2009 June
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
From Z-Cult's website
Piracy | Comic-book torrent tracker Z-Cult FM has announced it’s shutting down, less than two years after it complied with demands from DC Comics and Marvel to remove links to pirated copies of copyrighted work.
“After Marvel and DC tried to sue us, we decided to remove those [links to] comics,” administrator Serj says, “then every other publisher started sending us e-mails so we removed those too. In end we were left with a tracker but not many torrents on it.” [TorrentFreak]
Publishing | Tom Spurgeon has word that art director Arlene So has been let go from Wizard. Just last week it was reported that Darren Sanchez, vice president of production and circulation, had been fired, while photographer Dylan Brucie had quit. [The Comics Reporter]
Publishing | Tokyopop’s John Parker briefly discusses the publisher’s plans and performance, and the state of the manga market. [ICv2.com]
Conventions | There’s a lot of coverage from this weekend’s MoCCA Festival in New York City, including recaps from Sandy Billus, Sean Collins, Geekanerd (with a photo gallery), Brian Heater and Heidi MacDonald. Much, much more undoubtedly will follow. [MoCCA]
- June 8, 2009 @ 07:50 AM by Kevin Melrose
What are you reading?
Essential Man-Thing Vol. 1
Welcome to What Are You Reading Our guest this week is the blogger and critic Noah Berlatsky.
Click on the link to find out what Noah and the rest of us are currently reading. And don’t forget to tell us what you’re reading too in the comments section.
- June 7, 2009 @ 10:45 AM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Week of 6/1
This week in THE THIRSTY: The vampire Master de Medina tightens his clutches on Cedar Creek and sets his sights on his blood relative, the vampire hunter Joachim!
My guess is now that the secret’s out, one of them won’t be long for this world. And I bet I got a good handle on things.
Western horror after the jump!
- June 7, 2009 @ 08:00 AM by Matt Maxwell
Talking with Ryan Dunlavey about M.O.D.O.K.
Dark Reign: M.O.D.O.K.
Earlier this week Marvel released a Dark Reign tie-in on their Digital Comics Unlimited service that features the comedic adventures of M.O.D.O.K. The four-part online series will be collected into a one-shot in September.
To chronicle the triumphant return of everybody’s favorite big-headed super villain to his brand new hometown (wha?), Marvel enlisted creator Ryan Dunlavey, co-creator of the Action Philosophers and Comic Book Comics series.
My thanks to Ryan for agreeing to this interview on all things M.O.D.O.K.
JK: How did you get the gig at Marvel?
Ryan: Ask any publisher who their dream creators are and the answer is always the same handful: Moore, Ditko, Steranko… and DUNLAVEY. It’s been well documented that Marvel has been after me for years — everyone knows that Bendis chump was Marvel’s second choice for Ultimate Spider-Man after I turned them down. I finally got annoyed with them constantly pestering me so I took some time out of my busy schedule drawing low-selling non-fiction humor comics and restocking cans of beans at the local bodega to write and draw M.O.D.O.K. for them.
But really, I just begged Fred Van Lente to get me a job there. Every day. FOR YEARS. He was originally going to script the M.O.D.O.K. story, but when it got green-lit he got too busy writing Spider-Man and Halo and all that, so I made the leap from mere co-plotter to full-on writer, in addition to being the penciller, inker, colorist and letterer because I’m greedy. And poor.
- June 5, 2009 @ 02:44 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Friday wrap
1) Yes it’s late. This has not been my best week. I’ll beg forgiveness but can’t apologize for real life.
2) The winner of this week’s contest is E Jurgensen, hailing all the way from yahoo.com. Congratulations, sir. My agents will be in contact with you regarding the address to send your copy of MURDER MOON to.
3) I clearly don’t have enough to do. When I’m not fumbling deadlines, I’m trying to arrange a home for the collection of THE THIRSTY. My bets is that it’ll be the venerable Highway 62 Press once again. Of course, this is only possible due to the hard work of the artists involved, Gervasio/Jok and Luis Guaragna, both of whom have informed me that artwork should be completed this summer.
