2010 February
Choker #1 released again this week due to printing error
Choker tour
If you picked up a copy of Choker #1 by Ben McCool and Ben Templesmith a couple of weeks ago, you may have noticed they appeared to be a bit wrinkled, like maybe they were water damaged or something. Templesmith explains that no, they weren’t left sitting in a puddle somewhere; it was actually a printing error. Image Comics planned to pulp them all and re-release the book this week, but some of them managed to sneak through.
“The book,at first coming out on the 10th, then being pushed back to the 24th, then ended up looking like it was actually going to happen on the 10th ( the book was done plenty in advance! ) but as luck would have it, a problem at the printer meant a bad water/ink mix, thus the copies looked a bit crappy and Image wisely decided to have them pulped and a reprint was in order,” Templesmith wrote on his blog. “That was going to push it back a further week…but since the 24th ( 2 weeks ) was already on the cards, it’s simply gone back to that date! Thing is, some copies already made it out there, though all parties have been advised to ditch the dud copies and wait for replacements, as I understand it. The *REAL* copies have been pushed back to the 24th, it’s official release date. With a little luck and a few offerings to The Great Space Squid, shiny nice new proper copies will be on the shelf and in hot little hands by then.”
If you bought a “bad” copy, it’s probably a good idea to check with your retailer about getting it replaced with a good one this week. Also, as you’ll see from the accompanying artwork, Templesmith and McCool are hitting the road to promote the book, promising “at least one Ben at every store.”
- February 23, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Action Comics #1
Comics | A “very fine”-rated copy of Action Comics #1 sold at auction Monday for $1 million, breaking the previous record price for a comic book. The names of the buyer and seller weren’t released.
The previous record for the most expensive comic was held by another copy of Action #1, which sold last year for $317,000. About 100 copies of the issue are known to exist, and only two are graded “very fine” or higher. John Jackson Miller provides analysis. [Times Online, Hero Complex]
Business | Sean Kleefeld gets details from Wowio CEO Brian Altounian about his efforts to secure financing for the e-book publisher. Altounian, who purchased the struggling company in July from Platinum Studios, will retain a majority interest. [Kleefeld on Comics]
Awards | The manga nominees have been announced for Japan Expo, the Japanese pop-culture convention held each year in Paris. The winners will be announced at the event in July. [The Comics Reporter]
- February 23, 2010 @ 07:52 AM by Kevin Melrose
Warner Bros. buys majority stake in Arkham Asylum game developer
From "Batman: Arkham Asylum"
Warner Bros. announced today it has bought a controlling stake in Rocksteady Studios, London-based developer of the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game.
Although specific financial terms weren’t released, the deal gives Warner Bros. 68.4-percent interest in the six-year-old Rocksteady.
“The biggest gap this fills is that it locks in development talent on one of our most valuable pieces of intellectual property for games: Batman,” Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Entertainment Group, told the Financial Times.
This is only the latest recent video-game acquisition by the entertainment giant, which in 2007 purchased LEGO franchise developer TT Games, and last year bought Snowblind Studios and the assets of the bankrupt Midway Games.
Debuting in August 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum sold a reported 2 million copies in its first three weeks of release. To date, more than 3 million units have shipped worldwide. A sequel was announced in December.
- February 23, 2010 @ 05:42 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim | James Kochalka
SuperF*ckers
When you’re somebody as well known as James Kochalka, both in terms of music and comics, do you really need an introduction? Probably not, but just in case, Kochalka and I recently got a chance to discuss his latest release, the collected SuperF*ckers (Top Shelf [due out in March])–as well as his upcoming graphic novel/video game project, Glorkian Warrior. As described at the Top Shelf site: “SuperF*ckers collects all four fan-favorite issues of James Kochalka’s beloved series, plus the all-new Jack Krak one-shot! Foul-mouthed, filthy-minded, and completely oblivious, these young ‘heroes’ do everything BUT fight crime – they’re too busy getting high, hazing the new kids, playing video games, scheming to be team leader, and designing new costumes.” I agree with the first line of Top Shelf’s Kochalka bio which states he “is, without question, one of the most unique and prolific alternative cartoonists working in America today”.
