2009 November
This Wednesday, the spies and rockers come in from the cold
This week is a good one for fans of espionage and spies, as Marvel releases a new Black Widow miniseries; Vertigo gives us the further adventures of Fabletown’s resident spy, Cinderella; and Titan collects the old James Bond newspaper strip into a giant omnibus. If danger is your business, business is good.
Rock stars, meanwhile, are kind of like super spies, only with guitars and groupies instead of guns and Bond girls. And this week sees several rockers releasing books, as Anthrax’s Scott Ian tackles a new Lobo miniseries, Zak Sally of the band Low does Like a Dog and the second issue of Kill Audio by Claudio Sanchez of the band Coheed and Cambria hits shelves.
Several new series kick off this week; in addition to what I listed above, there’s also a new Age of Reptiles series, a Great Ten miniseries, Charlie Huston’s Deathlok, another Oz series from Marvel, Psylocke and Iceman minis, and the long-awaited Stumptown. And wrapping up this week are Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology, Dark Horse’s End League and Witchfinder, Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem, Iron Man Armor Wars and Boys Herogasm.
These only scratch the surface of what you’ll find in stores this week. To see what Kevin, Chris and I are keeping an eye out for, read on …
- November 3, 2009 @ 04:53 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Sam Hiti’s Death-Day
from Death Day
Saw this on Paul Pope’s Twitter feed … artist Sam Hiti has kicked off a webcomic called Death-Day, as well as an accompanying blog. Go check it out.
- November 3, 2009 @ 02:22 PM by JK Parkin
Unbound: Death stalks the internet
Interviews with comics creators usually include a lot of questions about the origins of the comic—what was the inspiration, how did you find a working partner, how did you find a publisher, that sort of thing.
One topic that hardly ever comes up is how the comic ends. It’s not the sort of thing one thinks of with regard to print comics, because the vast majority are either one-shot graphic novels or endless series that have been running since FDR was president.
Webcomics are a different matter. “Over 15,000 webcomics now exist online,” Wikipedia tells us, but probably 14,000 of those stopped updating after six episodes. This is the dark side of The Promise of Webcomics: It is true that anyone can start a webcomic, and that without the usual barriers to publication, such as editors and budgets, the web has become a seething cauldron of creativity. However, things like slush piles and contracts and editors are there for a reason: Not just to keep the crap out, but also to make sure the creator finishes the damn comic. The internet imposes no such restrictions. Consequently, many webcomics start with a burst of enthusiasm and fizzle when the creator runs out of ideas or has to study for finals.
Killer Komics, last updated January 2008, with a promise to update more frequently soon.
- November 3, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by Brigid Alverson
Charles Schulz gives ‘em the ax
The ax
While Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was certainly known as a all-around wonderful, decent guy, there’s no doubt he had a mischievous, smart-aleck side to him as well. Consider for instance this letter, recently donated to the Library of Congress.
In the letter, written in 1954, Schulz addresses a Ms. Elizabeth Swaim, who had recently written the cartoonist to express her distaste for the then new Charlotte Braun character, a loudmouth Charlie Brown lookalike that Swaim was not alone in disliking.
Schulz tells Swaim that he is taking her advice and getting rid of the character, but then reminds her, “Remember that you and your friends will have the death of an innocent child on your conscience! Are you prepared to accept such a responsibility?”
And, in the interest of driving his point home, he draws a picture of Charlotte Braun with an ax in her head. Wonder why that never made it into any of his “Happiness is …” books?
(via)
- November 3, 2009 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Mautner
The best reason to visit Nappanee, IN
Smokey Stover's automobile
… is to see Smokey Stover’s car, apparently built by creator Bill Homan hisself.
- November 3, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Congratulations Adrian Tomine!
Awwww.
The Drawn and Quarterly blog announced yesterday that the Optic Nerve cartoonist and his wife, Sarah Brennan, recently welcomed into the world a baby girl, Nora Emiko Tomine. We here at Robot 6 say congratulations to the new parents and wish them the best of luck.
- November 3, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Chris Mautner
By the Hurrying Hordes of Holborn: McCarthy’s Dr. Strange/Spider-Man promo
Fever promo
Mark Kardwell shares with us an “idea sketch for a ‘Coming Soon” type of advert” for Fever, the upcoming Dr. Strange/Spider-Man miniseries written and drawn by Brendan McCarthy. This Marvel Knights series is due in April, McCarthy told Kaldwell.
- November 3, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Marvel
Business | Marvel Entertainment’s third-quarter profits plunged 60 percent because of a steep decline in film revenue and licensing sales for the period. The publishing division declined 6 percent, or $2 million, compared to the third quarter of 2008, which the company attributes to a drop in custom publishing offset by an increase in book-market revenue. [Bloomberg, Marvel.com]
Publishing | The list of nominees for the Young Adult Library Services Association’s annual Great Graphic Novels for Teens is, as usual, diverse, with titles ranging from R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated and Jamaica Dyer’s Weird Fishes to Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto and Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards’ 1985.
The nominations, divided into categories for fiction and nonfiction, are led by Marvel with 15 titles, DC Comics and its imprints with 13, Viz Media with 12 (but for 18 volumes), Dark Horse with eight and Del Rey and Yen Press with six each.
