2009 May
Obama Cover Watch, Day 122
Greatest American Hero(es)
Yesterday Arcana Comics released the third issue of their Greatest American Hero mini-series, which featured the above variant cover. The book joins a never-ending list of books that have featured President Barack Obama on their cover, from Amazing Spider-Man and Savage Dragon to Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli and My Neighbor Taro-kun.
- May 21, 2009 @ 12:20 PM by JK Parkin
Tim Gunn as a superhero? Make it work!
"Models Inc." #1 variant cover
Easily the best part of Bravo’s Project Runway is Tim Gunn, who has served as the amiable and impeccably dressed mentor to the competing designers for the past five seasons.
Now just as the hit TV series moves networks to Lifetime, Gunn makes the leap to comic books in the pages of Marvel’s Models Inc., which debuts on Aug. 26.
The four-issue miniseries, by Paul Tobin and Vicenc Villagrasa, is set during New York Fashion Week as Millicent (Millie the Model) Collins becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a young set designer.
It’s up to Mary Jane Watson, Patsy Walker, Jill Jerold and Chili Storm to clear Millie of the crime.
But what will Tim Gunn do? The New York Times reports that in the second story of Issue 1, the 55-year-old Gunn dons Iron Man’s armor to save a fashion exhibit from evildoers.
He’ll even receive a variant cover, courtesy of Phil Jimenez.
Gunn, undoubtedly, will (ahem) make it work.
- May 21, 2009 @ 11:20 AM by Kevin Melrose
More from TokyoPop + Image on King City‘s return
Earlier this month Brandon Graham announced on his blog that King City, the first volume of which was published by TokyoPop, would return as an over-sized 12-issue comic series from Image Comics this August.
That first volume will be reprinted as the first six issues in the series, followed by six issues that would have made up the second volume. While it’s fairly common to see comics collected into trades nowadays, King City is essentially doing the opposite — starting as a collection and becoming a series. Not by design, of course, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Comic Book Resources spoke with Graham about the title (as well as his Oni title, Multiple Warheads). I followed up with TokyoPop and Image on the deal itself.
According to TokyoPop, this licensing deal came about because all three parties — Graham, TokyoPop and Image — really wanted it to happen. Image will manufacture, sell and promote the individual issues, while TokyoPop will direct the creation of the comic and retain graphic novel rights.
- May 21, 2009 @ 10:43 AM by JK Parkin
Thursday passes sell out for Comic-Con International
Comic-Con memberships
With just more than two months to go until the doors open on Comic-Con International, Thursday passes have sold out for the four-day convention.
Passes for Sunday, the only remaining day, hover at 78 percent as of this morning.
Four-day memberships for the July 23-26 event sold out in mid-March, followed by Saturday passes in early April, and Friday around April 20.
In 2008, Comic-Con completely sold out a little more than a week before the opening. The way things are going, it doesn’t look as if it will take that long this year.
- May 21, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Nominees announced for 2009 Manning Award
Stinky
The nominees were announced this morning for the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award, which has been presented at Comic-Con since 1982.
Named for the late Russ Manning, who created Magnus, Robot Fighter and illustrated such comic strips as Star Wars and Tarzan, the award is presented to an artist “who, early in his or her career, shows a superior knowledge and ability in the art of creating comics.”
This year’s nominees are:
• Gregory Baldwin, writer/artist of Path (published by com.x Ltd)
• Eleanor Davis, writer/artist of Stinky (published by RAW Junior/Toon Books)
• Leigh Kellogg, artist of Wayfarer’s Moon (Single Edge Studios)
• Lukas Ketner, artist of Witchdoctor (self-published)
• Christian Slade, artist of Korgi (published by Top Shelf)
The winner will be announced July 24 during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International.
- May 21, 2009 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Kim Krizan talks about Zombies 2061
Kim Krizan
She’s an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, an actress who has appeared in films such as Dazed and Confused and Waking Life, a former singer in an all-girl rock band, a creative writing teacher and an Anaïs Nin scholar. And now Kim Krizan can add “comic book writer” to her resume, having contributed three stories to BOOM! Studios’ Zombie Tales anthology that are being collected into one volume.
I spoke with Krizan, who wrote the films Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, about Zombie Tales 2061, which comes out in July.
JK: When you wrote the first short story that kicked off this trilogy, did you know you wanted to do more with it beyond that initial tale?
Krizan: I wasn’t thinking of anything beyond the first story, but I just naturally create dramatic endings, so I guess “Spring 2061″ lent itself to having a sequel and BOOM! asked me for one. I wrote another story and then Boom! asked for ANOTHER sequel, so I guess this could go on forever!
- May 21, 2009 @ 08:44 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Legal | The blogosphere begins to react to Christopher Handley’s guilty plea yesterday to possessing manga that contained “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children,” and mailing obscene material. Brigid Alverson and Dirk Deppey focus on the potential reach of the case.
“Do you own a copy of Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls, by any chance?” Deppey writes. “Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life and Other Stories? How about the infamous R. Crumb story ‘Joe Blow’? All of these comics feature characters under eighteen years of age in sexually explicit situations.”
Neil Gaiman, Gia Manry and Jyuichi also have some thoughts on the news. Expect much more reaction over the next few days.
Legal | Robin Rix looks at the legalities of a Toronto company refusing to print Adam Bourret’s autobiographical graphic novel I’m Crazy not because of its gay themes but because its sex scenes might make religious employees and clients uncomfortable. [Torontoist]
- May 21, 2009 @ 07:42 AM by Kevin Melrose
ACT-I-VATE Primer due this fall
ACT-I-VATE Primer
I seem to remember reading something about a potential anthology of work from the webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE, but I don’t think I’ve seen a formal announcement yet — unless an Amazon.com listing is considered an announcement.
In any event, it looks like IDW is putting out the ACT-I-VATE Primer in the fall. The book is due Oct. 29, and the site lists the contributors as Dean Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Michael Cavallaro, Mike Dawson, Simon Fraser, Michel Fiffe, Tim Hamilton, Ulises Farinas, Leland Purvis, Joe Infurnari, Roger Langridge, Molly Crabapple, John Leavitt, Pedro Camargo and Jim Dougan.
Haspiel, it appears, will have a new Billy Dogma story in it (which is, I bet, where we’ll see this), while Langridge says he’s doing a “Mugwhump” story set before the current strip started. According to Amazon, all the material will be new: “The ACT-I-VATE PRIMER is a PRINT EXCLUSIVE anthology by many of the Act-I-Vate creators none of the material in this book will appear on the Act-I-Vate website for at least one year from publication date.”
- May 21, 2009 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
Handley pleads guilty in manga obscenity case
Christopher Handley, a 39-year-old manga collector from Iowa, pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.”
He faces up to 15 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised released.
The Handley case began in May 2006, when customs agents reportedly intercepted a mail package from Japan addressed to Handley containing what they deemed obscene material, “including books containing visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, specifically Japanese manga drawings of minor females being sexually abused by adult males and animals.” Agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service obtained a warrant to search Handley’s Glenwood, Iowa, home, where they seized “additional obscene drawings of the sexual abuse of children.”
Handley was indicted in May 2007 under a federal law that prohibits the possession any visual depiction — including cartoons — of “a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that is obscene.”
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which in October 2008 became a special consultant for the defense, expressed disappointment over Handley’s plea.
“Because the set of facts specific to this case were so unique, we hope that its importance as precedent will be minimal,” Executive Director Charles Brownstein said in a press release. “However, we must also continue to be prepared for the possibility that other cases could arise in the future as a result.
“Mr. Handley now faces the loss of his freedom and his property, all for owning a handful of comic books. It’s chilling. The Fund remains unwavering in our commitment to be prepared to manage future threats of this nature wherever they arise. This is the unfortunate conclusion of Mr. Handley’s case, but it is not the end of this sort of prosecution. For that reason, the Fund stands steadfast in our commitment to defending the First Amendment rights of the comics art form.”
- May 21, 2009 @ 04:56 AM by Kevin Melrose
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn. It’s like the old Queen for A Day show, but with comics.
We’ve got a really special, nay, massive tour for today as author, editor, critic, cartoonist and all-around renaissance guy Jason Thompson has pulled back the curtain and allowed us to peek into his extensive manga, comics and rpg collection. I think you’ll agree he’s taken some rather creative steps in organizing and storing his collection in a relatively small space.