4) Busily assembling artists for the third book, tentatively entitled THE LAND WILL KNOW (one of about four working titles that I call it, depending on which one I happen to remember at any given time.) I think that all the stories, and it’s an anthology, have artists attached. Or I have a large enough pool of artists that all the stories will be covered, depending on how you wish to look at it. I’ll preview them in the coming weeks, here and over at my blog. Gervasio and Jok will return for a story entitled “Dry Heart”, which if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll remember as what would’ve been issue #7 of the STRANGEWAYS series. Not that it ever got solicited, mind you, but that was the plan. It looks a little like this:
Script by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok. Please don't be confused, this isn't part of THE THIRSTY, though you might be forgiven for thinking so.
5) Just for you readers of THE THIRSTY, I’ve made up a short mixtape over at 8tracks.com. Perfect for reading alongside your favorite western/horror series that isn’t HIGH MOON. Give it a listen, why don’t you?
6) I clearly need minions. Anyone have any minions for sale or hire?
- June 5, 2009 @ 02:35 PM by Matt Maxwell
Strange Tales MAX to debut in September
Strange Tales Max #1
This one’s been in the making for quite a while, and now just in time for MoCCA, Marvel has released details on its upcoming anthology of independent comics creators. Announced by Heidi at The Beat earlier today, Strange Tales MAX is a three-issue miniseries that kicks off in September. Contributors to the first issue include Paul Pope (who is doing the cover), Peter Bagge, Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt, Junko Mizuno, Dash Shaw, James Kochalka, Johnny Ryan, Michael Kupperman, Nick Bertozzi, Nicholas Gurewich and Jason.
Other creators whose work has been previewed in past months, like Paul Hornschemeier and Jim Rugg, must be contributing to subsequent issues.
You can get a glimpse of Shaw’s “Dr. Strange vs. Nightmare,” and read the full press release, after the break:
- June 5, 2009 @ 01:19 PM by JK Parkin
If you’re going to MoCCA: A quick Robot 6 guide
The 2009 MoCCA Festival poster, illustrated by Molly Crabapple
Sadly, I won’t be able to attend MoCCA this year, mainly because, to use the vernacular of the Big Bopper, “I ain’t got no money, honey.”
It’s a shame too, since it looks like it’s going to be a banner year, con-wise. Below is a list of things I’d try to buy and do if I were going. Feel free to take what advice you feel applies to your own sensibilities, assuming you happen to be in the Big Apple this weekend.
- June 5, 2009 @ 12:28 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Screw magazine covers
Guy Gonzalez cover for Screw
“Dirty” Danny Hellman has started a new art blog that you’ll definitely want to bookmark, albeit in the comfort of your own home, since it’s devoted to art that graced the cover of Al Goldstein’s prono mag, Screw. A number of noteworthy cartoonists did covers for the magazine at one time or another, including Peter Bagge, Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb and Wally Wood.
- June 5, 2009 @ 11:49 AM by Chris Mautner
100-page preview of Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection
Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection
HarperCollins has posted the first 100 pages of Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud
“I remember when Understanding Comics was first published in 1993 and Kitchen Sink sent me to a trade show to promote it. We’d sent out mailings, we’d taken out ads, but the best promotion for the book we ever did was simply handing out a thousand copies to retailers,” McCloud writes on his blog. “Covers sell comics. Ads sell comics. But nothing sells comics better than the comics themselves.”
- June 5, 2009 @ 10:50 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Knight and NCS
Keith Knight's NCS suggestions
Keith Knight attended the National Cartoonists Society’s annual convention and has some notable and worthwhile suggestions on how to make the event better.
