2009 June
Robot reviews: Clearing off the pile
A Mess of Everything
Like the subject line suggests, my review pile has become alarmingly tall and precarious over the past few weeks, so I’m going to try a few lightning-round reviews of books that were at the bottom so the whole thing doesn’t come crashing down on me over the weekend. I’ll probably end up doing another of these next week. Anyway:
A Mess of Everything
by Miss Lasko-Gross
Fantagraphics Books, $19.99.
A Mess of Everything, the second in Lasko-Gross’ planned autobio trilogy, is a much better and more confident book than her first entry, Escape from ‘Special’. Part of that is because she displays a bit more subtlety and balance in her portrayal of her teen-age years than she did in showcasing her insecure childhood. In particular, she shows how her alienation and hormonal angst blinded her to other people’s pain or sincere attempts at sympathy or help. A sequence involving a concerned teacher, for example, is spot on in showing how her self-pity keeps her from seeing how genuine the teacher’s concern is.
The book also works because halfway through it narrows its focus on the author’s relationship with her best friend, if anything a more troubled girl who is very likely suffering from an eating disorder. Everything suffers at times from a “me, me, me, me” perspective that can occasionally prove claustrophobic, but in its portrayal of the importance and tenuous nature of teenage friendships, it glows with sharp recognition.
- June 12, 2009 @ 12:07 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | endless Endless sketch collection
Death by Shawn McManus
Joëlle Jones points out the massive collection of Endless artwork Rob Casteel has collected and posted online. It includes artwork by … well, it might be easier just to the artists it doesn’t include. Go check it out.
- June 12, 2009 @ 11:14 AM by JK Parkin
More photos of the Silk Spectre action figure
Silk Spectre
Earlier this month, Hot Toys sent out a teaser image of their upcoming Silk Spectre action figure based on the Watchmen movie. The company has stated the figure will be approximately 30cm (12 inches) tall and sport 26 points of articulation. Ten new photos are now available on Hot Toy’s website. No release date has been announced yet.
- June 12, 2009 @ 10:32 AM by Stephanie Chan
Artist Ron Smith cleared of sexual assault charges
Judge Dredd, by Ron Smith
Former 2000AD and Judge Dredd artist Ron Smith today was found not guilty of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl in the 1980s.
Smith, 80, had been charged with five counts of rape, two counts of buggery and two counts of indecent assault. A 39-year-old woman in February accused him of raping her over a three-year period beginning when she was 13 years old.
Smith testified in his own defense on Thursday, saying, “I never touched her in any way or at any point.”
“I certainly never had sex with her and I did not rape her,” he told the court. “I did not even go near her, it just did not happen.”
Smith, whose comics career began in 1949 with Deed-a-day Danny, was a prolific Judge Dredd artist in the early to mid-’80s, and produced the daily comic strip for The Star.
- June 12, 2009 @ 09:34 AM by Kevin Melrose
Slash Print | Following the digital evolution
The Crooked Man
Webcomics | Corinna Bechko, one of the co-creators of The Crooked Man, says that she and artist Gabriel Hardman are working to turn their Zuda submission into a graphic novel. They placed fifth in the July 2008 Zuda competition. (Thanks David!)
Webcomics | Warren Pleece’s Montague Terrace has started running on the ACTIVATE website. You can also find all the pages at his blog. In other ACTIVATE news, the site also now includes a column by Tim Hall.
Twitter | T Campbell is twittering his thoughts on Crisis on Infinite Earths as he rereads the decades-old crossover series. “Praise, critique, and lots of snark ahead.” [Via The Beat]
e-Devices | The full audio of the South by Southwest interactive panel “Comics on Handhelds: Taking Webcomics Mobile” is now online. The panel features Dan Goldman, Rich Stevens, Douglas Edwards, Molly Crabapple, Dave Bort and Rantz Hoseley “in a let’s-sketch-out-solutions talk for transitioning webcomics to a variety of new petri dishes,” Goldman said.
- June 12, 2009 @ 08:45 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Judge Dredd, by Ron Smith
Legal | Former 2000AD and Judge Dredd artist Ron Smith testified yesterday, denying charges that he sexually abused a 13-year-old girl over a three-year period in the 1980s. “I never touched her in any way or at any point,” Smith, 80, told the court.
The alleged victim also testified, saying that Smith bought her books illustrating sexual techniques, and even “made her act out a mock rape scene” at knifepoint to prepare her for a real-life attack. Update: A jury has cleared Smith on all charges. [Get Surrey]
Retailing | Bookstore sales fell 2.6 percent in April, to $969 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | In a move that inches close to print on demand, Digital Manga Publishing is inviting readers to pre-order certain Juné yaoi titles that aren’t set to be published for a while. If those orders reach a certain level, DMP will release “early limited print” editions of the books, “even several months earlier if fan demand is high.” [Juné Manga, via Brigid Alverson, who has additional commentary]
- June 12, 2009 @ 07:38 AM by Kevin Melrose
Exclusive: Liefeld, Obama reactivate Free Agent in Youngblood #9
Free Agent
Image Comics sent over an exclusive look at the “flip feature” from Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood #9, which features President Barack Obama reactivating Free Agent to battle a terrorist cell in Afghanistan. Here’s the description they sent over of the story:
Youngblood #9 Free Agent joins War Effort!
The legendary Free Agent is re-activated by President Barack Obama! Flip-feature in Youngblood #9!
