2009 July
Straight for the art | Detective Comics second printing cover
Detective Comics #854, which kicked off Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III’s Batwoman run, is getting a second printing with a new cover by Williams and colorist extraordinaire Dave Stewart.
Although it’s hard to find anything wrong with the book’s first cover, I like the fact that the star of the book’s co-feature, The Question, is featured this time around.
- July 8, 2009 @ 04:03 AM by JK Parkin
Unbound: Review: Family Man
Family Man
by Dylan Meconis
In Family Man, Dylan Meconis has created a convincing, historically accurate world peopled with characters who feel solid and real, the sort of people you would enjoy hanging out with after dinner and well into the night.
Except, maybe, during a full moon.
Set in 1768, Family Man follows the fortunes of Luther Levy, who was a theology student at the University of Gottingen, in Germany, until he learned the hard way that asking too many questions—and not being able to give the right answers—can get you in trouble. As the story opens, Luther has moved back to the family home, where he is creating a bit of hardship by occupying a room that could otherwise be rented out.
The Levys are an interesting family, blessed more with brains than money or social status. Luther’s father, Avner, is a Jew who converted to Christianity when he married Luther’s mother, Veronika. Avner is a clockmaker; he has filled the house with clocks, which all go off at different times, and he wanders through the story tinkering, adjusting, and delivering little lectures. Veronika is stuck in the role of enforcer, although her strictness is tempered with affection. Until recently, Luther has been the good son, going toward the church while his twin brother Johann took a more worldly path and became a merchant. Liesl, the baby of the family, is bratty and intelligent, indulged by the others but not taken too seriously.
Now Luther has lost the patron who was paying for his education, and he is looking at a rather grim career as a tutor when he meets Lucien, who is sort of a traveling scout for a rural university. This meeting doesn’t seem to be entirely by chance, and Lucien invites Luther to teach at the university. It doesn’t take much to persuade him.
- July 7, 2009 @ 06:25 PM by Brigid Alverson
Good Comics for Kids offers list of comics that ‘celebrate America’s cultural diversity’
Johnny Hiro, Vol. 1
The Good Comics for Kids blog, which is hosted at the School Library Journal website, has put together a list of comics that “celebrate America’s cultural diversity.” This is a follow-up to an earlier “summer reading list” they posted in June.
“Among the folks who responded to our Summer Reading List was a librarian who asked if we could compile a similar bibliography of titles featuring historically under-represented groups, a challenge we happily accepted,” wrote Katherine Dacey, one of the blog’s contributors. “Below are the results of our collective effort to identify comics and graphic novels that reflect America’s real cultural diversity. Some of these titles, such as American Born Chinese and Incognegro, address issues of race, religion, and discrimination head-on, while others, such as Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dodgeball Chronicles and Blue Beetle: Shellshocked, present diversity as a simple fact of American life.”
A lot of my personal favorites make the list, including American Born Chinese, Runaways, Cairo, Johnny Hiro and Static Shock: The Rebirth of Cool. If you’re looking for something to read this summer, no matter what age, sex, color, etc. you may be, you can’t go wrong with the choices on this list.
(Hat tip: David Gallaher)
- July 7, 2009 @ 05:30 PM by JK Parkin
This week: DC’s ode to Sunday comics, a house of horrors and more Obama
After Marvel’s big week last week with the debut of Captain America: Reborn, it’s only fair that DC claims this Wednesday with, well, Wednesday Comics, the highly anticipated homage to the Golden Age of the Sunday funnies.
DC’s Vertigo imprint chimes in, too, with Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel The Nobody.
Dark Horse is no slouch, either, with a hardcover edition of Pixu, by Becky Cloonan, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon and Vasilis Lolos, a Sinfest collection, and a new B.P.R.D. miniseries. And it’s not as if Marvel is sitting this week out: The Art of Marko Djurdjevic hardcover certainly stands out.
If none of those grab you — how could they not? — there’s still David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp, hardcovers of Rasl and Prince Valiant, plus, um, President Evil.
Come on, something there has to interest you.
To see what titles interest Chris Mautner, JK Parkin and me, just keep reading. And, as always, be sure to leave your picks in the comments below.
- July 7, 2009 @ 02:02 PM by Kevin Melrose
Take a tour of the Schulz Library
Shelf porn-hound that I am, I can’t stop looking at this tour of the Center for Cartoon Studies’ library. Dig those Punch volumes! (via Spurgeon)
- July 7, 2009 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Mautner
SDCC ’09 | Hotels, comic stuff and more
The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con is getting really, really close, with preview night kicking things off on Wednesday, July 22. That’s two weeks! If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I’ll run it here.
Also, today’s the cut-off day for hotel deposits, so it might be a good time to check for a room at that closer hotel you were aiming for but couldn’t get.
Hero House
Comics | Justin Aclin dropped us a note about two projects of his that will be available at the show. The first is the graphic novel Hero House from Arcana Comics. The book won’t be in shops until November, but attendees can get a copy early at the con. Justin and artist Mike Dimayuga will be at the Arcana booth to sign it as well.
Justin is also the head writer of Twisted ToyFare Theatre, and says the latest collection, Volume 10, hits comic shops on the first day of the show, with an introduction by Joe Quesada.
Comics | Scott Morse lists the books he’ll have at the show, including the fast-selling The Ancient Book of Sex and Science, and the two issues of Strange Science Fantasy he posted on his blog earlier this year.
Comics | SLG Publishing has posted a list of creators who will be signing at their booth during the show.
Comics | Artist Francis Manapul will have about 200 copies of his new art book at the show.
- July 7, 2009 @ 12:45 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | RASL #5 preview
from RASL #5
Cartoon Books has posted a preview of the next issue of Jeff Smith’s RASL, where the main character has a blackout and things get a little weird. The comic is due July 15, and as previously noted, will be the first 24-page issue.
- July 7, 2009 @ 11:45 AM by JK Parkin
Robot Reviews: You’ll Never Know Vol. 1
You'll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man
You’ll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man
by Carol Tyler
Fantagraphics Books, 104 pages, $24.99.
You’ll Never Know is, for good or ill, going to elicit a lot of comparisons to Maus. They’re both memoirs. They’re both about World War II. They’re both about the child-parent relationship, and they’re both about how the war changed the people who got caught up in it and continued to affect the generations that followed.
Yet while Tyler’s work, the first in a projected three-volume series, certainly deserves any accolades it receives, it’s a much different book — warmer, more overtly affectionate and more personal to a certain extent as well. Maus is a presentation, an eloquent statement, not just on potential of comics but on the staggering injustice of a mind-numbing horror. You’ll Never Know is more like the sort of tales told during a family reunion when the subject of the conversation has left the room.
- July 7, 2009 @ 10:49 AM by Chris Mautner
Paul Kupperberg shares a few bits & pieces of his unpublished JSA novel
JSA: Ragnarok
Writer Paul Kupperberg started a series of posts last August about JSA: Ragnarok, a novel he finished in 2005 about the Justice Society. It was supposed to be published by iBooks before it went bankrupt in 2006. Since then, he’s posted multiple excerpts from the book; check out additional ones here, here and the latest one here.
In that latest post, Kupperberg says efforts to get it into print still continue.
- July 7, 2009 @ 09:49 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Dustin Nguyen’s cover process
Cover thumbnails
Dustin Nguyen walks readers of his blog through the process he used to create the cover to Batman: Streets of Gotham #4. Nguyen says he usually works with the writer and editor to come up with a cover design; but for this cover, writer Paul Dini had something specific in mind:
This time around, Paul actually sent in a picture he took of himself holding a knife included with a video clip of an old b&w movie to give the perfect feeling of the characters mood and gestures. it was dead on what we wanted to get across i felt. but still, keeping things open, i tried a few other layouts. none was as effective as paul’s, and i knew it. so i went with #1.
The final cover can be seen here.
- July 7, 2009 @ 09:19 AM by JK Parkin
Mike Cope takes up the Schulz challenge
The other week I mentioned how Jean Schulz is matching ever dollar donated to the planned renovations for the Ohio State Cartoon Library and Museum. Now Canadian cartoonist Mike Cope wrote to let us know that he plans to take up the challenge by pledging $2 for every copy of his book “The Last of the Funnies” sells from now until March 2014. Look, he even made a promotional video about it:
Anyone else out there doing something similar? Let us know.
- July 7, 2009 @ 08:46 AM by Chris Mautner
Brian Vaughan makes cryptic ‘official statement’ about Lost departure
Brian K. Vaughan
With news breaking that Brian K. Vaughan was leaving überhit television series Lost, Robot 6 contacted the multiple Eisner Award-winning writer to ask one question: “Why?”
In an email response tagged with the subject, “My only official statement,” Vaughan said simply: “I can confirm that I left Lost to become best friends with Olivia Munn.”
He then linked back to an item posted this morning by Munn, co-host of G4’s Attack of the Show!
In the piece, Munn revealed that Lost show-runner Damon Lindelof publicly stated Vaughan had left the show for “greener pastures.” Lindelof made the announcement during a DocArzt Lost podcast posted on July 4.
In the piece, Munn shared that Lost show-runner Damon Lindelof publicly stated Vaughan had left the show for “greener pastures” during a Q&A session presented by Curzon Cinemas on July 3.
DocArzt & Friends Lost Blog posted the transcript the following day.
Munn goes on to theorize that the move might have been made so Vaughan can begin work on one of his movie projects that are in various stages of development: Ex Machina at BenderSpink, Y: The Last Man at New Line/Warner Bros. and his King Arthur movie Roundtable at Dreamworks.
Update: Corrected the source.
- July 7, 2009 @ 07:44 AM by Jeffrey Renaud
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Archie
Publishing | IDW Publishing is partnering with Archie Comics to reprint some of the earliest and most iconic Archie comic strips as part of the Library of American Comics imprint. The move was hinted at last week in the inclusion of an IDW executive on a list of participants in an Archie Comics panel at Comic-Con International.
The initial hardcover will collect original strips by publisher John Goldwater and artist Bob Montana. Additional Best Of volumes will showcase the work of such artists as Montana, Dan DeCarlo and Stan Goldberg. Craig Yoe also is set to edit a series of collections of the mid-’60s Archie superhero title Archie as Pureheart the Powerful and the offbeat Archie’s Madhouse. [press release, ICv2.com]
Publishing | Calvin Reid checks in with Vertical Inc., which has had to shift gears in the wake of the economic downturn. [Publishers Weekly]
Batman #692
Creators | DC Comics has announced that Tony Daniel will take over as writer and artist of Batman for six issues beginning in October. Daniel previously wrote and drew the Batman: Battle for the Cowl miniseries. [The Source]
Creators | Writer Nick Spencer discusses Existence 2.0, his new miniseries from Image Comics. [Comics Waiting Room]
Conventions | Heidi MacDonald provides an overview of Comic-Con International for a mainstream audience. [Publishers Weekly]
- July 7, 2009 @ 06:48 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Harry Bliss
Luke on the Loose
Harry Bliss makes comedy and storytelling work on many levels. How do I know? He crafted comedy out of my dry questions in this email interview. In all seriousness, I credit Bliss’ collaborations with Doreen Cronin (including 2003′s Diary of A Worm and 2005′s Diary of a Spider) as being a key catalyst (by tapping into my son’s sense of humor) in sparking an increased interest in reading for him. So when I found out about Bliss’ new book (for Françoise Mouly’s Toon Books), Luke on the Loose (“Luke looks on at the pigeons in Central Park, while Dad is lost in ‘boring Daddy talk’, and before you know it—LUKE IS ON THE LOOSE! He’s free as a bird, on a hilarious solo flight through New York City”, a story in which he handles both the writing and illustrating roles), I jumped at the chance to email interview him. My thanks to Bliss for his time–and to Ron Longe for his assistance in making this interview possible.
Tim O’Shea: You’ve worked with Françoise Mouly for years at the New Yorker–in terms of Luke on the Loose coming together, did she seek you out to work with the Toon Books imprint–or did you seek the publisher out yourself?
Harry Bliss: Francoise asked me to contribute to Toon Books and she is the publisher, so…
O’Shea: You’ve collaborated with several children authors, including Doreen Cronin, Kate DiCamillo, Alison McGhee and Sharon Creech. Were there any storytelling assets or lessons you took away from these collaborations?
Bliss: I learn many things from all the wonderful authors I’ve had the good fortune to work with over the years, mainly, how to integrate words and pictures. It’s really a dance, trying to pair up the text with the art, not simply illustrating the words, but to move the story forward visually. If something is not enriching the story/characters, then it needs to go. This was especially critical with Luke. The author and I went back and forth constant- wait, I wrote Luke! Sorry.
- July 6, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
That Rafael Grampá sure can draw, part II
Tito Nobunaga
Once again Mesmo Delivery creator Rafael Grampá teases the new book he’s working on with writer Daniel Pellizzari — Furry Water — with an illustration of one of the characters, Tito Nobunaga. The book and its publisher will officially be announced at the San Diego Comic-Con later this month.
- July 6, 2009 @ 01:54 PM by JK Parkin