2010 April
Straight for the art | R.I.P. Silver Agent, by Alex Ross
Silver Agent #2
Wildstorm’s The Bleed shares Alex Ross’s cover to the upcoming Astro City: Silver Agent #2. The two-issue series will “uncover more of the city’s secrets” as we learn about the Silver Agent’s final battle.
- April 13, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Seth Kushner’s ‘Faces of MoCCA Fest 2010′
From left: Paul Pope, Dean Haspiel, Frank Miller, Jeff Newelt, Kyle Baker and Jaime Hernandez (photo by Seth Kushner)
If there were an award for best convention report, Seth Kushner would surely win with this series of portraits from last weekend’s MoCCA Festival featuring such notables as Bill Ayers, Kyle Baker, Gabrielle Bell, Dean Haspiel, Jaime Hernandez, Chip Kidd, David Mazzucchelli, Frank Miller, Paul Pope, Frank Santoro and Dash Shaw.
- April 13, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | James Jean’s Ennio Morricone concert poster
Concert poster by James Jean
This gorgeous poster created by artist James Jean for the April 10th performance of composer Ennio Morricone’s music The Royal Albert Hall is being sold as a limited-edition print. The ATP Concerts website states the price is “available on request,” but a commenter here was quoted $133.88 for a print shipped to the United States — which, really, is less expensive than I thought it’d be.
(via Super Punch)
- April 13, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Slash Print | Following the digital evolution
Bento Comics
Overview: Paul Gravett takes a birds-eye view of the aesthetic and financial issues facing webcomics artists in North America and Europe.
Websites: Johanna Draper Carlson tries out the Bento Comics website and finds a few glitches, although a commenter has an easier time of it.
iPad: Chris Meadows examines comics on the iPad from several angles: pricing, the impact on comics stores, and whether it can compete with torrent sites.
Pricing: Andrew Bayer discusses pricing of digital comics, and why it makes sense for Marvel to charge the same $2 for the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man as they do for the latest.
Piracy: Rich Johnston sets the record straight regarding a pirate site that claims to be completely legal because it displays pages one at a time and doesn’t allow downloads. (Spoiler: Nope.)
- April 13, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
The Diary of a Teenage Girl: The Play extends its run
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Great news for fans of great theater based on great comics: The Diary of a Teenage Girl is sticking around for a few more weeks. Word went out late last week that the show’s run, which had been scheduled to end this past weekend (perfectly timed with the MoCCA Festival, as it happened), has now been extended through May 1st.
Based on (IMHO) one of the all-time great graphic novels by writer-artist Phoebe Gloeckner, Diary tells the story of Minnie Goetze, a precocious 15-year-old growing up in ’70s San Francisco who spirals into promiscuity and drug abuse after beginning an affair with her mother’s boyfriend. Harrowing stuff to be sure, but like the graphic novel, the play — written by and starring Marielle Heller and directed by Rachel Eckerling and Sarah Cameron Sunde — is often hilarious, frequently beautiful, and ultimately uplifting. You can read my full review here if you missed it.
The show runs nightly every day but Tuesday at the 3LD Arts and Technology Center at 80 Greenwich St. in Manhattan. Tickets are still just $25 if you use the code “ISAWIT” when purchasing. Go purchase!
- April 13, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
X-Men: Farewell
Dave Roman's sketch of Jubilee
Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier’s response to the news that the second volume of their X-Men: Misfits manga series was canceled is a model of how to deal with bad news gracefully. They talk a bit about how they would have done things differently had they known the series would be just one volume, but they are philosophical about it:
And, because it was work for hire, and the characters are all licensed, there’s no way the rest of the story will ever see the light of day. There is nothing we can do about it. We did the work and we got paid (for both books). Del Rey had to make cuts; we fell under the knife. End of story.
