2009 March
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 052
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok.
Chapter two of THE THIRSTY concludes tomorrow. Remember, we’ll have a couple weeks of behind the scenes features, and then the story will continue with Chapter 3, debuting after the Emerald City comic-con (which I will be attending, look for me in the Artist’s Alley.)
- March 18, 2009 @ 11:32 AM by Matt Maxwell
And here’s a Gary Panter TV commercial
Sorta. You can get the background info about the never-aired spot here. (via)
- March 18, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Send Us Your Shelf Porn
Welcome to another edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn. This week we’ll be gazing a the shelves of George Gustines, New York Times editor and guiding force behind the newspaper’s debut of their new weekly comics — sorry, “graphic books” — best seller list.
Remember, we want to post your shelf porn photos here. Send any and all pictures to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and we’ll have them up and about in a few weeks time.
But enough of that. Let’s let George talk for a bit …
“I’m the managing editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine and I write about comic books for the newspaper. My bylines can be found here. But let’s talk shelving. Last year, my partner and I did some apartment renovating. The trade-off to having more adult living quarters (meaning no comics stuff stored/displayed in our bedroom) was that I got a lot of room in our den.”
- March 18, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Will PSP get more comics content?
The video game site Kotaku is reporting on a new survey on the PlayStation Network is asking gamers what they think of digital comics and downloading graphic novels to Sony’s handheld PlayStation Portable console.
The survey asked about price points, subscriptions, sharing comics and Memory Stick sizes.
The comic prices ranged from .99 cents to $2.99 per issue with up to 30 percent price breaks if you buy a dozen. Graphic novels ranged from $4.99 to $19.99 and mange was $4.99 to $14.99. The monthly access plans ranged from about $7 to $15.
Kotaku seems to think this might have something to do with a rumored PSP revamp. Regardless, it seems as though Sony is trying to offer the console as a serious comics alternative to the iPhone, Kindle and other hoity-toity gadgets. Anyone want to bet on its chances?
- March 18, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Slash Print | Following the digital evolution
Fujitsu's color e-book reader
E-devices | Fujitsu has unveiled Japan’s first full-color e-book reader, the FLEPia.
It would seem like a major leap forward for comics, but CNET UK points out that the FLEPia only supports XMDF and .book format e-books. Plus, the device is now only available in Japan, where it sells for ¥99,750 — or a little over $1,000.
Publishing | At ICv2.com, retailer Steve Bennett returns to the “collectibility” well to argue that the urge to bag, board and sort will save the printed comic from being replaced by the digital version.
E-devices | At Publishers Weekly, Ada Price talks with a handful of publishers about their early experience converting titles to Amazon’s Kindle.
Conventions | The program schedule has been released for the New England Webcomics Weekend, being held March 20-22 in Easthampton, Mass.
Copyright | At Reason Online, Henry Jenkins examines how illegal copying and distribution helped anime to succeed in the United States.
E-publishing | IDW Publishing has made available the first two issues of its sold-out Star Trek: Countdown at the iTunes app store.
E-publishing | Uclick and Tokyopop are making the first volume of Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon available as a free app on Apple’s app store.
Webcomics | Joey Manley looks at the use of webcomics as promotional tools for TV shows and print comics.
Multimedia | From SXSW, Wired.com considers the “deep media” approach Electronic Arts used for marketing the video game Dead Space, an effort that included comics, animation and interactive web features.
Blogosphere | David Brothers talks e-devices, webcomics, digital comics, and more.
- March 18, 2009 @ 08:40 AM by Kevin Melrose
A glance at Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #1
From "Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye" #1
MySpace Comic Books has a five-page preview of Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye, the long-awaited sequel to the 2004 Vertigo miniseries by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart.
There’s also a brief Q&A with Morrison, who teases the final Seaguy chapter, “which completes the trilogy with a voyage into the Thousand-and-One Islands of Lostralia, for a final confrontation with Ant-Dad, and the revelation of the true reality behind Seaguy’s world.”
- March 18, 2009 @ 07:27 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Dan Cooper #7
Weirdness | Did the mysterious hijacker known as Dan Cooper — called “D.B. Cooper” by the news media — take his name from a French-Canadian comic series about the adventures of an RCAF test pilot? One FBI agent thinks so. [FBI, via KBCI]
Comic strips | Artist and retailer Jim Brozman is collaborating with Dick Locher on Dick Tracy. [The Daily Cartoonist]
Creators | Stan Sakai talks about Usagi Yojimbo, which marks its 25th anniversary this year. [ComicBookMovie.com]
Creators | Kiel Phegley posts a lengthy Q&A with Art Spiegleman. [Four Color Forum]
Creators | Artist Dean Zachary gets some attention from the local newspaper for his work on Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. [Commercial Appeal]
Publishing | Dan Vado of SLG Publishing discusses comics, submissions, and working with creators. [ComicsCareer.com]
Conventions | More than 30 guests have been added to the lineup of the May 9-10 Toronto Comic Arts Festival. [TCAF]
Retailers | Judith Rosen visits Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles. [PW Comics Week]
Comics | Tim O’Neil discusses how Alex Ross’ work in Kingdom Come transformed the perception of DC Comics’ superheroes. [The Hurting]
Comics | Kirk Warren looks at 10 Marvel What If? scenarios that came true. [The Weekly Crisis]
Blogosphere | The feminist linkblog When Fangirls Attack! has new caretakers. [When Fangirls Attack!]
- March 18, 2009 @ 07:01 AM by Kevin Melrose
Wolverines Playing Poker
Wolverines playing poker
Marvel is celebrating 35 years of Wolverine with a series of Wolverine Art Appreciation variant covers — which feature the merry mutant as he might have been drawn by famous artists like C.M. Coolidge (above), Edward Gorey, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and more. You can check out the variant covers on various Marvel comics in April, or keep an eye out on Marvel.com as they share more of them.
- March 18, 2009 @ 06:48 AM by JK Parkin
Death metal has a whole new ring to it as The Goon battles Dethklok
One of our readers, Brett, dropped us a note about this over the weekend, and as I was trying to confirm it, MTV’s Splash Page up and announces a mega-crossover between Eric Powell’s The Goon and the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse. And in the tradition of all great crossovers, they aren’t getting together for tea and crumpets, as the one-shot is called The Goon Vs. Dethklok. My money’s on The Goon.
Check out the promo video:
- March 18, 2009 @ 05:48 AM by JK Parkin
Twitter your questions for SxSW’s Comics on Handhelds panel
Comics on Handhelds
South by Southwest is currently underway down in Austin, Texas. The giant music, film and multimedia festival runs through March 22. On today’s agenda is a panel called Comics on Handhelds, hosted by Dan Goldman and featuring Diesel Sweeties creator Rich Stevens, Uclick.com CEO Douglas Edwards, Dr. Sketchy’s creator Molly Crabapple, Google Android engineer Dave Bort and The Longbox Group’s Rantz Hoseley.
No doubt this will be a great discussion, and if you’d like to participate, you don’t need a plane ticket to the Lone Star State … all you need is a Twitter account. Goldman explains:
And those of you not attending… you’ll still be able to interact with us over Twitter during the panel using #comicsonhandhelds. The panel will be available in audio+video online soon as well; watch this space for details.
That means if you Twitter a question, just be sure to include #comicsonhandhelds in the body of your tweet. The panel begins at 5 p.m. Central, so be sure to get your questions out there before then.
- March 17, 2009 @ 12:39 PM by JK Parkin
They’ve got your back
Grumpy Old Fan
As we all know by now, DC is adding “co-features” to (so far) three of its titles: “Blue Beetle” in Booster Gold, “Ravager” in Teen Titans, and the previously-announced “Metal Men” in the new Doom Patrol. Each title will be $3.99, which presumably indicates that each title will contain at least 30 pages of story altogether. Assuming that the headliners will still get 22 pages per issue, this leaves a respectable 8 pages for the “co-feature,” although if it’s just 8 pages we might as well call it a “backup.”
Regardless of what you call it, I like this idea quite a bit. Backup stories expose readers to a greater variety of characters, creative teams, and storytelling styles. Furthermore, as long as DC feels compelled to increase its regular titles’ price point, $3.99 for 30 pages is about the same as (and a thin hair more economical than) $2.99 for 22 pages. This is not exactly a new strategy for DC: for books cover-dated September 1980, it added eight pages of story and art to all its books (going from 17 pages to 25), raised the price 25% (from $0.40 to $0.50), and in most cases used the extra pages for backups. Many of these starred familiar characters like Adam Strange, Aquaman, and the (Earth-2) Huntress, but many were used to spotlight the less familiar (Firestorm, OMAC) or to debut new characters (Nemesis). Since Newsarama indicated that “[m]ore books will have co-features added to them in the coming month,” let’s consider who might be returning in backup form.
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Continue Reading »
- March 17, 2009 @ 11:59 AM by Tom Bondurant
Terry Moore returns to Paradise
Two years after wrapping up the series, Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore posts a tease on his blog about a SiP one-shot he’s working on:
“See the girl on the horse? I’m writing a one-shot about her and her friends. Not yet sure when it will come out, but wanted to share the buzz around here. Some people just won’t stay quiet… know what I mean?” he writes.
- March 17, 2009 @ 11:08 AM by JK Parkin
A peek at Darwyn Cooke’s Parker: The Hunter
Original artwork from "Parker: The Hunter," by Darwyn Cooke
James Sime of Isotope provides a glimpse of some gorgeous pages from Darwyn Cooke’s highly anticipated adaptation of Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter. Sime notes the cyan areas will be printed as gun-metal green.
The 144-page graphic novel is due in July from IDW Publishing.
- March 17, 2009 @ 10:18 AM by Kevin Melrose
Robot reviews: Humbug
Humbug
Humbug
by Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth
Fantagraphics Books, 476 pages, $60.
It’s very easy with a book of this nature to engage in wild hyperbole. “The most important publishing project of the year! No, the decade!” one wants to type. “There won’t be a better collection out this year!” “If I had to choose between breathing and reading this book, I’d choose the latter!!” “You’re a fool if you don’t buy this book, you hear me? A fool!”
And yet, how else to talk about a project of this nature, a large collection of work featuring some of the most stellar cartoonists of their day, originally edited by one of the most important and influential humorists (and I really don’t think this is hyperbole here — I’d put him up there with Richard Pryor in terms of significance) of the 20th century? Regardless of the bad economy, it’s got to say something incredibly positive about the current state of the industry that Fantagraphics sees publishing a book this massive and to a certain extent obscure as a viable financial venture.
- March 17, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Jose Gonzalez, legendary Vampirella artist, passes away
Vampirella, by Jose Gonzalez
Legendary Vampirella artist Jose “Pepe” Gonzalez has died after falling into a coma. He was 70 years old.
Born in Barcelona, Gonzalez broke into the comics business in 1956, working on Westerns and romances in France, Spain and Great Britain before moving on to Warren Publishing’s Vampirella, for which he was best known.
A statement from Harris Comics, the current owner of Vampirella, describes Gonzalez’s work as “thrilling, sensuous and beautiful. He brought the character to life, elevated her to an icon and, most deservedly, won over a legion of fans who have never forgotten him. To this day, many would say his was the definitive rendition of the character.”
A more detailed biography of Gonzalez, and a gallery of his work, can be found here.
- March 17, 2009 @ 09:36 AM by Kevin Melrose