2009 January
An update on our friend Carla Hoffman
Carla and Bully, San Diego '07
This was a tremendous weekend for those of us who work on the blog; I appreciate all the “Welcome back!” comments we’ve seen over the last three days. I have to admit, though, that as we start to get comfortable in our new digs, there’s still something missing, something that’s keeping it from feeling completely like home just yet. It was only a short time ago that we found out our friend and fellow blogger Carla Hoffman and her husband Lance were burnt pretty bad in the Tea Fire in Santa Barbara, Calif. I think I’ve said it just about every time I’ve posted (or emailed or talked) about her, but her energy and enthusiasm really brought a lot to the site and to our group of bloggers, and we miss her greatly.
On the Facebook site dedicated to the two of them, Lance’s sister Kristin shared some good news on Christmas day, saying both of them were awake and well enough to receive visitors. And this week she updated the site with the story of what happened to Carla and Lance the day of the fire, now that Lance is awake enough to share it:
- January 5, 2009 @ 05:45 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The Internet in two minutes
The Shadow illustration, by Edward Cartier
Passings | Golden Age pulp artist Edward D. “Edd” Cartier, whose illustrations appeared in The Shadow and countless other mystery and science-fiction publications, passed away Dec. 25 at his home in Ramsey, N.J. Cartier, 94, had Parkinson’s disease.
He drew more than 800 illustrations for Walter B. Gibson’s The Shadow novels from 1936 through the 1940s, and contributed art to stories by Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, Theodore Sturgeon and others. A more detailed obituary, and a gallery of Cartier’s art, can be found at The Shadow’s Sanctum and at Golden Age Comic Book Stories. [The Washington Post]
Sales charts | Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece was the top-selling manga in Japan last year, moving more than 5.9 million copies. Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto was No. 2 with nearly 4.3 million sold. Although no new volumes of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys were released in 2008, the manga still came in third with 3.7 million copies, largely on the strength of reissues and the live-action movie. [Anime News Network]
Retailing | The worsening economy claims another victim as Third Planet Comics & Games in Torrance, Calif., closes today after 13 years. [Contra Costa Times]
Creators | Tom Spurgeon winds down his stellar holiday-interview series with a chat with writer Matt Fraction, who speaks candidly about The Invincible Iron Man, Grant Morrison’s run on Batman, Casanova, and the viability of the “slimline” format. [The Comics Reporter]
- January 5, 2009 @ 03:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
High Moon
Welcome to the inaugural edition of what we hope will be an ongoing feature here at Robot 6. Once a week I’ll be polling my fellow contributors to ask them what comics are currently lying right next to their bedside table. Our hope is that this weekly peek at our reading habits will surprise and perhaps inspire you to check out some good books (or at least avoid some bad ones). And just to sweeten the pot some, each week we’ll also bring in a special guest star from either the comics industry or the blogosphere to chime in with their selections. Since this is our big debut week, we thought it would be fun to have some of CBR’s staff help us out.
And so, without further ado, here’s what we’re reading this week …
- January 4, 2009 @ 10:10 AM by Chris Mautner
6′s Index
Flash #247
Robot 6 columns inspired by Harper’s Index: 1
Years that Wally West has been The Flash: 22
Years since Barry Allen “died“: 24
Sean Odle’s age when Mike Sterling‘s longtime customer was killed at his convenience store job on December 26: 30
Trinity annotations that Tom did while we were gone: 52
Comics that Top Cow will give away on a monthly basis in 2009 as part of its Let Us Win YOU Over promo: 5,000
- January 4, 2009 @ 07:15 AM by Tim O'Shea
Richard Starkings deserves your love and admiration
If you’re reading this blog, you know probably know who Rich Starkings and John Roshell are. If you’ve been to the San Diego con any time in the last ten years or so, odds are you’ve shaken their hands. If you’ve talked to them about their early days as the pioneers of comic book lettering, congratulated them on the triumph that is Elephantmen, or complimented them on the graceful letterforms they offer up for connoisseurs, I’m guessing you may have even lifted a pint or two with them at the top of the Hyatt.
