2010 April
Looking back at C2E2
Jeff Smith chats with a fan at C2E2
C2E2 was exactly what a comics convention should be: Comics fans meeting the creators, hanging out with one another, and finding something new (or something old) to bring home.
It was all about the comics. No video games, no movies, and none of the crap they bring with them — pulsing music, flashing lights, garish displays. No little guys dressed as goblins coming up and touching me while I was trying to look at the comics (as happened at New York Comic Con a few years ago). Just a lot of creators and publishing types hanging out at the booths and the Artists Alley to meet with the fans.
The mix of exhibitors was very good, with every genre and type of comic represented except manga. I think a few manga publishers would have brought in a bigger crowd, but as Milton Griepp told us at the ICv2 White Paper that kicked off the show, it was a tough year for that particular medium. Still, I saw a lot of people who are iconic to me — Jeff Smith, Chris Ware, David Petersen, Carla Speed McNeil — and I finally got to meet Mark Waid. That’s what makes a comic con so great — all these people exist in your imaginary world, and you follow their work for years, and then you finally get to meet them in person. There are few thrills that can match that.
- April 20, 2010 @ 05:50 PM by Brigid Alverson
C2E2 | Comics Media Panel
Noah Berlatsky, Ron Richards, Caleb Goellner, Rick Marshall, and Heidi MacDonald
Heidi MacDonald (The Beat) moderated C2E2′s panel on comics media and I was immediately impressed with the diversity of the panelists chosen to participate. Lucas Siegel from Newsarama described his primary audience as loyal comics fans who split their time between his site and Comic Book Resources looking primarily for previews and Q&A pieces, but he also expressed excitement about reaching out to a general audience through his Yahoo feed.
Rick Marshall from MTV’s Splash Page sees his role as kind of the opposite of that. I’m paraphrasing – as I will through most of this report – but his primary audience is a general one that wants to enjoy comics without having to know the ins and outs of the industry. He says that he enjoys taking his readers deeper by covering more than just the mainstream stories, but he’s also thankful that his readers aren’t as hardcore as Newsarama or CBR’s.
Caleb Goellner (Comics Alliance) and Ron Richards (iFanboy) didn’t describe their audiences so much as talk about their approaches to writing for them, but if I’m reading correctly between the lines, they both provide content for educated comics readers that’s sort of a second level from the straight news and press releases; more focused on thoughts and opinions.
Robot 6’s own Brigid Alverson used the term “educated comics reader” to identify Robot 6 readers, but she contributes to other blogs as well for librarians, teachers, and manga fans.
Heidi described her own audience as educated insiders who enjoy reading about the business side of comics.
Johanna Draper Carlson from Comics Worth Reading says that her readership is made up of “non-typical” comics fans with a diversity of tastes. She also indicated though that she keeps a general audience in mind as she’s writing and avoids using a lot of insider language.
Noah Berlatsky from the Hooded Utilitarian didn’t exactly describe his audience either, but if I can put words into his mouth, he seemed to appreciate the esoteric tastes of his readers. Or at least that he was able to write about some really obscure stuff for them without their going away. At one point, Johanna remarked on Noah’s intellectual curiosity – comparing him to a grad student – and he seemed to agree that he approaches his subjects with that attitude.
Writing for diverse audiences, first vs best, and journalistic ethics after the break.
Continue Reading »
- April 20, 2010 @ 02:51 PM by Michael May
The Middle Ground #1: The Space Between
The idea that there’s a comic industry sometimes makes me laugh, and not for traditional snarky “Oh, they couldn’t industry themselves out of a paper bag” reasons (Feel free to fill in your own blanks here as to why the industry sucks). No, I’ve become increasingly convinced that the idea fails because there’s more than one comic industry. Yes, there’s the direct market, the bookstore market, the digital market, sure, but even within the traditional American direct market, there’s this other three tier system that goes (in order of size) Marvel and DC, everyone else, self-publishing. It’s simplistic, sure, but look at the market share for the DM and tell me that you don’t see the massive discrepancy between Marvel/DC and everything else (or Marvel and DC, for that matter, but still); it’s as if they’re in a different business altogether.
- April 20, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Graeme McMillan
Can comics be scary?
from Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days by Al Columbia
You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a horror comic in this post-30 Days of Night, post-The Walking Dead age. Meanwhile, there’s a bustling alt-horror … well, “scene” and “movement” probably aren’t the right words, but there are plenty of those comics and cartoonists out there.
But are any of them, y’know, actually scary?
