2009 January
Obama flip flops on important Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin issue
Amazing Spider-Man #583 (Obama variant cover)
As they’ve proven in the past with other high-profile stories like the Death of Captain America, Marvel’s become pretty good at building buzz in the mainstream media for some of their more high-profile stories. So it’s no surprise that Barack Obama’s appearance in next week’s Amazing Spider-Man #583 has generated a ton of ink and TV appearances for the company this week, with stories courtesy of outlets like USA Today and CNN (who appear to be brandishing an advance copy in the linked video).
Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker comments on the issue over at Marvel.com:
“Elections change what we do visually every few years whenever there’s a new president to draw in our books,” explains AMAZING editor Steve Wacker. “Marvel has always strived to be the world outside your window, so whenever we need to see the president, we try to show the one we have. The election hasn’t fundamentally changed any stories we’ve had planned, but it probably has put our stories in a different context.”
He also notes that Obama will play a role in the Dark Reign storyline, which is a good segue into this more interesting article about Obama’s appearances in recent Marvel comics.
- January 9, 2009 @ 10:17 AM by JK Parkin
‘You keep calling me Eustace. I don’t like you.’
Rorschach Tilley, by Marcus Parcus
A couple of days ago Chris Mautner mentioned The New Yorker‘s annual Eustace Tilley Contest, in which artists are invited to reinterpret the magazine’s iconic dandy. Drawn! has skimmed over the gallery of entries submitted so far, and uncovered the terrific Rorschach Tilley, by Marcus Parcus.
- January 9, 2009 @ 09:14 AM by Kevin Melrose
Pantheon publisher axed as recession hits book industry
Pantheon Books
Janice Goldklang, publisher of Pantheon Books, has been laid off as part of the massive restructuring of Random House announced last month.
Goldklang had worked for the Knopf imprint for 25 years.
Pantheon publishes such notable graphic novels as Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat, Charles Burns’ Black Hole and David B.’s Epileptic.
The New York Observer reports that more layoffs are expected in the next three weeks at Crown, Knopf and the flagship Random House Publishing Group.
- January 9, 2009 @ 07:59 AM by Kevin Melrose
As studios await Watchmen decision, producers speak out
Watchmen
A federal judge could announce today whether he’ll hear arguments about the release of Watchmen on Monday rather than Jan. 20. But while Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and countless fans wait anxiously for the decision, not everyone is waiting quietly.
On Jan. 5, attorneys for the two studios agreed to allow U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess to decide if Fox can block distribution of the highly anticipated adaptation, now scheduled for a March 6 release. Arguing that “time is of the essence,” lawyers for Warner Bros. have asked that the hearing be moved up.
At the center of the bitter legal battle is producer Lawrence Gordon, for whom Fox originally secured the movie rights two decades ago. Now Gordon, whom The Hollywood Reporter says “is tired of being the villain,” has written a lengthy letter to Feess blaming Fox and his former lawyers for the mess, and offering his own version of events.
Citing “improper communication” in violation of court rules, Feess refused to read the letter.
In December Feess ruled that Fox owns a copyright interest in Watchmen because of a tangled development history that dates back to the late 1980s, when the studio acquired the rights to the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons comic Gordon. The movie passed from studio to studio over the next two decades before finally settling at Warner Bros.
- January 9, 2009 @ 06:02 AM by Kevin Melrose
Freaky Friday: The Beowulf edition
Ward's Beowulf
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Freaky Friday, where we collect and share a week’s worth of cool art, goofball items and generally odd links so you can get your weekend off on the right foot. What else are you going to try to do today, work?
* We’ll start off with this lush Flickr set of Beowulf art as done by the incomporable woodblock artist Lynd Ward. (Via)
- January 9, 2009 @ 06:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: AdHouse’s 2009 line-up
A raw copy of the cover for the Johnny Hiro Vol. 1 trade
Today we’ll be looking at Chris Pitzer’s small press company AdHouse, who released such stellar books last year as Skyscrapers of the Midwest and Mesmo Delivery. It should be noted that PDF previews of several of the books listed below can be found at company’s Web site.
