2009 March
Food or Comics | A roundup of money-related news
Borders Group
• Speculation grows as to how much longer the financially troubled bookstore chain Borders will be in business.
• A preview of this weekend’s Planet Comicon convention in Overland Park, Kansas, focuses on the speculator market and the idea that comics are “recession-proof.”
“The economy doesn’t affect us too much,” retailer William Binderup tells the Kansas City Star. “I guess it could if too many customers lose their jobs. But as far as most comics people go, they’re a pretty dedicated lot. They’re food, shelter, comic books, and not necessarily in that order. If money gets tight it’s a lot easier to go out to dinner one time less a month (than it is to break the comic-book habit) because a lot of these people have been reading Amazing Spider-Man since they were 12 years old. It’s been a big part of their life.”
• Daisy Owl creator Ben Driscoll has announced he quit his day job last Friday to focus full time on his webcomic.
“Thanks so much for reading the comic, for helping out with signed strips, and for just being awesome in general,” Driscoll writes on his website. “I hope to do this for a long, long time, and you guys make it possible. Holy crap.” (via Xaviar Xerexes)
• The release next month of the anime Tears To Tiara simultaneously in Japan and across Asia apparently is part of an effort to combat illegal downloads.
- March 26, 2009 @ 07:39 AM by Kevin Melrose
And on the seventh day, he humped his Devil Girl statue
Crumb Genesis Sketches
The official Robert Crumb “newsletter” is reporting that the famed cartoonist has finally finished his adaptation of the Book of Genesis that he’s been working on for the past several years:
Robert has finished the Genesis project. It’s 201 pages. He has also finished the Cover, the Introduction, the commentary (for the back sleeve) and also the Map, which will be in the beginning of the book. The book is soon going to production and it’s planned to be released this fall.
And what are his plans now that this huge project is complete? He has to catch up on his correspondence which has been building up some time now. And then a little break—a journey to the States. He and Aline are talking about collaborating on a book upon his return, but that’s later this summer.
I think it’s pretty safe to say this is one of the most hotly anticipated books of the year, so the news that it’s completed and off to the publisher is good news indeed.
- March 26, 2009 @ 07:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Fruits Basket, Vol. 22
Passings | Cartoonist Anne Thorburn Cleveland, author of the 1955 collection It’s Better With Your Shoes Off, died last month in Oregon. She was 92. [The Comics Reporter]
Sales charts | Watchmen slips five places to No. 10 in its 36th week on USA Today’s bestseller list as the 22nd volume of Tayaka Natsuki’s Fruits Basket debuts at No. 40. Meanwhile, the second wave of Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto onslaught continues its slide off the chart, with Vol. 41 dropping 47 places to No. 102, Vol. 40 plummeting 78 spots to No. 129, and Vol. 39 falling 71 places to No. 145. [USA Today]
Conventions | Planet Comicon is being held this weekend in Overland Park, Kansas. Guests include Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, Michael Golden, Jeremy Haun, Phil Hester, Bruce Jones, B. Clay Moore, Tony Moore, Jai Nitz, Ande Parks, Eric Shanower and Mark Texeira. [The Kansas City Star]
Conventions | Fearing, in part, the loss of Comic-Con International, a San Diego city task force is considering an expansion of the 600,000-square-foot convention center. [San Diego Union-Tribune]
Comics | Christopher Butcher has announced the full lineup for the Comics Festival 2009 offering for Free Comic Book Day. Contributors include Kate Beaton, Scott Chantler, Emmanuel Guibert, Faith Erin Hicks, Ryan North, Steve Rolston, Kean Soo and Chip Zdarsky. [Comics 212]
Creators | Jeff Lemire gives a tour of his workspace. [Jeff Lemire's blog]
Creators | Writer B. Clay Moore is featured in a brief profile. [Ink]
Creators | A list of “50 ubergeeks worth following on Twitter” includes a handful of comics folks. [TechRepublic]
Fandom | This little rant about the apparent difficulty of finding “adult comics” somehow lumps Vertigo titles with Bondage Fairies and the Eros Comix stable. [Comic Book Movie]
- March 26, 2009 @ 06:10 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talk to the hand, win a prize
Hero Initiative button
The Hero Initiative is selling buttons at the Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle next month, and if they spot you wearing it on the show floor, you could win a prize:
A word to the wise: This year at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, WA, Hero Initiative is rewarding folks who are proudly displaying their “Hero Hand” buttons. The Hero prize patrol will be wandering the con floor, and each day of the con, one person spotted with the button will win a kickass Hero prize package filled with great stuff valued at over $135.
You can pick up at the Hero booth for a mere $1. That’s right, sports fans—one buck, American.
AND hang on to it! We’re banging a gong here, but we’ll also be quietly doing the same at other conventions. You never know—wear your Hero button, you could be richly rewarded.
The Emerald City Comicon runs April 4 and 5. The guest list includes Mike Mignola, Kurt Busiek, Becky Cloonan, Stuart Immonen, Erik Larsen, Brian Michael Bendis, Tim Sale, Jeff Parker and many more.
