2010 February
‘Gravely ill’ Eduardo Barreto leaves Judge Parker strip [Updated]
Judge Parker
Longtime comics artist Eduardo Barreto is “gravely ill,” forcing him to leave Judge Parker, the daily newspaper strip he’s drawn since 2006.
Michael Cavna reports that strips drawn by “a temporary replacement” will begin appearing next week as King Features Syndicate searches for a new artist.
Barreto, who’s in his mid-50s, has meningitis. “Two weeks ago — this came on suddenly — he had to go to the hospital,” longtime Judge Parker writer Woody Wilson told Cavna. “Eduardo sent us a note saying he wouldn’t be able to continue.”
Barreto, who lives in his native Montevideo, Uruguay, is widely known for his work on DC Comics’ The New Teen Titans and The Shadow Strikes, Dark Horse’s The Escapists and Marvel’s Marvel Knights.
Update: Alan Gardner talked to King Features comics editor Brendan Burford, who said that Barreto isn’t “officially” being replaced. Instead, Barreto’s son Diego and former Judge Parker ghost artist John Heebinks will pitch in as Barreto recovers.
“[Barreto's] initial conversation with me indicated the he intends to come back,” Burford told Gardner. “So I’m taking this week by week. If I need to pad out the weeks to give him more time to recover I will. He’s been such a great guy to work with and the readers have really embraced his work.”
- February 12, 2010 @ 06:51 AM by Kevin Melrose
Handley sentenced to six months in manga obscenity case
Legal
Christopher Handley, the Iowa manga collector who in May pleaded guilty to obscenity charges, was sentenced today to six months in prison.
Following his prison term, Handley will serve three years of supervised release and five years of probation. He faced up to 15 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000.
Handley pleaded guilty last year to possessing “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.” His case began in May 2006, when customs agents reportedly intercepted a mail package from Japan addressed to Handley containing what they deemed to be obscene material, “including books containing visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, specifically Japanese manga drawings of minor females being sexually abused by adult males and animals.” Agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service obtained a warrant to search Handley’s Glenwood, Iowa, home, where they seized “additional obscene drawings of the sexual abuse of children.”
Handley was indicted in May 2007 under a federal law that prohibits the possession any visual depiction — including cartoons — of “a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that is obscene.”
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund became a special consultant for the defense in October 2008.
According to Anime Vice, Handley won’t be required to register as a sex offender. However, he must forfeit all seized materials, including his computer. He’ll also have to “participate in a treatment program, to include psychological testing and a polygraph examination” during his supervised release and probation.
Anime News Network provides a thorough overview of the case.
- February 11, 2010 @ 03:05 PM by Kevin Melrose
Who charts the Charltons?
Grumpy Old Fan
You know, I understand why DC — and specifically Dan DiDio, if the rumors are true — wants to do Watchmen spinoffs. It’s not an especially appealing idea, but other classics have been similarly exploited, mostly with forgettable results.
The thing which gets me, though, is the fact that DC could do Watchmen 2 pretty much however it wanted, simply by setting it on the current Earth-4. (There are apparently plans for Earth-4, but we’ll deal with them eventually.) In fact, I’d have thought DC would prefer using the Earth-4 versions of the original Charlton characters, because then it could have more direct comparisons with the main-line Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Question, Nightshade, Peacemaker, and Peter Cannon. We all know that Watchmen was developed for those characters until DC realized that the story would kill two of them and exile a third; so why not use the characters you’d rather leave inviolate?
- February 11, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Tom Bondurant
Allred vs. Cooke in the battle of the I, Zombie covers
Via Vertigo’s PR blog come the regular and variant covers for the upcoming I, Zombie by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred. You’d think a rad Mike Allred cover would be enough:
I, Zombie #1
- February 11, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Warner Bros. moves The Losers to summer opening [Updated]
The Losers
Warner Bros. has bumped Sylvain White’s big-screen adaptation of The Losers from its original opening date of April 9 to June 4.
The move comes shortly after the studio pushed the remake of Clash of the Titans back to April 2. The Losers now will open against the comedy Get Him to the Greek, the action-comedy Killers and the family movie Marmaduke — and just a week ahead of The A-Team.
“This is a massive vote of confidence from WB, who see it as a big summer movie after A+ test screening!” The Losers co-creator Andy Diggle wrote this afternoon on Twitter.
Based on the Vertigo series by Diggle and Jock, The Losers stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana, Columbus Short, Jason Patric and Óscar Jaenada.
- February 11, 2010 @ 01:28 PM by Kevin Melrose
‘He’s punched a dinosaur square in the face. What have you done for your country?’
by Evan Shaner
Over at the relatively new art blog Comic Twart, the various artists who contribute have spent the week drawing DC’s G.I. Robot character, and the results have been pretty awesome. Above is Evan Shaner’s rendition, but head over there to get a look at everyone else’s.
- February 11, 2010 @ 12:15 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Tom Muller’s design for the Viking hardcover
Tom Muller's cover design for "Viking," Vol. 1
Courtesy of the Image Comics Twitter feed comes this first look at Tom Muller‘s bold and beautiful final jacket design for the first hardcover collection of Viking, by Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein. The 144-page book is due in stores on March 24.
- February 11, 2010 @ 11:45 AM by Kevin Melrose
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: Yen Press’ 2010 line-up
Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1
We’re continuing our look at the year ahead in comics with a rundown of Yen Press’ plans up through the summer. The company has their own online schedule that you can peruse, but I thought it might be useful to point out a few titles of note. As with Viz and other manga publishers, I’m not going to list every single ongoing volume that they’ve got in the hopper, but merely highlight the ones that strike my fancy. I’m flighty that way.
- February 11, 2010 @ 11:15 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Neil Kleid heads down to Fraggle Rock
Fraggle Rock
On his blog, comics creator Neil Kleid lists several projects he’s working on, including a graphic novel called American Caesar from NBM and drawing a four-pager for a Harvey Pekar-edited anthology. He’s also writing a story for Archaia’s Fraggle Rock comic, and although he won’t be drawing it, he does share a couple of Fraggle sketches.
- February 11, 2010 @ 10:45 AM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day | Chris Ryall on ‘political zeitgeist’
“If only I’d known, I never would’ve changed the Teabagging reference in one of the protestors’ signs to a mention of Batman. Somehow I thought a nod to a DC character would garner more attention for the book. So much for Bat Boy and I having our finger on the political zeitgeist.”
–Chris Ryall, writer of IDW’s Weekly World News comic, in response to the Captain America/Tea Party “controversy”
- February 11, 2010 @ 10:15 AM by JK Parkin
Twitter, rings and other things: An interview with Tom Brevoort
Tom Brevoort
One of the most recognizable, and longest-serving, editors at Marvel, Tom Brevoort recently celebrated his 20th anniversary at the company with a promotion to Vice President – Executive Editor. In his two decades with the Direct Market’s biggest publisher, Brevoort survived the swinging ax of Marvel’s bankruptcy, became known for his encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel history, and was once seen as the leading traditionalist at a “Nu-Marvel” dominated by editors like Marvel Knights’ Joe Quesada and former Vertigo editor Axel Alonso. In recent years he’s become the pointman for Marvel as we know it, helming such era-defining titles as Civil War, New Avengers, and the current event comic Siege.
But he’s also taken on a secondary role, that of superhero comics’ most outspoken editorial voice. On his long-running Marvel.com blog and his frequently updated Twitter account, Brevoort has discussed a variety of issues, particularly the competition between Marvel and DC, with attention-getting candor. I myself have frequently covered his commentary on everything from race and gender in superhero comics to the Blackest Night power-ring promotion, and the ensuing comment threads reveal a comics community passionate about what he’s saying, both pro and con. Rather than continue to cannibalize Brevoort’s existing outlets, I decided to go straight to the source.
I spoke with Brevoort about both sides of his career. We tackled his role as a vocal industry insider: his blog and Twitter, his persona and reader reaction to it, the increasingly thin divide between pro and fan, and even a little mythbusting regarding Marvel’s controversial book swap initiative. And we spoke about his editorial role: His place at the forefront of the event-comic era, the rise of the Avengers as superhero comics’ biggest franchise, the struggle of smaller books in the face of line-wide mania, what Marvel does best, and what Marvel does badly.
- February 11, 2010 @ 09:15 AM by Sean T. Collins
Graphic NYC and creators celebrate ‘Kirby Week’
Photo by Seth Kushner
At Graphic NYC, Christopher Irving and Seth Kushner have gathered an impressive line-up of creators for “Kirby Week,” a celebration of the life and legacy of Jack Kirby.
Highlights so far include a profile of the legendary creator, a pair of historical essays by Irving, and appreciations by Mike Cavallaro, Dean Haspiel, Steve Rude, Mike Allred and Rick Veitch. You can see a complete index here.
- February 11, 2010 @ 08:44 AM by Kevin Melrose
Bill Ayers (!), Frank Miller to attend MoCCA 2010
When I saw Dash Shaw’s poster for this year’s MoCCA Art Festival, I was content to eat up the eye candy and move on. But Heidi MacDonald actually, y’know, read the poster to find out the guest list. And lo and behold, she caught that tops on the alphabetical list is Bill Ayers. Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers. Until recently relatively uncontroversial education professor Bill Ayers. “Obama pals around with terrorists” Bill Ayers. My goodness. He’ll be there to promote his upcoming graphic memoir To Teach, featuring art by Ryan Alexander-Tanner. Let’s hope Fox News is still busy poring over Captain America issues to find out if Ed Brubaker ever compared Glenn Beck to MODOK.
As Heidi points out, given last year’s problems, this year’s guest list is pretty impressive. In addition to Ayers, the list features (among others) Paul Pope, Hope Larson, David Mazzucchelli, Frank Santoro, Gahan Wilson, Jillian & Mariko Tamaki, and the great Frank Miller, who hasn’t attended one of these in a while. I’m sure he and Ayers will have a lot to talk about.
Formerly hosted in the dog days of summer, this year’s festival will take place on April 10-11 at the 69th Regiment Armory. The ticket price at the door has gone up, by the way: $12 for the day, $20 for the weekend. Let’s hope we get what we pay for!
- February 11, 2010 @ 08:09 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Diamond Comic Distributors
Retailing | An accident involving a truck carrying comics for Diamond Comic Distributors’ warehouse in Plattsburgh, New York, is expected to create delays for retailers serviced by that location. Earlier this week, Diamond’s headquarters in Timonium, Maryland, was shut down for two days after the region was slammed by winter storms. [ICv2.com]
Publishing | R. Crumb’s critically acclaimed, and heavily promoted, The Book of Genesis Illustrated reportedly has sold more than 120,000 copies since its release in October. [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | Kirkus Reviews, the well-regarded book-review journal closed in December after Nielsen Business Media failed to find a buyer, has been rescued by Herb Simon, owner of the Indiana Pacers NBA team. Editor & Publisher, whose closing was announced at the same time, was purchased last month by Duncan McIntosh Co. [Media Decoder]
- February 11, 2010 @ 08:03 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Zeus, King of the Gods
Olympians: Zeus, King of the Gods
Olympians: Zeus, King of the Gods
Written and Illustrated by George O’Connor
First Second; $9.99
When I was putting together my picks for What Looks Good for April last week, I left out a book. I probably left out a bunch of them – that’s the nature of that kind of column – but one that I know I left out was First Second’s Olympians, Athena: The Grey-Eyed Goddess. I hadn’t started reading Zeus, King of the Gods yet and didn’t know what to expect from the sequel. Should’ve known, because it’s First Second and I’ve never disliked anything they’ve published, but I erred on the side of caution and left it out. And err I did. Having read Zeus now, I can’t wait for Athena.
At the end of last year, I talked about how Demons of Sherwood revived my love for medieval adventure. There’ve been a few projects like that lately that have reminded me why I used to love something as a kid. George O’Connor’s Zeus has done that for Greek Mythology. It perfectly walks the microbe-thin line between faithfully retelling the myths and embellishing them for the sake of entertainment. As much as I appreciate books like Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, they’re pretty dry accounts of these stories and rely on the inherent adventure in the tales for most of the excitement. At the other end of the spectrum are countless books and movies that just take the characters and tell new stories with them without any regard for the originals. Those are fun, but they’re not mythology, you know?
Taking most of its material from Hesiod’s Theogony, O’Connor’s account tells the story of Zeus up to his overthrow of his father Kronos and the foundation of the Pantheon on Olympus. Zeus actually begins much earlier than that though, starting with the creation of Gaea, the world, and following her creation of her mate, Ouranos, the sky, and the birth of their children, the Titans, including Kronos. I’ve always glossed over this story in my readings of the Greek myths. It’s too big; too epic. The characters – the earth, sky, and time itself – are too inhuman. I always skipped ahead to Zeus’ arrival. A lightning-hurling, shape-changing king of all the gods … that I was interested in.
The redemption of Time and Cyclops after the break.
- February 10, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Michael May