2009 January
Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book wins Newbery Medal
The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, has won the prestigious Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature.
The award was announced this morning at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Denver.
Eleanor Davis’ Stinky, from Toon Books, received a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor for beginning-reader books.
Gaiman responded to the news on his blog and, more candidly, on Twitter: “About to drink second cup of tea without Marmalade this morning. Also, I just won the Newbury Medal for THE GRAVEYARD BOOK.”
He quickly followed that comment with this slighly less subdued one: “Newbery, not Newbury. Also FUCK!!!! I won the FUCKING NEWBERY THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME. I thank you.”
Released in September in the U.S. by HarperCollins, the young-adult fantasy centers on a boy who takes refuge in a cemetery after the murder of his parents. There, he’s adopted and befriended by ghosts.
Davis’ Stinky is about a monster who is terrified of people, and concocts crazy plans to scare a kid away from his swamp.
- January 26, 2009 @ 09:08 AM by Kevin Melrose
Captain Britain and MI:13 isn’t canceled (Really!)
Captain Britain and MI:13 #9
We’re all accustomed to message-board speculation being presented as fact. But it’s rare that the gossip is substantiated by a publisher’s representative, only to be denied later. Repeatedly.
Such is the case with the fate of Marvel’s Captain Britain and MI:13, which launched with some fanfare — thanks to Secret Invasion tie-ins and a cameo by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown — in May 2008, only to hemorrhage readers over the subsequent months.
Those flagging numbers have been the subject of much hand-wringing in a long-running thread on the CBR message board, which on Thursday evening received somber news from none other than Jim McCann, Marvel’s marketing manager.
Responding to a post that criticized him for saying in a podcast that Captain Britain has performed better than Marvel had expected, McCann wrote:
… The story, the creative team, and critical reception was through the roof. Unfortunately, the audience left after Secret Invasion tie ins. That podcast was recorded before the cancellation came down & we were all hoping it would stay longer.
In this economic climate, things can change quickly. But something that will NOT change is that I will not be one to lie to you and blow smoke up your ass. Paint me like that if you like, but it’s not what I am.
And guys, I am just as sorry as the rest of you that the book is cancelled. …
That’s all pretty clear, right? Well, no.
It seems that, despite low sales — around 21,000 in December, if ICv2 is to be believed — the series isn’t canceled. Really.
- January 26, 2009 @ 08:21 AM by Kevin Melrose
Genius or sacrilege?
Sonny Liew draws the cover to Marvel’s Pride and Prejudice adaptation, by Nancy Butler and Hugo Petras:
Pride and Prejudice
I vote genius.
(Thanks Graeme!)
- January 26, 2009 @ 07:56 AM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics | More on the new Diamond threshold and the economy
Mouse Guard #1
• At the Forbidden Planet International blog, Richard Bruton provides some perspective regarding the impact of the new Diamond threshold: “… Where it would really impact is the new publisher or the never broken out big publisher. I’d imagine that the amazing, long running successes of books like Bone, Strangers In Paradise, Mouse Guard and many more would be impossible under this situation. I have no idea what initial numbers were, but I’d be willing to bet they’d have trouble making the threshold. These books all generated readers and numbers through word of mouth, eventually becoming best-sellers. But these Diamond numbers effectively stop any possibility of a slow burn success. And of course, less publishers is a bad thing. Less variety means less potential interest from new readers. Which means a shrinking customer base. And that’s always bad news.”
Bruton also speaks with Kenny Penman about what the threshold will mean to him as a retailer and as publisher of Blank Slate Books.
• Blogger Johanna Draper Carlson examines a largely overlooked aspect of Diamond’s new minimum-order policy: a 60-day time limit for reordering magazines and comic periodicals. She wonders what the change will mean to magazine publishers such as TwoMorrows.
• Atomic Robo writer Brian Clevinger delcares that “the basic model of getting new independent comics into shops is dead” — for small publishers, at least — but asserts that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
• Blogger Sean Kleefeld looks at some of the posts written this week by creator Dwight MacPherson about Diamond and alternate distribution, and defends him from criticism.
• Hong Kong animation house Imagi, which is producing the upcoming Astro Boy and Gatchaman movies, reportedly is shutting down temporarily because of lack of funds. According to AnimeVice, studio executives hope to be closed for just one week while they secure more money.
- January 26, 2009 @ 06:44 AM by Kevin Melrose
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: Last Gasp’s spring catalog
American Surreal
Continuing our publishing preview for the new year, today we’re taking a look at Last Gasp, one of the oldest underground comix publishers around and still distributing and publishing quality material today, a lot of it having to do with Tintin oddly enough.
Anyway, even though there’s only a few comics-related titles in the new catalog, I thought I’d list all of the company’s releases for the first half of the new year anyway, as there are quite a few books that have some potential crossover appeal.
- January 26, 2009 @ 06:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Huizenga calls it quits for Or Else
Cover to Or Else #6
Over at his blog The Balloonist, indie comix superstar Kevin Huizenga (Ganges, Curses) announced that he has called a halt to his ongoing Drawn and Quarterly series Or Else:
I’ve decided that Or Else (the series) is done. It doesn’t make sense to do it this way anymore. Drawn and Quarterly have been great and I want to thank them. For sure I will still be putting out a lot of books and zines, forever, so save your pennies, and watch this space for more news as it becomes available. Thanks for reading.
There have been five issues of the pocket-sized comic book, published on a yearly schedule, to date (that’s the abandoned cover to the sixth one on the right). The comic largely seemed to serve as a forum for Huizenga’s more experimental and avant-garde work, the last issue finding his everyman Glenn Ganges trapped in an imaginary country torn apart by religious fanaticism.
An email was sent to Huizenga, but he politely declined to comment any further at this time.
Update: It looks as though Huizenga will be releasing the material that was supposed to appear in Or Else #6 as a 28-page mini-comic, available in a few weeks.
(via)
- January 26, 2009 @ 04:55 AM by Chris Mautner
NYCC | We’re having a party, everybody’s swingin’ …
With the New York Comic Con coming up Feb. 6-8, we’ll be collecting and posting information on the various things you can do and see while at the show. If you’re a publisher, creator, retailer or otherwise exhibiting at the show, feel free to drop me an email with your booth schedule, any comics you might be debuting, giveaways or any other fun stuff you have planned for the show.
General information: Ticket info | Panels | Autographs | 2009 ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference | Blog
• Dave & Buster’s Times Square has been named the official “con bar” for the New York Comic Con, and they’ll host a party Thursday, Feb. 5 to help kick everything off. Guests include Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Mark Brooks and more. The part will include a raffle benefiting the Hero Initiative. More details on the party can be found here.
• Speaking of the Hero Initiative, I mentioned in a previous update that they’re holding an art auction in New York. They’re started previewing some of the art on their blog:
Captain Marvel
And if you aren’t attending the show, they’ll accept proxy bids. More details can be found on their website.
- January 26, 2009 @ 04:47 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Watchmen
Sales charts | It will surprise no one that Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, was the top-selling graphic novel in bookstores in 2008. That’s according to Nielsen’s BookScan, which tracks sell-through information.
The rest of the Top 20 is dominated by manga; Naruto alone holds nine spots (it’s worth noting that the first volume of Masashi Kishimoto’s series, released in North America nearly six years ago, was No. 15). The success of Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight helped to lift the special edition of Batman: The Killing Joke to No. 5, and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns to No. 13. [ICv2.com]
Publishing | Marvel has launched a minisite to commemorate its 70th anniversary. [Marvel.com]
Creators | Writer Neil Kleid talks about his webcomic Action, Ohio, editorial interference, and the difference between Shadowline and Zuda: “I’ve made no secret about the fact that ACTION began as a Marvel proposal, and as such some of the characters are my reinterpretation of classic Silver Age Marvel characters. When the strip first ran at Zuda, there was a to-do about the fact that I showed some kids in a hospital that looked a bit like the original X-Men. The editors basically asked me to change the characters, explaining that a webcomic on a DC Comics site could not depict Marvel characters. Paul and I altered the offending panels but it kind of irked me (especially as no one even said boo at the obvious Peter Parker homage!) and I kind of like that Jim and Kris tend to let us push the envelope where possible.” [The Webcomic Overlook]
Creators | Akiko and Miki Falls creator Mark Crilley knows the secret to attracting young readers: “My stories are always attempting to be entertaining at every turn, never demanding (that) you plod through long pages before getting to the good stuff. I always want it to be good stuff. I want kids to enjoy themselves from the first page to the last, especially reluctant readers.” [The Kalamazoo Gazette]
Conventions | Tom Spurgeon chats with New York Comic-Con’s Lance Fensterman. [The Comics Reporter]
- January 26, 2009 @ 04:27 AM by Kevin Melrose
Fraction: Bringing the awesome longer than you’ve realized
With Marvel chief Joe Quesada out of pocket, Jim McLauchlin has been interviewing other folks from Marvel for their weekly MySpace feature. Usually he talks to editors about what’s going down at Marvel, but this past Friday McLauchlin interviewed Uncanny X-Men, Invincible Iron Man and Casanova writer Matt Fraction about his career in comics. Fraction talks a little bit about his first comic, Rex Mantooth, Kung Fu Gorilla … I’ve never read Rex Mantooth, but I give it a five-star review based on the title and cover alone:
Rex Mantooth by Fraction and Kuhn
- January 25, 2009 @ 03:44 PM by JK Parkin
Just Past the Horizon: Mary Who?
Today I address the subject of “Mary Sues.” I promise profanity beneath the cut.
Continue Reading »
- January 25, 2009 @ 02:14 PM by Lisa Fortuner
Happy 25th anniversary, Macintosh computers
A "Bloom County" parody ad for the Banana Jr. 6000, by Berkeley Breathed
Twenty-five years ago yesterday the world of computers, and publishing, changed forever when Steve Jobs introduced the very first Apple Macintosh to a crowd of 3,000 at De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif.
A few days earlier, a considerably larger audience was awed, and perhaps confused, by Ridley Scott’s now-legendary 1984 commercial, which signaled to viewers of Super Bowl XVIII that the Macintosh wouldn’t be like other computers.
And it wasn’t.
I first encountered Macs a few years later, as I attended a journalism summer camp workshop in Indiana. (Yes, what of it?) Not wanting to seem uncultured, I waved off the offer of help from the computer-lab assistant, picked up the mouse … pointed it at the little gray box … and rapidly clicked the button as if it were a TV remote.
Luckily, other journalists, artists and designers — would-be and otherwise — took to the Mac faster than I did, helping to bring about a revolution in publishing: desktop publishing.
- January 25, 2009 @ 12:47 PM by Kevin Melrose
What are you reading?
Complete Peanuts, Vol. 10
Welcome to another weekly round of What Are You Reading, where we talk about what comics and books we’re currently in the midst of perusing and hopefully get you to share your reading habits as well.
This week our special guest is none other than Richard Thompson, cartoonist extraordinaire and creator of the thoroughly delightful comic strip Cul de Sac, one of the best things to appear in a daily newspaper in years.
Click on the link to find out what we’re reading …
- January 25, 2009 @ 06:58 AM by Chris Mautner
Food or Comics | MAD reactions, and more
MAD #46 (April 1959)
• MAD cartoonist Tom Richmond reacts to yesterday’s news about cutbacks at the legendary humor magazine, which include layoffs, a move to quarterly release, and the elimination of MAD Kids and MAD Classics. “Obviously this is very sad news,” Richmond writes on his blog. “I’m a little too busy right now to write much about it, but needess to say I’ll be having a lot more free time in the future for blogging.”