No drama; these two are a class act. (This reminded me of Dave’s advice to freelancers, which in addition to a lot of technical advice included a paragraph that began “Don’t be a jerk.”) They go on to thank their editors, their fans, and artist Anzu, and they wind up with this:
And of course, a final word of thanks to all the people who have vocally supported X-Men: Misfits. We knew there would be a lot of skepticism about the project from the beginning, so hearing from so many people who “got it” really made us happy. The cancellation is still sinking in and we certainly appreciate the people who have already shared their feelings with us. That’s publishing, though. Series are NOT sure things. The best way to support a series you love is to buy the books, and spread the word. In the meantime, we imagine we’ll continue to get tons of Google Alerts, letting us know about all the torrents and rapidshare files of X-Men: Misfits there are out there …
This being Livejournal, their fans all send them hugs in the comments. Of course, with Dave’s Airbender prequel about to hit the stores, his Astronaut Elementary on its way to print, and Raina’s Smile getting a warm reception from the critics, they won’t have much time to brood.
- April 13, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Blackest Night #8
Publishing | Helped by March’s five Wednesdays, sales of periodical comics jumped 20 percent last month, while graphic novels dropped 10 percent. Combined, sales were up 11 percent over March 2009.
The final issue of DC’s Blackest Night led Diamond’s Top 300, selling an estimated 135,000 copies, followed at No. 2 by Marvel’s Siege #3 with about 113,000. Retail news and analysis website ICv2.com notes that “publishers show no signs of being able to shake their addiction to the use of variant covers as their primary sales incentive,” as DC used 1-in-25 variants to increase sales of its Blackest Night and Rise and Fall tie-ins, while Marvel turned to 1-in-15 Deadpool variants to boost sales of its Siege books. Multiple covers also paid off for Dynamite Entertainment, whose Kevin’s Smith Green Hornet #1 landed on the chart at No. 20, with about 54,000 copies.
The graphic-novel chart was topped by Marvel/Icon’s Kick-Ass premiere hardcover, with about 7,200 copies, followed by the sixth volume of Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, with about 7,000. [ICv2.com]
- April 13, 2010 @ 07:41 AM by Kevin Melrose
Kirby characters to be liberated from vault
The Golden Shield, Jack Kirby's take on 2012
If ever anyone deserved a dope slap, it’s Ken Spears, for suggesting that his company “just take this stuff and give it away,” where the “it” in question was 600 boxes of unused Jack Kirby drawings that were taking up valuable storage space.
Fortunately, his partner, Joe Ruby, had more sense than that. The two are the founders of Ruby-Spears Productions, an animation studio that hired Kirby in 1980 to work on its Saturday morning cartoons and has just signed a deal with Sid and Marty Krofft to develop his unused characters into new properties.
- April 13, 2010 @ 05:48 AM by Brigid Alverson
Chris Schweizer on Crogan’s March
Crogan's March
Since starting Talking Comics with Tim in 2009, I have made a frequent effort to not interview creators more than once. But as I am well into my second year, I’ve decided to ease that self-imposed restriction. Thus why I tapped Chris Schweizer again (after last year’s discussion) to do an email interview regarding his second installment in the Crogan Adventures chronicle, Crogan’s March (Oni Press). In addition to discussing the adventures of French Legionnaire Peter Crogan (circa 1912), the SCAD Atlanta professor pulls back the curtain on his creative process as well as his plans to participate in Free Comic Book Day in Atlanta (he has a 10-page Crogan Adventures story in the Oni Press Free-for-All). For my money, Schweizer is one of the good guys in the Atlanta comics scene and I appreciated the chance to interview him about his latest book. Once you read the interview, be sure to check out the 26-page preview that Oni has posted.
- April 12, 2010 @ 01:42 PM by Tim O'Shea
Comics Cavalcade | The Eisner nominee edition
You’ll only find five strips in this edition of Comics Cavalcade — the five strips nominated for an Eisner award in the “Best Digital Comic” category.
The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl
- April 12, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
Strange Tales 2 a go
Strange Tales cover by Peter Bagge & Chip Kidd
A sequel to Marvel’s surprise-hit alternative-superhero anthology Strange Tales has long been rumored, and now a post at cartoonist Paul Hornschemeier’s blog reveals the truth: Strange Tales 2 is on its way. No official word on when it’ll arrive, or on who else will be joining the anthology this time out, but based on what The Perry Bible Fellowship‘s Nick Gurewitch has said about a Galactus strip he’s working on, and this table of contents from Jeffrey Brown’s Process minicomic boasting the inclusion of Strange Tales sketches, they seem to be likely candidates. Meanwhile, I’ve heard tell that Becky Cloonan and Michael Kupperman will be making their triumphant returns to the project. Stay tuned!
