2010 April
Kerry Callen’s crossword comics
Crossword Comics
Now this is pretty clever … Halo & Sprocket creator Kerry Callen shares a comic configured like a crossword puzzle, which he created with his son Martin. Callen said it came to him in a dream — how cool is that? I’m impressed with how he used the same panels to tell different stories.
“Like Scrabble, the tough areas were where something had to work when two squares inconveniently touched, such as the ‘Love is the solution.’ touching ‘What about overpopulation?’ There’s a joke there, but it doesn’t jump out at you,” he wrote on his blog. “I’m thinking this has the potential to be a fun challenge for cartoonists, much in the same way a ’24 hour comic’ is!”
- April 28, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Tintin in the Congo
Legal | A Belgian court will rule next week whether Herge’s 1931 collection Tintin in the Congo will be banned because of its depictions of native Africans. The decision, originally expected today, following a nearly three-year-old effort by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, a Congolese man living in Belgium, to have the book removed from the country’s bookstores, or at least sold with warning labels as it is in Britain. [Guardian, Mail Online]
Libraries | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson reports on a C2E2 panel devoted to helping librarians deal with public challenges to graphic novels. On a related note, she also talks to Jeff Smith about a Minnesota mother’s attempt to have Bone removed from libraries in her school district. [Publishers Weekly]
- April 28, 2010 @ 08:29 AM by Kevin Melrose
AX available for preorder
Ax Anthology: Finally here
The announcement, back in 2008, that Top Shelf would be publishing an American version of the alt-manga anthology Ax created a frisson of excitement in the manga world. The 400-page book, which includes stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (The Push Man), Imiri Sakabashira (The Box Man), Kazuichi Hanawa (Doing Time), was originally scheduled to be published in December but encountered some delays. The long wait is over, however, and Ax is now available for preorder (and listed in Previews). The timing is rather fortuitious: Ax is the spiritual successor to Garo, the gekiga manga anthology that is the subject of an exhibit at the Center for Book Arts in New York and has gotten lots of people talking about alternative manga.
- April 28, 2010 @ 06:58 AM by Brigid Alverson
The Middle Ground #2: In Which I Hate On Previews
Sometimes, it feels like there are too many comics out there.
I know, I know; that’s not exactly the most popular opinion to hold, never mind share on a website devoted to comics and the worship thereof, but we all know it’s true. I’m far from the only one who sees solicitations for months ahead, or lists of that week’s new releases, and has at least one “Seriously? There’s really enough of a market for that?” moment. It’s easiest to do when looking at, say, Marvel’s upcoming releases and counting what’re essentially seven monthly Avengers books (Adjectiveless, New, Secret, Academy, alternating bi-monthlies Children’s Crusade and Prime and, of course, New Ultimates and Ultimate Avengers, for those who were wondering about my math), but all it takes is one step inside the non-premier publishers section of Diamond’s Previews to realize that there’s a lot of noise hiding the signal in the world of indie publishers, as well. Continue Reading »
- April 27, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Graeme McMillan
Gillen’s Thor run extended
Thor #611
Marvel sent over some updated information on Thor #611, which was supposed to be the first issue by the new creative team of Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry, but will now be by Kieron Gillen and Rich Elson. The above cover is by Mico Suayan.
No word on whether this is a situation where Gillen needed an extra issue to wrap up his story or if the new team just wasn’t quite ready to take the reigns, but either way I think Gillen has done some great work on the title, so I’ll look at this as a bonus.
- April 27, 2010 @ 01:55 PM by JK Parkin
Dark Horse teases something by Geof Darrow, we think
Dark Horse has emailed us three teaser images over the last few days that we* think were drawn by the great Geof Darrow. Here’s the first one, a black and white close-up of someone’s head we received yesterday:
- April 27, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
A few quick notes about the site
I wanted to share a few quick notes about Robot 6, some of which are kinda overdue …
- First up, a HUGE welcome back to Graeme McMillan, who rejoined our merry band last week with the debut of his new column, The Middle Ground. Graeme used to blog with us when we were at Newsarama, and we’re excited to have him back.
- I should also mention that both Graeme and Kevin Melrose are also blogging regularly at our new sister blog, Spinoff Online. The two of them, along with regular CBR contributors Josh Wigler and Jeffrey Renaud, are posting over there about movies, Dr. Who, Lost and other stuff along those lines. So go check it out.
- And congrats to Matt Maxwell, who wrapped up the online serialization of Strangeways: The Thirsty earlier this month. Although the regular comic has ended, you’ll still see Matt pop up every once in awhile with news about the print release and in our weekly What are you reading? feature.
