2009 August
Straight for the art | Spongebob Superteam!
Spongebob Superteam
Artist Paul Conrad shares a piece he did for the Spongebob 10th Anniversary Celebration issue of Nickelodeon Magazine, which imagines Spongebob Squarepants and company as if they were drawn by Jack Kirby.
- August 13, 2009 @ 10:56 AM by JK Parkin
Your YouTube video of the day: Hans Rickheit at home
Poet and filmmaker Chad Parenteau visited cartoonist Hans Rickheit at his Philadelphia home and talked to him about his upcoming graphic novel, The Squirrel Machine. (via Flog)
- August 13, 2009 @ 10:10 AM by Chris Mautner
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A publishing news round-up
• That Freak Brothers Omnibus that came out last year must have done pretty well, because Knockabout Comics has announced Fat Freddy’s Cat Omnibus. Clocking in at 368 pages, cost $29.99 and will be available in North American stores early next month. Need a little bit more background? Here’s the press release:
Fat Freddy's Cat Omnibus
Fat Freddy’s Cat began life as a footnote strip to the Freak Brothers and later appeared in many comics of his own. He is often to be found sleeping on the unfortunate Fat Freddy’s head. His constant battles with the never ending army of roaches out for world domination drive him to distraction, as does Fat Freddy’s never-ending failure to feed him or empty his kitty litter box. As a result of this, his main hobbies seem to be shredding Fat Freddy’s water bed and any other items he can sink his claws into, and finding places to leave surprise poop packages for Freddy to discover. This cat has variously gone travelling to Mexico, saved the world from alien invasion, and worked as a government agent in Washington trying to save the world from the “hee hee hee” drug. He has 3 nephews of unknown origin. He tends to regard the Freak Brothers with a fair bit of contempt, but despite the odd separation he always seems to hook back up with his inept roomies.
• Tom Spurgeon pulls back the curtain on the table of contents for this year’s Best American Comics collection, edited by Charles Burns. That’s a pretty impressive line-up.
- August 13, 2009 @ 09:40 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Becky Cloonan draws Namor for Strange Tales
from Strange Tales #3
Yesterday we learned that Becky Cloonan is one of several creators contributing to the third issue of Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology, and over on her blog she reveals she’ll be doing a four-page tale featuring the Sub-Mariner — a tale she wrote, drew, colored and lettered.
- August 13, 2009 @ 08:46 AM by JK Parkin
Playboy gets graphic with Vertigo Crime, Inglourious Basterds
"Filthy Rich" (top), and "Inglourious Basterds"
Come for the articles, stay for the comics! Playboy.com has extensive previews of the first titles from Vertigo’s new crime line — Filthy Rich, by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos, and Dark Entries, by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell’Edera — and an adaptation of a scene from Quentin Tarantino’s movie Inglourious Basterds, drawn by Scalped artist R.M. Guera.
The two Vertigo Crime graphic novels hit shelves on Aug. 19. Inglourious Basterds opens in theaters on Aug. 21.
- August 13, 2009 @ 08:12 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Superman #1
Legal | A blog comment by publisher Denis Kitchen has led to another victory for the heirs of Jerry Siegel in their lengthy legal battle with Warner Bros. and DC Comics over the rights to Superman. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Siegels co-own the rights to Action Comics #4, pages 3-6 of Superman #1, and the first two weeks worth of Superman comic strips. The same judge decided in March that the Siegels own half of Action Comics #1 and, therefore, half the rights to Superman. [Blog@Newsarama]
Publishing | Tokyopop has announced it will serialize several of its original series online for free. Titles include Psy-Comm, Undertown, Kat & Mouse, Pantheon High and Gyakushu. [press release]
Publishing | Marc Mason, editor of Comics Waiting Room, has been hired to handle public relations for NBM Publishing. [NBM Publishing]
- August 13, 2009 @ 07:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: The Atheist, Volume 1: Incarnate
Antoine Sharpe: The Atheist
The Atheist, Volume 1: Incarnate
Written by Phil Hester; Illustrated by John McCrea and Will Volley
Desperado; $15.99
I had dinner recently with someone and I mentioned that I was reading The Atheist. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “There was some controversy about that title, wasn’t there?” I don’t remember the controversy itself, but I do remember an interview or something in which Phil Hester felt the need to explain the name of his book. He does it again in the introduction to the collected volume. What’s surprising, I think, is that it’s not conservative religious people who were complaining this time.
Hester writes, “I thought The Atheist was a snappy, if somewhat jarring, hook of a title. It seemed to perfectly describe Mr. Sharpe’s uncompromising brand of skeptical thinking and just plain old sounded cool. Of course, I should have considered that this title might cause readers to infer the book would have some stance, pro or con, on the atheist world view, and that some atheists would take offense at their views being fodder for a horror comic book.” He also says that he’s dropping the title on any potential future volumes.
I bring this up because I remember being jarred by the title when the first issue came out. I remember wondering whether the book would take a stance on atheism and whether it would be pro or con. This was one of the first books I read where Hester was writing but not illustrating it, so I didn’t know what to expect. But I also remember reading it and being relieved that atheism really wasn’t what the book was about at all.
- August 12, 2009 @ 08:25 PM by Michael May
Send Us Your Shelf Porn
It had to happen eventually. Eventually I knew someone would send in a collection too huge, too shocking, too mind-blowingly audacious to be contained in one simple Shelf Porn post.
