2009 August
Straight for the art | The Spirit by Sean Phillips
The Spirit
Sometimes these art posts we do need a little extra context. Sometimes they don’t.
- August 27, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Follow the path of The Walking Dead using Google Maps
"The Walking Dead" Google Map
A fan of The Walking Dead has plotted out the events of the Robert Kirkman-Charlie Adlard zombie/survivalist series using Google Maps. Now you can follow along as Rick awakens from his coma, the survivors take (brief) refuge in Wiltshire Estates and assorted characters die or, yes, have sex.
No event is too small to escape this fan’s notice!
(via Image Comics)
- August 27, 2009 @ 09:37 AM by Kevin Melrose
Everyone’s A Critic: A roundup of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction
• Pop Matters has an interesting essay comparing Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series with the similarly themed Italian comic Dylan Dog.
As characters, they could be satanic siblings, or infernal in-laws: Hellboy, the Hades-born offspring of a witch and a demon; and Dylan Dog, in love with an undead woman who was likely his mother, and battling his nemesis, the devil, who could be his father. Despite their fantastic and often horrific circumstances, at heart each character is a working-class hero, just trying to get the job done.
• Sean Collins grapples with All-Star Batman and Robin: “The thing really is (to quote Grant Morrison’s Mad Hatter) very much cleverer than its rep as a goddamn-Batman meme generator would indicate.”
• Curt Purcell continues his ongoing look at the Blackest Night series and superhero decadence in general.
• Matthew Brady enjoyed Lamar Abrams’ Remake: “It’s pretty ridiculous stuff, but always funny.”
• Greg McElhatton declares Neil Kleid’s The Big Kahn “easily Kleid’s best work to date as a writer.”
• Brian Hibbs was shocked — shocked I tell you — to discover that Archie #600 was a fun read: “I mean, I’m certainly a “Betty Man”, and that makes a lot more sense to me than Veronica, but Mike Uslan’s script here is remarkably crisp, as well as filled with real drama and pathos.”
• Katherine Dacey on Ooku: The Inner Chamber: “For all its dramatic and socio-political ambitions, volume one isn’t nearly as daring or weird or pointed as it might have been. If anything, it reminds me of a BBC miniseries: it’s tasteful, meticulously researched, and a little too high-minded to be truly compelling.”
• Kinukitty reads the yaoi manga Black Sun and says “I can’t even think about this title without kind of flapping my hands and sputtering a bit.”
• Rob Clough reads and reviews more minicomics, something we all should do more of.
• The Daily Cross Hatch on Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit: “True enjoyment of this volumes ultimately seems to fall on a willingness to embrace the complementary sensibilities of ‘aw, fucking gross’ and ‘oh, fucking sweet,’ ”
• KC Carlson reviews Looking for Calvin and Hobbes by Nevin Martel, a book I was completely unaware of until now.
• Finally, Tim O’Neil has some thoughts on what makes The Thing so awesome.
- August 27, 2009 @ 09:12 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Harvey Awards
Awards | Tomorrow is the deadline for industry professionals to vote for the 2009 Harvey Awards. [The Harvey Awards]
Events | Stephanie Wright Hession previews the “Monsters of Webcomics” exhibit, which opens tonight at San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum. [SFGate]
Comics | Oliver Ho offers an in-depth comparison of Dylan Dog and Hellboy: “As characters, they could be satanic siblings, or infernal in-laws: Hellboy, the Hades-born offspring of a witch and a demon; and Dylan Dog, in love with an undead woman who was likely his mother, and battling his nemesis, the devil, who could be his father. Despite their fantastic and often horrific circumstances, at heart each character is a working-class hero, just trying to get the job done.” [PopMatters]
Creators | Editorial cartoonist Mike Lane is recovering from open-heart surgery. [Daryl Cagle]
- August 27, 2009 @ 08:36 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Ryan Kelly and the Spiders from Mars
Ryan Kelly draws David Bowie
- August 27, 2009 @ 08:05 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | A peek at Towle’s Oyster War
Oyster War by Ben Towle
More than a year ago Midnight Sun creator Ben Towle shared the name and description of one of his next projects, Oyster War, and I’ve been waiting patiently ever since. Over the last few days he’s been sharing artwork for the splash page, ending with the colored version you see above (and here). Go check out his blog for more sketches and process pieces related to the new book, which can’t get here soon enough.
