2009 December
Ryan Kelly’s side project: Funrama Presents
The Mutant Punks by Ryan Kelly
Over on his blog, Local artist Ryan Kelly announces a “personal side project in every sense of that definition” called Funrama. The first two stories he’s working on under the Funrama Presents banner are Funrama Presents: The Mutant Punks (shown above) and Funrama Presents: Raccoon. He says both of them are short stories that build toward a bigger story he’s got planned.
“This is not a webcomic, per se,” he says. “This is a personal side project in every sense of that definition. The FUNRAMA PRESENTS stories will be combined into a promo book that I hope to have available this summer with superstar pin-up art extras. The end goal is a set of 3 graphic novels. It could take years. Print on Demand..Unless a publisher wants to magically come forward and publish it. Anyway, More to come. I will be making a process Tumblr blog too.
- December 30, 2009 @ 10:43 AM by JK Parkin
“Galactus was made up to sell comic books”
by Matt Bors
Cartoonist Matt Bors has some fun with the recent United Nations Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen by showing what might happen if the Avengers approached fighting Galactus in a similar manner. Maybe UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should just ask Reed Richards to whip up a renewable energy source during his lunch hour.
- December 30, 2009 @ 09:40 AM by JK Parkin
Meet Michael May at the Source Mini Indy Con in Minnesota today
Indy Comic Book Week
The Source Comics in Falcon Heights, Minn. is hosting a big event today in honor of Indy Comic Book Week. The Source Mini Indy Con will feature more than 15 indy comics creators, including Robot 6 contributor and Cownt Tales writer Michael May! So if you’re in the area, head down there, tell Michael we said hi and get him to sign a copy of his new book. And pick up some of the other books they’ll have on hand as well — The Source will have a huge selection of indy comics available at the event.
You can find more details on the event, including a complete list of creators who will attend, on CBR’s recently launched Events Calendar.
- December 30, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
The greater crime is that they call them ‘Freddy Krueger claws’
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
UK customs officials at Coventry’s international postal hub have seized steel claws that the Telegraph describes “as similar to those worn by Robert Englund in Wes Craven’s Nightmare On Elm Street films.”
Of course, as any self-respecting comics nerd knows, the Telegraph is wrong: They’re claws similar to those wielded — snikted? — by Wolverine. Freddy has four claws that extend from gloves on each hand; Wolverine has three.
This is at least the second time this year officials have confiscated “hand claws,” considered offensive weapons under British law, from the Parcelforce depot near Coventry Airport.
The Telegraph reports that drugs, imitation weapons and “a package containing thousands of fake Viagra tablets” have been seized at the hub in recent months. Presumably, they weren’t all destined for the same address.
- December 30, 2009 @ 08:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Everyone’s A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
• Abhay Khosla wraps up his five-part series on the recent Blue Beetle run over at Savage Critics, and asks questions that perhaps cannot be answered:
Panel from 'Blue Beetle'
Looking back, the list of nerdy crap that I have been a dorky spazz-wad for is very, very long– but why does that stuff work on me? What does all that dopey shit have in common? Is there a grand unified field theory of dorkism that can explain why certain ideas, images, idiocies, why they’re capable of burrowing under the skins of sloppy nerds such as myself? And can that theory explain why that material consumes not just my attention, but more and more attention globally at a time when attention is such a precious commodity?
• Jeet Heer further examines the “Protestant traditiion” of midwestern cartooning mentioned in a recent interview between Gary Groth, Kevin Huizenga and Art Spiegelman.
• Speaking of The Comics Journal, here are a few links of note: Steven Grant derides the Spirit Pop-Up Book; Robert Stanley Martin reviews David B’s Nocturnal Conspiracies; and some idiot blathers on and on about Pluto and 20th Century Boys. Under what rock did they find that moron?
- December 30, 2009 @ 08:00 AM by Chris Mautner
A roundup of end-of-the-year (and decade) pieces
Asterios Polyp
• The editors of The National Post’s book blog name the best books of 2009, including David Mazzuchelli’s Asterios Polyp.
• Comic Book Resources rolls out the first part of its Top 100 Comics of 2009, as selected by the websites contributors. The list so far includes such titles as Randall Munroe’s xkcd, Kevin Cannon’s Far Arden, Brian Michael Bendis and David Lafuente’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, and Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s The Walking Dead.
• David Ferraro counts down his Top 20 comics of 2009. Among them: X-Men: Misfits, by Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman and Anzu; GoGo Monster, by Taiyo Matsumoto; and Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 1: Orientation, by Thomas Siddell.
• Kethylia Duuk Tarquith names her Top 10 English-translated manga of 2009, including Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ôoku and Kiminori Wakasugi’s Detroit Metal City.
• Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort shares his “10 most potent memories” of the past decade: “The lowest point of the decade for me personally, and the one that came close to driving me out of comics entirely, was when I was forced to fire Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo from their run on Fantastic Four. So it was an incredible thing to have that decision ultimately reversed, and then have the cards fall in such a way that Mark and Mike came back onto the book without missing an issue, and carry on for another year or so. I view every issue of Fantastic Four that they did starting with #509 as a gift, especially precious given that Mike passed away not long thereafter.”