Blogger Curt Purcell of The Groovy Age of Horror has endeavored to answer that question — long a topic of debate among comics readers, many of whom are skeptical that comics really can hang with movies or prose for their sheer power to frighten — by rounding up thoughts on the topic from a variety of horror and comics creators and commentators. These include cartoonists Richard Sala (Peculia) and Josh Simmons (House); CRwM of the provocative horror blog And Now the Screaming Starts; Kimberly Lindbergs of the movie-focused Cinebeats; Karswell of the pre-Comics Code horror-comics blog The Horrors of It All; and (ahem) yours truly. The roundtable was inspired by a post from Richard Cook at The Hooded Utilitarian, so be sure to check that out, too.
Where do you stand on scarybooks?
- April 20, 2010 @ 01:38 PM by Sean T. Collins
Kate Beaton does The Great Gatsby
From The Great Gatsbys by Kate Beaton
These strips have been tearing up the Internet today like Zelda Fitzgerald tore up an open bar, but nevertheless I wanted to make sure I shared them with you: Hark! A Vagrant‘s Kate Beaton has posted a whole series of strips lampooning F. Scott Fitzgerald’s required-reading classic The Great Gatsby. From dragging the book’s subtext kicking and screaming to the foreground to simply making fun of what a bunch of jerks Nick, Tom, Daisy, Jay and the gang are, it’s the kind of thing that’ll make you wanna look your old high-school English teacher up on Facebook and send her the link.
- April 20, 2010 @ 01:08 PM by Sean T. Collins
Watch the trailer for Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts
A trailer has been released for Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts, the newly announced feature-length documentary about by Sequart and Respect Films, the folks behind Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods.
“Oh god,” Ellis wrote this morning on his blog. “The trailer made it to YouTube, and people are taunting me with it. Let’s get this over with. I have, at best, a face for radio. Unfortunately, I don’t have a voice for radio. This is horrifying and I don’t want to look.”
The documentary is scheduled for completion next year.
- April 20, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
‘Most likely to kick your ass’
Morning Glory
Image Comics continues to tease their upcoming comic Morning Glories by Nick Spencer, Joe Eisma and Rodin Esquejo with another yearbook-style “most likely” image.
“Morning Glory Academy is a prestigious and highly respected institution of learning for only the most gifted young people,” Spencer told CBR. “But behind its walls, something extraordinarily dangerous and deadly is happening, and some of the school’s students are going to find themselves trapped in a very, very bad place. And just what the academy is and what it wants with them is the central mystery that propels our story forward.”
- April 20, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Paul Hornschemeier’s Colossus vs. Colossus
Colossus by Paul Hornschemeier
Paul Hornschemeier shares some preliminary art for his story in the upcoming Strange Tales sequel. “I can now authoritatively say that drawing Colossus beating the snot out of Colossus (or is it the other way around?) is a good time,” he said.
- April 20, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s a Critic | A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
Omaha the Cat Dancer—the last great porn comic?
Commentary: Shaenon Garrity mulls over the question of why comics creators and publishers can’t make money selling porn. (Worth a click for the Phil Foglio side trip alone.)
Analysis: Lauren Davis on high school life, as depicted in T Campbell’s Penny and Aggie:
And even though Penny and Aggie is supposed to represent something akin to a real high school, it still exists in a fantasy universe. It’s a Joss Whedon version of high school, sans the vampires: everything is a little brighter, the dialogue is sharper, and just about everyone is redeemable, if not actually redeemed.
History: Ryan Holmberg writes about the origins of the Japanese underground comics magazine Garo, which actually was a children’s magazine in its early days:
- April 20, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Mark Millar wants your ‘smart and funny’ one-page comic
Writer Mark Millar has put out the call for one-page humor and science fiction comics for a secret yet “pretty damn awesome” project. And, he assures, he’s willing to pay:
Mark Millar
Okay, I have something pretty damn awesome coming up and it will involve two regular one-page gigs for a writer/ artist. Please do not post here unless there is art AND script in your sample. It also can’t be more than one page. Any more than one page and the post gets deleted so it doesn’t clutter things up. But basically if you’re really good and want published and can show me something funny or smart in one page then you might get this paid monthly gig. It’ll be a regular gig, pay pretty well, get printed and be an amazing showcase for your talents. I don’t want anything pretentious. Just smart and funny and MAINSTREAM, like those old Future Shocks used to be funny.
But this is a great opportunity and part of something huge you’ll hear about in the next two or three weeks.
He promises more details on the project in the weeks to come. Interested creators should post their submissions in this thread at Millarworld.
- April 20, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Creators step up for auction to benefit Gene Colan
by Mike Deodato
Clifford Meth has set up an auction to benefit artist Gene Colan, who is currently in the hospital after suffering an injury to his shoulder earlier this month. He’s collected donations from Mike Deodato (above), Stan Lee, Bill Sienkiewicz, Walter Simonson and many more; you can check out the complete list of items (which includes a lot of original art) and get details on how to bid here.