Is it time for him to possibly seek out … brrr … a storage center? I’ll leave that to you, dear reader to decide, as I hand the reins of this column over to Mr. Thompson:
- May 20, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Charlatan and the Jinjurverse
Charlatan: Preludes
Charlatan: Preludes
Written by Gil Lawson; Illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia
General Jinjur; $14.95
I don’t think I’m a superhero fan anymore. Not as a genre anyway. I still have my favorite Marvel and DC characters, but I’m fond of them because I grew up with them and want to keep reading about them. By themselves, costumed heroes aren’t enough to get me immediately interested in a new story. In fact, whenever I hear about a new superhero comic from a new publisher, I have a hard time paying attention. If the word “universe” is mentioned, I pretty much write it off. Isn’t it conventional wisdom by now that new superhero universes are an automatic fail anyway? No one but Marvel and DC has really been able to sustain one for very long.
I’m doubtful that the Charlatan universe (called the Jinjurverse by its creators) is going to be the one to break that pattern. There’s reason for hope in this first volume, Preludes, but history is against it and the book is flawed enough to make me skeptical about its chance of success. That’s too bad in a way, because there are also some very nice things about Preludes that make me want to see it do well.
- May 20, 2009 @ 01:59 PM by Michael May
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 073
Oh yes, don’t worry. There’s a MURDER MOON contest this week. Just keep reading.
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell
Man, that was cold. It’s like those vampires didn’t even care or anything.
Okay, the contest this week. After escaping the vampires of Drytown, Collins and the luckless driver make it to Cedar Creek. Collins is offered a drink when the dust settles. What does he want to drink? Protip: you can find the answer on this page. Send mail to me, that’s strangeways@highway-62.com and put “Murder Moon Contest” in the subjectline (hopefully the link does this for you already). Put the answer in the body of the message. Do this before midnight on Thursday. Then you’ll be entered in this week’s drawing. Winners announced on Friday.
If you want to catch up on the whole story, hit the archive page.
There’s some changes on the horizon for THE THIRSTY here. One of them will very likely lead to a slowed publication schedule. I’m not particularly pleased about it, but I can say that the updates will stay regular this way. After Chapter 3 finishes, there’ll be two updates a week and a third bonus feature on Fridays (which will also lead to the announcement of the MURDER MOON winner for the week as well.) There’s many other exciting developments that I can’t discuss yet, but let’s just say that I’ve seen what might be a little piece of the future, and it looks very promising (and very cool.)
See you on Friday.
- May 20, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Straight for the art: Matt Madden Mondays
Matt Madden advertisement
The Ephemerist has been doing a regular feature for a few weeks now titled “Matt Madden Mondays,” where they post some of the Odds Off author’s illustrations and early work. The latest selection is a collection of fold-em yourself minicomics jams he did with Walt Holcombe and Tom King back in the day. They’re rather NSFW though, which is why I’m not posting any of the art here.
- May 20, 2009 @ 12:15 PM by Chris Mautner
Slash Print | Following the digital evolution
Webcomics | Karl Kerschl says his webcomic The Abominable Charles Christopher could be coming to print this year. “I’m looking at printing quotes and schedules, and I hope to have something available by mid-summer,” he wrote on the comic’s blog.
Webcomics | MTV has started a new feature where they “take a look at comics that merit attention from filmmakers.” The first one focuses on the webcomic The Adventures Of Dr. McNinja By Chris Hastings.
- May 20, 2009 @ 11:32 AM by JK Parkin
With Marvel’s Reborn, will retail history repeat itself?
"July"
Speculation that began last month regarding the possible return of Steve Rogers in Marvel’s Reborn miniseries received a boost on Monday when Rich Johnston reported rumor of confirmation in the form of a Wizard solicitation.
Reborn, by Ed Brubaker and Bryan Hitch, debuts on July 1, but the contents of the five-issue miniseries have been guarded closely. Solicitations for the first two issues contain only the creative team, price, number of pages and the phrase “Solicit to be revealed soon.”
The publisher released a somber teaser (shown at right) a month or so ago, making a connection between Captain America and Reborn likely if not exactly certain. (There’s always a chance it’s a feint on Marvel’s part, I suppose.)
But while the rest of us have been lobbing I-told-you-so’s, pondering the mechanics of the character’s return, or wondering what will happen to current Captain America Bucky Barnes, retailer Brian Hibbs has been considering how the secrecy surrounding Reborn‘s contents will affect comic stores.
- May 20, 2009 @ 10:45 AM by Kevin Melrose