2010 March
Does Disney really know what boys like?
Disney's "Tangled"
Disney’s effort to broaden its appeal with boys — a drive that fueled its $4.3-billion purchase of Marvel — is behind the media giant’s decision to rename its next animated film.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Rapunzel was too “girl-centric” for a studio wincing from The Princess and the Frog, which performed well for a December opening but fell short of the ’90s heyday of Disney animation. The blame for the film’s $222 million worldwide gross fell on its inability to attract boys, who apparently won’t come near anything with “princess” in the title.
So last month, the studio replaced the name Rapunzel with Tangled, which executives felt was less gender-specific. But they didn’t stop there: The marketing campaign leading up to the Nov. 24 opening plays up the “Errol Flynn-styled” male lead, voiced by Chuck‘s Zachary Levi, with an emphasis on the movie’s swashbuckling elements.
- March 9, 2010 @ 11:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art: Erika Moen’s got you covered
Early version of Moen's cover
Over at her LiveJournal, DAR creator Erika Moen gets all process-crazy and talks about how she put together the cover for the second print collection of her Webcomic.
Originally I wanted the octopus to be holding a bunch of my day-to-day supplies (art, food, laptop, vibrator, etc). See, the octopus would represent ‘life’ and I’d be wrestling with it. Get it? Wrestling with life? … Yeah.
It was a bit too busy, so I stripped off the extras.
- March 9, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
New Zuda series from Crabapple, more Nightmares from Valentino and FSc
Nightmares & Fairy Tales #1 (2002)
A couple of announcements were made last night about new series that are light on details but heavy on potential interest:
• Artist Molly Crabapple revealed on Twitter that she and frequent collaborator John Leavitt are working on a “Rococo steampunk murder mystery” called The Puppet Makers for DC Comics’ Zuda imprint. The publisher describes the webcomic as a “Victorian Age Blade Runner.”
“We are working on the script now,” Crabapple wrote. “We are so excited to be working on our dream project with Zuda we could die.”
• Writer Serena Valentino announced she’s reuniting with original artist Foo Swee Chin (FSc) for a four-issue Nightmares & Fairy Tales miniseries called Annabelle’s Story.
The series, which was released from 2002 to 2008 by SLG Publishing, centers on a strange rag doll named Annabelle who recounts the dark stories — often variations of familiar fairy tales — of the girls and women who have owned her. Annabelle’s Story is set to debut in November.
- March 9, 2010 @ 08:52 AM by Kevin Melrose
Will Brevoort and DiDio face off? U-Decide!
Siege #3 Deadpool Variant by J. Scott Campbell
Well, this oughta be to partisan DC and Marvel fans what a new Tim Burton movie is to people with Hot Topic gift cards. Outspoken Marvel Vice President-Executive Editor Tom Brevoort has asked fans to launch a write-in campaign to determine whether he’ll hand a copy of the infamous Deadpool variant for Siege #3 — the very book Marvel is offering to send retailers in exchange for copies of unsold Blackest Night “ring” tie-ins from DC — to DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio.
In a possible tip of the hat/tweak of the nose to the postcard-writing campaign DiDio launched to determine whether Wonder Woman would get a #600 anniversary issue, Brevoort says that if he gets 50 postcards telling him to give DiDio the variant, he will … but if he first receives 50 postcards telling him not to, he won’t. Brevoort later went even further, saying if he first gets 50 postcards telling him “to stop with all this stuff” — presumably the chops-busting of DC that’s become his trademark — then that’s what he’ll do.
So what’ll it be? To give, not to give, or to pipe down entirely? First to 50 wins!
Brevoort says the postcards (one per person, please) may be sent to his attention at Marvel, 417 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, 10016. Start licking those stamps!
- March 9, 2010 @ 07:48 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Borders
Retailing | In what’s been dubbed “Black Thursday,” the financially troubled Borders Group announced last week that it’s laying off 742 employees at its retail stores. Those follow the 136 layoffs, primarily from its corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, revealed last month. In the latest round of cuts, 679 are from Borders superstores, and 63 from Waldenbooks. Borders is the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States, after Barnves & Noble. [MLive.com, via The Big Money]
Publishing | North American manga and anime distributor Media Blasters began a round of cutbacks on Friday that will lead to layoffs or furloughs for 13 employees, primarily from the print and accounting departments. The New York City-based company reportedly had less than 50 employees for the cuts. [Anime News Network]
- March 9, 2010 @ 07:33 AM by Kevin Melrose
Fantagraphics releases details of new manga line [Updated]
Wandering Son, Vol. 1
After brief acknowledgment on Monday afternoon, Fantagraphics Books now has officially announced its new manga line, which will debut in September with a collection of short stories by Moto Hagio, considered the mother of modern shojo.
News of the imprint, reportedly in development for four years, trickled out over the weekend after listings for the first two titles appeared early on Amazon.com. The unnamed line, produced through a deal with Japanese publisher Shogakukan, will be edited by manga scholar and translator Matt Thorn. Each book will be released in hardcover and retain the original right-to-left manga format.
The debut title, A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, collects 10 of Hagio’s literary short stories created between 1970 and 2007 (Thorn provides a list of the stories on his blog). In support of the book, Hagio will appear as a special guest at Comic-Con International in July.
“If I hadn’t encountered Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas (1974) at the tender age of 21-ish,” Thorn writes, “I would never have ended up on this peculiar career path.”
A Drunken Dream will be followed in December by the first volume of Shimura Takako’s Wandering Son, a multi-volume series about two fifth-grade friends — a boy who wants to be a girl, and a girl who wants to be a boy.
“Let me just say that fans of Anne of Green Gables or The Rose of Versailles should get some special thrills from it, with every succeeding thrill ‘thrillier than the last’,” Thorn writes.
Simon Jones and Christopher Butcher provide context and commentary on the announcement.
Update: Dirk Deppey comments at length about the line he helped to shepherd.
- March 9, 2010 @ 05:35 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Ho Che Anderson
King
My Robot 6 associate Tom Bondurant praised Ho Che Anderson‘s Sand & Fury yesterday. It’s just one of the two books that is coming from Fantagraphics and Anderson this year. The other book is the collected edition of Anderson’s (originally released from 1993-2002 in three volumes) biography of Martin Luther King Jr, King. We got a chance recently to discuss both works, via email. And I also was fortunate enough to find out what his creative plans are for the future–and to my surprise, it does not involve graphic novels. Anderson’s two works gave me the opportunity to go in a lot of different directions in this interview, and fortunately he was willing to play along in the discussion. My thanks for his time.
- March 8, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Tim O'Shea
Six by 6: Six gay comics that are better than anything on Ranker’s list
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
As with Tom Spurgeon and Dirk Deppey (scroll down, it’s at the halfway point), I found myself thoroughly irked at Ranker.com’s incredibly superhero-heavy list of the “10 Most Important Gay Moments in Comic Book History.”
It’s not that the list focuses exclusively on DC and Marvel’s cape-and-Spandex output — that’s fine, so long as you’re willing to add a qualifier or two in your heading and introduction. What truly rankles is author Eric Diaz’s attempt to claim that this list is definitive, i.e. the “most important” moments evar, even though it conveniently ignores any comic that wasn’t published by DC or Marvel (and I’m sorry, but jokes about Batman and Robin’s “special relationship” don’t count). The best comparison I could make would be writing a post entitled the “Best Movies of the 20th Century” and then only including action films. Directed by Michael Bay.
Had Diaz gone outside his reading habits and taken five minutes to do some research, or at least done a Google search for “lgbt comics,” he would have found an large number of books, graphic novels, comic strips and what have you that carry more cultural weight than Rictor swapping spit with Shatterstar.
But rather than howl at the winds I thought I’d attempt to respond by offering my own simple list. This by no means meant to be a definitive or authoritative (or even necessarily matches my own reading tastes and preferences). Rather, I just looked at my bookshelves and quickly pulled off six gay- or lesbian-themed comics I thought were either more influential or aesthetically pleasing than anything Diaz came up with. It really wasn’t very difficult.
- March 8, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Chris Mautner
New outdoor posters released for Kick-Ass
"Kick-Ass" outdoor posters
Ahead of the movie’s world premiere on Friday at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Lionsgate has released outdoor posters for Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of the Icon comic series by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.
The film, which stars Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, will be released on April 16. You can see the individual character posters after the break.
- March 8, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Your other video of the day: Matt Madden and Jessica Abel
Comics couple Matt Madden and Jessica Abel exhibit their work and talk shop at the Huntington Museum of Art as part of the museum’s Walter Gropius Master Artist Series.
- March 8, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 121
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
Joe’s dead, baby. Joe’s dead.
Just the first of many reminders, but I’ll be up at the Emerald City Comic Con this weekend, somewhere in the J tables of Artist’s Alley. Looking forward to the show, may even get a chance to see some of it, as I’ll have tablemates to help watch things if I want to stretch my legs. The guys from BRAINS, Anthony Leano and Paul Allen, will be splitting the table with me, so you can wet your horror whistle in more ways than one. Should be a good show.
Hey, anyone know a good Mediterranean/Persian restaurant in Seattle? I could do with some koubideh. Or maybe a nice shawerma.
Back on Wednesday.
- March 8, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Fantagraphics Books to launch manga imprint
The Comics Journal #269
Dirk Deppey has announced that Fantagraphics Books has signed a deal with Japanese publisher Shogakukan to launch a manga line translated by scholar and translator Matt Thorn.
The line, which Deppey says has been four years in the making, apparently will launch in September with a collection of stories by legendary artist Moto Hagio, a pioneer of modern shojo manga.
(Thorn interviewed Hagio in 2005 for a Comics Journal cover story, at right.)
- March 8, 2010 @ 12:42 PM by Kevin Melrose
Comics cavlacade: Conan, Sinbad and Charlie McCarthy
Anapest: The Autobio Comic by David Chelsea
- March 8, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | 365 Days of Lost
LOST 365 #4: "John" by Jared Stumpenhorst
I think this is my favorite artistic tribute to Lost yet: Artist Jared Stumpenhorst’s LOST 365 is a daily project in which Stumpenhorst will create one Lost-related work of art every day for a year. The pieces so far boast a strong sense of design and lack the usual cutesiness you tend to see with such projects — and, dare I say it, they’re occasionally rather haunting. Warning: vague, artistically rendered spoilers ahoy.
(Via Whitney Matheson)
- March 8, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
More Book of Grickle previews: ‘Decency’
Continuing our current celebration of all things Graham Annable, here’s a sneak preview of one the stories contained in Dark Horse’s upcoming Book of Grickle. My interview with Graham will be up here tomorrow.
- March 8, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Chris Mautner