2009 October
APE is coming
APE Aftermath
The Alternative Press Expo, or APE, will take place the weekend of Oct. 17-18 at The Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. Next week I plan to put together a preview post or two, so if you’re exhibiting, please feel free to send me information on your plans — what you’ll be selling, where you’ll be … that sort of stuff.
Also, if you’re going to APE and looking for something to do before the show starts or after hours on Saturday, Isotope Comics on Fell Street has events planned both Friday and Saturday night. APE special guest Dean Haspiel will sign copies of the ACT-I-VATE Primer at the store on Friday, while Saturday brings the annual APE Aftermath party and the presentation of the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. Add’em to your calendar!
- October 8, 2009 @ 09:06 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Dragon Ball
Manga | Wicomico County schools in Maryland removed all copies of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball from library shelves Wednesday after the mother of a fourth-grader complained about the nudity and sexual situations depicted in the first volume of the hit series. The manga, which sports an “All Ages” a T+ rating, is published in North America by Viz Media.
A committee of administrators and “people from outside the school system” will review books, but the schools superintendent will make the final decision on the fate of the series. At a Tuesday meeting of the County Council, one councilman distributed photocopies of scenes from Dragon Ball, describing some of the illustrations as “disgusting.” [The Daily Times, The Daily Times]
Legal | An amended agreement between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers is expected to be filed by Friday to address concerns raised by the Google Book Search settlement. DC Comics is among the parties that object to the terms of the original deal, designed to resolve a 2005 lawsuit accusing the Internet giant of infringing on copyrights by digitizing out-of-print books without permission. [Publishers Weekly]
- October 8, 2009 @ 07:52 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: What Looks Good for December
Time again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for interesting new adventure comics.
Chimichanga
Albatross Exploding Funny Book
Chimichanga #1 – First of all, the title makes me hungry. Second of all, it’s by Eric Powell. Third of all, it has a little bearded girl on the cover and she’s holding the enormous, clawed hand of some kind of monster. I don’t know why Dark Horse isn’t publishing this; I’m just glad it exists.
Alterna
Adam Wreck and the Kalosian Space Pirates – Yeah, they pretty much had me with “space pirates.” But I’ll also take “shipwrecked on a strange planet filled with stranger alien creatures.”
The Swiss Family Robinson
Campfire
The Swiss Family Robinson – Speaking of shipwrecks, I’m not sure how well this story will translate into comic form, but the pages from this preview are promising. The island looks inviting and I’m already jealous of the treehouse from just the little I can see on the front cover. And as everyone knows, the primary goal of any Swiss Family Robinson adaptation should be to make you jealous of the treehouse.
A Christmas Carol – The art’s a little less even on this one, but I quite like the way Naresh Kumar draws the three spirits. Looks better than the Robert Zemeckis adaptation anyway. Ultimately though, my curiosity about it is related to an unnatural fascination with Dickens’ original story and the choices people make when adapting it.
Martians, dinosaurs, talking gorillas, and more space pirates after the break.
- October 7, 2009 @ 08:25 PM by Michael May
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Welcome to another edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Our guest this week is Dan Royer, a graphic designer from Wilmington, Il., and one of the co-creators of From the Tomb, an online horror comics magazine.
Often with Shelf Porn, folks send in collections built around a certain theme or character. Dan’s is unique in that it’s the first I’ve seen to focus on Iceman from the X-Men. To read about his fascination with the character and see more photos from his collection, just click on the link below.
- October 7, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 092
See, Wednesday really is new comics day. You even get a new page of THE THIRSTY.
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok.
Guest starring, apparently, Warren Ellis this week. Panel 4 in particular. And no, I didn’t plan that at all.
I mean, I’ve never even seen Mr. Ellis in a cowboy hat. Well, maybe that one time in San Diego…
- October 7, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Meet Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer in Baltimore this weekend
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer
Van Jensen, writer of the upcoming SLG graphic novel Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer, sent over a couple of pictures of the “real-life Pinocchio” you can meet in Baltimore this weekend. “I called in a favor to my uncle, who makes all kinds of cool stuff, and he put together a 3-foot-tall functioning Pinocchio puppet,” Jensen said in his email.
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer
- October 7, 2009 @ 11:01 AM by JK Parkin
Slash Print | Following the digital evolution
Internet radio | SLG Publishing is testing out an internet radio call-in show, where fans can call in and ask Dan Vado questions about their titles or the comic industry in general. If you’ve ever attended one of SLG’s panels, you know Dan has a lot to say, so this should be worth checking out.