- January 9, 2009 @ 05:42 AM by Chris Mautner
Update on Walt & Skeezix hiatus
Walt & Skeezix, Vol. 2
Responding to last Wednesday’s post regarding Drawn and Quarterly putting their Gasoline Alley reprint project on indefinite hold, Steve Tippie. vp of marketing and licensing for Tribune Media Services, posted the following comment:
I’m also not sure why Chris said last summer: “Sales are not a problem, but rather Tribune Media.” I haven’t been in contact with him for years and have never sued him or threatened to sue him over what he is currently publishing. I did let him know in an exchange of lawyer letters several years ago that I would take any necessary steps to protect our trademarks (e.g., Gasoline Alley) and the copyrights that we do retain, but he believes that doesn’t prevent him from publishing public domain strips under the “Walt & Skeezix” title and it certainly hasn’t deterred him so far. So if it is not sales, and I can tell you it is not Tribune Media Services, I’m not sure what’s holding him up.
FOR THE RECORD – It is not and never has been our intent or practice to withhold publication and distribution of the classic strips we own or represent. As an example, look at the series being published by IDW — the complete Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates and Little Orphan Annie. They are superb! I believe IDW does a much better job than ANY other publisher in the market, which is why I work with them. Dean Mullaney, who puts them together (Terry and Annie and starting this year, Tracy), goes to great expense and effort to track down the best images, digitally clean them up and through his vast knowledge and research create vivid and fascinating front matter. The material he has created on Terry is stunning! It is no accident that Terry won an Eisner this year. I’ve also gone through other, smaller publishers to get out items I haven’t been able to interest the bigger guys in — like Dondi and Leonard Starr’s Mary Perkins On Stage in paperback format. So please, buy them all and keep the series going, but don’t say that we’re holding back publication of the classics!
Tippie has more to say, so click on that second link to read the comment in full.
I contacted a representative from Drawn and Quarterly to get a response but they politely refused to comment.
- January 9, 2009 @ 05:29 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5
Sales charts | The Watchmen trade paperback led BookScan’s list of the top graphic novels sold in bookstores for a sixth straight month, and was followed at No. 3 by the new hardcover edition of the 1986 miniseries. In between: Naruto, Vol. 33. [ICv2.com]
Publishing | This summer Titan Books will launch The Official Simon and Kirby Library, which will include full-color volumes of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s romance, horror and detective comics, as well as the previously announced The Best of Simon and Kirby, and The Simon and Kirby Superheroes. [ICv2.com]
Publishing | “Dear Scott Pilgrim Fans- Rejoice! Vol.5 is printing now!” [Oni Press' Twitter account]
Webcomics | Karl Kerschl (Adventures of Superman, Teen Titans: Year One) talks about taking the plunge into webcomics with The Abominable Charles Christopher: “I didn’t know anything about the business of webcomics, or the community, which is vast and very gracious. It’s turned out to be far more powerful than I anticipated, in the best way imaginable.” [Montreal Mirror]
Creators | Artist Shaun Tan (The Arrival) chats about process, working in film, and his audience. [The Walrus]
Creators | Cartoonist Scott Adams talks a lot about the economy, and a little about Dilbert. [Barron's]
Manga | The contributors to Manga Recon rattle off their wishlist for titles they’d like to see licensed by North American publishers. [Manga Recon]
Art and design | This isn’t exactly comics-related, but if you appreciate the design of book jackets, you’ll enjoy this: The searchable, and very impressive, Book Cover Archive is live. [The Book Cover Archive]
Weirdness | “Batman” is the 39th most-common password of all time, followed at No. 47 by “Superman.” Curiously, “Iceman” is No. 119. [via Sean Kleefeld]
- January 9, 2009 @ 05:08 AM by Kevin Melrose
Zito and Trov on The Black Cherry Bombshells going analog
Black Cherry Bombshells promo art by Sheldon Vella
Back in March, Zuda’s monthly competition winner was a post-apocalyptic tale of biker chicks in Las Vegas fighting a cross-dressing Elvis. Scorched earth, water tower burned up to the ground, zombies runnin’ all around … it was pure chaos and pure magic (heh). The first season of The Black Cherry Bombshells wrapped up last month, and I caught up with the writers, Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, to find out if we’d seen the last of the Bombshells. (Short answer: We haven’t).
Thanks to Johnny and Tony for taking the time to answer my questions. The artwork up top is by Sheldon Vella, creator of the Zuda strip SuperTron. Other art from the strip is by artist Sacha Borisich and colorist John Dallaire.
JK: Let’s start with the news — I understand that your The Black Cherry Bombshells webcomic is headed from the computer screen to the printed page, correct?
Johnny Zito: Heck yes. The Black Cherry Bombshells are going to print, along with a few other Zuda titles over the next two or three years.
Tony Trov: Bayou and High Moon are up first. The Black Cherry Bombshells should follow in 2010ish, depending on scheduling.
Johnny: There are a few other titles set to go analog, but those creators can spill their good news themselves.
- January 8, 2009 @ 10:49 AM by JK Parkin
Annotations for Trinity issue #32
Trinity #32
Welcome to week 32 of the Trinity annotations, your periodic dose of trivia and cursory analysis. The grim specter of death haunts this week’s issue, as we look at characters who have died, might die (say, next issue), and should be dead.
So, on that cheery note…
SPOILERS FOLLOW
* * *
LEAD STORY
“Lady Of Bounty And Teacher To All” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: Tales of Atmahn and Dinanna.
- January 8, 2009 @ 09:55 AM by Tom Bondurant
Joe Casey and Joe Kelly, masters of televised monkey-fighting
Dark Days in Monkey City
Earlier in the week Advertising Age‘s Ken Wheaton jokingly wondered whether Frank Miller is working on Animal Planet’s upcoming series Dark Days in Monkey City, whose promotional website has a definite 300 vibe.
Alas, no Miller. But it turns out that comic-book writers Joe Casey and Joe Kelly are involved in the show, which “is an intensely visual series that reveals intense tales of love, treachery, betrayal and triumph among several monkey characters,” a la the successful Meerkat Manor, I presume.
According to a press release, the network brought aboard Casey and Kelly to develop the series, set in the deserted Sri Lankan city of Polonnaruwa, also known as … Monkey City. Wait! There’s more! There are rival monkey gangs, with names like the Temple Troop and Black Claws, who battle over “prime Monkey real estate”!
Dark Days is a fantasy world reminiscent of epic stories of antiquity but very much relatable to modern audiences,” says the president of Animal Planet Media.
Joe Casey. Joe Kelly. Monkey fights. Monkey fantasy. Narration by John (Gimli) Rhys-Davies. I’m all over Dark Days in Monkey City.
The series debuts on Feb. 10.
- January 8, 2009 @ 09:01 AM by Kevin Melrose
The year that was, and the year that’s yet to be?
Father Time and friends
At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald has wrapped up her extensive annual survey, in which industry figures discuss the biggest comics stories of 2008 and predict what will have a big impact this year.
If you haven’t taken in all three parts, I recommend you carve out some time to do so. Needless to say, it’s interesting reading.
The prevailing sentiment is that last year’s big stories will be this year’s big stories, too: digital comics and the worsening economy. (There are plenty of nods to other topics, such as event comics and event fatigue, Hollywood’s love affair with superhero comics, the continued mainstreaming of graphic novels, the death of DC’s Minx imprint, and others.)
I’m excited, and hopeful, to see continued inroads by webcomics and more publishers exploring and expanding online content. That may end up being the one silver lining — and you may have to squint and tilt your head to see it — that comes out of that other big story, the recession.
This week I’ve already posted about the closings of two comic-book stores. Major book chain Borders is on shaky ground. Publishers Tokyopop and Devil’s Due Publishing have cut staff. Newspapers are shuttering, laying off employees or offering massive buyouts (few things are more sobering than following The Media Is Dying every morning). Comic prices are on the rise.
It’s looking pretty bleak at the moment.
But, as industry notables in Heidi’s survey and elsewhere note, maybe this is an environment in which digital comics will thrive, with more creators exploring webcomics, more readers discovering (or turning to) them, and more publishers making use of the Internet to reach, and build, audiences and deliver content.
Maybe? I don’t know, I’m reaching for that lining.
While you’re reading the year-end survey, I’ll be over here quietly sobbing.