After the interview, be sure to check out Top Shelf’s preview of the book here. My thanks to Kochalka for the interview and Top Shelf’s Leigh Walton for his assistance. One final piece of advice, as great as this interview is (thanks to Kochalka’s answers), it only touches upon one of Kochalka’s projects. I reference two of Tom Spurgeon’s interviews in my questions to Kochalka and I strongly recommend that you read both of them.
Tim O’Shea: Looking back at a 2005 Tom Spurgeon interview with you, I was surprised to see you say of SuperF*ckers: “Once it turned into a superhero book, I thought I could force it into some kind of all-ages type book, but the characters just would not stop swearing.” Even the interior page marketing of the first issue has cussing: “Hey kids, take your dicks out of the Playstation Three for one god damn minute and read some fucking comics.” Why do you think the cussing bolsters the comedy (and I ask this thinking it would not be as funny without the cussing).
James Kochalka: Not every character swears. The ones that should swear, do. It fits their personality, a kind of “I can do whatever I want because I’m awesome”, and that includes insane wanton swearing. The swearing is also pretty creative at times, it’s often not just straight up swearing. And it makes the action more dramatic. For instance, instead of yelling “I’m going to punch you” or even “I’m going to fuckin’ punch you”, at one point Jack Krak yells something like “I’m going to fuck your face with my fist”. That’s just way snappier sounding, isn’t it?
To me it isn’t even really an issue of funnier or not. It’s just an issue of the characters being as awesome and overblown as they can be.
- February 22, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Straight for the art | Joëlle Jones’ Madame Xanadu gallery
Wagner and Jones at Floating World Comics
Artist Joëlle Jones recently completed a two-issue run on Vertigo’s Madame Xanadu series, the second of which goes on sale this week. She’s selling the art, and as a result you can see her pencils for issue #19 in all their magnificent glory on Flickr. She said she plans to post pages from issue #20 in a few days, “once people have had a chance to read the issue.”
In addition, as the flyer says above, she and Madame Xanadu writer Matt Wagner will appear at Floating World Comics in Portland, Ore. on March 4, where her artwork will also be on display.
- February 22, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by JK Parkin
Akira the Don’s Guide to Death’s Head
The story of Death's Head
Akira the Don offers up a guide to Death’s Head, the Marvel U.K. character who recently appeared in the short-lived S.W.O.R.D. series. You can watch a video of him drawing it after the jump.
- February 22, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Snowed In.
The funny thing is that there isn’t that much snow on the ground where I am right now (somewhere between Genoa and Minden, NV in the Carson Valley–which is as good a place to set a western as I can think of), but there was enough snow last night to keep me from going over Donner Summit to get home to where I keep all the Strangeways pages, or have a computer that has Photoshop on it.
So no new page today, at least not by the time it’s supposed to be up. So how about a new way to look at an old page?
- February 22, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Is Marvel’s Siege a bomb?
Siege #1 was January’s bestselling comic. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Olivier Coipel, it’s the capstone to years’ worth of event-driven Marvel Universe storylines, and the launchpad for a linewide rebranding called “The Heroic Age.” Anecdotally, it’s generated a lot of happy chatter from readers, especially following its gut-wrenching (heh heh) second issue. It’s a major milestone in the Marvel metastory by two of the company’s most popular creators, and it’s literally a chart-topper.
So why, as Marvel Vice President-Executive Editor Tom Brevoort points out, are people saying it’s a flop?
According to ICv2′s sales estimates, Siege #1 sold 108,484 copies. That’s just a hair above the 106,444 copies purchased of the month’s No. 2 comic, DC’s Green Lantern #50, which is the eighth issue of a Blackest Night tie-in arc. Blackest Night proper’s sixth issue sold 135,695, well above the figures for the launch of Marvel’s much-hyped event.