It happened this week with one Will Morelli. Will has, shall we say, a rather vast collection of toys and action figures that he described rather succinctly:
I just recently finished getting my study set-up after my wife and I moved into our new house. I have been collecting both comics and figures since I was a kid. The black file cabinets that you can see in some of the pictures have my comics collection.
There’s simply no way I can feature all of Will’s collection here (well, and not be up all night and have the resulting post take one hour for you to load on your computer). All I can do is provide a tantalizing sample. To get the full effect of Mr. Morelli’s shelf porn. you’ll have to see his PhotoBucket slide show here. It’s … well, just go look at the pics and then click on the link. I think you’ll be stunned.
- August 12, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: Murder Moon – page 20
Believe it or not, my favorite page in all of chapter one is this one:
Art by Luis Guragna. Written by Matt Maxwell.
Find out why after the jump.
- August 12, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Elementary, my dead Watson
Victorian Undead
Austin over at Wildstorm’s The Bleed blog posted the above teaser image earlier today under the heading “Victorian Undead” featuring what appears to be a zombiefied version of Sherlock Holmes. Using my own detective skills, I’ve determined this is the variant cover for the first issue of a comic called Victorian Undead.
(OK, it was in the file name — “victorian_undead1_varcov.” Which could be a ruse. But what isn’t a ruse is that Tony Moore drew the cover, and it’s due in November.)
- August 12, 2009 @ 12:20 PM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
The Hunter
• Dan Nadel offers a devastating — and as far as I can tell, the only — negative review of Darywn Cooke’s The Hunter (which, by the way, has gone back for a second printing already). Lemme quote a bit here:
Even if I’m wrong and Cooke’s reading is utterly faithful, this adaptation doesn’t work very well as a comic book. Cooke’s character design is strangely generic, his storytelling is often unclear, and his drawing, while polished and stylish, is dull. Parker looks like a generic sort of Bruce Wayne, with a face and body language that betrays not a hint of an inner-life. Panel-to-panel and particularly page-to-page Cooke has a difficult time clearly conveying where a scene is occurring and what, precisely, the action and emotions are that he’s trying to draw.
He goes on to use John Stanley as a point of comparison, which befuddles some folks in the comments section.
- August 12, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Salgood Sam’s Dream Life
Dream Life
Artist Salgood Sam shares some pages from a project called Dream Life he’s working on. You can read more about the project here.
- August 12, 2009 @ 10:04 AM by JK Parkin
Is the big-budget Spider-Man musical no more?
The Amazing Spider-Man #50
The $45-million Spider-Man musical may be in bigger trouble than everyone thought.
Reports circulated last week that work on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark had been put on hold while producers tried to overcome “cash-flow obstacles.” Despite those problems, a spokesperson maintained that the show would begin previews on Feb. 25, and open sometime in March.
But today the New York Post’s Michael Riedel reports, with some glee, that Spider-Man‘s actors “have been released from their contracts, with no incentive (i.e., money) to hang around waiting for the production to get back on track.”
He also writes that ticket agents are scrambling to get deposit refunds for clients who booked early previews.
The musical, directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, has yet to announce who will play the lead role. Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming are set to play Mary Jane Watson and Green Goblin.
Riedel places the blame for the troubles on “the inexperience of its producers,” and a gargantuan budget that reportedly would require the 1,700-seat theater to sell out every show for five years for the production just to break even.
- August 12, 2009 @ 08:56 AM by Kevin Melrose
Isotope accepting submissions for best mini-comic
Isotope Award
James Sime, owner of Isotope Comics in San Francisco, has put out the call for submissions for the 2009 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. Submissions are due Oct. 1 and will be presented at Isotope’s annual APE Aftermath bash on Oct. 17, in conjunction with the Alternative Press Expo.
“It’s our seventh annual award, and I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be especially lucky and help discover an amazing new talent this year,” Sime said. “In 2009 one mini-comic creator’s career will be forever changed, so fire up your xerox machines and get ready to submit your minis.”
Judges for this year’s competition include Sime, Top Shelf co-publisher (and usually the guest bartender at the Aftermath party) Brett Warnock, comics journalist/critic Tom Spurgeon, librarian and former Eisner judge Eva Volan, and comics writer/retailer/librarian Kirsten Baldock.
Entry to this competition is five copies of your mini-comic sent to Isotope’s address — 326 Fell St., San Francisco, CA 94102 — before the Oct. 1 deadline. The winner will be contacted in advance and must be present at the Isotope at 9 P.M. on Saturday, Oct. 17 for the award presentation ceremony.
“I consider each year’s winner of this award to be the Isotope’s Miss America for the year and always love helping to get their work under the noses of the entire industry,” Sime said. “Oh… and speaking of which, don’t forget to place your pre-orders for two previous winners of this award, who both have new original graphic novels coming out this September, Danica Novgorodoff’s Refresh, Refresh from First Second and Joshua Cotter’s Driven By Lemons from AdHouse Books.”
Other previous winners of the award include Rob Osborne, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, Jonas Madden-Conner and Max Riffner.
- August 12, 2009 @ 08:30 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Tank McNamara
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]
- August 12, 2009 @ 08:13 AM by Kevin Melrose