2009 April
I can’t wait till they get to The Technopriests
Miss: Better Living Through Crime
Now here’s a project designed to inspire either great admiration or questions about one’s mental health. Joe “Jog” McCulloch and Tucker Stone will spend the next week or so critically examining every single one of the (French) Humanoids graphic novels that DC published between 2004-05. The essays will bounce back and forth between their respective sites with some potential spillover into The Savage Critics. Jog kicks it off with a look at Miss: Better Living Through Crime, a 1999-2002 crime noir series by Philippe Thirault, Marc Riou and Mark Vigourou:
It’s pulpy, sure — there’s a knife fight with a wild man undergoing electroshock therapy, sniper hits on a golf course leading to all-out war with the Ku Klux Klan and a high melodrama grand finale that probably ties things up a bit too neatly — but the emphasis in the title is as much on Living as Crime. Some sins against tight plotting are committed, yes, with place and mood and emotion set as the vice; you grow to understand the skewed moral code of these characters, picked up through the accumulation of their actions, a mix of doing what’s right and getting things done to get to somewhere better.
- April 2, 2009 @ 08:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Naruto, Vol. 41
Sales charts | As Watchmen drifts down four places to No. 14 on USA Today’s bestseller list, the collection maintains its grip on the top of the BookScan graphic-novel chart for the ninth month in a row.
On the USA Today list, the 41st volume of Naruto slips eight spots to No. 110, the 22nd volume of Fruits Basket plummets 74 spots to No. 114, the 40th volume of Naruto inches up three slots to No. 126. Meanwhile, on the BookScan chart, Naruto holds nine of the Top 20 positions, thanks to the second wave of Viz Media’s “Naruto Nation” initiative. [USA Today, ICv2.com]
Publishing | Chris Marshall conducts a podcast interview with Top Shelf Productions’ Chris Staros covering Lost Girls, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, Essex County and more. [Collected Comics Library]
Publishing | SLG Publishing announces an adaptation of the pirate novel Captain Blood, by Matthew Shepherd and Mike Shoyket. [SLG Publishing]
Publishing | BOOM! Studios transforms Eric Reynolds’ Muppet Show #1 review-turned-variant-cover-rant into a marketing opportunity. [FLOG!]
Publishing | The creator of the newly announced movie concept Eve swears he didn’t rip off Tim Seeley’s comic series Hack/Slash. [Dread Central]
Creators | Michael Cavna talks briefly with PvP creator Scott Kurtz about Twitter and the cartoonist’s online presence. [Comic Riffs]
Comics | Nick Winstead counts down 10 “Are You Joking?” moments in comics. [ComicBook.com]
- April 2, 2009 @ 07:23 AM by Kevin Melrose
New DC blog likely to be targeted by Darkseid
The Source
While Marvel has had blogs and a massive wiki on their website for awhile, not to mention countless editors and other employees on Twitter, DC’s been a little slower to adopt all these new bright and shiny social media toys.
But here’s a step in the right direction … DC Comics has started up a blog on their website where DC PR guy Alex Segura is sharing previews of upcoming projects. It’s called The Source, which fans of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World books should appreciate, and right now you can find previews of Solomon Grundy #2 and Superman: World of New Krypton #2. Segura’s the guy to do it, too, as he founded The Great Curve back in the day, which eventually evolved into, ahem, Robot 6. So welcome back to the world of blogging, Alex, and best of luck from your old Great Curve buddies.
- April 2, 2009 @ 06:06 AM by JK Parkin
Introducing Garth Medors, inker extraordinaire
Spider-Man by Dave Finch and Garth Medor
There’s a pretty touching item up for auction on eBay right now, with proceeds going to artist Josh Medors, who has cancer. The description of the item says:
Spiderman drawn by Dave Finch, printed blue line, with inks by Garth Medors, Artist Josh Medors 10 year old son. David Finch is one of Josh’s favorite artist, so Garth picked out a piece by David Finch to try out his inking skills. This is the first time Garth has showed any interest in art. After Garth finished inking the piece he came to me and said “Mom I want to put it up for auction to help Dad fight his cancer.” So with that said Garth is auctioning off his first inks to help his Dad.
The price is currently over $500, and the auction ends April 3.
- April 1, 2009 @ 06:51 PM by JK Parkin
‘Casanova’ returns as online comic
Casanova
Trying to legitimately blog on April 1 seems like a lost cause. Reading through my usual sites, Twitter feeds, etc. is like playing some sort of puzzle game, where you read closely to try and figure out what’s real and what’s not, as you certainly don’t want to be duped.
Some are obvious. Despite their new masthead, I feel safe in saying that The Daily Cross Hatch hasn’t really been bought by Wizard. And Even Bigger Numbers looks like a very timely prank, even before I made it all the way to the punchline at the end.
But then there are other posts you see out there, like the Planetary one I posted about earlier, where you kind of have to wonder. In that one, Ellis was pretty clear he wasn’t joking, so I suspect we can safely “run around the floor in circles Homer Style” as one commenter suggested. Then there’s this one by Fabio Moon, who announces that he and Matt Fraction are bringing Casanova back as a free online comic starting tomorrow:
- April 1, 2009 @ 01:05 PM by JK Parkin
‘Written in Bone’
Image from 'The Secret in the Cellar'
The Smithsonian has a Webcomic up to tie in with their new exhibit about a skeleton found in southern Maryland titled The Secret in the Cellar:
The Secret in the Cellar, is a Webcomic based on an authentic forensic case of a recently discovered 17th Century body. Using graphics, photos, and online activities, the Webcomic unravels a mystery of historica, and scientific importance. Online sleuths can analyze artifacts and examine the skeleton for the tell-tale forensic clues that bring the deceased to life and establish the cause of death.
Printable .pdfs of the comic and accompanying materials are available at the site as well. (via Mike Rhode)
- April 1, 2009 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome to another edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn, Our special Guest this week is Rickey Purdin, who works as a Representative — Marketing Publications at DC. You may also know him from his previous stint as Entertainment Editor at Wizard Magazine, or via one of his two blogs.
Remember, we here at Shelf Porn can’t do it alone. We need your help. If you love feasting your eyes on the bookshelves of others, then take the time to consider a donation of your own. Perhaps you’ve been thinking about donating your pictures to Shelf Porn, but have just been too busy. Or tired. Well, there’s never been a better time than today! Just email your photos to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and we’ll send you absolutely nothing except for our thanks. Oh, and we’ll post your pictures here for everyone to see.
Speaking of which, let’s take a look at Rickey’s collection. What have you got to say about this stuff sir?
- April 1, 2009 @ 09:56 AM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways – Behind the Scenes – 05
Right, back to the nuts and bolts. Last time I talked about how I came up with the page beats. But what do you do with them then? Well, you write a script. It’s that easy, right? Well, kinda. You use the page beats to figure out how the pages will work out, but then you have to contend with the actual fitting of all your wonderful story to the script. I tend to take a pretty minimal approach to the actual scripting. Have you seen an Alan Moore script? Well, that’s not me. I got past that point in my work (and I didn’t start out as a cartoonist, which gives him a leg up, I suppose.) I put in my script that which I want to see on the page, and not a whole lot more.
Let’s look at page 1 of THE THIRSTY, not because it’s particularly wonderful (it actually makes for a pretty poor one page hook) but because it’s right at the start.
Here’s the page beat for it, as written up in my original outline:
Cedar Creek Inkeeper and husband fighting. Night, late. She’s cut him off and is berating him for being his own worst customer. He’s drunk, telling her he doesn’t have to take that from his wife, that she should be a good wife, give him what he wants. She says she’s a good wife and is giving him what he needs. Douses him with a bucket of water and boots him out the door. He reels, drops to the ground. Don’t come back ‘til you dry out, she warns.
- April 1, 2009 @ 09:22 AM by Matt Maxwell
The first thing we do, let’s fire all the writers
Tom Brevoort
Noticing a decline in comments on his Marvel blog, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort bravely asks: “If you were given the power to make a single change at Marvel to make things better, what would it be? This can involve story, creators, personnel, direction, anything — but you only get one. What would it be?”
A lot of the responses are what you’d expect when readers play fantasy publisher: fewer “big events,” more reprints, lower cover prices, fewer X-titles, revive certain characters or concepts.
But it takes just three posts for commenters to begin setting their sights on … the writers.
- April 1, 2009 @ 08:54 AM by Kevin Melrose
Not April Fools: Art for ‘Planetary #27′ pretty much done
from Planetary #27
Warren Ellis posted on his blog today that the artwork for the long-delayed Planetary #27 is complete, except for the cover:
While I was in London
getting bladderedbeing a responsible writer yesterday, I got an email from DC Wildstorm to tell me that John Cassaday was, apparently without warning, uploading the complete art for #27 into their FTP space.I now have those pages on my computer. #27 is all done sans the cover.
I’m a bit
hungover still pissedtired right now, and haven’t looked at them all, but maybe I’ll leak a panel or two tomorrow.
Noting that today is April 1, he updates the post with some artwork, or “a tiny bit of proof” that he isn’t yanking your chain.
- April 1, 2009 @ 07:13 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Astronauts in Trouble: Live from the Moon
Publishing | Ada Price marks the 10th anniversary of AiT/Planet Lar with an interview with publisher Larry Young. [PW Comics Week]
Publishing | Publisher Kurt Hassler discusses the state of affairs at Yen Press. [Tiamat's Reviews]
Creators | Writer Garth Ennis talks up The Boys and his relationship with publisher Dynamite Entertainment: “It’s a good deal with good money and total creative freedom, but how it works day to day is with everyone simply doing their job to the best of their abilities. Knowing that the publisher will support the books 100% and that the editorial team are dedicated to keeping them snafu-free, that removes a lot of worry from the equation.” [PW Comics Week]
Creators | Jim Davis recalls three decades of Garfield, Inc. [Daily Record]
Retailers | AJ and Ben Trujillo, co-owners of Star Clipper Comics in St. Louis, discuss Watchmen, and the future of the industry — specifically, digital comics. “[W]e are seeing larger and larger numbers of younger customers who just get scans off the web, from peer-to-peer sites,” Ben Trujillo says. “They’ll say something to the effect of, ‘Oh, well, I’ll do that to see if it’s something I’m interested in, and then if I like it I might subscribe to it or buy the trade [paperback].’ So, it’s definitely something that we’re seeing an impact of. What the ultimate effect is going to be on comic retailers is … unknown. [laughs] I don’t think anyone has a clue.” [Student Life]
Retailers | The Beguiling‘s Christopher Butcher live-blogs his monthly order from Diamond’s Previews catalog. [Comics212, Part 1 and Part 2]
Art | Ben Templesmith walks through the cover process for IDW Publishing’s Dracula. [The Ben Templesmith Blog]
- April 1, 2009 @ 06:48 AM by Kevin Melrose