Related: Towle’s artwork for his Amelia Earhart book will be on display in Winston Salem
- August 27, 2009 @ 06:56 AM by JK Parkin
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Age of Bronze: Betrayal, Part One
Age of Bronze, Volume 3A: Betrayal, Part One
Age of Bronze, Volume 3A: Betrayal, Part One
Written and Illustrated by Eric Shanower
Image; $17.99
I said a couple of weeks ago in What Are You Reading that I had mixed feelings about starting this book. On the one hand, I couldn’t have been more excited about visiting Shanower’s ancient Troy again. On the other, I knew that this would catch me up with the collections, giving me an impossibly long wait for the next one. Fortunately, the volume was enthralling enough to keep me from thinking about the lack of any additional Age of Bronze to follow immediately. At least while I was reading it.
Not that it’s without flaws. It feels sacrilegious to say after so thoroughly loving the first two volumes, but there were a couple of times in this one that I had a hard time connecting to what was going on in the story. Not because Shanower couldn’t find the emotional hook – he’s always brilliantly able to do that – but because I had a hard time figuring out the way a particular subplot supported the main story.
The biggest example of this is a long sequence about a king named Philoktetes who’s bitten by a snake during a sacrifice. It happens as the Greeks are camped on the island of Tenedos, their last stop before arriving at Troy. Over the next few days, as the poison begins to spread through the Philoktetes’ body, he’s in such pain that his screams and curses can be heard all over camp. It’s horribly distracting for High King Agamemnon and the rest of the army.
- August 26, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by Michael May
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Before we get started, a couple of links. First, our own Stephanie Chan found a great Japanese shelf porn site called Otacool, which appears to being trying to answer the question “How much Gundam is too much?”
On a similar topic, Chris Butcher posted pics of the manga section at Kinokuniya’s flagship store in Shinjuku. If you’ve got a hankerin’ for manga-flavored bookstore shelf porn, you’ll want to click on that link.
Moving on, our guest this week is Alice W. Lynch of Jonesboro, Arkansas, who goes by the handle DareDiva, for reasons that will become all too apparent as you read the rest of this post. In addition to making Braille T-Shirts, Alice is quite the craftsperson, having made a number of Daredevil-related quilts and other items.
Remember: to send pics of your own shelf porn, all you have to do is email me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet.
But enough of that. Let’s let Alice take us on a tour of her collection …
- August 26, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Smith debuts ‘Pekar Project’
The Pekar Project
Smith magazine has unveiled their latest Webcomics enterprise, the Pekar Project, which features a collection of stories written by the king of Autobio comics hisself, Harvey Pekar. Publisher’s Weekly has the details:
The Pekar Project features artwork by Tara Seibel, Sean Pryor, Joseph Remnant, and Rick Parker. Seibel first worked with Pekar in Cleveland for a year and a half on a strip called Rock City. Pekar began working with Remnant after Jay Lynch, an early underground cartoonist, recommended him. A recent School of Visual Arts graduate, Pryor worked with Pekar on a comic for the magazine Royal Flush, which is due out in October. And Parker illustrated a comic for SMITH’s Next Door Neighbor series, and was brought into the project by [editor Jeff] Newelt. “It was like assembling a band,” said Newelt of organizing the project. Parker continued the band analogy , “The songs are really about Harvey, and Jeff’s the band leader.”
The project will feature 20 complete stories that range from one-page strips to a 23-page story. The stories will run over the next three months. The Project will also feature a blog, interviews with the creators and behind-the-scenes clips.
- August 26, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
BOOM! solicits new Cars, Wall-E and Toy Story ongoings
Wall-E #0
BOOM! Studios’ November solicitations came out today and feature the launch of several new ongoing series in their BOOM! Kids line.
In addition to the previously reported The Muppet Show ongoing launching, BOOM! will also publish ongoing series for Cars, Wall-E and Toy Story, all of which start with a “zero” issue in November.
Alan J. Porter will continue to work on the Cars property, and he’ll also write Toy Story. They’ll feature art by Albert Carreres and Brett Schoonover, respectively. Wall-E, meanwhile, will be written by J. Torres with art by Morgan Luthi.
Check out some unfinal covers after the jump …
- August 26, 2009 @ 10:37 AM by JK Parkin
NBM teams with Panelfly for iPhone comics
Panlefly
NBM Publishing announced via press release yesterday a partnership with Panelfly to publish several of their graphic novels for the iPhone.
I’m not real familiar with Panelfly, but it appears to be an iPhone application that allows you to download comics within it (rather than each comic being a separate iPhone application). The application costs $1.99 to download, with single-issue comics costing 99 cents and graphic novels ranging in price from $3 to $10, (at least in terms of the titles listed on their iTunes page). Per the press release, NBM’s graphic novels will cost between $6.95 and $9.95.
“It’s clear this is the future where readers increasingly have a choice as to how they want to read their comics,” said NBM publisher Terry Nantier, “and we consider ourselves purveyors of graphic novels, not pushers of print publications. Any way you want a quality, engrossing novel-length comic, we’ll make that available, whether print or electronic.”
NBM graphic novels that will be added to Panelfly’s catalog include Brownsville, Flower and Fade, Unholy Kinship, Lindbergh Child and North Country. Panlefly also carries several SLG titles, like Rex Libris, Chumble Spuzz and Zombies Calling, as well as titles from Picturebox and Sterling Publishing.
- August 26, 2009 @ 10:01 AM by JK Parkin
Ted Kennedy dies … and Bluewater announces a biography
Political Power: Ted Kennedy
In what likely will be viewed as either extremely poor timing or a crass grab for cash, Bluewater Productions yesterday announced its biography of long-ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy mere hours before his death.
The 77-year-old Massachusetts senator was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May 2008, and lived longer than his doctors expected.
In a statement issued this morning, Bluewater President Darren G. Davis said the biography’s announcement “was in no way tied to the Senator’s declining health and ultimate passing.”
“When Bluewater planned out the first year of biographies, Kennedy’s name was always at the top of the list,” Davis said. “In fact, this issue has been in production since March and was solicited to retail shops through our national distributor in June. We will, of course, pay final respects to this American icon by adding a page to the completed issue to close the last chapter of his remarkable life.”
Set for release in November, the biography is part of the publisher’s Political Power series that has showcased such figures as President Obama, Vice President Biden, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and President Reagan.
In June, Bluewater announced a “special collector’s edition” biography of Michael Jackson just four days after the pop star’s death — a move that drew more than a few negative comments.
- August 26, 2009 @ 09:35 AM by Kevin Melrose
Marvel.com teases PSP comics + Motion Comics contest
Marvel.com posted a couple of videos yesterday related to two recent announcements about their digital comics efforts. First, here’s a sneak preview of the PSP Digital Comics service announced earlier this month:
Marvel also recently announced a partnership with a company called Aniboom, a “virtual animation studio” that will give animators “the opportunity to create unique motion comics based on comic book stories starring such renowned Super Heroes as the Hulk, Wolverine and Nova.” Basically it’s a contest where contestants create a Motion Comic based on a Wolverine vs. Hulk story or a Nova story. The grand prize is $10,000.
You can check out a promotional video about the contest after the jump.
- August 26, 2009 @ 09:01 AM by JK Parkin
Chris Ware’s charity robot T-shirt
Onward Robots!
Cartoonist Chris Ware has created a T-shirt that’s currently available at Woot.com’s T-shirt site to benefit 826michigan, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center in Ann Arbor. It also features a subject near and dear to our hearts.
The shirt is currently $10 with free standard shipping, and after today the price will go up to $15 if there are even any left. So order fast!
- August 26, 2009 @ 08:24 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Borders Ink
Retailing | Borders Group reported an 18-percent drop in revenue for the second quarter amid an overhaul that finds the chain moving away from the sinking music and DVD categories and embracing the growing young-adult, graphic-novel and fantasy markets. [Wall Street Journal]
Retailing | Agents with the Kansas Department of Revenue and Alcohol Beverage Control last week closed Agents Comics & Games in Wichita and seized the assets of Doc Timm LLC, reportedly due to nearly $60,000 in unpaid retail sales taxes. Personal assets of owner Tim Warren also were seized because of unpaid income taxes. The assets will be sold at auction. [Wichita Business Journal, via Journalista]
- August 26, 2009 @ 07:31 AM by Kevin Melrose