There has always been a Free Agent among us, fighting for the United States since the Revolutionary War! In Youngblood #9, the legendary Free Agent returns to action. Formerly having served as the patriotic freedom fighter, Die-Hard, Calvin Raines is re-activated as the Free Agent and dispatched into Afghanistan to battle a deadly terror cell.
The Free Agent made his first appearance in 2004, in the pages of Youngblood: Imperial, written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Marat Mychaels.
After the jump, take a look at three pages from the book …
- June 11, 2009 @ 07:02 PM by JK Parkin
Triple playmaker: an interview with Kurt Busiek
Grumpy Old Fan
Although I wrote quite a lot over the past year about DC’s weekly series Trinity, I kept coming up with questions that went outside the scope of my weekly notes. Fortunately, writer Kurt Busiek was nice enough to participate in the following e-mail interview, conducted after Trinity concluded (and after he returned from a well- deserved vacation).
We discussed the nuts and bolts of producing Trinity, its connections to a couple of Busiek’s other DC projects, a few nitpicky items, and what the year-long series leaves behind.
* * *
Continue Reading »
- June 11, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Is the ship sinking? A short conversation with Dan Nadel
Image from Powr Masters 3
With the economy still taking a tumble, many small comic book and graphic novel publishers are looking at alternative ways to get their titles out to the public. One of the more intriguing options was announced last month by author and PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel. Basically, in order to ensure that Powr Masters Vol. 3 by CF and Brian Chippendale’s If-n-Oof got printed and published, he asked fans and interested readers to pre-order the books. Those who did got the opportunity to recieve a silkscreen print or even a full-color drawing, depending upon how much money they gave.
It’s an interesting subscription-based model that we haven’t seen a lot of in the comics industry but may increasingly in the future due to Diamond’s raising the minimum order bar. I talked to Dan Nadel over the phone and he graciously discussed what prompted the idea and whether he plans on attempting similar plans for future titles. He also provided a glimpse into some of the books he’s currently working on, including a sneak preview of the sequel to his justly acclaimed Art Out of Time.
- June 11, 2009 @ 01:44 PM by Chris Mautner
“You don’t live to see tomorrow”
Invincible #63 teaser
Via their Twitter feed, Image Comics teases the next issue of Invincible, due next week. “Invincible is PIIIIIISSED! Did somebody kill a friend of his or something?! … Oh, wait …”
- June 11, 2009 @ 12:24 PM by JK Parkin
Brendan McCarthy’s Delinquent Jimmy Olsen
Delinquent Jimmy Olsen
Brendan McCarthy shares a “what might have been” moment — a comic he pitched to DC called Delinquent Jimmy Olsen. Click the link and go read about it; it sounds insanely cool.
- June 11, 2009 @ 11:36 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the Art: The return of 8-Opus
The Myth of 8 Opus: The Labrynth
Before he was deliniating Joe Casey’s fevered imaginings in Godland, artist Tom Scioli was writing and illustrating his own take on late-70s Kirby mythos with his Myth of 8-Opus series of comics. Now he restarting the series with a new graphic novel, The Labrynth, which will be coming out in August, and he’s got a 28-page pdf preview of the book here. You can also see a few sample panels on his Web site.
- June 11, 2009 @ 10:53 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the Art: Terrible Yellow Eyes
Ben Hatke's Sendak tribute
Terrible Yellow Eyes is a new art blog that asks a variety of talented illustrators and cartoonists to pay homage to the Maurice Sendak classic, Where the Wild Things Are. That’s Ben Hatke’s contribution above, one of several great pieces found at the site.
- June 11, 2009 @ 09:53 AM by Chris Mautner
Blowin’ in the wind: DC announces Red Tornado mini-series
Red Volcano
DC’s Source blog announced this morning that Kevin VanHook and Jose Luis are working on a new Red Tornado mini-series that will “shed new light on the true origins of the stalwart JLA member/android.”
And it looks like the Tornado won’t be the only elemental android appearing in the series. The Tornado lookalike above is Red Volcano, a new character designed by J.G. Jones. Volcano is part of “a new crew of characters” who will join the DC Universe when the company launches the mini-series in September.
- June 11, 2009 @ 08:50 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Dave Simons
Passings | Mark Evanier has word that comics and animation artist Dave Simons has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 55. Simons inked many Marvel titles in the 1980s, including Ghost Rider, Howard the Duck, The Savage Sword of Conan and Team America, and occasionally penciled for Marvel, DC Comics (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms), Eclipse and Now.
He moved into animation in the 1990s, working on such TV series as Masters of the Universe and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Artist Gerry Alanguilan also posts a remembrance of Simons. [News from ME, Komikero Comics Journal]
Quebecor World
Publishing | Global printing giant R.R. Donnelley has increased its offer for Montreal-based Quebecor World from about $1.3 billion to more than $1.5 billion. Quebecor, the largest printer of comic books in North America, filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2008. [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | This article by Danny Vincent provides an interesting picture of the comics industry in China: “Comic books are on the rise in China. But while the comic book fans are happy, the artists are not. Artists such as [Lu Ming] focus on selling work to international markets. But despite the injection of government funds, he said, they would struggle to compete with Japanese comics, which are saturating the market through the internet.” [The National]
- June 11, 2009 @ 07:59 AM by Kevin Melrose