- April 20, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
C2E2 | Ben Templesmith working on ‘illustrated film’
Black Sky
At C2E2 this weekend Ben Templesmith and Halo-8 announced they were working on a new project together. Templesmith said it’s an “illustrated film” that will “meld the cinematic storytelling style of comics with good audio/voice acting & some animation/CGI in places.”
“A fusion of many things, and dedicated to the medium itself, rather than an adaptation, which most things ‘motion comics’ actually are currently,” he wrote on his blog. “It’s going to be an interesting ride and Matt Pizzolo, F.J. DeSanto and gang at Halo-8 are giving me a fantastic chance to explore the new dynamics opening up in storytelling media.”
As for the story, Templesmith said it’s “sort of Band Of Brothers…but with SQUID,” mixing a war story with “Cthulhu-ish ideas.” He said there’s no release date yet, but he also plans to adapt it into comic form at some point.
- April 20, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Boy angered, mom and store manager embarrassed by ‘naughty’ comic
The Spectre #9
In a breathless “Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?”-style story that local TV stations usually reserve for sweeps period, Salt Lake City’s ABC 4 News reports on a 10-year-old boy who was mistakenly given a “naughty” comic book for Easter.
The comic in question, a 23-year-old copy of DC’s The Spectre #9, had been included in a sealed pack of out-of-print comics bought by his mother at a local Dollar Tree store. The issue, by Doug Moench and Gray Morrow, features a naked woman on the first page — even though the wrapper of the “Superhero Comic Book Spectacular” in which it was included states that the titles “are family friendly and will bring hours of enjoyable reading.”
“Hours of enjoyable reading”? Possibly. “Family friendly”? Linda Hurst, the mother who purchased the packet for her son’s Easter basket, didn’t think so.
So what did she do? Call the Dollar Tree to warn the store about the mix-up and perhaps get a refund? No, no, no. She contacted the local TV news station so reporter Annie Cutler could confront the store manager Tiffany Miller on camera. Gotcha, Tiffany!
Miller removed the remaining “Superhero Comic Book Spectacular” packages and said she would contact her district manager.
- April 20, 2010 @ 08:36 AM by Kevin Melrose
Troubled Spider-Man musical now loses its Green Goblin
Alan Cumming
In yet another blow to the long-troubled Broadway musical, actor Alan Cumming has withdrawn from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark because of a scheduling conflict.
A veteran stage actor who portrayed Nightcrawler in 2003′s X2: X-Men United, Cumming was set to play Green Goblin in the delay-plagued production. However, Entertainment Weekly reports that over the weekend Cumming decided he couldn’t juggle Spider-Man and his expanded role in the CBS drama The Good Wife. The actor’s departure from the $52-million musical comes a little more than a month after that of Evan Rachel Ward, who had been cast as Mary Jane Watson. She, too, cited a scheduling conflict.
The ambitious musical, directed by The Lion King‘s Julie Taymor and scored by U2′s Bono and the Edge, originally was set to open in March at the Hilton Theatre in New York City. However, “cash-flow obstacles” pushed the date to sometime this fall.
Production was stopped in August while producers sought more money for a budget that ballooned from $35 million. In November, Bono’s longtime business partner Michael Cohl was brought onboard to put the show back on track. According to a January report, Disney stepped in to provide “a chunk” of the financing for the musical, whose producers include Marvel and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Spider-Man, possibly the most expensive musical in Broadway history, will cost about $1 million a week to produce — hundreds of thousands of dollars more than elaborate shows like Mary Poppins and West Side Story — and require the 1,700-seat Hilton to sell out for every show for four years just to break even.
The musical still has its Peter Parker: Reeve Carney, the lead singer of the band Carney who appeared in the 1999 film Snow Falling on Cedars. He and Cumming also have roles in Taymor’s upcoming adaptation of The Tempest.
- April 20, 2010 @ 06:31 AM by Kevin Melrose
C2E2 | Sunday
Mouse Guard's David Petersen talking to fans
I apologize for not having this up earlier, but we left Chicago right after the show and didn’t arrive home until the wee hours of this morning. I was too pooped to post, but I’m sufficiently awake now to give it a shot.
My intention for Sunday was to see some more panels and do some shopping, but it ended up being lower key than that. I skipped the panels, which is usual behavior from me on convention Sundays after being overloaded on Saturday. Attendance was down from Saturday and that also helped make it more laid back, but there was still a nice crowd, many of whom had come out just for the day. And there were tons of kids.
Last Airbender fans
I babysat Grant Gould’s table while he and Katie Cook conducted a panel for kids on drawing Star Wars characters. I’m sorry I missed it because Grant said it went really well. There were kids sitting on the floor in front of the stage and drawing as he and Katie instructed and cracked jokes.
Kids vs Grown-Ups, shopping, and I meet my own heroes after the break.
- April 19, 2010 @ 08:17 PM by Michael May