2009 February
What Are You Reading?
Incognito
Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading, where we tell you … well, what we’re reading. Duh.
Our guest this week is Frank Santoro, the artist behind PictureBox’s Cold Heat series, and the creator of one of the best graphic novels of the past twenty years, Storyville. He’s a regular contributor to the Comics Comiclog and his latest work can be found in the pages of the behemoth known as Kramer’s Ergot 7.
To find out what Frank and the rest of the Robot 6 crew is reading, click on the link.
- February 28, 2009 @ 06:42 PM by Chris Mautner
WonderCon | Captain Canuck collected
Captain Canuck
IDW announced just a little while ago several new collections they have coming out … Family Circus, The Rocketeer and Captain Canuck, pictured above.
Who remembers Canuck? The first time I ever saw a Captain Canuck comic was my very first visit to a comic shop ever, Lone Star Comics in Dallas. I’ve never actually read it (as I was too busy buying X-Men back issues to even look at it back then) but now it looks like I’ll have the chance.
Watch for my full IDW report on CBR soon.
- February 28, 2009 @ 12:21 PM by JK Parkin
WonderCon | Random thoughts on day one
Viking #1 by Brandon and Klein
• I arrived in San Francisco a little after 11 a.m. and walked over to the Moscone Center. The press line, as always, was efficiently handled, so I grabbed my pass in no time flat and went downstairs to see if I could get on the floor. It wasn’t open yet, and there was a big line of folks wrapping through the cavernous Hall 100, where they typically host the big movie and TV panels every year.
• I had lunch plans at noon with David Brothers and Esther Inglis-Arkell from the 4thletter, and Jeff Lester from Savage Critics, other various Internet sites and Cthulhu Tales #12. We solved all the problems of life, the comics industry and the blogosphere during our discussions, but unfortunately that was more than 12 hours ago so I couldn’t tell you what the solutions are. I do remember having a really great cheeseburger, though.
• After lunch, headed back to the Moscone Center and hit the floor. I visited the Image booth first, as I needed to grab some artwork for my panel report I’d be doing later in the day. Ivan Brandon was at the booth with a preview of his new book with artist Nic Klein, Viking. The preview art looked pretty spectacular. It’s a crime fiction tale set in the era of Vikings, so, as Brandon put it, you have their version of the mob stealing boats of pelts instead of Tony Soprano’s cousin stealing a truckload of electronics. I’m definitely adding this one to my list.
- February 28, 2009 @ 08:05 AM by JK Parkin
LiveJournal shuts down Scans Daily community [Update]
LiveJournal
Scans Daily, the occasionally raucous but frequently entertaining online community, has been shut down by host LiveJournal for posting copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder — a violation of the terms of use.
That was the purpose of the community, really: A person posted excerpts of comics — some well known, some obscure, some just downright bizarre — and other members commented on them. While there’s little arguing that the site and its members violated copyright laws, moderators did impose limits on what percentage of a complete work could be posted.
While some publishers and creators objected to their works being featured on Scans Daily, others viewed the community as a rite of passage, or a valuable marketing tool. (Reacting this morning on Twitter to news of the shutdown, cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks wrote, “That sucks! I was thrilled when someone posted pages from Zombies Calling to scans_daily. Grassroots internet = sales. C’mon!”)
- February 28, 2009 @ 07:46 AM by Kevin Melrose
WonderCon | Paul Pope moves into The Unknown
The Unknown
During their panel at WonderCon today (or yesterday, I guess, as it is now past midnight — crap, I need to go to bed) BOOM!revealed one of the covers for The Unknown … this one by Paul Pope. Watch for my full panel report soon on the main CBR site. And by soon I mean most likely in the morning, as I’m sure all the sane people who work for CBR are asleep, while I’m still up and about.
Sleep awaits …
- February 28, 2009 @ 12:26 AM by JK Parkin
Your Mileage May Vary
Watchmen
The Watchmen movie comes out next week, and a lot of fans have been revisiting the comic in preparation.
Our own Tom Bondurant compares his initial impression of the comic with his perspective this time around:
And yet, the thing about Watchmen is that it’s not nearly as cynical as it looks. All the drama, violence, and sex only matter to the extent that we can’t get past them. The thermodynamic miracle isn’t just the uniqueness of each human life, it’s the spark of individuality, of creativity, which powers each work of art. If all we see is one way to go, we limit ourselves to that path. We forget that we each have, as a certain starship captain once said, a “capacity to leap beyond logic” which helps slice through our own Gordian knots. Watchmen trades pretty heavily in structure and form, but it ends up saying you don’t have to do it this way.
- February 27, 2009 @ 06:59 PM by Melissa Krause
WonderCon | A new artist to Chew on
Chew
I’m working on my full report for the Image Comics panel at WonderCon, but wanted to quickly mention the artist for John Layman’s new project for Image, Chew. His name is Rob Guillory, and he is awesome. Check out his blog here, and watch for more Chew art in my report soon.
Man, this book … geez. It sounds both grotesque and cool at the same time.
- February 27, 2009 @ 04:44 PM by JK Parkin
Freaky Friday: The Monster Stamps edition
Monster stamps!
ART
It’s not necessarily comics, but it is great cartooning: Tom Rhodes reimagines classic video game characters with amusing results.
The Book Cover Archive is exactly what it sounds like and it is awesome.
I am indebted to Tor.com for introducing me to the wonderful work of Adam McCauley. Check out those monster stamps!
- February 27, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 044
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok.
