2009 August
Congrats to Jennifer de Guzman on her ‘own little parasite’
Congratulations to SLG Publishing’s editor-in-chief and Robot 6 contributor Jennifer de Guzman and to her husband and artist Brian Belew — Jennifer announced on her blog that she is pregnant.
“Yes, I have my own little parasite,” she writes. “Thus, my Comic-Con sketchbook theme this year. Tommy Kovac’s sketch for me is a perfect image of what I’ve felt like for the last 14 weeks. (Making a person is hard. Who knew?) Working the convention while three months pregnant was challenging, to say the least.”
- August 6, 2009 @ 10:13 AM by JK Parkin
Batman: “I’m not into top 40″
This video of various cosplayers at Comic-Con listening to “Imma Be” goes on a little too long … ok, a lot too long. But if you’ve ever wanted to see an old guy dressed as Batman dancing to the Black Eyed Peas, this is the video for you:
- August 6, 2009 @ 10:01 AM by JK Parkin
IDW previews the ACT-I-VATE Primer
Loviathan by Mike Cavallaro
ACT-I-VATE and IDW have now officially announced the ACT-I-VATE Primer I mentioned back in May, and have even posted a 17-page preview that features a page from each of the stories.
The ACT-I-VATE Primer is an anthology of stories by creators from the webcomics site, including Joe Infurnari, Roger Langridge, Mike Dawson, Nick Bertozzi, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Simon Fraser, Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt, Mike Cavallaro, Pedro Camargo, Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park, Ulises Farinas, Michel Fiffe, Maurice Fontenot, Jennifer Hayden and Leland Purvis.. The collection is due in October and will include a foreword by Warren Ellis.
- August 6, 2009 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Let me tell you how I got these scars … pushing for health care reform
Disturbing thing, innit?
As you’ve no doubt already seen, the above Obama/Joker mash-up has been making the rounds lately; it’s been posted up on placards and utility poles in Los Angeles and gotten the attention of quite a few bloggers.
According to Politics Daily, it also got the attention of radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who found the comparison apt:
- August 6, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Tumor
Publishing | Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov explains the decision to syndicate his graphic novel Tumor on Amazon’s Kindle: “The Kindle represents a seamless method to purchase and read content. You buy the book, and it magically appears on your screen a second or two later. The playing field becomes quite a bit more even. People will still be drawn to bigger authors or titles, but, for the people who want to seek out your work, they actually can. The same can’t be said of most comic shops, or, for that matter, most bookstores. In effect, by removing the physical commodity, we’ve opened up the marketplace to endless options. It’s no longer a question of whether to stock Batman OR Tumor, because they’re both there, all the time, waiting to be downloaded. [The X-Change Files]
Publishing | In response to reader complaints, Tokyopop has upgraded the paper stock on its books. [About.com]
Bokurano: Ours
Publishing | Deb Aoki speaks at length with Hideki Egami, senior editor of Japan’s IKKI, about the manga magazine’s new North American counterpart, Viz Media’s SigIKKI.com: “We have a slogan for IKKI, something like ‘We are still at the dawn of the manga era.’ This kind of explains our philosophy. The spirit of this tagline is that the dawn is still approaching; meaning that if you assume that the history of manga will continue for 200 years or longer, we are still at the very beginning.” [About.com]
- August 6, 2009 @ 08:08 AM by Kevin Melrose
Transportation glitch leads to delay of some comics to West Coast stores
Diamond Comic Distributors
Retailers who receive their comics from Diamond’s Los Angeles distribution center found themselves short as many as 16 titles this week.
An email to store owners attributes the problem to “transportation delays,” and gives Aug. 12 as the new ship date.
The books range from Marvel’s Agents of Atlas #9 and Dynamite Entertainment’s The Boys #33 to DC Comics’ Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! #4 and Image Comics’ Pax Romana trade paperback. However, Marvel takes the brunt of the blow, with 12 of the 16 affected titles.
In the email, Diamond assures retailers that, “Additional extras for many of these products will be available for a longer period of time to allow for any damage and shortage replacements of these late arrivals.”
The full list of delayed titles can be found after the break:
- August 5, 2009 @ 06:53 PM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: What Looks Good for October
The Black Coat: Or Give Me Death
Time again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for interesting new adventure comics.
AAM Markosia
Kong: King of Skull Island: I remember looking at the single issues and putting them back, but I don’t remember why. Was I waiting for the trade? Did I not like the art? I suspect it was the latter, but I’m unsure enough that it might be worth flipping through a copy of this when it hits stores.
Ape
The Black Coat: Or Give Me Death #1-2 Double-Sized Issue: It’s nice to see this mini-series relaunch after stalling out a couple of years ago. I’ve enjoyed the Black Coat one-shots they’ve put out in the meantime, but I’m very much looking forward to some longer adventures of my favorite Colonial-era revolutionary/monster-fighter.
Archaia
The Devil’s Handshake: I don’t seem ever to get tired of stories about treasure hunters. Especially ones set in the jungle and featuring hidden pyramids. Thank you, Archaia, for feeding my need.
- August 5, 2009 @ 02:42 PM by Michael May
DC and Marvel pass on Chicago Comic-Con but stake out space at C2E2
C2E2
Although neither Marvel nor DC Comics will exhibit this weekend at Chicago Comic-Con, both publishers have confirmed they’ll have booths at the first Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) in April 2010.
In a press release issued this afternoon, C2E2 organizers announced Marvel and DC will have 2,500-square-foot booths at the inaugural event, equal to their floor presence at New York Comic Con. Both conventions are owned by Reed Exhibitions.
Other publishers confirmed for the show include Avatar Press, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse, Image Comics, Oni Press, Radical Publishing, Random House, Top Cow and Top Shelf.
C2E2 will held April 16-18, 2010, at McCormick Place in Chicago.
- August 5, 2009 @ 02:29 PM by Kevin Melrose
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where its not the size of the shelf, but what you’ve got on it. Our guest this week is Alex Swindle, who, as you can tell by the photo above, is quite the Batman fan.
Remember, we’re always on the lookout for awesome collections. Whether you’re devoted to manga, Batman or the Golden Age v ersion of the Red Tornado, we want to hear (and see) about it. Send any and all photos and tour descriptions to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet.
In the meantime, click on the link below to see more of Swindle’s Batman-inspired shelves and here his thoughts on them.
- August 5, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: Murder Moon – Page 17
Art by Luis Guragna. Written by Matt Maxwell
Commentary after the jump.
- August 5, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Jamie S. Rich | From page to page, plan to heist
You Have Killed Me
by Jamie S. Rich, with art by Joëlle Jones
The comic book creative process is a mysterious, fascinating thing to both fans of comics and non-fans alike. People always want to know how a writer/artist team works. What comes first? The images or the words? How much detail does the writer demand in the script? How involved is the artist in plotting?
So, to clear some of this up, I decided to pick a four-page sequence from the middle of You Have Killed Me and show you the script pages side by side with the final art.
When planning a job, there are only a handful of basic steps. We begin with the germ of the idea, which generally gets discussed between Joëlle and I before I move on to Step 2, which is basically laying down notes. I am not a heavy outline guy, nor do I create detailed synopses. Usually I just keep a running computer document full of ideas that I can pull from whenever I need to. That also includes stuff that I might put into my Moleskin and then transfer to the computer. Later notes will usually be put into the script itself, either as a space marker or ahead of the last page I’ve written.
- August 5, 2009 @ 11:45 AM by Jamie S. Rich
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A publishing news round-up
Sample Nancy strip
• Eric Reynolds has posted the official press release regarding Fantagraphics plans to publish Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy:
According to Co-Publisher Gary Groth, who inked the deal, Fantagraphics has contracted to publish the first 24 years of Nancy dailies, beginning in 1938 (when Nancy took over the strip from its former star, Fritzi Ritz) through 1961. “If the demand is there,” Groth noted, “we will of course want to continue into the 1960s and beyond, if for no other reason than to run all those great ‘hippie’ Nancy episodes. But we’ll cross that bridge in 2016 when we finish publishing the books we’ve contracted for.”
Kim Thompson will be editing the series. Each volume will contain four years worth of dallies and be designed by Jacob Covey. The books will be 8″ x 8″ in flexibound format and retail for $29.99. Daniel Clowes will pen the introduction to the first volume. There’s lots more info to discover in the link, including the news that Fanta will print an expanded version of Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik’s seminal 1988 essay, “How to Read Nancy” next spring.
- August 5, 2009 @ 10:27 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
I apologize for the lack of a roundup yesterday, and the lateness of today’s installment, but I’ve been without a properly functioning Internet connection.
Fighting American #3
Publishing | Plans by Dynamite Entertainment to revive Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s 1950s superhero Fighting American appear to have unraveled after Simon announced he rejected the publisher’s proposal. He claims he only learned that Dynamite had moved forward with the project after reading a Comic Book Resources report from Comic-Con.
An attorney for the Kirby Estate disagrees with Simon’s version of events, saying the creator had been informed of, and had approved, negotiations from the “very beginning.” However, out of respect for Simon’s wishes, the Kirby Estate will no longer participate in the Fighting American revival. [Simon and Kirby blog, Newsarama]
Marvel
Publishing | Although Marvel Entertainment’s second-quarter profits dipped slightly, primarily because of lower licensing revenue, it still beat its estimates for the three months ending June 30. The company earned $116.3 million, or 37 cents per share, for the quarter. Sales in the publishing division were flat at $31.7 million. On a related note: The Globe and Mail looks at how Marvel and Hasbro are ratcheting up the number of toy tie-ins for the Iron Man movie sequel. [Yahoo! Finance, ICv2.com]
Publishing | Drawn & Quarterly has extended its deal with cartoonist and author Lynda Barry to include two new works: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book: Picture This, and a prose novel called Birdis. [The Comics Reporter]
- August 5, 2009 @ 10:20 AM by Kevin Melrose
Evan Dorkin still loves you, Beth Cooper
Evan Dorkin art from I Love You, Beth Cooper
Although the movie didn’t last long in theaters, the original book I Love You, Beth Cooper, I understand, is supposed to be pretty good. Over on his blog, Evan Dorkin posts a few comic pages he did for the re-release of the novel that accompanied the theatrical bomb. He’s also giving away copies of the book.
“How to win: It’s easy! Tell me why you chose to not see I Love You, Beth Cooper. Or, tell me why you did see it (!?!), and let us know what you thought of it. Be honest, it wasn’t my movie, the project’s been very kind to me but I have nothing to do with the film, so it can go screw a sailor as far as I’m concerned,” he wrote. “I’ll pick a few folks to send a book to based on the replies and my capricious whims.”
- August 5, 2009 @ 09:58 AM by JK Parkin
‘Paper Heart’ star teams with Paul Maybury for ‘post-apocalyptic-type of thing’
Splash Page reports that actress Charlyne Yi, star of the love story/fake docu-drama Paper Heart, is working on a comic book with artist Paul Maybury.
Oni Press will publish it, which Yi says is “about a post-apocalyptic-type of thing where a girl’s going to save the world against the devil.” She adds that the main character “kind of looks like me, only cooler and stronger and tougher and sexier.” You can see the interview with Yi about the book below.
- August 5, 2009 @ 09:27 AM by JK Parkin