2009 August
Straight for the art | Sam Hiti’s Dynamic Duo
Batman & Robin by Sam Hiti
Artist Sam Hiti, who also drew these kids books on ancient civilizations, shares a cool drawing of Batman and Robin.
- August 24, 2009 @ 10:11 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Thierry Martin’s Spirit
Thierry Martin's Spirit
Check out this great cover Thierry Martin did for a French Spirit magazine that’s coming out in 2010. (via the Ephemerist. Yes, again)
- August 24, 2009 @ 09:41 AM by Chris Mautner
Afghan manual uses comics to give election pointers
Who says comics can’t help change the world? Here’s a 25-page manual designed to help teach the Afghan people about the recent election process, the candidates and the issues at hand. Why doesn’t someone do something like this for the health care debate? (found via Boing Boing)
- August 24, 2009 @ 09:05 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Wowio
Publishing | Wowio, the struggling digital publisher purchased last year by financially troubled Platinum Studios, was sold last month to a holding company formed by Platinum President and COO Brian Altounian. No information is provided about what effect the sale will have on debts owed by Wowio. [Flashback Universe, via Comics Worth Reading]
Publishing | DC Comics Publisher Paul Levitz discusses graphic novels, pricing, digital comics and an industry in transition: “You’re transitioning away from, for lack of a better term, the homespun period of the business. When you had a very small section of graphic novels in the comic shop it was very easy for the proprietor to bet on anything that happened to be in the catalog. It doesn’t matter whether I know anything about the writer, or the artist, you got a good little blurb. When you go to a world in which the large publishers are sending you out a galley version of the graphic novel six months in advance, and is announcing on the back cover the five-step marketing program that they’re doing for it, it’s a lot harder for the little guy who’s launching it from home to do it. Is there still room for a Cartoon Books to do Bone? Sure. But Bone succeeded because it was the combination of really brilliant creativity by Jeff, and a very well-run small business by Jeff and Vijaya.” [ICv2.com]
- August 24, 2009 @ 08:14 AM by Kevin Melrose
What are you reading?
The Complete Peanuts: 1973-74
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is the esteemed critic and blogger Robert Clough. Rob is probably best known for his contributions to the seemingly now inert Sequart.com, though you can find most of his recent reviews on his blog, High-Low.
To see what Rob and the rest of us are reading, just click on the link below …
- August 23, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Your Mileage May Vary: Batgirl #1
All summer, we’ve been wondering about the identity of the new Batgirl. And now we know, thanks to Batgirl #1, which just came out. Naturally, everyone has something to say about the issue.
It probably goes without saying that the following links and excerpts contain spoilers.
- August 22, 2009 @ 08:42 PM by Melissa Krause
First look at the covers for The Anchor #2
Anchor #2
Anchor #2
Yesterday CBR posted a preview of the first issue of BOOM! Studios’ new title The Anchor, and today we follow it up with a look at the two covers for issue #2 by series artist Brian Churilla. Issue 2 will be in the September edition of Previews.
- August 22, 2009 @ 10:05 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Astro City: Astra Special #1 cover
Astra #1
I thought this cover for the first issue of the upcoming Astro City: Astra Special was pretty striking when it first popped up on Wildstorm’s The Bleed blog in July, but I really love what Comicraft did to make it look like a magazine. Very cool.
The book comes out at the end of September.
- August 22, 2009 @ 08:59 AM by JK Parkin
Blogging to benefit the CBLDF
Chad Nevett, who blogs over at Comics Should Be Good! and writes reviews for CBR, is participating in a blogathon on his other blog, GraphiContent, to raise money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
He kicked it off earlier today and will post something every 30 minutes for 24 hours. His theme for the day is the Avengers work of Brian Michael Bendis, and he reread a whole bunch of comics in preparation.
So go leave him a comment and cheer him on, and don’t forget to donate a little something to the CBLDF today.
- August 22, 2009 @ 08:30 AM by JK Parkin
ComicsLive | A guide to upcoming comic-related events
Welcome once again to ComicsLive, a guide to upcoming signings, conventions and other comic-related events. Information on submitting your event can be found at the bottom of this post.
Today
Cleveland | Claudio Sanchez of the band Coheed and Cambria and writer of Amory Wars and the upcoming Kill Audio will sign at Carol & John’s Comic Book Shop from 2 to 3 p.m.
Los Angeles | Nick Simmons will sign copies of Incarnate #1 at Golden Apple Comics from 1 to 3 p.m.
Ojai, Calif. | Opening reception for the Sergio Aragones art exhibit at the Ojai Valley Museum. This event is sold out, but the art exhibit runs through Oct. 4.
Orlando | The Mini MegaCon kicks off at 10 .m. and runs through Sunday. Guests include Darwyn Cooke, Jeff Parker, Chuck Dixon, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Dick Giordano and many more.
Pittsfield, Mass. | The Storefront Artist Project hosts Todd Dezago from noon to 2 p.m. for a class on “Story Structure and the Language of Comics,” followed by a signing at 3p.m. by Howard Cruse.
San Francisco | The San Francisco Zine Fest kicks off at 11 a.m. and runs through tomorrow at the County Fair Building.
- August 22, 2009 @ 08:01 AM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color – TIMECRASH! November 2009 Solicitations
Our pal, the EEK in charge Joe Quesada has been very clear with us that Dark Reign won’t last out this year (God, willing, the creek don’t rise and shipping schedules don’t fail us). At SDCC’s Cup O’ Joe he was asked this pretty directly and all on the panel sort of nodded calmly to the inevitable fact that whatever madness that got Norman Osborn to be in charge of national security would be put away by the end of 2009.
I know, direct, huh? Not exactly like our extravagant exaggerators and hold-out experts to just give us a timeline and shrug as they’ll meet you at the finish line. Where’s the panache? The bells? The whistles? The hows and whys and hey, look. November’s solicitations. Maybe we’ll find some answers here, at the second to last month of year when it all ends for Dark Reign.
- August 21, 2009 @ 03:24 PM by Carla Hoffman
Get a first look at Smallville‘s grim-and-gritty ninth season
From "Smallville," Season 9
Entertainment Weekly‘s Michael Ausiello has the first look at the trailer for what appears to be a very dark Season 9 of Smallville. Metallo, the iconic “S,” a scene-chewing Zod — it’s all there.
The new season debuts Sept. 25 on The CW.
- August 21, 2009 @ 12:03 PM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Adrian Tomine covers the New Yorker
Tomine's new New Yorker cover
Yeah, I think the subject line says it all. (via D&Q blog)
- August 21, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Bono, Edge continue to plug bankrupt Spider-Man musical
Someone needs to get on the phone and let Bono and The Edge know that their Spider-Man musical done lost all its money and ain’t gonna be happening anytime soon. Cause they’re still plugging the blasted thing over at The Guardian:
“We don’t really like musicals,” the Edge said. “Most musicals are really pants. They’re really not very cool.” Instead, they suggest people use a much more cool term: opera. “It touches on opera, it touches on rock’n'roll … It is much more like opera than a straight musical.”
[snip]
“We made one rule for ourselves,” the Edge said. “That we would never have Spider-Man singing. A guy singing in tights can’t happen.” That’s not the case for love-interest Mary Jane, to be played by Evan Rachel Wood, or for the “extraordinary” – and as-yet unannounced – female villain. But even if Spider-Man might not be singing, it seems likely his alter ego, Peter Parker, will warble a rock aria or two. And yet theirs is not the typical Peter Parker, according to Bono. Parker “[is] not [quite] Kurt Cobain, but a kind of slacker, a more kind of shy sort of guy,” he said.
See, now I was feeling kinda sad that the show had gone south until I read that quote. Now I’m glad it failed. (via Topless Robot)
- August 21, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Shadow of the … Squid?
Once Upon a Dark Knight
deviantART user genesischant, whose The Phantasmal Four illustration I linked to before, has another cool one up that he’s labeled “Once Upon a Dark Knight,” which I guess imagines what would have happened if a squid had come flying through young Bruce Wayne’s window on that fateful night. Ah, if only Thomas Wayne had been a fisherman …
- August 21, 2009 @ 09:10 AM by JK Parkin