- January 8, 2009 @ 07:58 AM by Kevin Melrose
Robot Reviews: 24Seven, Volume 2
24Seven, Volume 2
Written and/or Illustrated by Ashley Wood, Gene Ha, John Ney Rieber, Paul Azaceta, João Ruas, Macon Blair, Ray Fawkes, José Luis Ágreda, Fábio Moon, Chris Arrant, Walter Pax, Nuno Plati, Jack Kaminski, Antonio Fuso, Miguel Alves, Frank Beaton, Dan Hipp, Josh Wagner, Seth M. Peck, Ivan Brandon, Adam Hughes, Phil Hester, Mike Huddleston, Miles Gunter, Michael Avon Oeming, Meg Hunt, Andy MacDonald, Francesco Francavilla, Gabriel Bá, Juan Doe, Mat Santolouco, Jonathan L. Davis, Diego Sanches, Carla Speed McNeil, Rafael Albuquerque, Ben Templesmith, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Calum Alexander Watt, Niko Henrichon, Dave Johnson, Jason Aaron, CB Cebulski, Alice Hunt, Chris Moreno, Larry Hime, Antony Johnston, Bruno D’Angelo, Mark Sable, Fiona Staples, Paul Maybury, Luis Sopelana, Tom Williams, Andy Kuhn, Mark Ricketts, Justin Randall, Will Pfeifer, Robbi Rodriguez, Jason Latour, and Frazer Irving
Edited by Ivan Brandon
Image Comics; $19.99
***
That’s much better.
My last review at the old place was of 24Seven, Volume 1, and while I had misgivings about it, I was interested enough by the end that I immediately ordered the next volume. One of the comments to that post was a request for a review of Volume 2, so this is especially for you, Auguste Miller.
Before I get too far into this though, I should clarify that “Robot Reviews” has more to do with the name of this blog than the subject-matter of this anthology. Kind of appropriate that our first official review is actually about robots, but it’s not really on purpose.
Anyway…
I liked Volume 2 better for a couple of reasons. One is what I predicted after the first one: knowing what I was getting into made me better able to relax and enjoy the anthology for what it is. Instead of trying to figure out why there were robots in the art when most of the stories clearly were about human beings, I prepared myself for slice-of-life stories from the Big City. Continue Reading »
- January 8, 2009 @ 06:36 AM by Michael May
You know, some folks take up stamp collecting
Cereblog
Talk about ambition. Leigh Walton and Laura Hudson have created a new comics site, titled Cereblog, devoted to (as you may have already guessed) Dave Sim’s seminal (and just a wee bit controversial) series Cerebus. Their goal? To dual critique all 300 issues, one each week.
Cerebus: A Diablog (or sometimes Cereblog) is an ongoing close reading in two-part harmony. Neither of us was born yet when Cerebus was launched, and neither of us has previously read very much of the series. We’re curious to see what Dave Sim’s work, in all its twisted glory, has to say to a new generation of readers. Grab your own copy and read along with us!
All kidding aside, so far they seem to be off to a strong star. Here, for example, is Leigh on issue one:
What’s interesting about the “Cerebus is an aardvark” juxtaposition — seemingly the point of the comic — is that the comic largely doesn’t notice. The opening few pages of this issue, when the human characters are shocked to see a warrior aardvark riding a horse and entering a bar, comprise pretty much the only time in the series (I think) when the comic draws attention to the conceit. “Thought later he would be called the finest warrior to enter our gates, at the time, he was but a curiosity…” “I can’t serve YOU here… YOU’RE A…” etc. But then he’s hired by two thieves to join their heist, with a minimum of hesitation, and that establishes the treatment for the rest of the book: Cerebus is funny-looking, and he’s recognized as an unnaturally skilled warrior, but he’s not a dog walking on its hind legs or anything.
Please join me in wishing them the best of luck. By the time they get to Reads, they’ll need it.
- January 8, 2009 @ 06:20 AM by Chris Mautner
Savage Dragon, and the art of hand-lettering
From Savage Dragon #142
A few years back, with the help of a couple of online tutorials, I taught myself how to letter a comic to ease the submissions process a little.
No, that’s not quite right: I taught myself how to use Illustrator to place words in little balloon-like objects. Comic-book lettering, when done right, is an art. What I do … well, let’s pretend it gets the job done and then speak of it no more.
It was while wrestling with my shortcomings that I came to really appreciate the masters of that art. So I was happy to see last night this too-brief exchange between two craftsmen, Todd Klein and Tom Orzechowski, about the latter’s hand-lettered work on Savage Dragon, taking over for John Workman.
“I’ve lined up an Image GN with creators who are delighted with the thought of hand lettering, and I’ll be looking for more of this,” Orzechowski writes. “I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed the pen and ink.”
There are some nice examples of his Savage Dragon work at the link.
- January 8, 2009 @ 06:09 AM by Kevin Melrose