2009 October
Cowboys, ninjas, vikings, presidents and King rule in this week’s comics
Well, I guess technically three of those five run rampant in one comic this week — the aptly named Cowboy Ninja Viking #1, due this week from Image. Also debuting in comic shops this week is a new Azrael title from DC, another Stand miniseries from Stephen King and Marvel, and the Talisman miniseries from Del Ray, based on the Stephen King/Peter Straub book of the same name.
Other notable floppy releases include DC’s Justice League #38, the first issue by James Robinson and Mark Bagley, and Oni’s Resurrection #4, where a former president joins the cast. Hey, at least they didn’t try to jump on the already overloaded Obama bandwagon. There’s also a handful of second issues I’m personally looking forward to — Beasts of Burden, Underground and Spider Woman.
And trade waiters have a lot to look forward to this week as well: Legion of Three Worlds, Garth Ennis’s series of Battlefield miniseries, the Vertigo Uncle Sam series, Wolverine Noir and Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers get the hardcover treatment, while softcovers of recent issues of Jonah Hex, Superman, Thunderbolts, Echo and War Machine arrive. And comic strip fans can scratch their Family Circus itch with the first of IDW’s mammoth collections of the series.
To see what Chris, Kevin and I have to say about this week’s loot, read on.
- October 20, 2009 @ 02:29 PM by JK Parkin
Unbound: Talking Red Plains with Caryn A. Tate
Caryn A. Tate’s Red Plains, now playing at the Top Shelf 2.0 anthology site, uses the classic Western setting to frame stories that have a bit more depth to them than the standard shoot-em-up. In a series of interconnected episodes, she explores the conflict between ranchers and farmers, the life of a black cowboy, a murder mystery with a twist, and, most recently, a complicated tale of civic life, gun control, and armed revolution.
What makes Tate’s comic tick is her characters, who stretch the Western archetypes with their quirks and flaws: Sheriff Doles, a former handyman whose intellectual curiosity and laid-back style rub the town fathers the wrong way; Jackson Stevens, the trigger-happy, over-privileged son of a wealthy rancher; Bob Schwartz, a seemingly upstanding lawyer with a hidden dark side; Mayor Wells, who suffers from a mysterious illness, and his wife, who seems to be running the show. The four episodes that are up so far are interconnected but can be read on their own as well; together they paint a fascinating picture of life in the Old West. I interviewed Tate by e-mail to find out how she comes up with her stories and puts everything together to make a sum that is greater than any of its parts.
- October 20, 2009 @ 01:29 PM by Brigid Alverson
Stark Industries working around the clock on new Mets uniform
The new Mets uniform?
The Real Dirty Mets Blog revealed some good news for fans of the New York Mets in late August — apparently they’re getting a new injury-proof uniform for next season.
“It will make sure that all the injuries of 2009 will never happen again,” the blog reports. “No word on how much it will cost to put into production but sources say the first two will go to Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana.”
(Thanks David!)
- October 20, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art: Al Columbia’s ‘Toyland’
Hey cats and kittens! Are you as excited for the upcoming release of Al Columbia’s Pim and Francie book from Fantagraphics as I am? Sure you are! Until then, however, you’ll just have to tide yourselves over with this stunning painting Columbia did titled “Toyland.” A printed version of the work can be found in the latest copy of Diamond Comics.
- October 20, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Off-topic: The theme from Cowboy Bebop, marching band-style
During halftime of its homecoming game against the University of Delaware on Saturday, Towson University’s marching band took to the field to play something a bit unexpected: Yoko Kanno’s Tank! — the theme from Cowboy Bebop. Seriously!
The camera work is shaky, but the sound quality is good.
- October 20, 2009 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Let R. Crumb keep you warm on the slopes
It looks so comfy
Looking for a good snowboarding jacket? Want to wear something that shows your reverence for the underground comics movement? Or at least for Mr. Natural? Then behold: Burton has just the thing for you:
Check out the print by cartoonist Robert Crumb. A prominent figure in the 60s and 70s counter culture, Crumb is world-renowned for his subversive voice and controversial artwork. We’re only producing 500 pieces in this print, and shipping it in a black bag so you can look sketchy when taking it to the register. Beyond that, the Burton Restricted Dyer Jacket keeps riders like Mikey Rencz and Mark Sollors dry and warm when rooping around the British Columbian backcountry with the help of a hopped up DRYRIDE Durashell™ 2L fabric and strategically placed expedition weight Thermacore™ insulation.
I have no idea what that last sentence means, but I assume it translates as “keeps you warm.” The whole thing costs between $250-$270, depending on how much Thermacore you stuff it with I suppose (found via Mike Lynch).
- October 20, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
This Sunday, it’s Wonder Woman Day
Wonder Woman Day IV
On Sunday DC Comics’ Amazon princess will be celebrated in a pair of Wonder Woman Day all-ages events in Portland, Oregon, and Flemington, New Jersey, that will benefit domestic-violence prevention and intervention agencies in both states.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams has even officially declared Oct. 25 to be “Wonder Woman Day.”
