2009 January
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: Top Shelf’s plans for 2009
Ax Anthology
Top Shelf’s Chris Staros has been quietly posting his company’s release plans for the new year over at his site. But why click on that link when I can run down the list for you right here and now!
Johnny Boo Book 2
JANUARY
Johnny Boo Book 2: Twinkle Power by James Kochalka. Kochalka continues his children’s series about an uber-cute and friendly ghost in this second volume. $9.95 hardcover.
Pantomime, edited by John Lowe. An anthology of work by students attending the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). This is apparently their fourth anthology so far. Don’t ask me what happened to the first three. $9.95.
- January 12, 2009 @ 06:00 AM by Chris Mautner
New details revealed on upcoming Crumb/Mazzucchelli books
Crumb Genesis Sketches
It looks like I have more of an influence than I thought. Last week I wondered when Bill Kartalopoulos was going to get around to updating his site, and low and behold he has, with some really useful information on two hotly anticipated books.
The first deals with what may well be the most anticipated and possibly even controversial book of the year, Robert Crumb’s adaptation of the Book of Genesis.
Kartalopoulos, points to a few links that suggest the book may be in stores courtesy of WW Norton by the end of the year. He also posts some tantalizing art, links to an interview with Crumb, and reports on how the book’s foreign rights have been snapped up.
The second item concerns David Mazzucchelli’s long-awaited graphic novel Asterios Polyp. The book was originally scheduled to be out in February, but publisher Pantheon has updated that release date to June 2.
The book, a 344-page hardcover, concerns a middle-aged architect and womanizer whose life literally goes up in flames when his apartment burns down and he retreats to a small town.
- January 12, 2009 @ 05:50 AM by Chris Mautner
Blast from the past: Image’s early days
Here are a couple of videos that document the early days of Image Comics … this first one, courtesy of Graeme McMillan, is Lou Dobbs’ report on CNN about the formation of the company:
And Jim Lee shares a video from Image Comics’ early days, as he visited Golden Apple Comics to sign WildCATS #1 when it came out:
I remember being at a convention in the early 1990s where Image had a table … literally, just a table. No artwork was displayed and I don’t think they even had a sign beyond the one that the convention used to mark the table as being theirs, but it was jammed packed the entire con with people waiting in line to get autographs from artists who weren’t the original seven.
- January 12, 2009 @ 04:33 AM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim: Joshua Cotter
Skyscrapers of the Midwest
I arrived late to the Joshua Cotter appreciation society, to be honest. By the end of 2008, Skyscrapers of the Midwest, found itself on myriad Best of lists of the year. Full confession time, this interview process was a long one–starting in mid-2008. Once I got the kind Mr. Cotter to agree to the interview, it took me a few months to get questions to him. I like to think neither the questions or answers are particularly date sensitive, per se. Toward the end of the interview, I was able to provide some links to pages from his 2009 upcoming AdHouse book, Driven by Lemons. My thanks to Cotter for the interview and AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer for his assistance.
Tim O’Shea: Would you agree with Daily Cross Hatch’s review that characterizes your “obsession with the blurred borders of reality“. Do you think you have such an obsession or would you characterize yourself (or this quality per se) differently?
Joshua Cotter: I never really thought of it as an obsession before, I guess. it does pop up pretty frequently in Skyscrapers… and in the book I’m currently working on, even to a greater extreme. It’s not something I walk down the street “obsessing” about, but it’s definitely something I’m interested in. Reality’s blurred borders are something we all get to deal with. not to get all comic-guy philosophical or anything, but reality is pretty arbitrary when you get down to it… we can convince ourselves of anything, anything to be certain/truth/fact, and once we determine something to be fact, that is our reality. I guess I just feel the need to question these ‘certainties’… as a child you’re provided with a foundation of truth… as you go along in life, learn, experience, aspects of that foundation get shaky. You start questioning what you were taught, but if you question that truth away, what do you replace it with? A newly conceived reality? Do we have backups? it’s all pretty blurry.
- January 12, 2009 @ 03:57 AM by Tim O'Shea
Roger Langridge’s Kirby Alphabet & Kirby Planet
The Kirby Alphabet by Roger Langridge
I’ve been seeing this Kirby Alphabet piece by artist Roger Langridge popping up around the comics internet over the last few days, and while looking for the source, I also came across another one he did called Kirby Planet that was equally as fun. Langridge drew both pieces for convention booklets back in the 1990s.
And if you like those, you might always want to check out Langridge’s Mugwhump the Great comic, which recently wrapped up its first chapter on the webcomics collective site act-i-vate. He’s also working on BOOM! Studios’ Muppets comic, as well as an upcoming eight-page Spider-Man story for Marvel.
- January 12, 2009 @ 03:35 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Secret Invasion #1
Publishing | Marvel’s Secret Invasion miniseries dominated Diamond’s list of Top 10 comics sold last year in the direct market, claiming eight spots. DC Comics ruled the graphic-novel chart, led by Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke and Joker. Sales of graphic novels reportedly grew by 5 percent in 2008. [USA Today]
Politics | Marvel isn’t the only publisher with Inauguration fever. Dark Horse is sending President-elect Barack Obama 30 collections of Conan the Barbarian in a delivery orchestrated by film agent Ari Emanuel and his brother Rahm Emanuel, the new White House chief of staff. It’s been widely reported that Obama is a fan of Conan and Spider-Man comics. [The New York Times]
Books | Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid illustrated books have planted their flags on the bestseller lists, and sparked a reading craze among young children. The New York Times looks at the appeal of hapless protagonist Greg Heffley, and profiles the author. [The New York Times]
Creators | Writer Harvey Pekar premieres his opera Leave Me Alone! on Jan. 31 at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. “I don’t see myself as an opera guy,” he says, “although I’ve got a range of interests that might surprise some people.” [The Chronicle-Telegram]
Creators | Stan Lee tells that story about the birth of the Marvel Universe for the hundredth time, and talks a little about his relationship with the publisher, post-lawsuit, and the bankruptcy of Stan Lee Media. [Financial Times]
Year in review | The creators at Standard Attrition, including Jason Aaron, Brian Azzarello, Jock, G. Willow Wilson and Brian Wood, take a personal look back and a look ahead. [Standard Attrition]
Events | Irene Gallo has photos and a report from the opening of James Jean’s first solo exhibit, Kindling. [The Art Department]
Fandom | Where, oh where, have all the young collectors gone? [The Christian Science Monitor]
Pop culture | Video-game publisher Eidos is looking to give Lara Croft a makeover to, among other things, help the character appeal more to women. [Times Online]
- January 12, 2009 @ 03:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Just Past the Horizon: Heroic appeal
In the last couple of days there’s been a few minor blowups in the superhero fan community that caught my attention. One is centered around a movie reviewer who claimed that women were by nature more interested in romance than heroics, so there wasn’t a need for a female superhero movie.
Our movie reviewer picked up that startlingly unoriginal insight like a chunk of fecal matter hardened by an early January frost (which to say a number of us are wondered just how he brought himself to actually write and post that thought on the internet) and chucked it into the deceptively still waters of female fandom. The result was a beautiful rippling mess of nearly unanimous disapproval, from readers of superhero comics and superhero fans who prefer other media. The young man is still buried under a wave of comments trying to explain that he was just using generalizations. (Please note that a generalization is a logical fallacy, so that’s not a good defense.)
The second matter is currently being discussed on this very blog. Continue Reading »
- January 11, 2009 @ 01:27 PM by Lisa Fortuner
What Are You Reading?
Book of Dreams
Has it been a week already? My how time flies.
Welcome again to our new weekly feature here at Robot 6, What Are You Reading, where we ask our fellow Robot contributors and one very special guest star what comics (or prose books, we’re not persnicketty) are currently lying by their bedside table.
Today our special guest is the mighty cartoonist, scholar and educator Ivan Brunetti. Best known for his daring, all-best-off autobiographical series Schizo, Brunetti’s recent work involved compiling and editing the wonderful two-volume Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories. He also has a new one-page strip in the critically acclaimed anthology, Kramer’s Ergot 7.
So, without further ado, here’s what we’re reading this week. Be sure to drop a line in the comments section and let us know what you’re currently perusing as well. Continue Reading »
- January 11, 2009 @ 10:32 AM by Chris Mautner
Today is Tintin’s 80th birthday
Tintin and Snowy
I plan on celebrating by buying a white Scottie dog, befriending an inebriated sea captain and thwarting a string of drug smugglers and slave traders. All the while being pursued by two identical policemen. Then I’ll read this BBC article.
Ironically, when it comes to Tintin the person, it is perhaps his very internationality that is his undoing. Euro-characters who do well in the States – James Bond, but also those portrayed by Hugh Grant and Gerard Depardieu – often play on national stereotypes and foible-laden sophistication. Herge, however, went out of his way to deny Tintin any specific Belgicite, underlining rather his international features.
And then I’ll go to Tibet.
Tintin in Tibet
- January 10, 2009 @ 12:40 PM by Chris Mautner
Willingham: “No more superhero decadence for me”
Bill Willingham, creator of Fables and Elementals, and co-writer of the recent politically-themed mini-series DC Universe: Decisions, says he has had enough of “superhero decadence” — a term coined by Journalista‘s Dirk Deppey — in an editorial on the site Big Hollywood:
Folks, we’re smack dab in the midst of the Age of Superhero Decadence. Old fashioned ideals of courage and patriotism, backed by a deep virtue and unshakable code, seem to be… well, old fashioned.
Full disclosure time. I’m at least partially to blame for this steady chipping away of the goodness of our comic book heroes. In my very first comic series Elementals, first published close to thirty years ago, I was eager to update old superhero tropes, making my characters more real, edgier, darker — less heroic and a good deal more vulgar than the (then) current standard. Elementals was one of the first of what was later dubbed the ‘grim and gritty’ movement in comic books. And to complicate my confession, I’m still proud of much of that early work. At least my crass and corrupted Elemental heroes still fought, albeit imperfectly, for the clear good, against the clear evil.
He goes on to say that while he’ll continue to explore “gray areas” in books like Fables, the superhero genre should be “different, better, with higher standards, loftier ideals and a more virtuous — more American — point of view.”
DC Universe: Decisions #4
The comments section of the conservative site lights up with agreement:
“I had no idea of your views beforehand, Mr. Willingham, but I applaud you for taking a stand. You give courage to fellow comic creators like myself who remain ‘closeted’ because of fear of backlash in the industry.”
“It all started going downhill when The Avengers were handed over to the U.N. and The Justice League of AMERICA got it’s name shortened. Is it America’s fault Belgium doesn’t produce comic books?” asks another commenter.
(Actually, they do — Tintin, and I hear it’s quite popular. In fact, today’s his birthday.)
“As for the meat of the post, I was buying a lot of TPBs for a few years there, but after DC went around ‘multiculturizing’ much of their characters (Blue Beetle as one example) I just gave up,” says someone else in the comments section.
James Hudnall, a former writer for Marvel and DC, as well as the Eisner-nominated Sinking, also comments:
The things that made Captain America, Batman, Superman popular for so many years isn’t just their abilities. It’s their moral clarity. For the same reason that Rorschach in Watchmen was popular in his own way. He was supposed to be some kind of crazed loon, yet he was the character who was proven right by the story. He was the one who really got what was going on.
People like the idea of characters who know what they are doing and have a purpose that’s positive. Too much of what left wing writers do is based on doubt, self loathing and a loss of faith in anything. No wonder comics sales are down.
- January 10, 2009 @ 09:08 AM by JK Parkin
Retailer reactions to BOOM!’s Hexed promotion
Hexed #1
Earlier this week BOOM! Studios announced a promotion with MySpace where each issue of their new mini-series Hexed will pop up in full on the popular social networking site the same day it hit stores. The first issue is up there now.
When they did this last year with North Wind, they received mixed feedback from retailers on the concept, and generally negative feedback on the lack of communication about it before orders were due for the book. I collected some responses I received from retailers in a post on Blog@. Although this time around I haven’t heard much about retailers reacting to the promotion, but I thought it might be worth talking to a few to see what they thought, so I emailed about 20 or so yesterday afternoon.
- January 9, 2009 @ 02:20 PM by JK Parkin
One more for the road: The Recently Deflowered Girl
Spread from 'The Recently Deflowered Girl'
Tim Hodler found scans of this long-out-of-print (and — hoo hoo! — rather ribald) book chock full of Edward Gorey illustrations. And who wouldn’t like to end their work week with a little Edward Gorey, hmmm?
- January 9, 2009 @ 12:47 PM by Chris Mautner
Wizard reportedly cancels L.A. and Dallas conventions [Update]
WizardWorld
Wizard Entertainment has canceled its Los Angeles convention, originally scheduled for March, and will do the same with its Dallas show, Newsarama reports.
According to the website, the L.A. Convention Center already has been notified of the cancellation of the March 13-15 event. Unnamed sources confirm to the site that the planned Nov. 6-8 event in Dallas has been called off as well.
That leaves the troubled Wizard Entertainment with only two conventions: Philadelphia and Chicago.
It’s been a rocky few years for the company, during which time it canceled WizardWorld Boston after a lackluster debut, aborted plans for an Atlanta show, greatly expanded its online presence only to revert to its previous format, and laid off numerous staff in its convention and magazine divisions.
Update: Wizard has posted a brief statement on its website confirming the cancellation of WizardWorld Texas but describing the Los Angeles show as “postponed,” “due to the current economic climate.”
- January 9, 2009 @ 12:26 PM by Kevin Melrose
Settlement likely in bitter Watchmen dispute [Update]
Watchmen
In what seems like promising news, a federal judge has postponed today’s hearing on the status of the Watchmen lawsuit so attorneys for Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox may pursue settlement talks.
Michael Cieply of The New York Times reports that the hearing has been rescheduled for 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Fox filed the lawsuit in February, claiming it owned the movie rights to Watchmen, based on the 1986 DC Comics miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. In December U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess ruled that Fox owns a copyright interest in the movie because of a tangled development history that dates back to the late 1980s.
Earlier this week, attorneys for both studios agreed to allow Feess to determine whether Fox can block Warner Bros.’ planned March 6 release of the $130 million film. Today’s hearing was for the judge to decide whether he’d rule on Jan. 20 or, as Warner Bros. had requested, on Monday.
Update: Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily has a few more details: “According to court documents, Fox and Warner Bros have conducted the settlement talks since last weekend and made concessions. This is surprising since WB lawyers announced they would continue to fight immediately after Feess announced his intention to rule in favor of Fox for copyight infringement and distribution rights.”
- January 9, 2009 @ 11:01 AM by Kevin Melrose
Auctions for Carla and Lance: Walt Simonson original art
I had a huge fanboy moment this week when I received this in my email from Walt Simonson:
Beta Ray Bill and Thor by Walt Simonson
Walt was kind enough to donate the piece to our auctions for our friends Carla and Lance Hoffman, who, according to their Facebook page, may be discharged soon. Lance’s sister offers an update, saying they were moved to Acute Rehab this past week, as their surgeries are done and healing well. Now they’re focused on rebuilding their strength and mobility via occupational and physical therapy.
You can bid on the Simonson artwork here, unless I beat you to it. And many thanks to Walt for the donation, and to Scott Dunbier for helping to make it happen.
- January 9, 2009 @ 10:57 AM by JK Parkin