2009 July
Robot reviews: Asterios Polyp
Asterios Polyp
by David Mazzucchelli
Pantheon, 344 pages, $29.95.
Asterios Polyp is the type of graphic novel that causes critics like me to rub our hands together frantically and salivate. It’s full of all the juicy metaphors, re-occuring motifs and classical allusions that academics and reviewers alike go koo-koo for. Best of all, they’re all right up front and not hidden in the text, so you don’t have to do a lot of hunting around.
At its center, however, Polyp is a familiar and heartfelt tale of a man, who, halfway through his life, is faced with the realization that he is far from the wonderful person he thought he was and sets about trying to make things right.
- July 31, 2009 @ 03:45 PM by Chris Mautner
And her tears flowed like wine: Michelangelo Antonioni directs The Big Sleep
“Yes, and her tears flowed like wine
She’s a real sad tomato, she’s a busted Valentine
Knows her mama done told her, that the man was darn unkind”
When it came down to writing You Have Killed Me, style came before plot. Joëlle Jones and I knew we wanted to do a comic book that paid tribute to the private detective lore that we loved, but we had to decide how. No irony, no modern context, no gimmicks–we wanted to do it straight. But how straight was too straight? Where does homage become rip-off?
You Have Killed Me p. 83
Before I sat down to type a word, I had what could be called “the Hollywood pitch.” It’s that thing they do in the picture business, where everything is broken down into two comparable things and, by their combination, we can believe the new thing will be twice as successful as the old. I want to make Movie C, and it’s Movie A meets Movie B.
You Have Killed Me is Michelangelo Antonioni directing The Big Sleep.
- July 31, 2009 @ 02:15 PM by Jamie S. Rich
ComicsLive | A guide to upcoming comic-related events
Welcome to ComicsLive, a guide to upcoming signings, conventions and other comic-related events. Information on submitting your event can be found at the bottom of this post. I’m back this week after taking off last week because of the San Diego Comic-Con; check out the end of this post to see how you can submit your future event.
Tonight
Brooklyn | Mike Dawson, Ryan Dunlavey, Sarah Glidden and CBR’s own Brian Cronin will be at Rocketship starting at 8 p.m.
Aug. 1
Pittsfield, Mass. | The Storefront Artist Project kicks off the month-long The Art of Scott Hanna exhibit, which features all sorts of events in August with Hanna, Joe Staton, Timothy Callahan and more.
- July 31, 2009 @ 01:45 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: Murder Moon – Page 15
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna.
My, Grandma. What big OH MY GOD!
Commentary follows.
- July 31, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
The Fifth Color – TIMECRASH! October Solicitations for 2009
As a wise man once said, “Fool me once, shame on you…” Last month, HeroesCon sniped my preview review in the land of Spider-Man reveals so no! Oh no. Not this time. I waited, went to Comic Con and then came back to sit with you Dear Reader and get to the bottom of these little “TO BE REVEALED AT SDCC” notations. Classified info be damned! We’re gonna look at the big picture, no matter how lines we had to stand in (I mean, no matter how cozy and thorough the primetime CBR coverage was)!
Here it is, folks, October at the House of Ideas and we’re in for something mighty and massive.
- July 31, 2009 @ 12:49 PM by Carla Hoffman
SDCC Aftermath | Neil Kleid talks about San Diego
The Big Kahn
A couple of weeks ago I did a series of interviews with a few people who were heading off to Comic-Con International in San Diego. The first was with writer Neil Kleid, who was heading there to support his new book from NBM, The Big Kahn, as well as to meet with various comics and movie folks about possible future projects.
Neil survived his trip to Southern California, so I emailed him a few questions about his experiences there.
JK: Looking back at what you had planned for the con, you mentioned the main reason you were at the big con was to promote The Big Kahn. So how did the book do?
Neil: Really, really well. It’s weird — this was the first convention where I had folks (unknown folks, not pals and past readers) track me down to tell me they’d heard about the book, been told to find it and could they please buy a copy now please?
I’m not sure, numbers wise, how we did but I do know that I was signing pretty regularly, talking about the book and moving copies out the door. The greatest bit was when I was browsing around the Fantagraphics booth looking for new books and comics critic Tom Spurgeon approached me to congratulate me; he’d heard from Publishers Weekly editor Calvin Reid that Big Khan was the one book he needed to read he hadn’t heard of, that buzz was growing.
Okay, so first of all — Tom Spurgeon NEVER approaches me, so I was already thrown. Secondly, the buzz book nobody’d heard of? Man, I must be doing something wrong marketing wise. But secretly, I’m thrilled. I had fans, creators, critics AND celebrities track me down to buy copies of my books this weekend, and I guess after almost 10 years making comics, I’m doing something right with a book people want to read.
I hope it doesn’t suck, you know?
- July 31, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Another shot of 6th Gun
Promotional art for "6th Gun," by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt
Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt continue to tease their newly announced Oni Press miniseries 6th Gun with this terrific piece created last year “to convey the dark fantasy/high adventure feel of the series.” (Follow the link to see the full image.)
Bunn also provides an intriguing pitch for the supernatural Western: “During the darkest days of the Civil War, a band of cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of terrible power. Now, one of the weapons is missing, and the agents of darkness will stop at nothing to get it back.”
The full-color miniseries is set to debut in spring 2010.
