2009 October
Peter Laird: ‘I never expected to be working on the same thing for this long’
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1
Although many were surprised by yesterday’s announcement that Viacom had purchased Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for $60 million, co-creator Peter Laird makes it clear the sale of the ’80s indie-comics hit turned multimedia franchise was a long time coming.
“Why did I sell the TMNT?” Laird wrote yesterday afternoon on his blog. “There are a number of reasons, but first and foremost is that I have been doing this TMNT thing for twenty-five years, sixteen of them in partnership with TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman and the last nine as sole owner of the property. That is a long time. It is almost half my life (I’m 55). I never expected to be working on the same thing for this long. And it has worn me down. I am no longer that guy who carries his sketchbook around with him and draws in it every chance he gets. … I miss — I really, really miss — being that guy.”
Laird, who in March 2008 completed a buyout of Eastman’s interests in TMNT and Mirage Studios that had begun in 2000, noted that his interest in the property had faded in recent years: “As one result, the production of TMNT Volume 4 comics has slowed to a crawl. That’s not good. I have a conclusion planned out for that series, and at some point I want to get to it. Maybe this sale will help me get to that point. We’ll see.”
He also stressed that he still owns Mirage, the company he founded with Eastman in 1983.
Debuting in 1984 as a black-and-white self-published comic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a parody of Cerebus, Daredevil, New Mutants and Ronin. However, thanks largely to the efforts of licensing agent Mark Freedman, the property soon spawned animated TV series, movies, video games and endless merchandise.
Under Viacom’s ownership, TMNT is destined for a new feature film from Paramount and a CG-animated TV series from Nickelodeon, both in 2012.
- October 22, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Bendis, Con War conscientious objector — and other dispatches from the front
Confirming yesterday’s report on Robot 6, comics superstar and Marvel mainstay Brian Michael Bendis has announced that he won’t attend Gareb Shamus/Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con, for which he’d been announced as Guest of Honor during last weekend’s controversial Big Apple Comic Con. Why not? We’ll let him explain it, courtesy of his Twitter feed and message board.
sadly, i will not be guest of honor or attending the wizard anaheim show next year. i will be staying home and making comic books.
- October 22, 2009 @ 09:32 AM by Sean T. Collins
Your video link of the day: Tom Gammill meets Mell Lazarus
Doozies comic strip creator Tom Gammill does a video series entitled Learn to Draw. In this latest episode, he comes across Miss Peach cartoonist Mell Lazarus and gets to see the latter’s famous piano, signed by folks like Charles Schulz, Gary Trudeau, Mort Drucker and Sergio Aragones. Then Gammill breaks stuff.
- October 22, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Legal
Legal | Twin brothers in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, have been sentenced to three months in jail for possessing anime- and manga-style images depicting children in sexual situations.
David Scott Hammond and James Cory Hammond, 20, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography after police discovered the images downloaded on their home computer last November. Although David Hammond’s attorney said his client didn’t realize it was illegal to download cartoon pornographic images of children, the prosecutor asserted that, “Every one of these images involves the victimization of children. The victimization wouldn’t happen in the first place if there weren’t people there to look at this material.”
Earlier this month, lawmakers in Alaska began considering a bill that would expand the state’s child-pornography laws to include cartoons. And in June a U.S. appeals court upheld the conviction of a Virginia man who was prosecuted, in part, under a 2003 federal statute outlawing possession of cartoon images depicting the sexual abuse of children. [The Chronicle Herald]
Viz Media
Publishing | The San Francisco headquarters of Viz Media was closed for two days this week after an unexpected downpour on Monday caused storm drains to overflow, flooding parts of the city. [Anime News Network]
Publishing | Just last week we were reporting that Villard had acquired the rights to Fated, a graphic novel written by Michael Jackson and Gotham Chopra. Now comes word that the Random House imprint paid $800,000 for it. Illustrated by Mukesh Singh, artist of Virgin Comics titles Gamekeeper, Devi and Jenna Jameson’s Shadow Hunter, the black-and-white book is due out in June. [Crain's New York Business]
- October 22, 2009 @ 08:34 AM by Kevin Melrose
Exclusive first look at Corey Lewis’ story from Strange Tales #3
"Longshot" by Corey Lewis, from "Strange Tales" #3
Marvel has provided Robot 6 with an exclusive two-page preview of Corey Lewis‘ contribution to Strange Tales #3: a Longshot story that features, among other things, our mulleted hero riding an energy skateboard, and a metal-singing Storm accompanied by Wolverine and Gambit on bass and guitar. So, yeah, pretty much what you’d hope for from the creator of Sharknife. You can see the second page after the break.
Strange Tales #3, which also includes stories by the likes of Paul Hornschemeier, Stan Sakai, Becky Cloonan, Nicholas Gurewitch and Jay Stephens, will be released on Nov. 4.
- October 22, 2009 @ 06:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Robot 13 #2
Robot 13 #2
Robot 13 #2
Written by Thomas Hall; Illustrated by Daniel Bradford
Blacklist; $3.99
After I read Robot 13 #1 I wrote that “I hope it’s not a surprise or an insult to say that Daniel Bradford is no Mike Mignola. He’s very good at imitating the style and the colors, but I think I’ll enjoy him more once he finds his own groove. His work already has a sense of humor that breaks the boundaries of his inspiration, so I know it’s coming. I’m looking forward to it.”
Pleased to say that – if issue #2 is an indication of the direction Bradford’s going with his art – that seems to be happening. The work’s more detailed this time around and he does some really cool things with the colors, especially in the flames of the giant phoenix that attacks Robot 13. That sense of humor I mentioned last time is on display again too, but even larger. As a couple of guys are watching the robot-bird fight, their faces are almost manga-like in their expressiveness.
The first issue looked like Bradford was working hard to mimic Mignola. Even though he was mostly successful at that, it’s great to see him relax with this issue and do his own thing. Robot 13′s design will probably always be reminiscent of Mignola, but he’s drawn more naturally this time. And because of that, he feels more like a real character.
- October 21, 2009 @ 04:56 PM by Michael May
Send Us Your Shelf Porn
Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, the only place where on the Internet where the term “porn” suggests something non-sexual and PG-rated. We think. For now.
Poor planning on my part meant I almost resorted to linkblogging (brrr) instead of highlighting some brave soul’s collection. Thankfully, mighty comics scholar and critic Michael Rhode came to save the day. For those who don’t know, Rhode runs the ComicsDC blog, which covers comic-related events in and around our nation’s capital. He’s also co-author of the Comics Research Bibliography, the exhibition and media reviews editor for the International Journal of Comic Art, and the editor of the book Harvey Pekar: Conversations, among other accolades.
But as nice as Mike’s collection is, he can’t keep Shelf Porn going on his lonesome. It takes the help of all of brave individuals like perhaps yourself, who aren’t afraid to flaunt their comics collection in front of all who have Internet access and know about this site. Simply send me pics of your shelves to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and you, too, can be one of the proud and few.
And now, let’s move on to Mike and his shelves:
- October 21, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Watch the Vertigo Crime television commercial
From the Vertigo Crime television ad
The Vertigo blog has posted video of the DC Comics imprint’s first-ever television commercial, which debuted last night on BBC America. The ad, which spotlights the debut titles from the Vertigo Crime line — Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell’Edera, and Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos — will air on cable throughout the next month.
- October 21, 2009 @ 01:14 PM by Kevin Melrose
Preview: Sullivan’s Sluggers by Smith and Stokoe
Sullivan's Sluggers
Back in July we first heard word that Amazing Joy Buzzards writer Mark Andrew Smith was working with Wonton Soup creator James Stokoe on a project called Sullivan’s Sluggers. Smith was kind enough to send us over some additional preview art, along with a description of the series:
Here’s a first look at “Sullivan’s Sluggers” that I’m working on with James Stokoe.
Sullivan’s Sluggers follows a team of ex-professional baseball players who play farm league teams for cash so that the farm leaguers can say that they’ve played against the pros. Our team of players are called the Dragons, and they are under the leadership of coach Casey Sullivan, who is a disgraced ex-player who spends most of his time in a drunken state trying to forget his past.
Sullivan’s Sluggers get an invitation to play a game in a Texas town called Malice against the Malice Gladiators. Upon arriving in the town, the team notices that the town seems to be stuck in the ‘50s, and something about it seems very off to them.
Unknown to the Dragons, the town of Malice has a curse on it from its shameful history. After the sun goes down during the 7th inning stretch, the other team and the townsfolk turn into monsters with an appetite for human flesh, and they start ripping into and feeding off the Dragons.
The Dragons find themselves battling their way out using all the baseball skills at their disposal, such as fastball pitches, fighting their way out with baseball bats, and communicating with secret signals, as the team rallies to survive until morning.
Sullivan’s will be completed by the end of 2009. The book will be in color at 150 pages.
Thanks for checking out Sullivan’s Sluggers and I hope you enjoyed the small preview.
Check out the rest of the preview after the jump …
- October 21, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
You’ve become an ice sculpture Charlie Brown!
Not content with dominating the vast world merchandising, the Peanuts empire will now take on the competitive and ever-controversial ice sculpting arena, with a new exhibit that will open on Nov. 20 in Nashville, TN. Entitled ICE!, the exhibit will re-enact scenes from A Charlie Brown Christmas using 2 million pounds of ice carved by artisans from Harbin, China. No, I am not making any of this up.
The promo video is above. You can read the intro from the official press release, which I nicked from Daily Cartoonist, after the jump.
- October 21, 2009 @ 10:50 AM by Chris Mautner
APE ’09 | Jamaica Dyer’s con report … in comic form
Jamaica Dyer's APE comic
Over at her blog, Weird Fishes creator Jamaica Dyer shares a report from this weekend’s Alternative Press Expo in the form of a comic. The comic covers Saturday, and she says Sunday is coming soon … and not to spoil the Sunday one, but I hear that Weird Fishes sold out at the show.
- October 21, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Is Brian Michael Bendis a casualty of the Con War?
"Last minute cancellations" at last weekend's Big Apple Comic Con (via The Beat)
With the initial salvos — head-to-head scheduling, employee ejections — out of the way, the battle between Reed Exhibitions and Wizard Entertainment’s Gareb Shamus that began in earnest this past weekend may have produced its first major fallout.
Following Shamus’s scheduling of next year’s Big Apple Comic Con directly against Reed’s New York Comic Con, previously announced Anaheim Comic Con guests of honor Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev and Phil Jimenez — all marquee names under Marvel-exclusive contracts, for what it’s worth — are now nowhere to be found on the Shamus show’s guest list. Will Shamus’s apparent loss be Reed’s gain, particularly for that same weekend’s C2E2 con?
For now, Con War watchers’ eyes must turn to the PR front for answers — and there, the battle’s been mostly one-sided. Reed showrunner Lance Fensterman has been taking to news sites to discuss Shamus’s Big Apple/NYCC maneuver. (Not to mention his pitting Anaheim against C2E2 — itself seen as a rival to Wizard’s Chicago Comic Con — and Toronto against Boston’s PAX East.)
Speaking with CBR’s Kiel Phegley, Fensterman called out Big Apple’s practice of allowing its big media guests to charge for autographs:
But to be honest, we’ve always shied away from “pay-to-play” guests, meaning you have to pay to get a signature, because we’ve always tried to view ourselves as all-inclusive. When you buy a ticket, the many guests of honor that we’ve lined up are there for free. You buy a ticket, and you have a right to see those people and get a signature. We never felt it was our philosophy to say, “No. Buy your ticket, and then everyone you want to see costs $100 to get a signature.” It wasn’t our thing.
And in this interview with The Comics Reporter’s Tom Spurgeon, Fensterman gingerly addresses rumors of misconduct by Shamus’s organization:
- October 21, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Slash Print | Barnes & Noble’s nook goes head-to-head with Amazon’s Kindle
Tablets | Kindle, meet the Nook … or nook, as it looks like Barnes & Noble are spelling it with the lowercase “n,” which is really annoying. But yes, the bookseller has launched their own e-book tablet, which retails for $259 (the same as the Amazon Kindle 2), has a color touchscreen and comes out in November. Check out the product comparison chart (it’s a PDF) from B & N for more information on how it compares to Amazon’s device.
Google, meanwhile, isn’t working on a device, but they do plan to launch an e-book store in order to deliver electronic books to “any device with a web browser.” Time will tell what any of this means for the comic industry, but with a color tablet coming out soon, you can see the possibilities.
Webcomics | Writing for PBS’s Mediashift blog, Simon Owens writes about what newspaper cartoonists can learn from web cartoonists. He spoke with both Richard Stevens and Howard Tayler for the piece.
- October 21, 2009 @ 09:27 AM by JK Parkin
Your video link of the day: A Burne Hogarth TV ad
The good folks at Flog! found this odd 1970s television ad for Excedrin pain reliever animated by none other than Burne Hogarth, co-founder of the school of Visual Arts, Tarzan artist of renown and author of several how-to books used and referenced by just about every cartoonist on the map.
- October 21, 2009 @ 08:50 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Longbox
Digital comics | Technology columnist Andy Ihnatko spotlights LongBox Digital, the much-anticipated “iTunes for comics,” and claims he’s “pretty sure” the company is entering into a “formal alliance” with Apple: “Comic-industry cluelessness and their inability to unite towards a common, mutual good are the two main reasons why we haven’t seen anything like LongBox before. But they probably haven’t been as serious a roadblock as the simple lack of any portable device that’s perfectly-suited to reading digital comics. This is a form of storytelling that needs a tablet. A big, page-sized color screen with lots of resolution and a touch interface for turning pages and navigating from panel to panel. Apple is rumored to be making one of those things. And they’re also rumored to be speaking with a great many high-profile print publishers about bringing their content to this new device.” LongBox CEO Rantz Hoseley wouldn’t confirm Ihnatko’s Apple assertion. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- October 21, 2009 @ 08:16 AM by Kevin Melrose