot of those attending, but one thing that struck me about the ECCC that I attended is that people seemed to be having a pleasant time
at the show itself, as opposed to enduring a madhouse in order to get to the good times on either side of show hours. So have fun on the floor. Meet somebody new. Say thanks to somebody that's provided you with a fun moment or two. Smile.
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Go, Look: Lena H. Chandhok
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