- July 31, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Jon Adams cover for ‘My Dog Ate My Nobel Prize’
My Dog Ate My Nobel Prize: The Fabricated Memoirs of Jeff Martin
Truth Serum creator Jon Adams recently did the cover for My Dog Ate My Nobel Prize: The Fabricated Memoirs of Jeff Martin, which was featured in the New Yorker’s Well Titled, Well Covered feature.
- July 31, 2009 @ 10:15 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Broccoli?
by Roger Cruz
X-Men: First Class artist Roger Cruz posted several new images, mostly of Marvel characters, on his blog a few days ago, but this one featuring John Constantine and Swamp Thing took the, um, carrot cake?
- July 31, 2009 @ 08:48 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | A peek at Leandro Fernandez’s debut on Northlanders
Art from "Northlanders" #21, by Leandro Fernandez
Writer Brian Wood unveils some of Leandro Fernandez’s beautiful art for Northlanders #21, the start of “The Plague Widow” story arc. Fernandez is probably best known for his work on Punisher MAX, Wolverine and Queen & Country.
“It’s been blowing the minds of everyone at DC,” Wood writes. “I selected these pages very carefully so as not to give too much away, but his storytelling is 100% perfect and the entire mob/riot scene at the end is truly chilling. Gonna be a great arc.”
Northlanders #21 goes on sale Oct. 28.
- July 31, 2009 @ 08:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Twilight
Conventions | Retailer Christopher Butcher, organizer of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, surveys the comics-convention landscape and wonders where the comics are. He also comments on the Twilight “controversy” at Comic-Con International: “… The 10,000 Twilight fans at the con really were a problem for the show, but a lot of the reasons that got floated came from a sexist, xenophobic, bullshit fanboy place. I actually feel bad even writing this, but truly, legitimately, 6,000 people at the show just for Twilight means 6,000 people that weren’t spending money at the show means 6,000 people that might’ve wanted to go that had an interest in dropping a few bucks at the various vendors? Shut out.” [Comics212]
Publishing | Where have all the great comic-book hucksters gone? [Comiks Debris]
- July 31, 2009 @ 07:49 AM by Kevin Melrose
Never mind Comic-Con, here are the DC Comics solicitations for October 2009
Grumpy Old Fan
We aging superhero fans have a reputation for being stuck in the past, but I’m looking back at what I wrote last year about Comic-Con, and … well, 2008 looks a whole lot more exciting by comparison.
Last year, DC announced Neil Gaiman’s Batman story, Flash: Rebirth, new spotlights on the Milestone and Red Circle characters, the revamped Supergirl (which helped set up the “New Krypton” mega-arc), and a Zatanna ongoing series. While we’re still waiting on Zatanna, I think it’s safe to say the rest have each been pretty important to DC in one way or another.
This year, though? Pretty quiet. Oh sure, there were new Flash and Justice Society titles announced, plus the integration of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents into the DC lineup and Astro City going monthly. These are all noteworthy, and I do not mean to diminish any of them. I’m just saying that overall, they don’t make as big of a splash. I thought DC’s Comic-Con news would overshadow last week’s October solicitations, and it kinda didn’t.
Therefore, let’s try to sort it all out.
- July 30, 2009 @ 03:07 PM by Tom Bondurant
Jamie S. Rich | Shelf Porn!
A couple of years ago, Matt Fraction started a Flickr pool where comics professionals took photos of their work desks and posted them. It was then, looking at all of these images of neat and clean surfaces, that I discovered that most people working in comics are liars. Okay, that in itself is a lie, I already knew that. I was an editor long enough to hear every excuse a cartoonist could invent. (“How many grandmothers do you have, and why do these old ladies keep changing apartments? It’s the third time you’ve had to ‘help move’ in six weeks!”) Lying about why your work isn’t done isn’t necessarily the same as lying in every day life, though, and so posting photos of your work space that were dishonest and staged was a whole other thing as far as I was concerned.
Desk after desk was spotless, immaculate, the very height of order and organization. Yeah, right. Just like I wore that nice shirt and had my cowlick pasted down every day I went to school, not just yearbook day. Pull the other leg, Swifty, that one gives milk.
I know those scumbags all cleaned up their desks and then took the picture. I know that, as a species, comics creators are dirty, sloppy, scatterbrained louts. No way do they keep a clean desk! So, I took pictures of my desk as it was every day, a paper and pen version of a trailer park after a tornado.
You know, just like it is now:
- July 30, 2009 @ 02:04 PM by Jamie S. Rich
Straight for the art | Cliff Chiang’s SDCC sketches
Bigby and Snow White
Artist Cliff Chiang shares several sketches he did while at the San Diego Comic Con last week, including Zatanna, Argent, Bigby and Snow White (above), Adam Strange and Green Arrow.
- July 30, 2009 @ 12:50 PM by JK Parkin
This just in: Christopher Niemann is awesome
Nieman's 'I Confess'
I’ve long been an admirer of illustrator. designer and children’s book author Christopher Neimann‘s work, though I realize I haven’t been quite aware of jut how clever and inspired his work often is. The above image, for example, comes from an extended comic on his working methods that manages to be self-deprecatingly funny and informative at the same time. I’d also recommend checking out his blog on the New York Times. His latest entry, Masters of the Universe, uses voodoo dolls to crack jokes about his OCD. Why hasn’t anyone thought of collecting this stuff in a book yet?
- July 30, 2009 @ 11:50 AM by Chris Mautner