The final selections, chosen by an 11-person committee, will be presented in mid-January at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Boston. [YALSA]
Publishing | Marvel has hired Bon Alimagno, editorial director of Harris Publications, as its editorial talent coordinator, replacing Chris Allo, who left the company in September. [Bleeding Cool]
- November 3, 2009 @ 08:56 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Matt Kindt
3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man
I’m a great admirer of Matt Kindt‘s work. Honestly, I’m an even bigger admirer of Kindt’s ingenious nature. Case in point, for his latest book, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man (published by Dark Horse and released in late September), he has developed a Giant Man Mini Comic – Spy Capsule and Giant-Man 3-D Postcards. Before we get into our email interview about 3 Story, I have to reiterate what I said in last week’s What Are You Reading that (in addition to checking out Kindt’s latest work, of course) you should pick up Strange Tales 2 (featuring Kindt’s Black Widow tale). Here’s a bit of Dark Horse’s background on the tale (before stepping into the interview): “Craig Pressgang’s life is well documented in his official CIA biography, Giant Man: Pillar of America, but the heroic picture it paints is only half the story. The continuous growth caused by Craig’s strange medical condition brings a variety of problems as he becomes more isolated and unknowable. Told in three eras by three women with unique relationships with Craig, 3 Story follows his sad life from his birth to the present.” Be sure to visit the Dark Horse site for a seven-page sample of the book.
Tim O’Shea: A three-fold question of sorts (pun intended): Which came first, the idea to build your latest book as three stories in one, or the fact that the lead character was three stories tall in height or that you wanted to tell the story from the perspective of three women?
Matt Kindt: I wanted to tell the story from three different generations’ perspective — that was first. Then the idea for the title. I’m usually terrible with titles. It takes me forever to come up with something and then I usually go back to the working title anyway. Super Spy started out as my jokey working title and then it grew on me so I just left it. A friend accused me of naming it 3 Story so it would be filed on the bookshelf next to my other book 2 Sisters — completely unintentional. But I’m thinking my next book might be called “4 Shadows”. (kidding)
- November 2, 2009 @ 03:30 PM by Tim O'Shea
Ryan Dunlavey & ToyFare’s comic-strip mash-ups
Kraven and Hobbes
They’re better known these days for Con Wars and layoffs, but the magazines of Wizard Entertainment have long been capable of producing some pretty funny stuff. Exhibit A: the comic-strip mash-ups artist Ryan Dunlavey has posted on his blog–here and here. Generally written by the ToyFare magazine editorial staff and illustrated by Dunlavey in impeccable approximations of the original styles, the comics take classic strips and mix ‘em up with superheroes, science fiction, and general nerdery, resulting in such mash-up masterpieces as The Thunderkatzenjammer Kids, Spy vs. Spy vs. Alien vs. Predator, Orlando Bloom County, X-Nuts (will Phoenix ever let Good Ol’ Charlie Xavier kick that football?) and much more. Alas, my all-time favorite of the ToyFare/Dunlavey efforts, Ellen Ripley’s Believe It or Not, has yet to be posted, but the rest are still well worth checking out.
- November 2, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
A sneak peek at The Diary of a Teenage Girl — the play
Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel/prose/illustration/autobio hybrid The Diary of a Teenage Girl is one of my all-time favorite comics, so to say I’m looking forward to its upcoming theatrical adaptation is to understate the case considerably. Headed for a March 2010 debut at New York City’s 3LD, this multimedia extravaganza was written for the stage by Marielle Heller — who also stars as main character Minnie Goetze — and is helmed by co-directors Sarah Cameron Sunde and Rachel Eckerling. The above video provides a fascinating glimpse at the show so far, including some behind-the-scenes conversations between Heller and Gloeckner that provide new insight into (and photos of!) some familiar characters. I’m far from a theatre expert, but I have to imagine that in a post-Spring Awakening, post-Next to Normal theatrical climate, this stands a chance to get a lot of attention.
- November 2, 2009 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
iFanboy creates the Ultimate Comics Twitter Lists
The social networking site Twitter recently added a new function called “Lists,” which allows users to create and share lists of Twitter accounts. The fine folks at iFanboy have done the world a solid and created several comic book oriented lists, so you can easily find Twitter feeds for creators, companies, podcasters, bloggers and media.
They’ve also set up a list for their staff, an idea I shamelessly stole as soon as Ron Richards emailed me about their lists. Now you too can find out what Brigid had for breakfast, what Kevin thinks of V and who Carla dressed as for Halloween, all from one handy feed.
- November 2, 2009 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 099
And on, this the 99th page of THE THIRSTY, I give you:
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
I just realized that Collins’ riding coat got ripped in the first chapter and it got patched sometime along the way. You can see it real clear in panel 3.
I’d try to work up something exciting for the 100th page, but everytime I’ve tried to, real life has reached up and smacked me in the face. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your eyes peeled, though.
Back on Wednesday.
- November 2, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Straight for the art | Melvin Monster covers
Melvin Monster
Frustrated that Drawn and Quarterly’s John Stanley Library of books doesn’t include the covers to the original comic books? D&Q feels your pain (sort of) and has posted the covers to the stories from the forthcoming, second Melvin Monster book on their blog.
And if that’s not enough to satisfy you, they’ve also got a swell Nancy story.
- November 2, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Tony Millionaire does Achewood
Tony Millionaire's Achewood
Pretty self-explanatory, no? Maakies and Sock Monkey caroonist Tony Millionaire has done a guest strip for Chris Onstad’s Achewood One of today’s greatest humor cartoonists does one of today’s greatest humor strips. There’s even a cameo by Uncle Gabby and Drinky Crow. Click the link already!
(Via Brian Warmoth.)
- November 2, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Sean T. Collins