- December 30, 2009 @ 07:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
This week Blackest Night, Siege and lots of indy comics rule the racks
If you think the Diamond skip week means that you’ll be missing out on new comics, think again.
As you may have already heard, the week isn’t completely dead … even if the one new mainstream comic you can buy features a bunch of guys who are. Blackest Night #6 shipped early, meaning your retailer should have a copy waiting for you. Marvel, meanwhile, is releasing a free comic book, Origins of Siege, along with a calendar and some Avengers ID cards. And Dark Horse doesn’t have any new books out, but they are updating their MySpace Dark Horse Presents site a little early, with new stories by folks like Jill Thompson and Mark Crilley.
And, of course, there’s Indy Comic Book Week. Indy comic creators saw the potential void left on retailer’s racks this week, so they kicked off a movement to get their books onto shelves. Tim spoke to four of the planners behind the event about their endeavor, and we’ve been running previews from various creators for the past couple weeks. You can see even more of them at the Indy Comic Book Week blog.
So, for this very special edition of Can’t Wait for Wednesday, Chris, Kevin and I thought we’d get into the spirit and pick out some of the indy releases that we thought looked kinda interesting. These, of course, are only a handful of books that’ll be available, and they may not all be available at your local shop. So follow the links we’ve provided to see if you can buy them locally … and if not, see if you can buy them online. You might also check out Indy Planet, Midtown Comics and Things from Another World, as many Indy Comic Book Week books can be found on those sites as well.
- December 29, 2009 @ 02:07 PM by JK Parkin
Unbound: The year in manga
At the outset, 2009 didn’t look like a promising year for manga. Tokyopop had split in two, laid off a third of its staff, and seemed to be tottering toward its grave; Broccoli had just given up the ghost; Vertical let its marketing manager go; and ADV couldn’t bring itself to publish Yotsuba&!, despite the fact that fans were climbing the walls for it. The economy had tanked, and the general feeling was that 2009 was going to be a bleak year.
And yet, here I am at the end of December, surrounded by so much good manga that I don’t know where to start.
Tokypop rallied nicely and, despite losing some licenses, is bringing back series that everyone was convinced were heading to limbo. Yen Press rescued Yotsuba&! and republished the earlier volumes as well. Del Rey tested the waters with a variety of global titles (with more to come next year) and kept cranking out solid shoujo and shonen series from Japan. CMX kept up a steady stream of tween- and teen-friendly titles as well as the more mature suspense series Fire Investigator Nanase and Astral Project. Vertical was the darling of New York Anime Fest with their announcement that they had licensed the cute cat manga Chi’s Sweet Home and Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo; they kept fans busy in the meantime with a steady stream of new volumes of Black Jack.
And Viz! Viz outdid them all, launching series after series to enthusiastic response: Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto and 20th Century Boys; the foodie manga Oishinbo; the beautifully drawn Children of the Sea; the new Rumiko Takahashi series Rin-ne (released online simultaneously with the Japanese releases); Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku: The Inner Chambers. You could go broke trying to keep up with Viz’s output, but if you did, you could console yourself with the free manga on their SigIKKI and Shonen Sunday websites.
- December 29, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Your video of the day: The animated Don Martin
Somehow it just seems all the more horrifying once you add motion, doesn’t it? (via)
- December 29, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Slash Print | Keenspot, Apple tablet talk and more
Webcomics | Fleen’s Gary Tyrell dives into some of the changes that the webcomics host Keenspot is making to its business model starting next July. Tyrell talks to Keenspot CEO Chris Cosby and some creators who are currently hosted on the site, and also posts an internal memo that describes the changes. I’d quote from his post, but really, if you’re interested, go read the whole thing.
Maya
Webcomics | Artist Chris Noeth launched a webcomic called Maya, which he describes as “a science fiction story with superhero elements.” He’s also hosting a column at InvestComics.com about the making of the strip.
Digital comics | Tokyopop polls the audience on how much they’d be willing to pay for online manga. Chris Butcher questions whether the three options they offer in the poll are really the best options. Tokyopop’s marketing manager shows up in the comments section, which also has a bit of an interesting side discussion about Fair Use when it comes to online comic reviews.
Tablets | Are we getting closer to an official announcement from Apple on some sort of e-tablet? Peter Kafka reports that Apple “has told some of its key developers to prepare versions of their iPhone apps that will work on a device with a larger screen, in time for an event next month.” He also connects the dots between what he’s heard and Apple booking space in San Francisco at the end of January.
Webcomics | Tom Spurgeon continued his holiday interview series by talking to Shaenon Garrity about Achewood.
Webcomics | Artist Skottie Young has been posting a series of one-panel strips titled The Adventures of Bernard the World Destroyer over on his blog for the past few weeks.
Webcomics | Sparkplug points out that comics creator David King has revamped his website, where you can read his Danny Dutch strips, now titled Reliable Comics’ Laugh Menu.
- December 29, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
A solid Paul Cornell interview, from before the sun set on Captain Britain
Captain Britain and MI-13 #11
I enjoyed reading this transcript of Matt Badham’s 2008 interview with Paul Cornell, writer of Marvel’s Captain Britain and MI-13, even if the title’s subsequent cancellation casts a shadow across some of the quotes.
I’m only now reading the entire series — yes, I’m part of the problem — so Cornell’s comments about characterization, themes and, sadly, audience seem particularly relevant even four months after Captain Britain‘s end.
“Would Justice League International, Bwah Hah Hah, would that sell nowadays? I don’t think so,” the writer says. “The warm bath Excalibur with lots of in-jokes and appearances by staff members and reaching out to the fans every single moment; I think that’s a wonderful way to run a comic book but I don’t think it would sell today. I think most comic creators do write with this in mind, but some of them consciously and some of them unconsciously. Myself, I’d like to be on the newsstands. We’re not and that’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way the world is now.”
Seeing Captain Britain and MI-13 crop up again and again on best-of-2009 lists makes me a little, I don’t know, wistful — I get the same feeling every year when canceled TV series receive Emmy nominations — and I can’t help but think of something Tom Spurgeon recently wrote in regard to The Incredible Hercules: “… at some point it seems that if well-regarded series after well-regarded series is broken on the rocks of a market that won’t respond to them, you should start to look at changing the game board to be more receptive to such series as opposed to picking up a game piece you think might work better.”
Anyway, it’s a good interview in which Cornell’s enthusiasm for the characters really shines through.
(via Forbidden Planet International)
- December 29, 2009 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
R.I.P. David Levine
American Presidents
The New York Times is reporting that famed illustrator and caricaturist David Levine passed away today at the age of 83 after complications from prostate cancer.
Mr. Levine’s drawings never seemed whimsical, like those of Al Hirschfeld. They didn’t celebrate neurotic self-consciousness, like Jules Feiffer’s. He wasn’t attracted to the macabre, the way Edward Gorey was. His work didn’t possess the arch social consciousness of Edward Sorel’s. Nor was he interested, as Roz Chast is, in the humorous absurdity of quotidian modern life. But in both style and mood, Mr. Levine was as distinct an artist and commentator as any of his well-known contemporaries. His work was not only witty but serious, not only biting but deeply informed, and artful in a painterly sense as well as a literate one. Those qualities led many to suggest that he was the heir of the 19th-century masters of the illustration, Honoré Daumier and Thomas Nast.
The above link comes courtesy of Eric Reynolds at Fantagraphics, which published a collection of Levine’s work, American Presidents, in 2008. Most of Levine’s work, however, was done for the New York Review of Books and they have a nice, searchable gallery of his work online. I would also encourage you to check out this excellent Vanity Fair article on Levine that ran last year.
- December 29, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Maxim Dalton’s “Guitar Lessons”
I’ve got your Guitar Heroes right here, pal: Argentinian illustrator Maxim Dalton has paid homage to a small army of six-string warriors with a print called “Guitar Lessons.” Featured are guitar gods from Jimi Hendrix to Jack White; personally, I was happy to see Pete Townshend mid-windmill and David Gilmour in his Guinness t-shirt. Click here to see the whole thing and to reserve a copy if you’d like one of your own, and be sure to check out the comments for Dalton’s defenses of who did and didn’t make the cut. Making metal horns while viewing is optional.
(Via David Heatley)
- December 29, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Unfortunately it will not actually draw the comic for you
Plotboiler
Dealing with a bad case of writer’s block? Looking for that perfect plot for your upcoming 24-hour comic project? Brad Tibbils and Michael Avolio have just what you need — Plotboiler, a random generator of more than 40,000 individual storylines, with lists for characters, actions, genres and locations. You can even create your own plot or nominate a particularly good one to the “hall of fame.” (via)
- December 29, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Indy Comic Book Week preview: Invisible Sam, The Unremarkable Man
Adam O. Pruett, creator of Invisible Sam, The Unremarkable Man, will have hsi book in many, many comic shops this week, from California to the New York island, and many points in between. Here’s some info he sent over on the book:
Invisible Sam
It’s called “Invisible Sam, The Unremarkable Man”. It’s a one-shot 24-page B&W comic (with a color cover), and it’s priced super-cheaply at $2.00 a pop. We’re actually giving all of our copies to the retailers for free, as well as plugging each and every participating store in the back of the book itself as a way of saying “Thank You” for the exposure.
“Invisible Sam” deals with dreams, desires, and failures. I think we can all relate to the feeling of wanting to be loved, and this is a story about a man who isn’t loved, isn’t known, and really hasn’t made any discernible impact on the world.
We’re very pleased to be participating in Indy Comic Book Week, and the retailers have been incredibly supportive. As of this writing, “Invisible Sam” is going to be available at 42 stores in 20 states! You can check out the website for a complete list, which includes (among many others):
- Comic Relief in Berkeley, California
- Isotope – The Comic Book Lounge in San Francisco, California
- Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles, California
- Meltdown Comics & Collectibles in Los Angeles, California
- Mile High Comics in Lakewood, Colorado
Check out some additional preview pages after the jump.
- December 29, 2009 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin