June 10, 2013
Go, Look: Black Kiss Gallery
posted 9:30 pm PST |
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Bundled, Tossed, Untied And Stacked
By Tom Spurgeon
* this kind of pushes the boundaries of comics publishing news, since the book is out in Chicago in like four days, but I was surprised to see
Sky In Stereo #2 in my mailbox a mere three days after I wondered out loud, "What happened to
Sky In Stereo #2. I liked the comic a lot; I hope people give it a chance.
* so I guess if we ran one "this book is coming out this weekend" we can run two: Secret Acres
is going to release Sar Shahar's Sequential Vacation #2 at the CAKE show aka "Summer Young Cartoonist Hot Weather Good Times Makeout-a-thon." That'll be 32 pages, $6 and you can track it down other places using the ISBN number of 9780988814905.
* it looks like Connie Sun's comics
will apparently be carried in issues of
Brooklyn Rail, or at least have a chance of appearing there after this initial publication.
* there will be another
Avengers title called
Mighty Avengers.
This article suggests that makes six. I figure that fanbase probably knows the differences intimately. I know I sure don't. In fact, with a lot of these Marvel titles, that they all have similar names and can't keep the same creative teams makes me buy other stuff.
* speaking of Marvel, Graeme McMillan
notes there was no bump in
Iron Man book sales despite the billion-dollar-plus movie. I know that it's difficult for comics companies to line up a book with a movie like that, but it seems like Marvel could have pushed the five Matt Fraction-written
Iron Man books with all of the movies together at once. I think there were five. But whatever that series of books was.
*
here's a preview of the forthcoming Sean Phillips art book.
*
here's a piece at Robot 6 on the positive case for Vertigo; I didn't exactly take the Karen Berger profile as a
negative case for Vertigo moving forward, but I get the thesis. I guess the interesting thing to me isn't so much genre but if they see the line's historically dominant format as remaining viable: the lengthy but limited, ambitious creator-driven series.
* Michael Cavna
reports that
Fort Knox will run in the
Washington Post in the slot
Doonesbury will temporarily vacate so that Garry Trudeau can work on his television show. As olds may recall, the initial
Doonesbury hiatus several decades back is what helped launch
Bloom County -- unless I'm severely mistaken about that.
* finally, a traditional publishing news story (thank God): Conundrum
has signed the intriguing-looking
Photobooth: A Biography from Meags Fitzgerald, to be published in Spring 2014. Please click through on that link a) for more information b) for this being a straight-up publishing news story.
posted 9:00 pm PST |
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Not Comics: Terror Tales Cover Art
posted 8:30 pm PST |
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Not Comics: Ray Harryhausen Art
posted 7:00 pm PST |
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Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* Jessica Abel
writes about her family's one-year stay in France.
* Sean T. Collins talks to
Simon Hanselmann. Noel Murray profiles
Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon. Zak Sally begins an epic interview with
Peter Bagge. Some nice person interviews
Vanessa Davis.
*
Bob Temuka discusses hating.
* the writer JM DeMatteis
has a lengthy post up about the fluid boundaries between art and hackwork. I like DeMatteis, but this strikes me as arguing a bunch of points that no one other than some sort of made-up elitist bogeyman would hold.
* Roderick Ruth on
Astro City #1. Bob Temuka on
Watchmen read in the context of its own hype. Matt Derman on
a bunch of 1987 comics. Sean Gaffney on
Umineko: When They Cry Vol. 3. Jeffrey O. Gustafson on
Trinity.
* I would suppose that
this is the iconic portrait for the comics series
Nexus. I'm a middle-aged guy now, and when you're middle-aged the world hilariously conspires to remind you of this fact. I don't think I've ever felt as old as I did a few years back when I realized that I'd pretty much seen the entire lifecycle of that particular series. I'm not sure I can articulate why that on struck me, but it did.
* Brian Hibbs
notes that no crowd-funded comics has gained retail traction in his store.
*
this looks awfully cool.
* finally, if you're in Chicago this month,
you should make the special effort to meet John Porcellino.
posted 6:00 pm PST |
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Happy 46th Birthday, Andrei Molotiu!
posted 5:00 pm PST |
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Happy 51st Birthday, Jayr Pulga!
posted 5:00 pm PST |
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Happy 31st Birthday, Joe Keatinge!
posted 5:00 pm PST |
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Happy 48th Birthday, Laurent Lolmède!
posted 5:00 pm PST |
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Happy 33rd Birthday, Paul Cauuet!
posted 5:00 pm PST |
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Please Remember To Vote In The Eisner Awards
If you're a qualifying professional, please consider voting in
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The voting ends at 12 Midnight PT June 12. It is all on-line this year. Voting in industry awards when you qualify is a good thing to do: you can definitely influence the outcome, and taking part when and where you can makes you a better citizen of that sub-culture.
posted 4:45 pm PST |
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Thirty-Seven Days Until Comic-Con International 2013!
posted 4:30 pm PST |
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Five Superman Publications I Like Better Than The Movies 01: Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali
Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali is on many levels
exactly the ridiculous novelty comic it appears to be. It is contrived, it is shamefully crowd-pleasing, it works so hard to make sure its two characters flatter one another you can see the flop sweat involved. I like it anyway, and not just for nostalgic reasons. In fact, I like
Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali more now than I did when it came out. It's a handsome comic: Neal Adams was at the tail end of his glorious initial run of applying those advertising-ready images to florid mini-ballets of abstracted action, or however the prose of the time might describe it. Dick Giordano was a good inker for Adams; he was a good inker for just about everybody (Terry Austin, equally solid, did the backgrounds). It's a satisfying story for a kid, too, with a not-too-difficult plot twist, plenty of good-guy moments, set pieces with clear stakes, a lot of chicken fat (that cover!), and some well-designed, jerky aliens. Everyone does something you want them to do, even Ali's final opponent.
As a Superman comic book,
Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali may work best as a list of detailed instructions on how to ratchet up the dramatic stakes of a story starring Big Blue by cutting into his still-impressive aura of invincibility. I prefer this way of constructing stories around Superman. It seems to me infinitely better to have to find ways to make the stories work around an iconic character than it is to constantly assert that Superman is the greatest superhero going. The latter always feels to me like I'm being
sold Superman. Some techniques employed in this late Silver Age comic to bring Superman into line with the childhood logic that he should be able to beat everything immediately are tried and true. For instance, we get a standard planet-held-hostage mechanism, with an alien army being just powerful enough to cause Superman to worry about their potential devastating impact on various cities and population centers, real or made-up. As the aliens are thus well-established by the time Superman has to face off against their armada more directly, it's believable he'd fall a bit short in slugging it out with them. Other tricks used are less out in the open. When the aliens initially propose a fight between their champion and earth's champion, Muhammad Ali dogs Superman out for not even being human. Not only is this is a solid, clever plot point perfect for a kid to ponder, jumping right on a potential opponent's weakest psychological hitch
is exactly what Ali would have done. The whole thing moves along at enough of a clip that you don't question any of the umpteen obstacles thrown in Superman's way, either individually or all together: the sign of skillful craftsmen working in a much different era when it came to storytelling density. Also, Superman totally does the job to Ali, which he should have, yet despite losing still manages to maintain his top-dog status. If only Joe Frazier could have managed the same trick. And Joe won the first fight.
*****
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Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali, DC Comics, originally published in a treasury edition in 1978, now available in a hardcover edition released in 2010 (9781401228415).
*****
*****
*****
posted 7:00 am PST |
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Go, Look: Oslo
posted 6:30 am PST |
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So I Guess Comic-Con Is Having Some Kind Of Re-Sale Contest
Here is the text of the e-mail sent out by Comic-Con, informing folks who have not been able to secure badges that there will be a drawing for some returned paid entry passes to the show:
Comic-Con International is pleased to announce that because of returned/cancelled badges we will once again be able to offer those badges for resale. This year we have also reduced the allotment of reserved badges for certain departments. Comic-Con has decided to add these badges to the resale for our attendees. We currently have several thousand single day badges available for resale, only 3,100 of which are Saturday badges. 4-Day badges are sold out.
Due to the very limited number of badges available and our vendor EPIC Registration being focused on coordinating onsite registration, the Comic-Con 2013 badge resale will be conducted utilizing a random drawing.
To enter the Comic-Con 2013 Resale Drawing, login to your Member ID account now and click the blue notice that says "Click Here to Enter a Drawing to be Eligible for the Comic-Con 2013 Badge Resale!"
The drawing entry period will remain open for 48 hours only, and will close June 12, 2013 at 10:59:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). Late entries will not be accepted.
You must have a valid and confirmed Comic-Con Member ID to enter the drawing.
Anyone who has already registered for or purchased a 4-Day badge (with or without Preview Night) or a single day Saturday badge will not be eligible to enter the drawing.
Those selected to participate in the Comic-Con 2013 badge resale may purchase their own badges, as well as badges for one additional guest. You may purchase for any guest who has a confirmed Member ID (as of June 7, 2013) and does not have a 4-Day badge (with or without Preview Night) or a single day Saturday badge. Your guest does not need to be selected from the drawing pool to be eligible to purchase.
Comic-Con will notify everyone who is selected to participate by email on or before June 17, 2013.
This makes a certain amount of sense to me... people are buying these things so freaking far ahead of time, and just with blind faith that they'll be interested in the show as it fills out, so there are bound to be returns.
posted 6:00 am PST |
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Go, Look: Art Spiegelman CO-MIX Mini-Gallery
posted 12:25 am PST |
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Go, Read: NYT Profile Of Cartoonist Khalid Albaih
There's a profile of the Qatar-based cartoonist Khalid Albaih
here; the writer makes the claim for Albaih as the cartoonist of the recent political uprisings in that part of the world. It's hard to really nail down claims like that, and I'm not sure this article fully does so in a compelling, specific-fact oriented way. Still, that the cartoonist has made cartoons important to people in the throes of political upheaval seems hard to deny and it's a great story. You can follow that cartoonist on twitter
here and see a kind of cv-oriented web site
here.
posted 12:20 am PST |
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Go, Bookmark: It Will All Hurt Part Four
posted 12:15 am PST |
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Go, Look: Mark Schultz Cover Gallery
posted 12:05 am PST |
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Collective Memory: Grand Comics Festival 2013
Links to stories, eyewitness accounts and resources concerning the 2013 edition of the
Grand Comics Festival, held June 8-9 in
Brooklyn at the
Bird River Studios.
This entry will continue to be updated for as long as people
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Institutional
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Convention Site
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Facility
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Host City
Audio
Blog Entries And Tumblr
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Grand Comics Festival Tumblr
Facebook
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GCF Community Page
Miscellaneous
News Stories and Columns
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New York Post
Photos And Stand-Alone Imagery
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The Beat
Twitter
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@grandcomicsfest
Video
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posted 12:00 am PST |
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