And if you’re reading this blog, you probably know I’m not shy about getting the word out about the good comics. I’m a little insistent about it, even. It’s a damn lie our son’s middle name was going to be STAR062407, though.
It was always going to be “Douglas.”
But I love shining the light on people who do quality work with a passion, and I’m not shilling. I’m doing a damn public service letting you know that if you’re working on your own comics, there’s not a better gift you can give yourself, here, at the beginning of 2009, than to sign up for Comicraft’s output this year.
Click the link, and send ‘em your money before January 14th, and all year long, you’ll get a Comicraft font in your mailbox as soon as JG is done crafting it up. Twelve all-new fonts for $129.00. What is that? Seventeen, eighteen bucks a font? Display fonts, lettering fonts, character voices, special effects, the works. You’re going to spend more than that on take-out in the next six weeks. Might as well save your waistline and make your comics look a little more good-looking at the same time.
- January 3, 2009 @ 04:18 PM by Larry Young
Our favorite comics of 2008
It’s always tough, for me at least, to narrow down my favorite comics of the year to just a few stand-outs. But it’s also kind of fun to revisit what came out over the past year, maybe re-read some of them, and figure out what it was about the story or art or whatever that resonated with me when I first read it.
I also thought it might also be a good way to introduce ourselves to any new readers stopping by the new blog, or to re-introduce ourselves to those of you we already know. So without further ado, here are some of our favorites …
Teen Titans Year One #3
Tom Bondurant
Naturally, my list betrays the bias of someone who reads at least 80 percent DC superhero books….
In Teen Titans Year One, writer Amy Wolfram and artists Karl Kerschl (penciller), Serge LaPointe (inker), and Stephane Peru and John Rauch (colorists) produced a playful, entertaining miniseries about the original group of teenage sidekicks. Wolfram, a writer for the Teen Titans cartoon, brought a similar sensibility to her scripts, while paying homage to storylines and elements from the comics of the ’60s and ’70s. Thanks to Kerschl, LaPointe, Peru, and Rauch, the book looked fabulous as well; with issue #5′s Speedy/Wonder Girl date a particular highlight.
- January 3, 2009 @ 01:09 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 001
Bear with me while I try not to set the controls for the heart of the sun. Anything crashes and it’s definitely JK’s fault, not mine.
But let’s at least try to see if I can get page 1 posted without crashing and burning.
Written by Matt Maxwell, Art by Gervasio and Jok.
Hitting the “publish” button now. Pray for me.
- January 3, 2009 @ 11:24 AM by Matt Maxwell
Annotations for Trinity issue #31
Trinity #31
Can’t quite say I’m back in the saddle, since I’ve merely been changing saddles since Thanksgiving. This one fits pretty well, though….
On the whole I enjoyed this issue as much as any of the others. However, I’m not sure that the big reveal at the end of the first story works; and the revelations of the second story have left me with some questions too.
Anyway, you know the drill:
SPOILERS FOLLOW
* * *
LEAD STORY
“The Empress, The Chariot, And Judgment” 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: When Arcana clash!
Continue Reading »
- January 3, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Tom Bondurant
The 25 best comic covers of 2008
The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard
As difficult and time-consuming, yet thoroughly enjoyable, as it was to narrow down my 25 favorite covers of the year, it was a task made much tougher by one thing: the holiday calendar.
Despite what the DC Comics website led me to believe, this week’s releases came out today (2009) and not Wednesday (2008), which meant a couple of early entries had to be bumped off the list late in the game. I’m a stickler, at least when it comes to that. Maybe those covers will make the next edition.
I’ve tried to explain, to the best of my ability, what makes the covers so successful, at least in my eyes. In some cases I’ve probably gone overboard, while in others I’ve failed to put a finger on that indefinable quality that makes an image stand out. That’s the nature of art, I suppose.
So now, without further delay or caveat, here is my list of the 25 best comic-book covers of the year (in alphabetical order):
- January 2, 2009 @ 09:38 AM by Kevin Melrose
Whatever happened to the Blog of Tomorrow? or, How I spent the holidays
Contrary to popular belief, we weren’t eaten by anyone, nor did we run off to the woods to learn to play the banjo and write a manifesto. Nope, we’ve spent the last few weeks working with Jonah Weiland and the fine folks here at Comic Book Resources to bring you a new blog, here on a new site, with a new name, look and outlook. Unfortunately, you’re still stuck with the same old me, but I guess you can’t have everything.
So what the heck is a Robot 6? You’ll have to ask Kevin Melrose, who came up with our cool new name. Although I’d be hard pressed to tell you what happened to Robots 1-5, I can share what I do know: Robot 6 is a new comics blog by many of the folks from the old Blog@Newsarama. In addition to Kevin and me, you’ll also find Lisa Fortuner, Tom Bondurant, Michael May, Melissa Krause, Stephanie Chan, Tim O’Shea and Chris Mautner here. You’ll also find a couple of people whose names you might recognize from the comics industry – Jennifer de Guzman from SLG Publishing and Larry Young of AiT/Planet Lar fame. And no doubt there will be some other folks popping up from time to time as well … what’s life without a few surprises?
We’ll be bringing you our unique take on the comics world every day, and hopefully complementing the great work being done by CBR’s editorial staff, its many columnists, and our friends and fellow bloggers at Comics Should Be Good!
I want to thank Jonah for his support over the last month. When we left Newsarama, we didn’t know where we were going to land, we only knew we wanted to keep the band together. Jonah made it really easy to decide to set up our new home here at Comic Book Resources. It’s been a blast working with Jonah so far, and I look forward to seeing what we can do together in the future.
I also want to thank Stephen Gerding, who has been instrumental in getting us up and running. He set up the site, did the visual design and created our kick-ass new logo. Two weeks ago we didn’t have any of that stuff, but he managed to bring it all together in record time.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t thank our official sponsor. In case you hadn’t noticed, IDW Publishing is helping to make this all possible. Between this and all the support Scott Dunbier has put toward our auctions for our injured friend Carla Hoffman, I probably owe someone over there my first born. Or at least my dog.
Although our official launch isn’t until Monday, be sure to check back over the weekend … it’s been too long since we had the chance to talk about comics like this, and we don’t plan on waiting. So add us to your RSS reader, subscribe to our Twitter feed (which should be up before Monday is up right now) and say hello in our comments section.
We’re back. Let’s have some fun.
- January 2, 2009 @ 02:30 AM by JK Parkin
Annotations for Trinity issue #30
Trinity #30
Hey!
Haven’t we seen this somewhere before?
Yes, I know there’s a new issue of Trinity out today. Yes, I’m busy right now annotating it. However, JK Parkin and I figured this was a good way to ease ourselves into the new blog, and maybe even test-drive some features. Who knows — maybe now the comments will work correctly. I’ve also tweaked the end of this set with links to the posts from CSBG and Blog@ 1.0; so, you know, it’s not like I did a complete cut-and-paste.
Naturally, if you haven’t read all this, it’s new to you — so what are you waiting for? Grab issue #30 and play along, and come back tomorrow for issue #31!
++++++++++++++++++
- January 2, 2009 @ 01:15 AM by Tom Bondurant
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 026
Written by Matt Maxwell, art by Gervasio and Jok
Back Next (and how can you resist?)
- January 1, 2009 @ 01:28 PM by Matt Maxwell
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 025
Written by Matt Maxwell, art by Gervasio and Jok
- January 1, 2009 @ 01:27 PM by Matt Maxwell
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 024
Written by Matt Maxwell, art by Gervasio and Jok
- January 1, 2009 @ 01:26 PM by Matt Maxwell
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 023
Written by Matt Maxwell, art by Gervasio and Jok
- January 1, 2009 @ 01:25 PM by Matt Maxwell