2009 September
Robot Reviews: Sweet Tooth #1
Sweet Tooth #1
Sweet Tooth #1
by Jeff Lemire
Vertigo, 32 pages, $1
(Here there be spoilers. Boo!)
First thought: Man, does Lemire’s line work look good in color. For the first issue Jose Villarrubia loads the comic with varying shades of ochre and brown, the only vibrant color being the bright red of the main character’s plaid shirt. Normally I’d loathe such a muddy coloring choice, but it works really well with Lemire’s scratchy linework, giving the characters and setting a solidness I hadn’t felt in his previous books.
- September 2, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Production resumes on financially troubled Spider-Man musical
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
It looks as if word of the death of the Spider-Man musical may have been premature.
Multiple media reports have “modest” work resuming today on the $35-million Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which halted production in early August because of cash-flow problems on the part of lead producer Hello Entertainment.
But Variety notes that the Broadway show, directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, “isn’t quite out of the financial woods yet.”
“Not everyone who was working on Spider-Man has been called back to work, it’s said,” writes Gordon Cox, “which some point to as an indication that while producers have gotten hold of some of the cash needed to capitalize the massive tuner, not all of it has yet been secured.”
As we reported yesterday, the rest of the cash isn’t likely to come from Disney, which on Monday announced plans to purchase Marvel Entertainment. Instead, the New York Post’s Michael Riedel says, the funding could come from the pockets of Bono’s wealthy friends.
“Bono’s too smart to put his own money in the show,” Riedel writes, “but word on the street is that he’s tapped into his vast network of rich friends and business associates to restart production.”
- September 2, 2009 @ 12:10 PM by Kevin Melrose
Chris Weston … crimefighter?
from The Filth, by Chris Weston
He’s collaborated with top industry writers to lend his highly detailed art to such memorable titles as Mark Millar’s Swamp Thing run, Grant Morrison’s The Filth, Warren Ellis’s Ministry of Space, Joe Casey’s Fantastic Four: First Family, and J. Michael Straczynski’s The Twelve. But has artist Chris Weston’s greatest contribution to the fight for truth and justice just taken place in the real world — where he just may have helped the cops catch a bank robber?
According to a post on his blog, Weston was waiting in line at the bank yesterday and doing what many artists do to kill time under such circumstances — meticulously observing the guy in front of him — when that guy proceeded to approach the teller and forcibly demand cash. Weston writes:
By the time I realised what was happening he’d escaped with the loot. I gave my contact details to the bank and then ran like the wind back to my studio and set about hastlily drawing some pictures of the robber. I’d studied this guy quite intensely and could remember every detail of his likeness and clothes.
Weston then provided the sketches to the local constabulary, who reacted with near-disbelief: Apparently, the man in Weston’s drawings perfectly matched a suspect they’d already picked up.
The sketches remain in the hands of the police, and since the case is pending Weston says he can’t comment further. But he promises to scan and post the crime-busting portraits if and when he’s given permission to do so. In the meantime, read the full story here and congratulate Chris for giving the filth a hand!
(Via Tom Spurgeon)
- September 2, 2009 @ 11:42 AM by Sean T. Collins
Jeff Lemire offers a sweet promotion for fans
Sweet Tooth #1
To celebrate the debut this week of his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth, cartoonist Jeff Lemire (the Essex County trilogy, The Nobody) is offering a great promotion: Mail him your copy of the first issue, and he’ll return it signed along with a sketch.
What’s more, there’s no limit. Send him multiple copies — with a self-addressed stamped envelope, naturally — and he’ll give you multiple sketches.
“I am really excited to spread the word on Sweet Tooth,” Lemire tells CBR’s Jeffrey Renaud, “and want to give those readers that don’t ‘wait for the trade’ something extra. I really believe in Sweet Tooth, and I want as many people as possible to share in the post-apocalyptic road trip with me!”
Full details, and Lemire’s address, are available on his blog.
Look for Chris Mautner’s review of Sweet Tooth #1 this afternoon on Robot 6.
- September 2, 2009 @ 11:01 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Now Showing — reimagined movie posters
"Blow-Up" by Tomer Hanuka and "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" by Nathan Fox
What did art shows do before the Internet? Back then, you had one brief shining moment, or month as the case may have been, to catch a great show at a gallery or museum before its collected works were lost to the ether. Nowadays, however, the tubes can pipe the visual riches to you in perpetuity.
Such is the case with “Now Showing: Exploring the Lost ‘Art’ of the Film Poster.” Curated by Wear It With Pride, the exhibition ran last year at the COSH Gallery in London and Vallery in Barcelona, and featured reinterpretations of classic and cult film posters by comics artists Nathan Fox, Tomer Hanuka, and 40 other illustrators and designers. From The Lost Boys to The Planet of the Apes, A Clockwork Orange to Soylent Green, The Birds to Blade Runner, Dr. No to Rear Window to Tampopo, there’s bound to be something to delight any lover of fine film and/or eye-melting art. Click here to see ‘em all in a Flickr set.
(Via Jason Adams.)
- September 2, 2009 @ 10:28 AM by Sean T. Collins
Retailer blames sales declines on ‘self-serving choices’ by publishers
A newsstand in 1975
Retailer Ilan Strasser detects a decline in comics sales over the past six months, and calls shenanigans on any suggestion that the dip is part of some industry cycle.
“I have been a comics retailer for 27 years now and really, this notion that comic sales are cyclical is bullshit and always has been,” he writes at ICv2.com. “If you know what you’re doing as a retailer, sales, cash flow, and profits can be regulated. Comic sales have always declined as a result of bad decisions by the publishers. Like raising comic prices 33% in the last year in the midst of a global recession. But even our best efforts as retailers are undermined when those who publish our product insist on making self-serving choices, diminishing the market and its long-term viability for everyone.”
Strasser, owner of Fat Moose Comics and Games in Whippany, New Jersey, rattles off the usual list of issues publishers should address — lower prices, end cross-over storylines, etc. — before suggesting it may be time for him to leave the business.
“My lease is up March 31st of 2010,” he writes. “I wonder if that will be the end for me as well.”
- September 2, 2009 @ 09:45 AM by Kevin Melrose
Collect This Now! | Soldier X
When Chris Mautner asked if I’d be willing to take a crack at writing the “Collect This Now!” column during my guest-blogging stint, I said yes precisely because of this book. And when I informed him of my intentions, he said he was glad, because Marvel hadn’t yet been tackled in the column.
This stands to reason, given that we’re now seven years or so deep into Marvel’s “collect-everything-we-publish” plan — what’s left to collect? The answer is Soldier X. Written by Darko Macan and illustrated by Igor Kordey, this short-lived, Cable-starring series is wild, weird and wonderful, even by the far-out standards of the late Bill Jemas era. That’s probably what dooms it to TPB-less obscurity, but it’s also why I’m still so fond of it.
- September 2, 2009 @ 08:48 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Marvel
Publishing | Kim Masters casts a spotlight on Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, who stands to make about $1.5 billion in the Disney-Marvel deal: “Perlmutter is a man of mystery in Hollywood and beyond — go ahead, try to find a picture of him. He’s so committed to keeping things secretive that a studio source says Perlmutter attended the premiere of Iron Man disguised in glasses and a moustache — though it’s unclear how anyone would have recognized him if he’d just come as himself. In Monday’s conference call with investors about the deal, Perlmutter’s voice was never heard.” [The Daily Beast]
Publishing | This announcement, made over the weekend, was nearly lost amid the Disney-Marvel mayhem: Japanese publishing giants Shogakkan and Shueisha, co-owners of Viz Media, have purchased two European distributors of anime for an undisclosed amount. Paris-based Kaze and Berlin-based Anime Virtual will be merged into Viz Media Europe in September. [Variety]
Publishing | The shutdown of anime distributor and manga publisher A.D. Vision appears to be complete, as the company announces the last assets of its ADV Films division have been transferred to other companies. [Anime News Network]
- September 2, 2009 @ 08:09 AM by Kevin Melrose
Sony returns all television rights to Spider-Man
The Spectacular Spider-Man
Just days before Disney announced its purchase of Marvel, Spectacular Spider-Man Executive Producer Greg Weisman was informed that Sony had returned all television rights to the wall-crawler.
The move, “in exchange for some concession vis-a-vis the live-action Spider-Man features,” apparently took place in late July, just before Comic-Con International.
The news came as producers were waiting to learn whether a third season of The Spectacular Spider-Man would be ordered. The animated series, which debuted in March 2008 on The CW’s now-defunct Kids’ WB! programming block, moved to Disney XD for its second season. Episodes from the first season also stream on Marvel’s website.
It’s unclear what this, and the Disney-Marvel deal, will mean to the future of the show.
“A number of folks at Marvel have said kind things about the show in the past,” Weisman tells IGN.com, “but as you can imagine they have a LOT on their plates right now, so no one’s talked to me about any potential pick-ups since the world turned a bit upside-down. What hasn’t changed, I imagine, is that we’re still waiting to hear whether Disney XD even WANTS a new season. If Disney XD decides they don’t want any episodes, it’s no longer likely that we’d shop the series around to XD’s competitors. So any decision begins at XD, I would think. And before you ask, no, nobody at Disney has talked to me about the series. “
- September 2, 2009 @ 06:04 AM by Kevin Melrose
This week, discover strange tales of alt-comix heroes and an antlered boy
Indie artists stage a bit of a coup this week as Marvel finally releases its long-awaited Strange Tales anthology miniseries, by a who’s who of alt-comix creators, and Vertigo debuts Jeff Lemire’s unusual monthly title Sweet Tooth.
Wednesday also will see a solid roster of kids’ books, from The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics and a Little Lulu collection to the second volume of Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet and The Incredibles: Family Matters trade paperback.
To find out what other releases have Chris Mautner, guest blogger Sean T. Collins and me talking, just keep reading. And, as always, let us know your picks in the comments below.
- September 1, 2009 @ 03:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art: Nick Bertozzi’s Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
Tomorrow his M.O.D.O.K. story for Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology sees the light of day. But (in a sublime/ridiculous pairing that could be sliced either way depending on how you look at these things) today, Nick Bertozzi, artist of Glenn Eichler’s graphic novel Stuffed! and writer-artist of The Salon, is offering a peak at a very different project: An abortive adaptation of The Awakening, Kate Chopin’s classic 1899 novel.
Chronicling the struggles of New Orleans native Edna Pointellier as she struggles against the oppressive constraints society places on women, The Awakening seems like a perfect fit for Bertozzi, whose comics are often period pieces centering on the clash between history and modernity. Alas, all Bertozzi can offer is a 27-page glimpse of what might have been: What began as a labor of love for Chopin’s novel ended prior to completion, he writes, when he got “distracted by paying work.” The first two installments of a promised five-post series revealing what he drew prior to that point may be found here and here.
- September 1, 2009 @ 02:21 PM by Sean T. Collins
Unbound: Checking out the Ignatz nominees
The major gag in George Herrimann’s Krazy Kat comic strip, which ran from 1913 to 1944, was Ignatz Mouse’s repeated attempts to clobber the title character with a brick.
I’m not sure why the Small Press Expo folks thought this Ignatz would be the best character to represent their indy-comics awards. Perhaps the organizers think of independent creators as lurking in the shadows, waiting to pelt the behemoths of the industry with bricks, or perhaps it was just getting late and everyone wanted to go home.
Anyway, the nominations for this year’s awards are out, and voting will be taking place at SPX, which is actually rather soon, so I figured this would be a good time to take a look at the nominees for Best Online Comic.
- September 1, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Your YouTube link of the day: Shhhh!
Oh my gollygosh. Someone’s actually adapting one of Jason’s short works to animated film.
Click on that first link to see Part one. (found via Mike Lynch)
- September 1, 2009 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Don’t expect Disney to rescue Spider-Man musical
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
If you thought the Disney-Marvel deal could mean a lifeline for the troubled Spider-Man musical — I’m looking at you, Bono — you might want to think again.
Variety reports that while yesterday’s big announcement prompted speculation on Broadway, Disney is unlikely to take control of the big-budget Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which has halted work while producers try to navigate “cash-flow obstacles.”
But why wouldn’t Walt Disney Theatrical Productions — the division behind such successful live productions as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King — lend a white glove-covered hand? Gordon Cox counts off the reasons, not the least of which is Marvel’s existing agreement with Sony Pictures Productions.
“Besides,” Cox writes, “it’s understood that Marvel … is just licensing the property, and was never on the hook to contribute any coin to the mega-musical’s hefty capitalization costs, considered to be north of $35 million. It’s a risk-free fiscal position that would seem foolish to abandon.”
The musical, directed by Julie Taymor (Disney’s The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, reportedly is still set to begin previews on Feb. 25, and open sometime in March.
- September 1, 2009 @ 10:31 AM by Kevin Melrose
Craig Yoe is blogging again, everyone can relax now
Kirby's Mickey
The editorial force behind the upcoming Art of Steve Ditko (to name just one of his numerous projects) has launched a new blog called Super I.T.C.H. (International Team of Comics Historians) and debuts with an appropriate image considering yesterday’s news:
Back in 1991, I did a coffee table art book “The Art of Mickey Mouse”, I got artists from around the world to do their interpretation of “The World’s Favorite Mouse.” One of the first people I called was Jack Kirby. He and his wife Roz were very excited about the idea. He sent me two drawings, as I recall, and I chose this one. I colored it “animation style,” with the black line on an overlay and the background colors underneath. Jack’s contribution was part of a touring exhibit of art from the book throughout Japan. So, Marvel is called by some fans “The House that Jack Built” (not, in my opinion to take ANYTHING away from the brilliant genius Stan Lee’s more than vital part.) And here’s Jack doing Mickey! Is this weird, or what?
- September 1, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner