2009 September
Comic creators make music videos more fun
Far Arden creator Kevin Cannon posts that he and an impressive line-up of artists helped create the video for the song “We R Super Heroes” by Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine. Kevin was joined by Zander Cannon, Gene Ha, Farel Dalrymple, Jordan Crane, Craig McCracken and many more. Check out the video below …
- September 23, 2009 @ 11:14 AM by JK Parkin
Robot reviews: Superman: Secret Origins #1
Superman: Secret Origins
Superman: Secret Origins #1
Written by Geoff Johns. Art by Gary Frank and Jon Siball
DC Comics, 48 pages, $3.99
This is what, the third or fourth time that DC has attempted to update or revamp the Man of Steel’s origin? Is it just me or does that smell like a bit of desperation on DC’s part, like they really don’t know how to get more people to read the Superman books and are madly flinging stuff to the walls in the hopes of getting as wide a readership (within the comics-reading public of course) as possible. “Maybe it will work this time!” Either that, or they just really don’t care and wanted to throw Geoff Johns a bone seeing how he’s a fan favorite and all these days.
- September 23, 2009 @ 10:15 AM by Chris Mautner
‘Lil’ Gotham’ characters to invade Batman and Detective annuals
A panel from "Question & Answer," by Dustin Nguyen
As a big fan of Dustin Nguyen’s chibi-esque renditions of Batman’s friends and foes — they pop up regularly on the artist’s DeviantArt account — I’m thrilled to see this morning’s announcement that the “Lil’ Gotham” characters will appear in October’s Batman Annual #27 and Detective Comics Annual #11.
The two-page backup stories, titled “Off Rogue Racing” and “Question & Answer,” are written by Derek Fridolfs and Nguyen with art, of course, by Nguyen.
On DeviantArt, the artist writes that the characters began as a hobby when, “for the hell of it,” he’d “draw a character every few days on my lunch break, after work, end of the night before I turn in and see how many I can fill up on this big paper.”
That turned in to something more, though, as he sent posters — this one, presumably — “to almost everyone at the DC office. Taking my chances, walking the line of it to see how far I could push it. Doing the inside attack — right?”
It seems to have paid off, though, as Nguyen hints the “Lil’ Gotham” characters could see life beyond the two annuals.
“Baby steps,” he writes. “And if it gets enough of a positive reaction from readers, fans, viewers, and internally — we will be doing more. … We already have bigger plans ready at the gate should they give us the okay. Now, it’s all up to you guys, if you love it — show your love. Pick up this year’s Detective and Batman annuals for our two short stories in each. Raise hell and please let them know you want more.”
- September 23, 2009 @ 09:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | DeGraff brings on the bad guys
Marvel villains by Andrew DeGraff
Artist Andrew DeGraff, who drew that really cool Marvel heroes image I linked to some time back, turns his attention to the bad guys of the Marvel U. this time around. Really nice; I particularly like how the Octopus arms are snaking around behind the other villains.
Thanks again, Jashar!
- September 23, 2009 @ 08:47 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Yaoi Press
Legal | Yaoi Press Publisher Yamila Abraham was arrested Monday in Las Vegas on federal fraud charges related to online sales of an “herbal” alternative to recreational street drugs. Authorities claim the product contained no herbal supplements and was actually composed of dextromethorphan hydrobromide (DXM), the active ingredient in over-the-counter cough suppressants. The charges date from 2005 and 2006, when Abraham operated the mail-order website Pleasureherbs.com.
If convicted, Abraham, 34, could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the seven counts of mail fraud, up to one year in prison and a $250,000 fine on one count of misbranding a drug, and up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine on one count of introducing goods in domestic commerce by means of false statement. She also could be forced to forfeit property from the proceeds of the crime up to $186,680 and any equipment used to make the drugs.
On the Yaoi Press blog, Abraham asked for everyone to “please keep a cool head, and have faith. This situation is not going to end Yaoi Press. Don’t believe the hype.” She stressed that she will continue to appear at conventions, including this weekend’s OtakuMex in Albuquerque, New Mexico. [Las Vegas Sun]
- September 23, 2009 @ 07:17 AM by Kevin Melrose
ACT-I-VATE goes to the movies
The ACT-I-VATE Experience
Seth Kushner and Carlos Molina have put together a documentary on the webcomics site ACT-I-VATE, which will debut at the Baltimore Comic-Con in October. According to Kushner’s blog, the film will include interviews with many of the site’s creators, making movie stars out of Thomas Baehr, Nick Bertozzi, Pedro Carmago, Mike Cavallaro, Kevin Colden, Nikki Cooke, Molly Crabapple, Mike Dawson, Jim Dougan, Ulises Farinas, Michel Fiffe, Simon Fraser, Maurice Fontenot, Dan Goldman, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Jennifer Hayden, Joe Infurnari, Jason Little, Josh Neufeld, Leland Purvis, Kat Roberts, Ryan Roman, Nathan Schreiber & Jeff Newelt.
The film will also be shown at KingCon in Brooklyn this November.
- September 23, 2009 @ 06:16 AM by JK Parkin
Goodbye Wednesday Comics, hello Spider Woman and Underground
This is a huge week for comics, in terms of quantity — Marvel alone ships more than 50 books this week, if you include comics, hardcovers, trades, variants and second printings.
And it also looks like a good week in terms of quality as well. Several new series launch this week, not the least of which is Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Superman: Secret Origin, which redefines DC’s franchise player. Marvel’s long-delayed Spider Woman series launches as well, the “no iTunes required” version, while Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber’s Underground #1 hits shops as well. DC continues their relaunch of the Archie Heroes titles with The Web #1, while BOOM! rolls out another Muppets mini-series, Muppets Peter Pan.
But as new series begin, others come to an end; Madman Atomic Comics wraps up its run, Mark Millar and Steve McNiven wrap up their “Old Man Logan” story with a giant sized special, and the last Wednesday Comics hits shops. Hopefully that means we’ll have news about a collection soon.
To see what Chris, Kevin and I are looking forward to this week, just click below …
- September 22, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Unbound | Unwrapping the apps
I thought that I might be writing about reading comics on Apple’s revolutionary new tablet, a much-rumored expanded version of the iPod, by now, but their September meeting came and went with no news on that front. So I’m still reading on my iPod Touch, which has the virtues of clarity and portability and the vice of tininess.
iVerse's comics store
Even with the small screen, though, my iPod is evolving. Back in the Stone Age (six months ago), each comic or section of a comic was a single app, which led to a lot of little icons cluttering up the screen. Now a reader can use a single app such as comiXology’s Comics app, iVerse, or Panelfly, to buy, download, and organize comics, which is a more elegant solution. ComiXology has just released a free version of its app, which allows readers access to all the free comics in its app store, and it also has a Lite version that is 12+, as opposed to 17+, presumably for younger readers.
I assume the hidden hand of Apple has something to do with the fact that these apps have similar design and functionality: You pick your function from a navigation strip across the bottom, with icons for the store, featured items, etc., and you move from a list of comics to catalog listings by tapping and swiping, just as with other apps.
These apps solve a glaring problem, which is that there is no obvious way to find comics in the iTunes store. Continue Reading »
- September 22, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Congratulations to Lauren Weinstein and Tim Hodler
The Goddess of War cartoonist and Comics Comics editor and critic are now the proud parents of a bouncing baby girl, Ramona Salley Hodler. Congrats to the whole family and here’s hoping you get some sleep in the days ahead.
- September 22, 2009 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Collect This Now! Nuts
This weekend is the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland. One of the featured guests at this year’s expo is Gahan Wilson, considered by many to be one of the finest gag cartoonists alive today.
Wilson is going to be at the show to promote the massive, three-volume collection of Playboy cartoons that Fantagraphics is going to be publishing later this year. That’s an amazing, praise-worthy collection project, but while I don’t want to appear greedy, there is one other comic of Wilson’s I’d like to see collected.
- September 22, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Fan shares alternate look at Quitely’s Red Hood
First off, a big thank you to Robot 6 reader Mark Spitz, who shared this with us over email. Mark recently purchased some original Frank Quitely art from Graphic Collectibles, and it included a bonus of sorts.
“I was lucky enough to purchase a couple of Frank Quitely pages from Batman and Robin #1, including #22 (the “do not miss” page),” Spitz wrote. “I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there were actually two versions of the Red Hood panel and both were included in my purchase. The original shows the Red Hood in a different costume with different guns.”
Here are all three versions, starting with the original version and ending with a scan from the published issue:
Again, thanks to Mark for sharing this cool purchase!
- September 22, 2009 @ 12:10 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Three from Ben Templesmith
Batman by Ben Templesmith
Fell and Dead Space artist Ben Templesmith recently shared three “in process” sketch posts on his blog, featuring the Batman sketch shown above, Wolverine (which includes commentary along the way) and the 1940s Black Orchid, for a “Remake/Remodel” challenge on the Whitechapel forum. Go check’em out; that Whitechapel thread also includes remakes by Pia Guerra and Ryan Kelly.
- September 22, 2009 @ 11:40 AM by JK Parkin
Get ready to meet The Loneliest Astronauts
"The Loneliest Astronauts" promotional art, by Ming Doyle
Kevin Church seems determined to create a webcomics empire. There’s The Rack (with Benjamin Birdie) and its now-complete spinoff Lydia (with Max Riffner), the “on permanent hiatus” Waimea (with Mike Dake), the newly launched She Died In Terrebonne: A Sam Kimimura Mystery (with T.J. Kirsch), and, beginning next week, The Loneliest Astronauts (with Ming Doyle).
It’s the last one that interests me most, in part because I like Doyle’s art, but also because you don’t see many dramas set in space that aren’t of the “space opera” variety (complete with intergalactic battles, menacing aliens and the like). In comics, Planetes and Astronauts in Trouble are rare exceptions.
“Astronauts Dan and Steve are stuck in a distant alien solar system,” states The Loneliest Astronauts website, “the last survivors of a mission that went horribly wrong and left the rest of their ten-strong crew dead. They’re light years from home on an airless moon, living on carefully-rationed supplies, and unable to contact Earth. The worst part of all this? They hate each other’s guts.”
The comic debuts next Tuesday, and updates weekly.
- September 22, 2009 @ 11:10 AM by Kevin Melrose
Quote of the day | Tom Spurgeon on Norman Osborn
Norman Osborn
“The reason Norman Osborn doesn’t 100 percent work as a villain in the wider Marvel Universe is that a key and yet frequently under-appreciated aspect of the seminal Spider-Man comics revolves around the fact that Peter Parker frequently encounters adults. The vast majority of these adults are disappointments. Some are outright dicks. The Green Goblin is the ultimate dickish, disappointing adult, and thus Spider-Man’s arch-villain (or shares that honor with JJJ, if you’re inclined to read the comics that way). Here’s the thing: Norman Osborn popping into his Green Goblin costume is the key to his particular brand of dickishness. It’s like somebody’s dad showing up at the end of the beach movie to drag race against the new kid in town, or popping up in a football huddle so that he can tackle the struggling but ready to win quarterback. It’s a dick move, a total invasion into Peter Parker’s world by someone who should know better. But when Norman comes up against other costumed villains as he does in this new Marvel stuff, he’s an adult wearing an adult costume (that Iron Man thing) fighting other adults: a dick, but not a special one tied into some characters overarching theme. He’s Jasper Sitwell on a bad day.”
–Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
- September 22, 2009 @ 10:45 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Johnny's Resin figures
Legal | DC Comics has dropped its lawsuit against a Florida man who made and sold figurines based on the 1960s Batman television series. John Stacks, owner of Johnny’s Resin, claimed he had agreements with the actors. Stacks apparently no longer produces the resin kits. A message on his website now encourages visitors to “buy licensed products only”: “When you buy products not licensed by DC Comics you only hurt the hobby. Let’s all work together to keep Batman alive!!!!” [The Tampa Tribune]
Creators | More details have emerged in the death of Crayon Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui that seem to confirm his fall on Japan’s Mount Arafune was accidental. The last picture on a digital camera retrieved near the body was taken looking down from Tomoiwa cliff. [The Asahi Shimbun]
- September 22, 2009 @ 09:28 AM by Kevin Melrose