The Portland event, which will be held from noon to 6 p.m. at Excalibur Comics, 2444 SE Hawthorne Blvd., will benefit Raphael House of Portland, Bradley Angle and Portland Women’s Crisis Line. Guests include Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Gail Simone, Aaron Lopresti, Ron Randall and Paul Gulacy.
The Fleminton event, which will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at Comic Fusion, 42 Main St., will benefit Safe in Hunterdon. Guests include Joe Sinnott, Chris Muller, Ken Haeser, Rob Kramer and Buzz Hasson.
Both events are free, and will feature silent auctions of work by such artists as Alex Ross, Adam Hughes, Gary Frank, Nicola Scott, Jeff Smith and many more.
For more information, visit the Wonder Woman Day IV website.
- October 20, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Congo’s Patrice Masioni Makamba to draw Unknown Soldier arc
from Unknown Soldier #13
Pamela Mullins announced on the Vertigo blog yesterday that issues 13-14 of Unknown Soldier will feature artwork by Patrice Masioni Makamba, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo and now lives in France.
In a follow-up post, series writer Joshua Dysart said they wanted to find a fill-in artist from Africa, where the story takes place, for series regular Alberto Ponticelli.
“But locating the perfect person for the job was no easy task,” Dysart writes. “A lack of exposure to artists from that region of the world and the extremely jarring, culturally specific art styles of those we did find made the search difficult to say the least. But eventually we did discover our man – Pat Masioni, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He’s from a little further west than where our book occurs, but once you hear Pat’s story, in his own words, you’ll understand why he was the best choice for this mini-arc.”
Graphic Content also reprints an introduction by the fill-in artist, which will run in issue 13. You can check it out at the second link.
- October 20, 2009 @ 10:04 AM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
Exit Wounds
• Eddie Campbell has been offering one great critique after another lately, first on
Asterios Polyp and David Mazzuchelli’s ability to convey a sense of place, and then on Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds (“The impressive thing about Exit Wounds is that there is a keen organizing intelligence at work at every single level of it, from top to bottom.”
• Jeet Heer ruminates on the concept of the “proto-graphic novel,” i.e. graphic novels that were published before the term became ubiquitous.
• It’s a few days old, but this review of R. Crumb’s Genesis adaptation by Bill Kartalopoulos is still well worth your time.
• I don’t always link to Tucker Stone’s “Comics of the Weak” round-up, but this one’s worth noting, as he mimics the prose of “controversial French writer Michel Houllebecq,” which leads to bits like this one on Batman:
Gotham City has but two types of people-those who wreak violence, and those who have violence wreaked upon them. The first type are all men, for the most part, although the occasional lesbian is permitted participation, as long as she has previously received approval from whomever currently holds the title of most cruel. (Said participation is usually considered an important story point, further cementing the little respect or interest that these stories have for women–there are few other places in fiction where “the bitch can stay” is considered interesting or dynamic.
- October 20, 2009 @ 09:30 AM by Chris Mautner
The Meta-List returns: The 100 Best Comics of 2008
Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button
Sandy Bilus of I Love Rob Liefeld, the Comics Internet tips its collective hat to you. Picking up the torch from the sadly discontinued blog of Dick Hyancith, Bilus has compiled a “meta-list” of the 100 best comics of 2008, as tabulated from the personal best-of lists of dozens of critics and commentators. Behold the Top Ten:
1. Bottomless Belly Button, by Dash Shaw
2. Acme Novelty Library #19, by Chris Ware
3. All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
4. Too Cool To Be Forgotten, by Alex Robinson
5. What It Is, by Lynda Barry
6. Ganges #2, by Kevin Huizenga
7. The Alcoholic, by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel
8. Skyscrapers of the Midwest, by Joshua Cotter
9. Kramers Ergot 7, by various
10. Capacity, by Theo Ellsworth
The point system used to tabulate the list makes it easy for books that made it onto a lot of individual lists but didn’t top them to put in a strong showing; perhaps that explains the blowout victory of Bottomless Belly Button, which I recall as being widely liked but few people’s #1 pick.
For you front-of-Previews types out there, DC’s All-Star Superman is the highest ranking superhero comic, coming in at a strong #3. DC/Vertigo’s The Alcoholic is the Big Two’s next-highest representative at #7, while its labelmate Scalped comes in at #12. The top Marvel book, and second-highest superhero comic, is Omega the Unknown at #13. Manga’s top-ranking title is Travel at #16. Click the link to see what else made the grade.
Me, I’ve got some quibbles here and there, as is to be expected. But overall, if you’re looking to do some shopping this holiday season and don’t mind being a year behind, you’d be hard pressed to top this for a wishlist.
- October 20, 2009 @ 09:01 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Blackest Night #3
Publishing | Sales of comics to the direct market increased 12 percent in September over the same month last year, lifting the third quarter by 7 percent. Graphic novels, meanwhile, slipped 2 percent in September and 10 percent for the quarter, largely because of the strong performance of Watchmen in 2008.
DC’s Blackest Night #3 topped Diamond’s comics chart, with sales estimated at 140,786, followed by Marvel’s Captain America: Reborn #3 with 108,331. The “Blackest Night” event performed well for DC, with five related titles placing in the Top 10. ICv2.com notes in its analysis that the $3.99 price tag on some of Marvel’s comics appears to be having an impact on sales, with the second issues of Ultimate Comics Avengers and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man falling about 15,000 copies each, and Hulk #15 dropping about 18,700 from the previous issue.
The graphic novels list was led by the fifth volume of Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, with an estimated 7,225 copies. However, the most interesting entry is probably R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated, which charted at No. 28 with some 2,178 copies. [ICv2.com]
- October 20, 2009 @ 08:27 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Jamie S. Rich
You Have Killed Me
Back in late July/early August, Robot 6 was fortunate enough to feature independent comics industry veteran writer Jamie S. Rich guest-blogging with the group–partially in promotion of his and artist Joëlle Jones‘ You Have Killed Me, the 184-page hardboiled crime graphic novel released by Oni Press in mid-July. Rich, an established writer of prose and comics, recently ran circles (in a good way) around some questions I shot his way recently about his latest book. Enjoy, hopefully as much as I did.
Tim O’Shea: Back in 2006 in an interview with Tom Spurgeon you told him (about You Have Killed Me) “12 Reasons was going so well, I think we had only been working on it a couple of months, but I didn’t want to lose her to anyone else, so I asked her if she would work with me again and what she would want to do, I’d write her anything. She said she wanted to do hardboiled crime, and since I had the same passion for it she did, I jumped at it, even though it scared me because it was so different from what I’m known for. She’s challenging me in incredible ways I would never challenge myself.” Can you discuss what ways this story challenged you?
Jamie S. Rich: Well, most immediately, it required some real plotting. Relationship stories like what I had previously been known for don’t require as much careful planning, they have a natural flow, peaks and valleys that are tied to the rhythm of real life. It’s often unpredictable, less structured, and there is no definite resolution beyond whether or not these people stay together. In a crime story, you have something that happened, and the discovery of how it happened has to be detailed and lead to the revelation of the truth or the punishment of the criminal. You can’t just have a random stranger suddenly emerge and say, “Oh, yeah, this homeless drifter did it.” I mean, you could, but a lot of people would call you out for cheating, that’s not a good story. For You Have Killed Me, I had to concoct a trail for Antonio Mercer, the private detective, to folloq, and each step had to kick up new dirt and I had to keep all of that dirt ordered, even when false or a red herring. There are expectations of that kind of plot. Just as Chekhov said if there is a gun in the first act, it will go off in the third, if you need a gun to go off in the third, you might have to think about having it show up in the first. There is far less left to chance.
- October 19, 2009 @ 03:30 PM by Tim O'Shea
APE ’09 | The Haul
Some of my APE purchases
I probably spent more at the Alternative Press Expo this year than I have in previous years. It’s probably my favorite show of the ones I’ve been hitting regularly since moving to California a few years back, if only because at just about every single table in the place you have the opportunity to discover a comic you’ve never seen before. Although living in the Bay Area I have access to shops that not only carry independent stuff, but in some cases also have minicomics, it’s nice to have a venue like this where you can find such a wide range of books and talk to the creators directly.
So here’s what I came home with …
- October 19, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics College: Jack Kirby
Welcome to Comics College, a (sort of) monthly feature here at Robot 6 where we provide an introductory guide to some of the most significant artists, writers and creators in comics and offer our best educated suggestions on how to become familiar with their body of work.
Little did I know when I chose Jack Kirby as my second entry more than a month ago that his name would be splayed across the headlines of comics blogs and message boards as his family announced their intention to attempt to win back the copyrights to various Marvel characters. Despite the questionable rancor from some parties, the news provides a perfect opportunity to revisit Kirby’s work, as he remains one of the great colossi of American Comics, perhaps its most significant creator, depending upon who you talk to. He’s certainly one of the most prolific.
But Kirby can be tough for some folks. Modern readers used to the Image school of exaggeration or a more photorealistic (or PhotoShopped at any rate) style of superhero comics tend to balk at Kirby’s blocky, dynamic style, especially in his later period when it verged on outright expressionism. What’s more, he was always a better artist and idea man than a writer, and his dialogue when working solo can come off as turgid and forced, especially when he’s trying to sound “hip” and “with it.” I know as a teenager and young adult I found Kirby’s work initially too odd and different from what I was used to as a comic reader to enjoy. It wasn’t until I forced myself to sit down and immerse myself into his world that I learned to appreciate his oeuvre and became a devotee.
Keep in mind: Kirby’s output was so vast that to try to encapsulate it here in a simple blog post is a mug’s game. In other words, there are going to be omissions — volumes left out and series ignored, either due to the fact that I simply haven’t read them yet or because I just didn’t have the time and space to include them here. I feel confident enough in my recommendations, but feel free to pick on my negligence in the comments section.
- October 19, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Your video link of the day: Seth gets interviewed
The nattily dressed cartoonist talks about Doug Wright and his own book, George Sprott in this interview for Q TV. Is it just me or should Steve Buscemi play Seth in the great alt-comix biopic?
- October 19, 2009 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Mautner