A longer-range comparison makes for grim reading, too. Veteran number-cruncher Marc-Oliver Frisch of The Beat ran down some stats at his blog:
- February 22, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Comics Cavalcade: Dinosaurs on the loose and dogs with funny hats
Every day, people post comics on the Internet. Three times a week, we try to link to the ones that catch our eyes.
My World by Dylan Horrocks
Corporate Persons Are Jerks by Brian McFadden
- February 22, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Los Angeles Times creates Graphic Novel category for its 2009 Book Prizes
I’m old enough to still find it absolutely delightful when a mainstream publication recognizes excellence in comics, particularly when the comics it deems excellent really are excellent. And that’s certainly the case with the finalists for the LA Times’ inaugural Graphic Novel Book Prize:
Luba by Gilbert Hernandez
GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto
Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
That’s a pretty outstanding group. In other comics-related Book Prize news, McSweeney’s publisher Dave Eggers will be presented with the Times’ first-ever Innovators Award, while cartoonist Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia is a finalist for the Young Adult Literature Book Prize.
According to the announcement of the finalists in all categories — which, again to my delight, treats the addition of the Graphic Novel category like a major selling point — the winners will be announced April 23. My sincere congratulations go out to all the finalists.
(via Bryan Lee O’Malley)
- February 22, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Sophie Crumb’s art blog
Sketch from Crumb's blog
Indie cartoonist and progeny of Robert and Aline Crumb has her own blog where she’s posting all manner of art work:
Lets just call it Soph’s online page. I don’t care. I will, anyways, be regularly adding sketchbook drawings, more fancy drawings, comics, tattoos, sellable artwork, upcoming news about my art n shit, photos, and comicand random fascinating shit about ME !!! yay !
(Note: images may not be safe for work) (via)
- February 22, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Cliff Chiang’s Imperial propaganda
"Enlist Today," by Cliff Chiang
On his blog, artist Cliff Chiang unveils his World War II propaganda poster-inspired trading guards he illustrated for TOPPS’ Star Wars Galaxy 5 series.
- February 22, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Batman comic generator lets you get your inner bat-snark on
Do you enjoy inserting “ironic,” smart-ass and oh-so-funny text into the panels of old comic book stories? Of course you do! And now, thanks to the Batman and Robin Comic Generator, you don’t need a scanner or Photoshop to do so. Simply plug in the text you like, choose one of three panels featuring the Caped Crusaders and you can start your own Internet meme. Some fun! Above is my own attempt at hilarity, which is probably too much of an in-joke for a general audience, but one does what one can. (via)
- February 22, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Box 13 headed to print courtesy of Red 5 Comics
Box 13
Box 13 writer David Gallaher sent word over the weekend that Box 13, the digital comic he created with artist Steve Ellis, is headed to the printed page, courtesy of Red 5 Comics.
Based on a syndicated radio series, Box 13 “is the story of newspaperman-turned-mystery novelist Dan Holliday, who kind of hires himself out as a detective to get ideas for his stories,” Gallaher told me last October. “It was a high-noir, high-adventure series, but it was certainly a product of its time. Our re-imagining of the series incorporates many of the noir elements of the original serial, but with a bunch of John Frankenheimer, Patrick McGoohan, Alex Toth, and Peter O’Donnell added to the mix. There is gunplay, conspiracy, romance, psychological drama, train chases, motorcycle chases, and danger! But, at its heart, it’s a story about rediscovering your place in the world after everything in your life changes forever.”
Originally published by Comixology on their iPhone application and website, the graphic novel will cost $13 and is due in May. The complete solicitation text can be found after the jump.
- February 22, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Your video of the day: Behind the scenes at the New Yorker
The magazine’s art director Francoise Mouly explains how she helped put together the recent four-cover anniversary issue (featuring Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine and Ivan Brunetti) in this video. (via)
- February 22, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner