2010 April
Talking Comics with Tim | Nicolas Hitori de on Spell Checkers
Spell Checkers
Soon after friend of the blog and writer Jamie S. Rich sent me an advance PDF of his latest Oni graphic novel, Spell Checkers (set to be released by Oni this Wednesday), he also offered me the opportunity to interview artist, Nicolas Hitori de. Getting to email interview Hitori de about his collaboration (with Rich and the project’s other artist, Joëlle Jones) was a chance I could not decline. Here’s publisher Oni Press’ official description of the book: “Three teenaged witches use their power for popularity, good grades, and the good life. When nasty graffiti starts showing up about them at their school, they first suspect one another. But when they start losing their powers, and their magical fetishes disappear, they realize this is an attack from outside their circle, and they must join hands (and wits) to defeat the usurper and her demon companion!” After reading the interview, please avail yourself of the 22-page preview from Oni.
- April 19, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
C2E2 | Del Rey one-on-one
I didn’t make it to the Del Rey panel at C2E2 due to a time conflict, but I did encounter Del Rey’s effervescent marketing manager Ali T. Kokmen in the hallways and he was kind enough to give me the quick rundown.
The first thing I asked him is a burning concern to many in the manga industry: Is Kodansha USA cutting in on their game? Del Rey always gets the lion’s share of the Japanese publisher Kodansha’s licenses, and tends to treat them well, so when Kodansha set up its American arm some fans were worried Del Rey’s license stream would try up. Kokmen’s answer was cheering: “The existence of Kodansha comics has not affected our publishing program.”
Del Rey has started to publish some series, such as School Rumble, in three-in-one omnibus editions, and others seem to be coming out at a slower rate; after the cancellation of the X-Men and Wolverine manga there was a bit of speculation as to what was going on. Kokmen seemed puzzled when I brought this up. “We have been reevaluating the publication schedule for a while. Those decisions have been made, but they are just starting to shake out,” he said. “Part of this was the omnibus decision for a few titles.” But there’s no strategy to slow things down: “Projects slip; every book is unique.”
- April 19, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Brigid Alverson
C2E2 | More creators on parade
David Peterson with Mouse Guard
David Peterson was signing copies of his Mouse Guard hardbacks—and giving away the floppies for free, as promotional attractions. The Mouse Guard anthology series launches in May, with single issues out each month through August, followed by a hardcover colection.
- April 19, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Straight for the art | X-Ladies ’88 by John Allison
The X-Ladies of 1988 by John Allison
The crowd at an Of Montreal show? No! It’s the women of the X-Men circa 1988, courtesy of Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery cartoonist John Allison. From Marc Silvestri to American Apparel — everything old is new again!
Allison’s also recently served up shots of Rogue, Batwoman, Joanna Newsom, the Beach Boys, Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin, and Syd Barrett. Shine on, you crazy diamonds!
(Via Matthew Perpetua)
- April 19, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
C2E2 | Mebberson gets the Muppets
Amy Mebberson sketching the Muppets
Divalicious artist Amy Mebberson has taken over the interior art chores on BOOM! Kids’ Muppet Show comics from Roger Langridge, and BOOM! publisher Ross Richie described her art this way: “Roger does the full cartooning mode, Amy tries to preserve the notion that the hand is inside the Muppet,” which caused editor-in-chief Mark Waid to exclaim “There’s a hand inside the Muppet?” BOOM!, which has been making kind of a thing of variant covers for conventions, came up with a unique idea for C2E2, the Get-A-Sketch cover: It’s blank, and Amy sketches the buyer on it—as a Muppet. This requires the artist involved to be a good sport, and Amy certainly put in a lot of hours at the booth, but she always looked like she was having a good time.
- April 19, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Straight for the art | Scorpio Steele’s awesome Doctor Strange love story
ComicFest flyer
But wait, I can hear you saying now, that’s not Doctor Strange! Nope, that’s the promotional flyer from this past weekend’s Denver ComicFest by Scorpio Steele, featuring a really rockin’ Galactus. I saw it last week and meant to do a post about how awesome it was, but I somehow misplaced the link before doing so.
Luckily Super Punch did a post on it, as well as Steele’s really awesome — and not safe for work — Doctor Strange story, which he has posted over on ComicSpace. It’s a fun little story featuring an interdimensional romp (literally) between Strange and Clea and a mystery third participant who shows up at the wrong time. Again, it’s NSFW, so save it until you get home tonight.
- April 19, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
American anime pioneer Carl Macek passes away
Robotech
Writer and producer Carl Macek, best known for his work on the popular 1985 syndicated anime series Robotech, died April 17 of a heart attack, former business partner Jerry Beck reports. Macek was 58.
A somewhat controversial figure among anime devotees, Macek served as producer and story editor for Harmony Gold USA on Robotech, a sprawling space opera that was actually a redubbed and edited adaptation of three different mecha anime series: Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada. Although Macek would later be criticized for that approach to Robotech, the series was an undeniable hit that’s regarded as key to anime making inroads in North America.
The TV anime spawned a feature film (which also used repurposed footage), novelizations, toys, games and comic books — the latter perhaps most notably from Comico.
With art historian Jerry Beck, Macek in 1988 co-founded Streamline Pictures, the distribution company that imported and dubbed such anime as My Neighbor Totoro, Akira and Fist of the Northstar. He also partnered with animator John Kricfalusi on Spumco Inc., and helped to sell Ren & Stimpy to Nickelodeon.
“Carl had his critics,” Beck wrote. “But one thing is certain: the popularity of anime in the North America would not be where it is today without Macek’s groundbreaking work on Robotech and his efforts on behalf of Streamline Pictures.”
Tom Spurgeon, Rob Bricken and Anime News Network also have obituaries.
- April 19, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
New York Times spotlights gay superheroes, fans and creators
By Casey Kelbaugh, for The New York Times
This New York Times feature, by the newspaper’s resident comics reporter George Gene Gustines, is interesting for a few reasons, not the least of which is the amount of territory it covers: It starts out focusing on a gay costume-fetish party in New York City’s West Village before moving on to the increased visibility of gay superhero-comics fans, creators and characters.
The article includes quotes from gay and bisexual creators like Allan Heinberg, Phil Jimenez, Patty Jeres, Andy Mangels and Bob Schreck, as well as a slide show spotlighting prominent gay superheroes.
- April 19, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Hope Larson to adapt A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
Great news for fantasy fans: Mercury cartoonist Hope Larson has announced on her Twitter account that she will be adapting Madeleine L’Engle’s classic SFF novel A Wrinkle in Time as a graphic novel.
It’s been a while since I read the book — “a while” meaning “not since elementary school” — but I recall the story of a group of children’s interstellar search for their missing scientist father via the use of folds in the spacetime-continuum called “tesseracts” as being dazzlingly smart, imaginative, and at times dark. I believe the planet Camazotz was the first dystopia I ever encountered in literature. (I always suspected IT was the inspiration for the landmark Orb song “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld,” too.) The book racked up awards upon its 1962 release and launched L’Engle’s four-book “Time Quartet.”
For her part, Larson seems aware of the heady legacy she’s tinkering with. “According to my editor, Margaret Ferguson, L’Engle never wanted her books to be illustrated,” she tweeted. “I’m doing my best not to screw it up.”
- April 19, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Quote of the day | Rob Liefeld on Image United
Image United
“It goes without saying that Image United is a massive embarrassment. Damn shame the enthusiasm for the book not shared by all.”
– Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld, on the highly anticipated, but delay-plagued, miniseries that features interior art by six of the company’s seven founders
- April 19, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
C2E2 | Dark Horse update
Dark Horse Presents: The original
I swung by the Dark Horse booth, which was doing a booming business, to chat with Jeremy Atkins about a couple of things. Something that got buried in my Carla Speed McNeil story is the return of the print version of Dark Horse Presents. The relaunch will coincide with Dark Horse’s 25th anniversary next year, Atkins said, and the publisher will also relocate the online version of Dark Horse Presents from MySpace to their own site. “We will have new content especially for print,” he said, and he expects the print comics will appeal to a different audience than the web version. Dark Horse will continue to collect the webcomics into print volumes, and the print comics will also be collected into trades with a different format.
Manga fans have been wondering about the CLAMP “mangettes” (essentially, mini-manga) that were announced several years ago but have never materialized. Atkins pointed out that Dark Horse has been publishing omnibus editions of earlier CLAMP titles, including Clover and Chobits, with a Cardcaptor Sakura omnibus on the way. “We decided it made more sense to focus on getting collections of all these materials, and create an association between CLAMP and Dark Horse,” he said. “We will do new CLAMP material in the future. We have a relationship with CLAMP to develp new material, we just have to do it.”
- April 19, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Event schedule and exhibitor plans for Stumptown Comics Fest
Stumptown Comics Fest poster, by Theo Ellsworth
The programming schedule has been released for Stumptown Comics Fest 2010, being held Saturday and Sunday at the Lloyd Center Doubletree in Portland, Oregon. Panel and workshop highlights include: “Comics for Young Readers,” with Hope Larson, Raina Telgemeier and Alexis Fajardo; “Self-Publishing Like a Rockstar,” with Meredith Gran, Lucy Knisley, Shaenon Garrity and moderator Erika Moen; “James Sturm’s Market Day” slide show; “History is Interesting,” with Kate Beaton and Dylan Meconis; and spotlights on Paul Pope and Graham Annable.
The Comics Journal has a solid rundown of exhibitor plans for this year’s event.
- April 19, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Chuck BB’s 6 x 6 drawings
Batman by Chuck BB
Artist Chuck BB (Black Metal) has been sharing a series of “6 x6″ drawings on his blog of various characters, from Batman and Kick-Ass to Mumm-Ra and Beta Ray Bill. You can see all the ones he’s posted so far here.
- April 19, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Jeff Smith responds to effort to remove Bone from school district’s libraries
Bone: The Dragonslayer
During his spotlight panel at C2E2, cartoonist Jeff Smith reacted to Friday’s news that a parent in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul is seeking to remove Bone from the school district’s libraries.
“It just broke yesterday; I don’t know anymore about it than you do,” Smith said on Saturday, responding to a question from the audience. “She objected to the gambling, smoking and drinking and the sexiness. I feel sorry for her son. He’s going to be really embarrassed, but you know, not everybody has to like my stuff. That’s fine. But I really can’t go along with this un-American concept of banning books. Let the Nazis do that.”
The parent, Ramona DeLay of Apple Valley, Minnesota, filed a formal request with the school district last month asking that Bone: The Dragonslayer be “withdrawn from all students” because it depicts drinking, smoking, gambling and “sexual situations between characters.”
According to KSTP TV, DeLay is seeking to remove the entire series from the district’s 18 elementary schools; 12 of those schools have at least one volume of Bone available to students.
The district’s Reconsideration Review Committee will meet on April 27 to consider DeLay’s request. The good news is that of the 20 similar cases heard by the committee since the early 1990s, materials were removed from library shelves in just three instances.
- April 19, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Running Through FLUKE 2010
Photo from FLUKE 2010's Flickr Set
OK, I suck. Let me count the ways. Well let me count the ways, when it comes to FLUKE 2010, the ninth annual mini-comics and zine festival held in Athens, Georgia on Saturday (April 17).
Last year when I covered FLUKE 2009, I committed to staying longer than 45 minutes this year. And I did–but I really planned on staying longer than 90 minutes (which is how long I stayed this year).
- April 19, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Tim O'Shea