- April 12, 2010 @ 11:56 AM by Sean T. Collins
Thom Zahler hits a double on Free Comic Book Day this year
Captains Comics: Baseball Beyond The Stars
Love & Capes creator Thom Zahler, who already had one Free Comic Book Day comic on his plate, has added a second — an eight-page comic book that will be given away to the first 1,000 fans, ages 12 and under, attending the Lake County Captains baseball game on May 1.
The Lake County Captains teamed with Zahler in both 2007 and 2008 to distribute Love and Capes to their fans on Free Comic Book Day, but this is the first time they’ve created their own comic book to distribute as an exclusive tie-in. According to the release Zahler sent over, the book is co-sponsored by Comic Haven of Willoughby and Laronge Wagner Realty of Mayfield, Ohio. Captains Comics will feature team characters including: Captain Clipper, Skipper, Skippy, Grover and the three fish: Willy Walleye, Buster Bluegill and Pauley Perch. The story is written and illustrated by Zahler.
The Lake County Captains are a Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians and play their home games at Classic Park in Eastlake, Ohio, at the corner of State Route 91 and Vine Street. Check out the first three pages from the book after the jump.
- April 12, 2010 @ 11:31 AM by JK Parkin
Seth Kushner’s fumetti of cool
Photographer Seth Kushner is launching a new feature at Act-I-Vate today: Seth Kushner’s Culture Pop is a series of interviews with creative folks, rendered as photo-comics. Kushner has an interesting career that walks the borderline between comics and photography; he is the co-author of the webcomic Schmuck, which mixes photographic and drawn panels, and he and Christopher Irving collaborate on photo and interview profiles of comics artists at the Graphic NYC blog. And Kushner just went international: A selection of his portraits of comics artists (including Eisner nominee Josh Neufeld showing off his Tintin collection) was featured in the weekend supplement to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
- April 12, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Quote of the day | James Hudnall on being an Eisner judge
“The other common complaint one hears is: ‘Why wasn’t my book nominated when some book I never heard of was?!’ Well, you may not have heard of some of the books nominated, but the judges read them. So they’re in a better position to decide if they deserved it or not. Awards are great ways of bringing people’s attention to books that may have flown under the radar. I would have never read or even seen many of the books on the list had I not been a judge this year. I am glad to have had the opportunity because there are a lot more truly good books out there than I ever imagined and the diversity if content is very strong. If you think a book should have been nominated that wasn’t all I can say is, there are an insane amount of books and many of them are really good. So you may have come really close, but in the end there are only room for five or six nominations.”
–Writer and Eisner judge James Hudnall, responding to one of the complaints about this year’s Eisner nominations. His lengthy post on the process is worth a read, and he promises there’s more to come.
- April 12, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Cooler heads prevail: A MoCCA 2010 report
Hard to believe that MoCCA Art Festival is nine years old. Its creation was a no-brainer, when you think about it: An alternative and independent comics convention was a natural fit for New York City, given the sheer volume of their creators scattered through the boroughs and ‘burbs–Manhattan and Brooklyn in particular–and the city’s general level of interest in the arts. In a way, I’ve come to see it as emblematic of the success of comics in the ’00s, which was a similar story of taking advantage of the talent available and getting it into the hands of an audience ripe for the tapping.
But the show had a pretty heavy hiccup last year. Its move from the much-beloved Puck Building to the 69th Regiment Armory seemed to flummox the organizers, who ended up stuck in traffic with a whole lot of books, leaving exhibitors with nothing to sell well into the initial afternoon and forcing attendees to wait in the sun. Meanwhile, broiling heat turned the venue into something approximating a pottery kiln, making every minute on the floor an endurance test. The MoCCA organization’s original response to complaints was on the lackluster side. Would they fare better the following year?
The answer is yes. For starters: It was cooler inside. Last year’s inferno was still very much on people’s minds–I heard publishers and visitors alike complaining about it, and one writer pointed out that the unpleasant conditions were a surefire way to keep casual fans from walking in the door. So the move to April was a smart one, and the gorgeous spring weather a lucky break, given that the city had hit 90 degrees earlier in the week. It still got a little sweaty in there by the end of each day, but that’s more or less par for the convention course.
- April 12, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins