2009 February
Let us all collectively eat our hearts out now
Sutton's 'Women'
Cartoonist and illustrator Ward Sutton has a swell new gig over at Barnes & Noble’s Web site penning comic strip book reviews. His first one is on T.C. Boyle’s novel, “The Women.”
Why don’t I ever get jobs like that? (hint to self: I’m nowhere near as talented or erudite.)
- February 12, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
One strong gust of wind and we never find out the ending to Rusty Brown
Hail, hail the gang's all here
I wasn’t planning on posting a bunch of Angloume-related stuff — especially at this late date — but I just have to call attention to Alvin Buenaventura’s amazing flickr set of photos taken before and during the European festival. By the way, from the left that’s Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine and Buenaventura in the photo above. That’s probably the most impressive collection of talent ever precariously balanced on a rock wall in the history of mankind. (via)
- February 12, 2009 @ 08:41 AM by Chris Mautner
Hey! There’s a Street Angel short film!
From the "Street Angel" short film
Like so many bloggers, I was a big fan of Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s 2004 series Street Angel, so I was thrilled to run across this item on Rugg’s blog: Australian filmmaker Lucas Testro has made a short film based on the first issue of the SLG Publishing miniseries. What’s more the short has been nominated for a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing: Student Film, and will be screened on Feb. 20 at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
You can watch the Street Angel trailer after the break.
- February 12, 2009 @ 08:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Top Shelf to print 75,000 copies of Century, Part 1
Century: 1910
DC Comics’ crowing about Watchmen figures aside, it’s rare that comic-book publishers discuss print runs in terms beyond the vague “sellout.” So it’s a bit refreshing to read that Top Shelf Productions plans a 75,000-copy first printing of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, Part 1.
The first of three 80-page graphic novellas — the third volume of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s series — will debut in April, a month after the Watchmen adaptation bows in theaters.
“If even a fraction of the people that will have bought the Watchmen graphic novel by then seek out this new work from Moore,” writes retailer website ICv2, “that print run won’t last long.”
The Top Shelf books are perfect-bound, and therefore likely will make their way into bookstores in their initial run. So I’m not sure you can draw a direct comparison between this first printing and sales of the debut issues of the first two volumes from DC/Wildstorm/ABC. But I’ll point to the Comic Buyer’s Guide estimates, anyway: LOEG Vol. 1 #1 (1999) — 36,700; LOEG Vol. 2 #1 (2002) — 54,600.
You may want to order your copies of Century, Part 1, now.
- February 12, 2009 @ 08:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
After three years, the media rediscover ‘hot lesbian’ Batwoman
Batwoman, from Detective Comics #854
As predicted, mainstream media outlets have glommed onto news of Batwoman’s starring turn in Detective Comics.
Of course, their focus isn’t that a character other than Batman is taking the lead in DC Comics’ flagship title. No, it’s that the character is “a hot lesbian.” Or “a lipstick lesbian.” Or a “flame-haired lesbian.” Or … well, you see the pattern.
Never mind that many of these newspapers and websites worked themselves into a lather over the same thing almost three years ago, when Kate Kane was introduced as the new Batwoman in the pages of 52.
Excuse me, the new flame-haired lesbian Batwoman.
The renewed interest began yesterday in the U.K. press with innacurate headlines — “Lesbian Batwoman is DC Comics’ first gay superhero” — and nods to the 1960s Batman TV series — “Holy ____!” — before settling in for a little game of telephone.
- February 12, 2009 @ 07:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
McKelvie’s Cable preview
from McKelvie's Cable
Now this looks like a lot of fun … Marvel.com has a few pages of preview art from Phonogram artist Jamie McKelvie’s Cable issues. He also talks to the site about the differences between working on a Marvel book and his previous work:
“On Phonogram and Suburban Glamour I don’t really have an editor, but with CABLE I’ve been in almost daily contact with [Executive Editor] Axel [Alonso] and [assistant editor] Sebastian [Girner], sending over pages, discussing plot points or costume references, and all of that.
“The other thing is, skinny indie kids don’t have muscles like Cable does, so that was a learning process,” McKelvie jokes. “It’s great, though, I love being challenged. If I didn’t have challenges, it would all get pretty boring pretty quickly.”
- February 12, 2009 @ 07:03 AM by JK Parkin
WonderCon ’09 | Panel schedule announced
Comic-Con International has posted the programming for WonderCon, which is coming up Feb. 27-March 1 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. As its run by the same folks who do San Diego, it has that same feel and variety, but is a little more laid back and low key than the madness that is the San Diego Comic Con. My brother and I were able to walk right into the X-Files panel last year just as it started … same with the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles panel. I don’t think you could ever do something like that at San Diego. In any event, it’s a great opportunity to see creators and actually chat with them a bit.
Let’s see what will be going on …
• Marvel’s been absent from WonderCon for the past couple of years, and while they don’t appear to have a booth, they do have a presence this year. Both Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are guests of honor, and it looks like Jeph Loeb, Mark Paniccia and Axel Alonso, among others, will also be there. Of note is a discussion between Fraction and author Michael Chabon on Saturday that will likely be worth the price of admission alone.
• Speaking of special guests, Brian Azzarello and Dave Johnson are also attending and will host a panel on 100 Bullets on Saturday … followed by a night at Isotope Comics. And although Dan DiDio won’t be at the con this year, DC’s got Jim Lee, Will Dennis, Ian Sattler, James Robinson and Aaron Lopresti, among others.
• Oni Press, IDW, Dark Horse, BOOM!, SLG, Aspen and Top Cow will also be on hand, both on the floor and at various panels to talk about their latest projects.
- February 12, 2009 @ 05:38 AM by JK Parkin
Robot Love | I ♥ discussing comics
Editor’s Note: With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we’ve declared this the week of Robot Love and resurrected I ♥ Comics. In one of our favorite features, various comics creators, bloggers, retailers and fans discuss the things they love about the medium.
Today’s guest contributor is blogger and critic Tucker Stone, who writes a weekly column for Comixology called “This Ship Is Totally Sinking” and blogs at The Factual Opinion.
by Tucker Stone
Hmmph. I used to think the easiest answer to a question like this—a question that demands a sort of explanation of how far you want to go with your definition of the word love—is just to throw out a pat “I love comics” one and leave it at that. I used to think that, and “used to” can both mean that A) I don’t think that anymore or B) I’ll think it again later. So yeah, what do I love about comics?
I used to take these religion classes in college with this woman who had gotten herself a good bit of the Worldwide Acclaim through being listed as one of the world’s most effective English-speaking preachers. She was, if I remember correctly, the only one on the list who wasn’t a dude, and one of the few Americans. I didn’t take her classes because of that—that’s not the sort of list that would have crossed my Doom Patrol covered desk when I was trying to find a college that would take me away from frying chicken. But I ended up taking her classes, and it was one of the more challenging experiences of my life, that is if you gauge “challenging” by “things that mostly involve thinking and talking” instead of, you know, something that involves heavy lifting or lightning reflexes. Her classes filled up fast—religion majors got first crack, then the regular student body and any empty seats were taken by non-students, most of whom were her former parishioners who showed up since she’d discontinued her regular preaching upon entering the education field. (In other words, they missed her enough to pay to be around her.) I’m sitting there in class one day, and this really nice old lady piped up in the middle of a discussion on the Book of Job, which is what the entire semester focused on, and said that no, she’d never—not once—had a moment in her life where her faith had been tested. Never had a moment of doubt. Never a moment of question. Not one. She was really firm about it, in that nice old lady voice of hers.
- February 11, 2009 @ 01:52 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 037
Catch the whole story from the beginning on the archives page.
Wish I had more to say, but truthfully, my mind’s on the next book and making all the storylines work. So if I’m distracted (and I am), you now know the reason why.
Back to work…
- February 11, 2009 @ 12:40 PM by Matt Maxwell
Send us your shelf porn!
Welcome to another edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where we gaze lovingly — and perhaps with more than a bit of envy — at the bookshelves and contents thereon submitted by readers and friends.
Remember, we want reader submissions, so get your digital cameras, take some pics and send them to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet tout de freakin’ sweet. But don’t worry if I don’t get to your photos right away — I want to make sure every submission gets its own spotlight, so while it may take a week or two, rest assured any photos you choose to send will eventually be displayed here with loving care.
This week we’re featuring the shelves of one Carroll Bilbrey, a World History teacher in Indianapolis, IN, and former comic store manager (Von’s Comics in Lafayette, IN). To get a closer look at what he’s got on his shelves and read his comments, click on the link below.
- February 11, 2009 @ 12:20 PM by Chris Mautner
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Dream Girl
The Dreamland Chronicles, Book One
The Dreamland Chronicles, Book One
Written by Scott Christian Sava
Illustrated by Scott Christian Sava, Karen Krajenbrink, Ivan Perez, Can Tuncer, Marcello Bortolino, Peter Starostin, Jenn Downs, Kobi Alony, Joel Carlson, Peter Wong, Trung Tran, Jeremy Chapman, Frank Lenhard, Stefano Tsai, Antero Pedras, and Heather Shipman.
IDW; $19.99
This review is based on the Blue Dream edition of the book. The Dreamland Chronicles is currently published by IDW.
The first time I read The Dreamland Chronicles was in single issues when it originally came out. I remember being impressed with the three-dimensional, CGI artwork and entranced with the story. I’ll come back to the story in a bit, but first I want to talk about the art.
It was about that same time that I read another CGI book (the name of which mercifully escapes me) that looked like a bunch of stills from a low-budget kids’ cartoon. In comparison, The Dreamland Chronicles was gorgeous. The character designs are wonderful; second only to the fantastic imagination that went into creating the cities, buildings, and countryside for those characters to inhabit. And Sava knows enough about comics to lay everything out in an exciting way, not a collection of static shots. His characters are dynamic and his panels flow very nicely.
- February 11, 2009 @ 10:32 AM by Michael May
Fraternity for heroes opens this fall
from Hero House
Justin Aclin and Mike Dimayuga have a new series coming out from Arcana Comics in September called Hero House, about a superhero fraternity. And they’ve launched a blog to detail how the book came together. Here’s a description of the book:
Epsilon Epsilon Psi is a fraternity with a unique mission: to prepare the super-powered students of today to become the best superheroes they can be. Nate Hedges was a teen superhero and the star of his school, but at college he feels like a nobody. So when he’s tapped by the university president to go undercover and investigate the Eps, will he find the super-powered hazing the administration fears? Or will he find a place where he finally belongs?
Although the blog is still fairly new, you can check out a lot of art from the series at Mike’s website (which is where I nabbed the Owl-topus art up top).
- February 11, 2009 @ 09:42 AM by JK Parkin
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s 2009 plans
My Mommy Is in America
Just when you thought it was safe to wade back into the Internet I return! Nyah hah haaah.
Anyway, today I thought we’d take a look at this year’s publishing plans for Fanfare/Ponent Mon, a small but well-regarded company that’s made a name for itself by releasing a number of high-quality manga and manga-influenced books here in the states. Here’s what they’ve got, according to their latest online catalog:
- February 11, 2009 @ 09:14 AM by Chris Mautner
Will Cloonan’s East Coast Rising ever set sail again?
Cloonan's cover for "East Coast Rising," Vol. 2
Last summer’s restructuring at Tokyopop triggered an “OEL constriction” that left the fate of many of the publisher’s original English-language titles up in the air.
Some books would see print, others reportedly were destined for life online, while others still — contract negotiations permitting — could find a home at another company.
One of the books affected was the second volume of Becky Cloonan’s East Coast Rising, a generally well-received romp about punk-rock pirates who sail the waters of a submerged New Jersey.
Some eight months after the announced restructuring, and more than a year after Vol. 2′s scheduled release, the book’s future is still in doubt.
“A lot of you are probably wondering, ‘Oh, Becky! When O when is East Coast Rising v2 coming out?’ and to that I can only say I don’t know,” Cloonan writes today on her blog. “I have kept quiet since they decided not to print it last year, but I’m very close to finishing it; about 30 pages away from completion, I’m just waiting on the ‘go’ from TP. Every time I think we get close to making a deal, something happens that makes it seem like it won’t go through, so right now I’m just waiting. Hopefully I’ll have some good news about it soon, but in the meantime I’m treating it like a pet project that one day I might see printed.”
Meanwhile, Cloonan is plenty busy: In addition to the new volume of Demo at Vertigo, she’s working on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampire one-shot with Vasilis Lolos for Dark Horse.
- February 11, 2009 @ 08:53 AM by Kevin Melrose
J. Bone’s ‘Guy A Day’ and other life drawings
Josh the pin-up boy, by J. Bone
I’ve been meaning to link to cartoonist J. Bone‘s “Guy A Day” sketches for a while now simply because I like his work. But I’m also impressed with how J. manages to infuse life drawings with his trademark cartoonish style. (I’ve seen figure drawing from other artists that, while beautiful, don’t much resemble their comic work, for a variety of reasons.)
J. recently acquired a regular model, Josh, who seems to have inspired him. On Monday, J. posted an illustration of Josh as an Alberto Vargas-inspired pinup, now available on countless merchandise — including a wall calendar, naturally — at Cafe Press.
- February 11, 2009 @ 08:23 AM by Kevin Melrose