- And finally, we recently took a look at our comments guidelines and made some updates based on some recent issues that have popped up. Take a look at them if you have any questions about why a comment was deleted.
- April 27, 2010 @ 11:59 AM by JK Parkin
John Romita Jr.’s Iron Man 2 poster from USA Weekend
Iron Man poster by John Romita Jr.
This past weekend’s USA Weekend, the supplement that appears in Gannett’s papers across the country on Sunday, was all over the upcoming Iron Man 2 — in addition to a feature story and photo shoot related to the film, they also included the above poster by John Romita Jr.
- April 27, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the Art | The Art of Blade of the Immortal
The Art of Blade of the Immortal
Dark Horse posts a flipbook preview of their upcoming art book, The Art of Blade of the Immortal, with some nice samples of what Hiroaki Samura can do once he really gets going.
- April 27, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Vintage comics goodness: The Beano 1962
The Beano 1962
Mike Perridge has posted a scan of half of the 1962 Beano annual to his blog, mpd57. Although it is a kids’ comic, the Beano is anything but saccharine; the stories have a bit of an edge to them, and the art is not far off from vintage underground comics (but relentlessly G-rated). The Beano is still in print, and still features many of the same characters—the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty and his pals, and the original Dennis the Menace—although the Native American Little Plum seems to have gone on to the happy hunting grounds.
- April 27, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
With comics, what makes you say “okay, that’s enough”?
Blackest Night by Ivan Reis and Herogasm by Darick Robertson
Green Lantern and Garth Ennis are responsible for very different comics; bloggers Tom Spurgeon and Tim O’Neil are two very different writers. Yet in recent days, both have posted about how they’ve reached their limit with comics about/by the aforementioned individuals — for very different reasons. And they’ve written some thought-provoking things about that tipping point where you decide “You know what? This comic isn’t for me anymore” in the process.
First up is Spurgeon, who in linking to Charles Hatfield’s negative review of Geoff Johns’s Green Lantern-starring opus Blackest Night said he hasn’t even read the series yet, simply because he has no interest in ever reading a comic about Green Lantern again. Says Spurgeon:
- April 27, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Limited edition print by Jhonen Vasquez
by Jhonen Vasquez
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac creator Jhonen Vasquez has a limited edition print available in his web store that was too cool not to link to …props to High Moon writer David Gallaher for pointing it out!
- April 27, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Joe Bowen’s Star Wars/Scott Pilgrim mash-up
Scott Pilgrim Wars by Joe Bowen
Not a very long time ago, in a city far, far away provided you don’t live near Toronto…Via Scott Pilgrim cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley we discover artist Joe Bowen‘s delightful poster of Scott, Ramona and friends (and enemies), modeled after the original “Style ‘A’” Star Wars poster art by Tom Jung. Click Bowen’s name for the deets on the school assignment that led to the creation of this supremely geeky image.
- April 27, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Iconix and Schulz family purchase Peanuts rights
Peanuts
Iconix Brand Group has partnered with the heirs of Charles M. Schulz to buy the rights to Peanuts from E.W. Scripps Co.
The $175 million deal is for Scripps’ entire United Media Licensing division, which includes Dilbert and Fancy Nancy.
However, Peanuts, whose 1,200 licensing agreements generate annual retail sales of more than $2 billion worldwide, represents a majority of United Media’s revenue. Iconix will control an 80 percent share of the Peanuts brand.
Iconix, which owns the Candie’s and London Fog brands, expects Peanuts to bring in roughly $75 million in annual royalties. The Schulz heirs will receive a portion of that revenue in addition to their minority stake in the partnership.
Peanuts, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, at its peak appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers. Its characters are licensed in about 40 countries by such companies at MetLife, Hallmark, Walgreen and Universal Studios.
- April 27, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Where’s the ‘next’ button?
Where's the 'Any' key?
Microsoft UK is running a contest, asking IT professionals to share their boneheaded-user stories and making the winners into webcomics. The comic, titled Where’s the ‘Any’ Key, is good-humored and has some funny moments, but the site must have been designed by the same guy who designed Word and Excel, because it displays a similar tendency: The comic is surrounded by a bunch of little buttons for stuff no one does, but there is no “previous” or “next” button. It is possible to view all the winners on a single page, but it’s a little odd that the designers ignored a standard navigational feature used by 99.9% of all webcomics.
(Found via The Next Web, which also reported on the funeral of IE 6.)
- April 27, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson