2009 October
World War Con: Big Apple 2010 scheduled for same weekend as NYCC 2010
Next year's dates announced in this weekend's Big Apple Comic Con program
Many things can be and have been said about Gareb Shamus, founder and CEO of Wizard Entertainment, but “he lacks chutzpah” isn’t one of them: As reported by Comic Book Resources, Shamus has pitted his recently purchased Big Apple Comic Con head-to-head against Reed Exhibitions’ New York Comic Con. Both shows will take place in Manhattan on Oct. 8-10, 2010, with Big Apple starting a day earlier on Oct. 7.
Shamus is no stranger to aggressive scheduling and positioning against rival comic conventions. Word surfaced in 2005 that he’d planned a potential Wizard World Atlanta against regional staple Heroes Con; though company spokespeople quickly backpedaled in the face of withering industry criticism and the Atlanta show never materialized, the increasingly crowded convention scene saw this year’s Heroes Con once again overlap with Shamus’ rebranded Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con.
Shamus also responded to convention powerhouse Reed’s announcement of the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, a rival show to his Chicago Comic Con (formerly Wizard World Chicago), by creating the Anaheim Comic Con and scheduling it directly against C2E2′s debut. He also waded into one of the most acrimonious con feuds in North America by purchasing the Paradise Toronto Comicon, which itself has a history of disputes with the larger, more pop culture-focused Fan Expo Canada. Shamus’ convention organization has also been quite aggressive in fending off a perceived challenge from the nascent Long Beach Comic-Con, created and staffed in large part by former Wizard employees, going so far as to ban LBCC’s Steve Hoveke from Wizard’s Philadelphia show despite having okayed him as an exhibitor.
- October 16, 2009 @ 02:10 PM by Sean T. Collins
Robot reviews: Comic strips aplenty
The Upside-Down World of Gustave Verbeek: The Complete Sunday Comics 1903-1905
Edited by Peter Maresca
Sunday Press Books. 120 pages, $60.
Forever Nuts present: Frederick Burr Opper’s Happy Hooligan
Edited by Jeffrey Lindenblatt
NBM, 112 pages, $24.95.
Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as a Comic Strip
by Stuart Hample
Abrams, 240 pages, $35
The daily comic strip isn’t the only art form to rely upon repetition and formula — plenty of TV shows and films, not to mention pop songs, do the same — but certainly a lot of strips, both modern and ancient, trade heavily on familiarity to garner interest and appeal. Beetle Bailey will always be a goldbrick and Sarge will always hector him. Dagwood will always get harassed by his boss and have a sexual fetish for overly large sandwiches. The Family Circus kids will always make cute malapropisms and stay under the age of 10. It’s not just the simplicity of the base concept that attracts, it’s also the fact that said concept will never, ever alter in any broad, significant fashion that charms readers. Blondie may get a catering job, the Family Circus mom may change her hairstyle, but the core concept remains the same. It’s that seemingly endless cycle of repetition and the minute variations that cartoonists attempt to find within that limited scope, that seems to keep (or at least has kept until now) people returning to the funny pages day after day.
Three new comic strip collections underlined for me how integral that feeling of repetition and familiarity has been to the inner workings of the comic strip over the years. (At least as regards the gag strip. Certainly more story-based strips like Terry and the Pirates don’t rely on such constant repetition of formula, though certainly you could argue it’s present, just to a much lesser degree).
- October 16, 2009 @ 01:37 PM by Chris Mautner
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves | A publishing news round-up
The Losers
• In case you missed it earlier this week: Vertigo will reprint two books that tie into two of their upcoming media properties. First up, they’re collecting the first 12 issues of The Losers into one large paperback that’ll come out in January, three months before the movie adaptation arrives in theaters. They’re also collecting the Peter Milligan/Edvin Biukovic Human Target miniseries, along with the Milligan/Javier Pulido Human Target: The Final Cut original graphic novel into one volume, just in time for the premiere of the Human Target show on Fox in January.
• SLG Publishing is collecting a couple of Gene Yang’s previous books, Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks and Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order, into a single volume called Animal Crackers. It’ll include a new 12-page story by Yang, which he previews here.
- October 16, 2009 @ 10:57 AM by JK Parkin
R.I.P. George Tuska, 1916-2009
Iron Man #18
George Tuska, the Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist whose career in comics spanned six decades, has died at the age of 93. As noted by Tom Spurgeon, The Art of George Tuska author Dewey Cassell broke the news in a Yahoo group; Cassell had relayed word of Tuska’s retirement from drawing commissions just six days ago.
- October 16, 2009 @ 10:22 AM by Sean T. Collins
Apple to allow purchases within free iPhone apps
Apple told iPhone application developers yesterday that they can now sell content through free iPhone applications. Previously any application that offered stuff for sale, such as the comics applications developed by companies like iVerse and comiXology, couldn’t be offered for free in iTunes, per Apple’s policy.
“Apple makes us charge $0.99 for our app,” comiXology CEO David Steinberger told me last week. “We’d give it away if we could, but it’s against their rules to give away an app that then ‘up-sells’ users to buying content within the app. That presents us with the challenge of getting people to purchase the app.”
With this change, both comiXology and iVerse began offering their applications for free.
“This afternoon Apple dropped a bombshell on developers – Applications with In-App-Purchase can now be FREE,” iVerse wrote on their blog yesterday. “This is a phenomenal move on Apple’s part that allows us to finally offer our digital comics store with no entry price. Sure, we’ve been able to offer over 35 free comics (which we will still continue to offer), but to no longer HAVE to charge $0.99 for the App allows us to open the experience up to anyone who wants to give it a try.”
- October 16, 2009 @ 09:45 AM by JK Parkin
APE ’09 | Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly and more
The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.
The Alternative Press Expo, or APE, is coming up this weekend at The Concourse in San Francisco. The show runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Special guests include Jamaica Dyer, Phoebe Gloeckner, Dean Haspiel, Batton Lash, Lark Pien, Dash Shaw and Jeff Smith. Here are a few more items of interest if you’re attending …
Fantagraphics | Fantagraphics sent over their signing schedule for the show:
Saturday
11AM – 1PM: Jon Vermilyea (MOME) & Frank Santoro (MOME)
12:00–12:45 Spotlight on Dash Shaw
1PM – 3PM: Dash Shaw & T. Edward Bak (MOME)
3PM – 5PM: John Pham
5PM – 7PM: Renee French (MOME) & Andrice Arp (MOME)
Sunday
11AM – 1PM: Jon Vermilyea (MOME), Frank Santoro (MOME) & Dash Shaw
1PM – 3PM: T. Edward Bak (MOME) & John Pham
3PM – 5PM: Renee French & Andrice Arp
They’ll have many new releases on hand: The Troublemakers by Gilbert Hernandez, Conceptual Realism: In the Service of the Hypothetical by Robert Williams, Pim & Francie by Al Columbia, Sublife #2 by John Pham, The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. by Dash Shaw, MOME Vol. 16 by various, The Great Anti-War Cartoons by Craig Yoe, and Ganges #3 by Kevin Huizenga.
“As an added bonus, Dash Shaw is an official APE guest this year and will be signing copies of his new book, The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.,” writes Eric Reynolds. “For anyone who buys the book at one of his Fanta signings during APE, Dash will do an original PAINTING on the front cover! You will not want to miss out.”
- October 16, 2009 @ 09:10 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Iron Man #18
Creators | Tom Spurgeon has word from a former George Tuska spokesman that the longtime Iron Man artist has passed away. He was 93.
Tuska began his career in 1939 as an assistant on Scorchy Smith, and worked for the comic “packaging” studio owned by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. He later drew for Fawcett and Quality, and then moved to Marvel in the 1960s, where he penciled such titles as Daredevil, Ghost Rider and The X-Men before beginning a decade-long run on Iron Man. Tuska left Marvel in the late 1970s for DC Comics and in 1978 helped launch a new Superman daily comic strip, on which he worked until 1993.
Tuska is survived by his wife of 61 years Dorothy, their three children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. [The Comics Reporter, Tony Isabella]
Big Apple Comic Con
Conventions | As Big Apple Comic Con — “the New York area’s largest pop culture festival” — opens, Variety and the Los Angeles Times spotlight the official launch today of GeekChicDaily, the new e-newsletter founded by Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus, movie producer Peter Guber and digital entertainment entrepreneur Peter Levin.
Meanwhile, comics and TV writer Paul Cornell explains why he won’t be attending the convention: “The guy who originally invited me was made redundant the day after he did so. Which doesn’t fill one with confidence. But, sure enough, his boss was kind enough to honour the commitment. And there was some communication on that score. However, by the start of this week, I’d noticed that days were ticking by without any actual arrangements being made. So I finally said that if they’d already bought the air ticket, then of course I’d come, because I didn’t want them to lose out financially because of me, but if they hadn’t, then not to worry about it. Which resulted in… absolute silence. So when I say I’m not going to New York… well, that’s my best guess as we speak.”
Heidi MacDonald reported earlier this week that “several announced guests” hadn’t received their travel arrangements, “and several others who were invited pulled out when such arrangements were not forthcoming.” [Big Apple Comic Con]
- October 16, 2009 @ 08:40 AM by Kevin Melrose
Astonishing X-Men motion comic to get big (like, three stories big) premiere
Marvelfest
This morning’s New York Post reveals some of the details for the Oct. 28 premiere of Marvel’s Astonishing X-Men motion comic in New York City’s Union Square Park.
The company will transform the former Virgin Megastore into a three-story outdoor screen to show the adaptation of the bestselling comic by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.
Astonishing X-Men is Marvel’s second motion comic. Spider-Woman, by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, debuted in August.
The premiere will serve as the centerpiece for the first “Marvelfest” in Union Square Park, which will feature appearances by creators, a costume contest and giveaways. The event begins at 6 p.m.
- October 16, 2009 @ 06:29 AM by Kevin Melrose
Five for Thursday: thoughts on TCR’s five biases
Grumpy Old Fan
Over the weekend, Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon shared his five “stickiest comics biases”:
1. I don’t covet the comics of my youth, I covet the comics from just before my youth.
2. Whether or not there are comics for kids, I still want comics to function as a pastime for a child.
3. I over-trust the serial.
4. I distrust a social component for comics.
5. I expect everything in comics to last forever.
It got me thinking about my own comics biases — but because I haven’t yet distilled those into postable prose, this week I’ll share my reactions to his.
Continue Reading »
- October 15, 2009 @ 02:20 PM by Tom Bondurant
Talking Comics with Tim: Nick Tapalansky & Alex Eckman-Lawn
Awakening
Awakening creators, writer Nick Tapalansky and artist Alex Eckman-Lawn, are two storytellers eager to get the word out about the return of their project (which recently returned to the market from an 18-month hiatus as its publisher [sorted out business challenges [as explained here]). As announced in late September, Tapalansky and Eckman-Lawn are in the midst of a four-stop tour to generate support and interest in their Archaia hardcover horror book, Awakening. The tour opened on October 10 and in the course of this email interview, the details of the remaining dates are revealed (including this Staturday’s stop at Upstate Comics). The story “takes place in the once-peaceful city of Park Falls, where a series of gruesome murders and missing persons has put the town on edge, and Cynthia Ford, known as the town ‘crazy,’ finds retired police detective Derrick Peters and relates to him her belief about what’s going on. Her explanation: Zombies. Unable to ignore Cynthia’s information, though not sharing her beliefs, Derrick and others in the town explore the mystery as weeks turn to months and the death toll rises. Could Cynthia be right or has she finally gone insane?”
Tim O’Shea: During the 18-month publishing hiatus, was there ever any point you wanted to give up on the project or you always believed it would come back?
Nick Tapalansky: I don’t think we ever even considered giving up on it. Besides already having so much blood invested in it, the story is one which I’m really excited to tell since it’s been percolating in my mind for the last five years. It was just a matter of being patient and seeing how everything resolved itself at Archaia.
Alex Eckman-Lawn: No way! There were some scary days in there, but I don’t think we ever once discussed giving up on the book. It was always, “How can we make this happen?” and luckily for us, all we really had to do was wait it out.
- October 15, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Slash Print | Following the digital evolution
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction
Digital Comics | Dark Horse announced via press release that both Umbrella Academy and Hellboy: Seed of Destruction are available through the iTunes Store, with subsequent issues available soon. Seed of Destruction is available as four issues at $0.99 each, or as a bundle of all four issues for $3.99. The first issue of Apocalypse Suite is available for free, with issues #2–#6 only $0.99 each, or a bundle of all six issues for $4.99.
Digital Comics | Disney Comics Worldwide shares more details on Disney’s DigiComics initiative. They’ll eventually be rolled out worldwide, starting in December in English-speaking countries and Italy. They’ll be available for the iPhone, iPod and Sony PSP, and eventually Disney hopes to expand to other platforms like Nokia phones and the Wii. The stories will initially come from “the huge archive that The Walt Disney Company Italy has built up in the last 50 years.”
Motion Comics | All five episodes of the Spider Woman, Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic are now available for free viewing on Hulu. Because it is “intended for mature audiences,” you’ll have to register and verify your age.
- October 15, 2009 @ 11:50 AM by JK Parkin
Move over R. Crumb, here’s the Comic Torah
Apropos of Crumb’s recent Genesis adaptation, here’s another attempt to bring the classic old testament tales into the comics medium courtesy of Sharon Rosenzweig and Aaron Freeman. The Comic Torah is a much more interpretive, looser adaptation of those classic Bible stories, with God portrayed as a woman, for instance, and the Land of Milk and Honey becoming an actual character of sorts. You can read a summation of the story here, or start reading the story here.
The creators are trying to self-publish a full-color edition of the work and have initiated a Kickstarter project with the goal of raising $12,000. So check it out and if you like what you see, throw a couple of bucks their way.
(found via Bleeding Cool)
- October 15, 2009 @ 11:15 AM by Chris Mautner
Cool things to bookmark: Reading With Pictures
Classic Comics
Reading With Pictures is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the use of comics in the classroom to aid in literacy and the visual arts:
Educators have begun to see the value of having graphic novels in the classroom — they just don’t know which books to use or how to best use them. To address those needs, Reading With Pictures plans to work with academics, educators, and publishers to provide schools with the best possible teaching methods and classroom materials in order to successfully integrate comics and graphic novels into their curriculum.
Among their goals are to create a database of lesson plans, provide consultation and launch a speakers’ bureau. It’s a project First Second’s Calista Brill finds worthy of merit:
There’s nothing fundamentally different about teaching comics literacy to kids than teaching them the basics of poetry, art, music, math, science, reading – even running. When we educate children, we are giving them the tools to educate themselves. To find the things they love. To experience the world more fully.
And as long as there are people making amazing comics in the world, anyone who lacks the basic tools to read them is missing out. Big time.
Brill puts it a lot better than I could have. If you have time or money available, consider donating to this worthy organization.
- October 15, 2009 @ 10:45 AM by Chris Mautner
Your video of the day: Backroom talks Bagge
Or rather, the comics podcast The Backroom talks to Peter Bagge in the first of this two-part interview. (found via Flog)
- October 15, 2009 @ 10:15 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Lord of the Flies, by Sam Weber
"Lord of the Flies" art, by Sam Weber
Award-winning illustrator Sam Weber, who provided the covers for the first four issues of Vertigo’s House of Mystery, has relaunched his website — complete with his jaw-dropping cover and interior art for The Folio Society’s upcoming illustrated edition of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The book is set for release in December.
(via Irene Gallo)
- October 15, 2009 @ 09:40 AM by Kevin Melrose