Comic Book Resources

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Comic strips | The Washington Post isn’t the only newspaper taking a pass on the current Tank McNamara storyline: The San Diego Union-Tribune is putting the strip “on hiatus” for the remainder of the week — but only after running Monday’s installment, which depicted former Vice President Dick Cheney telling the NFL to kill Michael Vick. [Comic Riffs]

Publishing | Heidi MacDonald chats at length with Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds about the publisher’s past and future: “The book industry has been in a state of flux for at least a year or two years. I think that’s going to continue as everyone adapts to the larger challenges that print media is facing, and that’s going to affect anybody that publishes in print. It comes down to electronic delivery and the shrinking book market in general and just how you navigate these sorts of things. For instance, Amazon has been our #1 vendor for the last few years, but the Kindle is going to affect the way that they sell books. As they change, it’s going to affect how they buy and sell our books. Not necessarily bad things, but things that need to be considered and planned ahead for.” [PW Comics Week]

Publishing | Brian Heater spotlights Top Shelf Productions’ Top Shelf 2.0 webcomics initiative. [Appscout]

Comics | George Gene Gustines profiles Vertigo’s new Unknown Soldier series, by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli, which transplants the four-decades-old war-comic concept to 21st-century Uganda. “When we explore something at Vertigo, we want to explore something that has not been done before in comics,” says Vertigo’s Karen Berger. “The beauty of the series is that not only does it explore questions like do you fight violence with violence, it also explores how the people of Uganda have been affected by this way of life.” [The New York Times]

Digital comics | Writing for CNN, Cherise Fong wonders whether mobile comics represent the future of the artform. “The cost of print for comic books and graphic novels has gone up tremendously in the past few years, and many of these new artists simply cannot afford to compete with the big dogs who dominate the comic book stores around the country,” says Genus co-founder Melissa Pope. “Similar to what has happened with Web comics, we hope that mobile comics will become a place where new talent can be discovered.” [CNN.com]

Conventions | Todd Allen continues his Chicago Comic-Con report by using his purchases to provide a snapshot of the state of “convention buying.” Meanwhile, retailer Jim Baher shares his thoughts on the convention and the obstacles facing the new Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. [Chicago Comic-Con]

Retailing | Joshua Burton spotlights Lauderhill, Florida, store Tate’s Comics, recipient of the 2009 Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award. [Examiner.com]

Creators | Christopher Butcher has kicked off a spotlight on Evan Dorkin (with his permission), in which he’ll showcase the work of the cartoonist each weekday for the next year or so. [Comics212]

Creators | Sean Collins talks with cartoonist Peter Bagge and Jason about their contributions to Marvel’s Strange Tales MAX miniseries. [Marvel.com]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his three-part interview with Seth. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Johanna Draper Carlson chats with writer Jamie S. Rich about his noir mystery You Have Killed Me. [PW Comics Week]

Creators | Tobias Carroll rounds up instances of musicians crossing over into comics, and comics creators moving into music. [Jacket Copy]

Fandom | Photographer Kyle Cassidy took some terrific portraits of Worldcon attendees. [Flickr.com, via Neil Gaiman]