- March 26, 2009 @ 05:48 AM by JK Parkin
Incredibles #1, Muppet Show #1 sell out, second printings planned
The Muppet Show
BOOM! Studios sent out a press release tonight saying both The Incredibles: Family Matters #1 and The Muppet Show Comic Book #1 have sold out from Diamond Comics. According to the release, “tremendous re-order activity just prior to both comics release ensured a sell out before either comic hit stands this Wednesday.”
Second printings of both books should be available by the end of April.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. Sure, with the current economic climate, we are definitely printing more conservatively than years before, but even so, the velocity of late in the game re-order activity for these books have been totally out of this world,” said Chip Mosher, BOOM!’s marketing and sales director, in the release. “Those re-orders ate up all the leftover stock at Diamond and then some. Not in our wildest dreams could we predict that we would effectively be sold out the day before these books hit the stands. Once we saw what was happening, we went into overdrive to get second prints of both books rolling into Diamond.”
Earlier today BOOM! announced a newsstand distribution deal with Kable Distribution Services, while yesterday they launched a new website to promote their Disney/Pixar titles under the BOOM! Kids imprint.
- March 25, 2009 @ 09:21 PM by JK Parkin
Is the Bat out of the bag?
Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2
Did Tony Daniel accidentally spoil the big mystery of the DC Comics miniseries Batman: Battle for the Cowl?
Be warned: This post obviously contains potential spoilers.
On his blog this morning, the writer/artist posted his proposed redesigns for the Batman and Robin costumes, which include notes about color schemes and special features.
“Batman was a no,” Daniel wrote in the post, which since has been deleted. “They didn’t want the all black, which I understand. But I thought it would be a cool change, and he’d still be recognizable as Batman. Looks a little (or a lot) like the movie version. Robin’s costume was chosen, but the hooded cape was decided upon after this sketch. I have more lying around, different angles. I just need to dig and right now I don’t have time.”
But the potential spoiler appears in his handwritten note on the Batman sketch: “Pitch black cape can envelope _____ & hide him completely.”
To fill in the blank, click “more.”
Warning: There are potential spoilers beyond this point.
- March 25, 2009 @ 03:05 PM by Kevin Melrose
Here’s another Watchmen video
Look’s like today’s my day to post videos. Anyway, Thirteen’s SundayArts program has a nice piece on the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art and their current the Art of Watchmen exhibit, presented to you by curators Ellen S. Abramowitz and Peter Sanderson.
- March 25, 2009 @ 01:52 PM by Chris Mautner
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Dynamite’s Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes #1
Sherlock Holmes #1
Written by Leah Moore and John Reppion; Illustrated by Aaron Campbell
Dynamite; $3.50
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been really curious to see what Dynamite does with a Sherlock Holmes series. I described myself as being “skeptically curious” about it and said that “I love Holmes when Doyle writes him, but other writers often portray him as either superhuman or a total ass. It’s rare that someone is able to match Doyle’s ability to balance both aspects of Holmes, but hopefully Leah Moore and John Reppion are up to it.”
When Dynamite offered to send me a PDF of the first issue, I couldn’t resist taking a peek. It’s not the format I’d prefer to read the story in (especially since the PDF was uncolored and I imagine that Campbell’s art will look fantastic in color), but curiosity beat the crap out of delayed gratification and so now I’ve read it.
- March 25, 2009 @ 11:36 AM by Michael May
BOOM! teams with Kable for newsstand distribution
The Incredibles
In an effort to get their new Disney/Pixar titles “into the hands of every child out there,” BOOM! has teamed with Kable Distribution Services for a national newsstand distribution agreement for their BOOM! Kids imprint (which got a new website this week as well).
The deal includes newsstand distribution for their Incredibles, Cars and Muppet Show comics.
“We want to get our line of Pixar/Disney comics into the hands of every child out there,” said Ross Richie, publisher of BOOM! Studios, in a very short press release. “Working with KDS, who has a strong record with handling kids comics in the newsstand market, I am confident that we will meet that goal.”
- March 25, 2009 @ 11:22 AM by JK Parkin
Strangeways – Behind the Scenes – 02
So last time we got a look at what my ostensible inspiration for STRANGEWAYS was, that being the adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “The Thing from the Mound.” Said story happening to feature a vampire right alongside cowboys from New Mexico. I was intrigued by the combination of the two and wondered why other writers hadn’t gone ahead and done it. Yeah, there was Joe Landsdale, whose fiction I was passingly familiar with but hadn’t actually read, in particular his take on JONAH HEX, which I don’t think I actually saw until I had figured out a first draft of Badlands.
Oh yeah, the original name for STRANGEWAYS was “Badlands”. And then I saw the Steven Grant-written miniseries that came out from Dark Horse after I’d put together my first pitch (to Dark Horse as well as others.) So that meant I had to chuck the name. I suppose in 2004 when I started things up again, I could have used that name without any problem, but by that time I’d come up with the name Strangeways. It seemed evocative enough, conjuring up a mysterious frontier that was both western and something else. Yeah, there was that Smiths album, so perhaps my UK readers might make that connection. If there was a connection to make. (Editor’s note: Strangeways is the nickname for a notorious prison in Manchester that has absolutely nothing to do with the haunted western frontier, at all.)
Back to the genesis of the work, though. One of the other inspirations for combining the wild west with fantasy elements (or horror if you prefer) was the 1969 film THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, featuring cowboys and dinosaurs, animated by the legendary Ray Harryhausen (of whom I was a big fan as a kid, still am now.) Now, there’s no way I’m going to say it’s a great movie, but when I first saw it, there was no way that anything in the world could possibly be better than cowboys and dinosaurs, at least not until STAR WARS came out. THE SEVEN FACES OF DR. LAO also plays into this, with a mystical and fantastic character in the midst of a (very late-era) frontier town in the west.
And this is where it all started.
- March 25, 2009 @ 10:14 AM by Matt Maxwell
Send us your shelf porn!
Welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where bookshelves are the name and photos are the game.
Remember: we are always looking for new contributions, so if you think your shelves are special enough, send photos to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and we’ll post them here. Heck, send them even if you don’t think they’re special. We’re not picky.
Our guest this week is Fantagraphics promotions director, Mome editor and cartoonist (no, really, he’s quite good) Eric Reynolds. Mssr. Reynolds has quite the collection to share, but let’s let him talk about it, shall we?
- March 25, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Someday they’ll look up from their desktops and shout ‘Save Us’
In the video below, Dave Gibbons shows you how he made a digital image of Rorschach using his computer, Manga Studio and a Wacom Cintiq tablet. Now let’s see you try this at home. (via)
- March 25, 2009 @ 07:36 AM by Chris Mautner
This is what we call the Muppet Show!
From "The Muppet Show" #1, by Roger Langridge
I never thought I’d miss “Can’t Wait for Wednesday,” the labor-intensive comics-of-the-week feature I wrote with Chris Mautner at our former online home. But this is one time I wish we were still doing the column, if only so I could name The Muppet Show #1 as my Pick of the Week.
I grew up with The Muppet Show, both in its original run and in later rebroadcasts, so my opinion is undoubtedly tinted a little by nostalgia. But, man, Roger Langridge really nails it. This first issue — out today — is the next-best thing to watching the TV show. All that’s missing is the celebrity guest host.
If you need more convincing, Langridge provides a glimpse of a panel from Issue 3, featuring Gonzo as the Mad Hatter.
- March 25, 2009 @ 07:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
What’s the over/under on when Steve Rogers will return?
Yesterday’s Marvel solicitations for June included a renumbered Captain America #600, featuring all sorts of special anniversary content from previous Cap creators (including Joe Simon):
CAPTAIN AMERICA #600
Written by ED BRUBAKER with MARK WAID, ROGER STERN & OTHERS
Pencils by BUTCH GUICE, LUKE ROSS, DALE EAGLESHAM & OTHERS
Cover by STEVE EPTING
50/50 Cover by ALEX ROSS
Where were you when Captain America died? It’s the anniversary of the day Steve Rogers was killed, a day of reflection and mourning in the Marvel U…a time to look back on the things Steve did and what he stood for… or is this issue actually the beginning of the most wicked plot twist since issue 25? Yeah, actually it’s both. Plus, contributions from Cap creators past and present, including a very special essay by Joe Simon, a classic story from Cap’s Golden Age, a full gallery of 600 Cap covers, and more anniversary shenanigans than you can shake a shield at!
104 PGS./New and Reprints/Rated T+ …$4.99
But will this special issue see the return of Steve Rogers in more than just a flashback?
- March 25, 2009 @ 06:19 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
The Harvey Awards
Legal | A circuit judge in Macomb County, Michigan, will decide early next month whether retailer and convention organizer Michael George will be released from jail while he awaits retrial in the 1990 murder of his first wife. [The Detroit News]
Awards | The deadline for the 2009 Harvey Award nomination ballots is Friday. [The Harvey Awards]
Retailers | Heidi MacDonald follows up on last weekend’s annual meeting of the direct-market trade organization ComicsPRO. [PW Comics Week]
Conventions | High Moon writer David Gallaher files a report from the first New England Webcomics Weekend — aka “Webcomics Woodstock.” [PW Comics Week]
Creators | Kiel Phegley chats with Guy Davis about The Zombies That Ate The World, B.P.R.D. and The Marquis. [Four Color Forum]
Creators | Cartoonist Stan Sakai requests help in identifying the creature in a drawing, and announces he’s working on Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai, a fully painted graphic novel due in November from Dark Horse. [LiveJournal]
Creators | Deb Aoki interviews Nina Matsumoto, who rose to Internet fame with her manga-style drawing of The Simpsons before landing a gig with Bongo Comics and then Del Rey Manga. [About.com]
Pop culture | A firefighter in Bangkok donned a Spider-Man costume to coax a frightened 8-year-old autistic boy from a third-floor ledge. [BBC News]
- March 25, 2009 @ 06:06 AM by Kevin Melrose