If you’re in San Francisco this weekend, be sure to stop by booth 1240 at Wonder-Con to say “Howdy” (geez, it’s a western, whaddya expect?). I might even draw a smiley face in a cowboy hat or something befitting my level of draftsmanship. I’ll have copies of Murder Moon for the usual convention discount, and if you happen to be a retailer, I’m sure we can work out some kind of useful arrangement (though really, I’d prefer to lavish you with gimmes and have you order the books through Diamond.) The weekly update page should go up as scheduled. Should.
Oh, and remember, I’ll be trying my written sketch experiment (got a brand new pad of pretty nice paper to write ‘em out on if you don’t want them in a sketchbook.) I’ll try to get to wandering about the floor to visit friends and colleagues, but I don’t have an intern for this go-round to mind the table whilst I wander. And, given my position, convention attendance/presentation is a big chunk of my ability to get the word out to folks not on the internet (one that will only get more important given the changes in the Diamond process of late.)
- February 27, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Matt Maxwell
To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
WonderCon starts today at the Moscone Center in glorious San Francisco. I’m wrapping up a few things before I head into the city today.
Where you can find me online this weekend:
- I’ll be covering several panels for Comic Book Resources.
- I’ll be contributing to CBR Live! as well, as someone was crazy enough to give me direct access.
- If I remember, I’ll post random thoughts on Twitter.
- Oh yeah, I’ll probably blog some, too, right here at this very site.
And contrary to the evidence suggested above, I’ll also be talking to real people at the show, really, so if you see me wandering around, stop me and say hi!
- February 27, 2009 @ 09:10 AM by JK Parkin
Wired explores ‘secret lives of comic store employees’
Midtown Comics, from Wired.com
Wired.com spotlights comic-book store owners and employees with a series of Q&As and portraits. The questions are a little on the mundane side — pet peeves about customers, what character they would be, etc. — but the photos are great.
- February 27, 2009 @ 08:49 AM by Kevin Melrose
Q&A | Rick Remender’s life of crime
At the New York Comic Con earlier this month, Radical Publishing announced The Last Days of American Crime, a new book by writer Rick Remender and artist Greg Tocchini. I caught up with Remender for a brief Q&A on the book, working with Radical and the screenplay he’s already working on based on the property.
JK: Thanks for agreeing to do this interview, Rick. What can you tell me about your new book from Radical, The Last Days of American Crime? What’s the book about?
Rick: The skinny: The U.S. government has perfected a broadcast signal that will extinguish criminal thoughts. Enter fifty-four-year-old burnout, Graham Brick, a grifter who, with only 10 days before the signal goes live, discovers the crime of the century that he’d been planning suddenly transformed into the last crime in American history—if he can pull it off.
- February 27, 2009 @ 08:45 AM by JK Parkin
Gateway comic? This is a job for All-Star Superman!
All-Star Superman, Vol. 1
With the rapid approach of the Watchmen movie there’s been renewed discussion of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons miniseries as a “gateway comic” that could introduce more readers to the medium.
DC Comics took things a step further with its “After Watchmen, What Next?” promotion, $1 reprints of five of its titles that could serve as the cocaine to Watchmen‘s marijuana.
But the A.V. Club’s Leonard Pierce asserts that Watchmen isn’t the gateway to superhero comics; Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman is.
“Any one of [Morrison's] portrayals of Superman’s supporting cast, from the arrogant Lex Luthor to the headstrong Lois Lane to the irrepressible Jimmy Olsen, could stand as the definitive one,” Pierce writes, “and his Superman, perfectly integrated with his human side and heavy on the science-fiction elements that made his Silver Age stories so appealing, is pitch-perfect.”
And after that? Why, the Marvel Mastework collections of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four and Lee and Steve Ditko’s Amazing Spider-Man. Or Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One.
Or … just not Watchmen, which Pierce rightly says benefits “a great deal from a prior grounding in the conventions of the genre.”
- February 27, 2009 @ 07:59 AM by Kevin Melrose
What’s cooler than hawkpeople killing flying squids?
Flash Gordon art
Joe Casey and Omaha Perez have teamed up for a story in Ardden Entertainment’s upcoming 75th Anniversary Flash Gordon Anthology, and Perez has posted preview art from their Vulcan tale here, here, here and here.
Perez will be at WonderCon today, where he’ll have copies of the hardcover collection. You can find him in Artist Alley at AA098, sharing space with Ted Naifeh.
- February 27, 2009 @ 07:55 AM by JK Parkin
Marvel stops open submissions as it reviews policy
Marvel
Marvel Comics announced this morning that it has halted unsolicited submissions while it reviews its policy.
A new submissions policy is expected to be announced “in the near future.” In the meantime, company representatives will continue to recruit artists through the talent department, and conduct portfolio reviews at conventions.
Talent Liaison C.B. Cebulski had first revealed last week on Twitter that Marvel was revising its approach to submissions.
Amid a flurry of tips for aspiring creators and a mention of the new policy, Cebulski wrote, “Just so no one gets their hopes up, the new Marvel submissions policies are only going to make breaking in that much harder, folks.”
In a press release posted today on Marvel’s submissions page, Cebulski said the publisher found that open submissions have been the least-effective way to discover new talent: “So instead we’ll be continuing with the more ‘proactive’ methods of artist and writer discovery that we’ve found so successful of late, including some soon-to-be-announced new outlets.”
Just how ineffective have open submissions been for Marvel? “Disturbing but eye-opening fact: No writer or artist has been hired through a cold submission mailed into Marvel in recent memory,” Cebulski wrote Feb. 14 on Twitter. That was followed by, “Upon intense review, we discovered that almost all new talent hired by Marvel over the past five years has come through ‘word-of-mouth.’”
- February 27, 2009 @ 06:54 AM by Kevin Melrose