Comic Book Resources

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Legal | A Swedish court has found four men behind the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay guilty of contributory copyright infringement. Carl Lundström, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde were sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay $3.6 million in damages to several entertainment companies for infringing on 33 specific movie and music properties. The defendants will appeal the ruling. [Threat Level, TorrentFreak]

Legal | Matt Bradley provides some background on the trial of Egyptian cartoonist Magdy al Shafee and publisher Mohammed al Sharqawi, who are accused of offending public morals with Metro, called the country’s first graphic novel. The two were arrested in April 2008 after police raided the publisher’s offices and confiscated all copies of the book; retailers were ordered to remove the book from their shelves. The trial begins tomorrow. The men could face up to two years in prison. A translated excerpt of Metro can be read here. [The National]

Publishing | David Lapham announced yesterday that his Vertigo crime series Young Liars has been canceled with August’s Issue 18: “I’m mostly bummed because YL was so much Goddamn FUN to work on, and it’s not the kind of story that you can just go into from the start. It evolved into what it was and creatively, that was kind of magical and I never took it for granted.” [Standard Attrition]

Publishing | Unhappy with the profit-sharing setup of traditional manga publishing, Japanese cartoonist Satou Shuuhou will make his comics available on his own website — for a small fee — a month after they appear in print. Simon Jones wonders whether this could be the beginning of a new online model for manga. [Canned Dogs, Icarus Publishing]

Publishing | MAD Magazine Senior Editor Joe Raiola discusses how the magazine is faring in tough times: “The good news is that the magazine is still around. Everyone in print is trying to figure it out. The bad news is that it’s a tough environment. I think magazines and newspapers are in the same boat. It’s survival of the fittest. Adapt or die. MAD is in process of adapting. I think it will survive and flourish but it will take some time.” [The Enterprise]

Creators | Sarah Morean talks with Blammo! cartoonist Noah Van Sciver. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Cartoonist Brian Sendelbach chats about his webcomic Smell of Steve and his upcoming Dark Horse collection Planet of Beer. [Dark Horse]

Creators | Valerie D’Orazio talks with Chris Sims about his webcomic The Chronicles of Solomon Stone. [Occasional Superheroine]

Art | The designer of the much-maligned Comic Sans sympathizes with the movement to “ban” the typeface. Sort of.  Curiously — or perhaps shockingly — Vincent Connare says he drew inspiration for the font from the lettering of The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. So, really, we should be blaming John Costanza and Dave Gibbons. [The Wall Street Journal]

Music | Jazz composer and musician Andrew Boscardin discusses comics and his new album Four-Color Heroes, which is dedicated to Steve Ditko, Steve Gerber, Jack Kirby and Joe Kubert. [Seattlest]

Comics | Jesse Reese wonders why the slow-paced “Old Man Logan” storyline in Wolverine suddenly turned into a Hollywood blockbuster-on-paper. [Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?]

Comics | Ben Morse runs down more series that ended too soon, including DC’s Hourman and Young Justice, and Marvel’s New Warriors and New X-Men. [The Cool Kids Table]