- June 5, 2009 @ 09:53 AM by Chris Mautner
Looks like Batman and Robin are getting a little competition
Batman and Robin #4 cover
DC Comics has released the cover art to Batman and Robin #4, the new series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely that took the world by storm this week with the release of its first issue. The cover shows the new (dynamic?) duo who appeared on a preview image at the end of the first issue. Since I’m always wrong when I start guessing who might be under the mask, I’ll leave that to you guys …
- June 5, 2009 @ 08:50 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
MoCCA
Conventions | Don’t miss Robot 6′s guide to nearly 50 comics making their debuts this weekend at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival in New York City. [MoCCA]
Conventions | Florida Supercon opens this morning in Miami, featuring creators such as Chris Claremont, Dough Mahnke, Tony Moore, Dick Giordano, Greg Horn, Tony Bedard and Clayton Henry. [Miami Herald]
Sales charts | The top of The New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller appears to be stuck in a loop as The Dark Tower: Treachery, Watchmen and Negima! Vol. 22 once again hold to No. 1 spots in the hardcover, paperback and manga categories. There’s at least one item of interest, though: Marvel’s Anita Blake: The Laughing Corpse, Book 1 — Animator, in the running for the week’s most cumbersome title, enters the hardcover chart at No. 4. [ArtsBeat]
- June 5, 2009 @ 07:52 AM by Kevin Melrose
An early glimpse of Morrison and Murphy’s Joe the Barbarian
From "Joe the Barbarian," by Grant Morrison and Sean Gordon Murphy
At DeviantArt, artist Sean Gordon Murphy reveals a stunning two-page spread from Joe the Barbarian, his Vertigo collaboration with Grant Morrison that the writer describes as “Home Alone meets Lord of the Rings.”
“I’ve wanted to do one of those Narnia-style worlds in a wardrobe-type stories but I didn’t want to do it until I had the energy and time to do it,” Morrison told Comic Book Resources in March. “It’s about a little kid who has diabetes, which makes you hallucinate if you don’t take your medicines. And something happens to him in his home.”
Murphy writes that in the above image, “The kid is in a dream state where he’s seeing all his toys come to life as they’re fleeing their village after an attack. It’s fun to create generic characters based off of existing characters, but to change them just enough to avoid legal problems.”
A quick glance reveals (obviously) Batman and Robin, plus dead ringers for The Transformers, the crew of the Enterprise from The Next Generation, G.I. Joe, Dick Tracy and … M.A.S.K. (?), among others.
You can see more pages here and here.
(via Sean Witzke)
- June 5, 2009 @ 05:42 AM by Kevin Melrose
A guide to this year’s MoCCA Festival debuts
The 2009 MoCCA Festival poster, illustrated by Molly Crabapple
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival in New York City is always a prime venue for independent publishers and creators to premiere new works.
But I didn’t realize just how many choose MoCCA for that purpose until I was putting together this post on books that will make their debut this weekend at the Lexington Avenue Armory (68 Lexington Ave.).
While this list certainly doesn’t cover all of the debuts, it does include nearly 50 graphic novels, comic books, minicomics and sketchbooks. Plus, I’ve tossed in links to a few signing schedules.
It will, I hope, at least provide a starting point for attendees as they head into the armory Saturday morning:
- June 5, 2009 @ 04:51 AM by Kevin Melrose
Plan 9 From The 1983 Comic-Con, or Are You Smarter Than A DC Writer?
Grumpy Old Fan
DC Challenge! was a 12-issue limited series which ran from the summer of 1985 through the summer of 1986. According to the text pages in issue #1 (cover-dated November 1985), inspiration struck Mark Evanier late on the Friday of the 1983 Comic-Con, while he and a few colleagues socialized on the roof of San Diego’s Executive Hotel. They would do a “round-robin” story, with each writer taking a different issue,* and each building on his predecessors’ work.
The result was a shambling, shaggy heap of a story which is perhaps best remembered for its principles than its execution. I’m not sure what good it would do to describe the plot, or even to try and discern it. Regardless, for reasons not always related to its merits, DC Challenge! is worth a second look.
SPOILERS FOLLOW, for whatever that’s worth.
- June 4, 2009 @ 03:39 PM by Tom Bondurant