• Cartoonist Evan Dorkin, who also contributes to MAD, wonders how the changes will affect free-lancers: “… I wasn’t aware of how bad magazine distribution has become, and a venerable magazine like Mad, a comic but in some ways never thought of as a comic, well, seeing it take a gutshot like this shakes one up. Or at least me. There are people who live off their Mad income, we’re not one of those, and I can see this affecting a lot of freelancers who relied on 12 issues of material for their income.”
• Mark Evanier, who wrote a book on the history of MAD, assures us that the cuts aren’t the beginning of the end for the magazine: “MAD will not go away. It’s too valuable a brand name to ever disappear. [...] Its new configuration is not a long-range plan … and maybe that long-range plan, whenever they arrive at it, will restore MAD to its former glory in some venue.”
• With The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press reducing home delivery to just three days a week beginning in March, some readers are wondering how they’ll get their daily dose of funnies. It turns out the comics section will be included in the newspapers’ e-edition, available to subscribers in digital or PDF formats.
• While some manga publishers have been laying off staff, or shutting down completely, VIZ Media has just added an RSS feed devoted to job openings.
• This exchange this morning on Twitter between Templar, Arizona, creator Spike and Anders Loves Maria creator Rene Engström seems to sum up the general sentiment of the past few weeks:
Spike: “Young American Comics going out of business, Diamond upping the benchmark, MAD Magazine going quarterly. Has there been any GOOD comic news?”
Engström: “Any good PRINT comic news you mean.”
- January 24, 2009 @ 08:23 AM by Kevin Melrose
Your Mileage May Vary
Dark Avengers #1
The first issue of Dark Avengers came out this week. And so far, reactions have been interesting.
Matthew Pease is excited about the issue:
This book did exactly what any first issue should do. It got me excited for the series going forward, the possibilities for this team and the conflicts they could have are fantastic. Let face it Bendis knows exactly where he is going. Nearly every team member has a counterpart on the New Avengers or the Mighty Avengers. Having Daken dress like wolverine is excellent and will lead to a father/son throw down that should be excellent. Having Bullseye dress like Hawkeye is likely going to piss off Clint Barton who is currently Ronin on the New Avengers and is going to lead them in to a sharpshooter showdown which is sure to be seen in “Dark Reign: Hawkeye”. Moonstone taking on the persona of Ms. Marvel will lead to a sexy fight with Carol Danvers. Osborn as the Iron Patriot will no doubt royally annoy both Tony Stark and Bucky.
- January 23, 2009 @ 07:16 PM by Melissa Krause
Food or Comics | DC Comics and Diamond make cuts
Bob Schreck
• As was noted on CBR’s front page, Heidi MacDonald reports that DC Comics has laid off well-respected Senior Editor Bob Schreck, Subscriptions Manager Christine Sawicki, and several staff members at MAD magazine.
The layoffs are part of massive cutbacks by parent company Warner Bros. Entertainment that will result in the elimination of some 800 jobs worldwide. Until word of the layoffs trickled out today, it had been unclear whether DC Comics would be part of the belt-tightening.
Schreck is an industry veteran who worked at Comico and Dark Horse before co-founding Oni Press with Joe Nozemack in 1997. At DC, Schreck oversaw the Batman line, and later the successful All-Star books.
• According to Newsrama, DC Comics’ MAD magazine will move to a quarterly schedule in April, and will cease publication of MAD Kids and MAD Classics.
• Heidi MacDonald also reports that Diamond Comic Distributors laid off 13 employees on Thursday, including the managing editor and designer for the recently canceled Diamond Dialog magazine. A wage reduction for management and staff also was announced.
- January 23, 2009 @ 11:57 AM by Kevin Melrose