Tablets | Although the Apple tablet I mentioned a few days ago hasn’t even been officially announced yet, this Ad Age story says traditional publishers are already talking about ways to bypass iTunes and offer “an industry-wide digital storefront where tablet users could buy digital issues or subscriptions without going through iTunes or the App Store.”
Tablets | Speaking of tablets (and SLG, for that matter), SLG chief Jennifer de Guzman talks about digital comics in her latest column for Publisher’s Weekly, noting the difficulties that come with trying to make comics for Amazon’s Kindle.
“To be acceptable to Amazon’s Kindle store, a comic needs to be ‘reflowed,’ which means breaking each page into individual panels and saving each as a separate file,” she writes. “This is a process that could take hours for every graphic novel—and that means additional costs for a publisher.”
Digital Comics | If you missed part one of the Brian Michael Bendis interview I linked to earlier because you were too busy checking out what he had to say about Avengers, he talks with Blair Butler about the Spider Woman Motion Comic and the future of digital comics.
- October 7, 2009 @ 10:27 AM by JK Parkin
Perhaps Planetary would be better served by a Venn diagram
Planetary #27
In what he bills as the first part of “A Planetary Restrospective,” Funnybook Babylon’s Chris Eckert goes all Nate Silver on the Warren Ellis-John Cassaday series, which concludes this week after 27 issues … and more than 10 years.
Eckert isn’t fooling around, either: He has a pie chart — one that breaks down Cassaday’s page output over the past decade. A pie chart!
Take us back to Feb. 3, 1999, the day the first issue of Planetary was released, Mr. Peabody Eckert: “Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Geoff Johns and Greg Rucka were all newcomers to mainstream comics with a smattering of ‘Big Two’ credits between them. Mark Millar was best known in America as Grant Morrison’s writing partner. No one had heard of Bill Jemas or Dan DiDio, and when people thought of ‘comic book movies’ Batman & Robin or Spawn came to mind.”
Simpler times, indeed.
But back to the pie chart: I’m not sure what it really tells us, other than Planetary and Astonishing X-Men comprise about three-quarters of Cassaday’s interior work since 1999. Still, though, everything’s better with pie charts. And pie.
- October 7, 2009 @ 09:47 AM by Kevin Melrose
Bendis: Dark Reign-ending Siege starts in December
Siege: The Cabal
In an extensive interview with Attack of the Show‘s Blair Butler, Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis confirms that Marvel’s “Dark Reign” storyline will come to an end with a “big Marvel event” called Siege. It starts in December with a one-shot called Siege: The Cabal, which is followed in January by a four-issue Siege series.
Michael Lark will draw the Cabal one-shot, while Olivier Coipel will draw Siege. Both are written by Bendis. He says the storyline will bring a “seismic shift” in the Avengers titles on the level of what happened in Avengers: Disassembled and will reunite Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.
Siege was just one of several subjects Butler asked Bendis about; he also talked about Powers, various Marvel films, Fortune & Glory‘s 10th anniversary edition and much more. Check out the second part of the interview below (he talks about Siege at the very end) and go here to find the first half.
Also be sure to check out Dave Richards’ interview with Bendis on Dark Avengers over on the main CBR site.
- October 7, 2009 @ 09:11 AM by JK Parkin
Jason Thompson gives away manga, updates shelf porn
Shiki Tsukai
Fans of our weekly Shelf Porn feature may remember Jason Thompson – author of Manga: The Complete Guide — and his stunning contribution way back in May. Thompson wrote in to let us know that he’s doing a big manga giveaway over at Suvudu, as part of his ongoing “365 Days of Manga” project, an ongoing, online update of sorts to his Complete Guide. Every day Thompson randomly selects a lucky person and sends them five volumes of manga from his own personal collection. All you have to do to get a shot at being that lucky person is fill out the form on the left hand side of the site. If you do win, post a picture of yourself and your manga online and send Thompson the link and he’ll send you five more manga free of charge.
Why so generous? Part of the reason apparently is that Thompson has moved to a new apartment and doesn’t have as much room as he used to. Where is he storing his manga these days you ask? Click on the link to find out.
- October 7, 2009 @ 08:48 AM by Chris Mautner
From Comic-Con to Fabletown With Love
Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #1
On the Vertigo blog, Group Editor Shelly Bond provides a glimmer of hope for any artist who views the annual DC Comics portfolio review at Comic-Con as akin to tilting at windmills: It’s through that process last year that she discovered Chrissie Zullo, cover artist for the upcoming miniseries Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love.
“I remember commenting on how much I liked her painting style — specifically the balance of the pretty and the ‘don’t think you’re going to take me home just yet’ power,” Bond writes. “Chrissie has a mercurial charm, evident not only in the alluring execution of her figure work but also in her choice of rich, traditional color palettes. She finds inspiration from classical painters such as Jean Honore Fragonard and Francois Boucher, and modernists alike, including comic book artists Winsor McCay, James Jean and Adam Hughes.”
So she asked Zullo to put together a few “mock” Fables covers to determine how the artist handled composition and typographical elements.
“When her camera-ready samples came in a few weeks later, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Bond writes. “And strangely enough, at that very millisecond, I was looking for a cover artist for the new Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love miniseries. One of Chrissie’s images in particular happened to look like Cinderella so it seemed like there was more than a good chance that she could handle this fantastic first assignment. Upon showing Chrissie’s samples to Bill Willingham, he replied ‘Hire that woman!’ on the spot.”
Sure, Zullo was only one out of “the hundreds/thousands” of portfolio submission, but still … that qualifies as a glimmer. Yeah?
- October 7, 2009 @ 07:48 AM by Kevin Melrose
Nominees announced for Friends of Lulu Awards
Friends of Lulu
Nominations have been announced for the 2009 Friends of Lulu Awards, which recognize “the people and projects that helped to open eyes and minds to the amazing comic and cartooning work by and/or about women.”
Voting is open via email through Oct. 19, with winners announced in November.
The nominees are:
Kim Yale Award for Best New Talent
• Kate Beaton, Hark, A Vagrant
• Liz Baillie, My Brain Hurts
• Mariko Tamaki, Skim
• Madeline Rosca, Hollow Fields
• Kathryn Immonen, Hellcat
- October 7, 2009 @ 06:53 AM by Kevin Melrose
This week Planetary wraps up, Haunt kicks off and Criminal returns
It’s another “big” comics week, and by that I mean we see a lot of big releases pretty much across the board. Image brings us the first issue of Haunt, the new series by Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Greg Capullo and some guy named Todd McFarlane who I think makes action figures or something. Oh, and he also created Spawn and Venom.
This week also sees a lot of other returns: Doug Moench and Kelley Jones return to Batman, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips return to their Criminal series, Bloom County returns to print, the Star Comics characters return with the X-Babies, and last but certainly not least, Planetary finally returns to comic shops for its long-awaited final issue.
To see what Kevin, Chris and I have to say about this week’s releases, read on … and don’t forget to tell us what you’re getting in the comments field.
- October 6, 2009 @ 04:30 PM by JK Parkin
Robot reviews: Crumb’s Book of Genesis
Crumb's The Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis Illustrated
by Robert Crumb
WW Norton, 224 pages $24.95.
It’s a pretty safe bet that whatever book you pictured in your feverish little brain when you heard the phrase “Robert Crumb adapts Genesis” will never match, or perhaps even compare to, the actual product. When surrounded by as much anticipation and hype as this book has been, (virtually every blogger on the block has declared this the de facto “book of the year,” or at least the “book they’re most looking forward to”) there is bound to be some disappointment.
That’s especially true if what you were expecting was anything more than the all-too-literal, note-for note interpretation that Crumb has ultimately produced (indeed, except for a phrase here and there, he seems to have left the sacred text intact). If you were hoping to see some sort of sly, satirical take on the Bible, sorry, but that’s not here. If you were expecting googly eyes and big feet, go elsewhere. There is the occasional bit of flop sweat, but otherwise, Crumb keeps his cartoony vibe in check. There’s not so much as an ounce of irony to be found.
- October 6, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Unbound Reviews: Paradigm Shift
Paradigm Shift
By Dirk Tiede
Paradigm Shift starts out like any other buddy-cop story, with donuts, wisecracks, and corpses turning up in the bushes, but halfway through, it lives up to its name and crosses over into darker territory.
In the beginning, the detectives in question, Kate McAllister and Mike Stuart, are as smooth as they come. They have their differences—Kate’s a bit tougher, Mike’s a bit cooler—but their relationship runs on easy patter and unspoken coordination. Tiede is subtle, introducing Kate’s demons a little at a time—a sudden flash of dizziness, a wound that heals too quickly—but as the story goes on, we see her unravel more and more until it’s hard to say what is nightmare and what is real. Mike, on the other hand, starts out as an understated character, but his quietness conceals his strength. Again, there is a slow build; his offhand mentions of martial arts and Zen Buddhism foreshadow his full development as a character later in the story.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
- October 6, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson